Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;

This verse is clear on what to do or what not to do, but how do we make it happen? 1-don’t be conceited, never, ever. 2 – The same goes for selfishness. 3 – Always be humble. 4 – Always put everybody else in your life ahead of yourself when it come to meeting needs. If there is a verse that most goes against the normal behavior in our culture today this has got to be it!

Impossible commands in the Bible become very possible with God’s help and strength. The key thing to understand is that God works when we choose to do what He commands. The moment we take a step in the direction of doing his will, He begins to work and empower us. It is like operating a backhoe, we move the levers and amazing hydraulic power is released. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” is a cool verse (Philippians 4:13), but God doesn’t choose for me, and He doesn’t force me into acting, I must do that.

I coach and speak frequently about managing time. My definition of time management is, “Getting a lot of things done that matter.” A lot of people get a lot done in a day, but much of what they do is busy work that doesn’t have a very high impact. The basic principle is that 20% of what we do accomplishes 80% of the results in our life that really matter. So the goal of time management is to reverse those numbers, we want 80% of what we spend our time on as the high impact activities of our life, and 20% of our time on busy work. The problem that we have to overcome is that the low impact activities are the squeaky wheel stuff in our life, they clamor for our attention so if we are operating our life out of our head we will be pulled to the “noisy” jobs and activities as apposed to the really important. The only really successful way to overcome this pull of the urgent rather than the important is to write a daily “To Do” list based on our personal goals. Now we have another problem to overcome. Most people won’t take the time to write goals or a daily “to do” list, because they don’t have time to. Makes about as much sense as not stopping to put gas in your car when it is on empty because you will be late where you are going if you do.

When I was a kid I was in 4-H. I had a Jersey calf, that grew to be a heifer, and then become a cow. I raised her and then milked her back in the day when we milked cows by hand. In the Fall our 4-H club would go to the local County fair, and we would all take our projects and “Show” them. There were various classes of dairy animals mostly based on age so when we “Showed” our animal we were competing with the same breed and the same age animals. We would lead our animal around the ring, and a judge would line us up in order, the best on the left and the worst on the right. We were then given ribbons according to the place that we were awarded in the line. I also got involved in doing the judging of the cows. A group of us kids, in an age group would rank a group of cows, usually a group of 4. An official judge would determine the official placing and then we would be ranked on how close we were to the official judge’s picks. I usually won this competition the years that I was involved, from the 6th grade up until the end of my sophomore year in High School. Several years I got to go to the Pacific International Dairy Show and one year I got to go to the National Dairy Show at “The Cow Palace” in San Francisco. Those years were a lot of fun, and I remember the good times traveling with other dairy kids to the big cities to judge cows. There was a criteria that we learned to use in judging the cows to determine which one was the best. Today I am into hunting, fishing, and restoring old cars, and I have regular discussions with like minded enthusiasts on what is the best bow, the best gun, the best fishing rod, the best boat, the best old car, the best engine, the best motor oil, and on the list goes. When I buy things at Cabella’s I usually check the reviews and see how many stars the item has and how many people rated it. I don’t want to buy any junk, just the best.

So as a person, based on how I act, specifically, how I treat other people, what is my rank? In Matthew 19:30 Jesus was comparing this life with the Kingdom of Heaven, and He said “But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.” That is many who are ranked first in this life will be ranked last in the Kingdom, and many of those ranked last in life will be first in the Kingdom. And then in Matthew 20 Jesus says “if you want to be ranked first by God then choose to become a servant for everybody, that is put everybody else’s needs ahead of your own.” There appears to be several judges that we can “Show” for, the world, the people around us, ourselves, or God.

So, I will work at being the best in God’s eyes.With God it is all about being kind, thoughtful, valuing people, gracious, putting yourself last, and loving. If everyone was working at being the “Best” in God’s eyes it would be so much easier, but many are working at being the best in their own eyes and the world’s eyes and the standard is position, power, possessions, and prestige. Now, in order to be the best you have to love your enemies and be nice to those who are mean to you. I won’t be able to pull this one off without lots of help from God.

Job 10:2 I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me.

The thing that bugged job was he didn’t know why he was suffering. He asks why at least a dozen times in the book of Job. We often assume that trials and suffering are because of something we have done wrong and God is punishing us. If I go through a trial because of something I have done wrong, a bad choice in life, I will know it, and I will know exactly why, it won’t be a mystery. The story that Jesus tells of the prodigal son illustrates this point. The son asks his father for his share of the inheritance early and goes out and spends it all on parties. He ends up broke and he finds a job feeding pigs, and he is so hungry he eats the pig food. It says in the Bible that the young man came to his senses, meaning he knew exactly why he was in the pickle he was in, and he decides to go back to his Dad and confess his stupidity and see if his dear old Dad will hire him as a servant.

Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.

There are multiple reason why we go through trials, but the main one is that God is the potter and we are the clay, and He is making a beautiful vessel that looks like Jesus on the inside where it matters. The potter shapes the clay by putting pressure on the lump of ugly clay in just the right places, in just the right amounts. A little hard spot messes up the work so he picks it out, pounds the clay into a soft glob and starts over, and then finds another hard spot and repeats the process over and over until it is a beautiful vessel. The Father used this very process on His own Son, because He came into the world exactly like us, and like us He was born with no character, so God the Father shaped and molded Him to be perfect in character.

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

Hebrews 5:8-9 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

It is the trials that God takes us through to develop our character that we often can’t figure out because we are looking for an event that was the cause, but there is no event other than our less than perfect character that God continuously works on to perfect us into the image of Christ. The trials that come into our life are an incomprehensible act of love on God’s part as He works at making us like Himself so that we can enjoy His fellowship for all eternity , and He ours because we are alike. God loves us to much to leave us imperfect.

God’s wise and loving work in our lives won’t produce Christ like character if we get bitter, grumble and complain, allow our self talk to spiral down to self pity, and don’t trust the Lord and seek His strength. This is exactly what most people do, so all that God has done is wasted. Suffering is painful, but it is temporary, and then we enter into heaven like Jesus in character if we have rejoiced in our suffering.

One of the main messages of the Bible is that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. We also live the Christian life with power and grow by faith in God’s Word, the Bible. Hebrews 1 says that “without faith it is impossible to please God”. Jesus said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed we could move mountains and nothing would be impossible for us. Our faith is also the key to facing and dealing with trials and suffering as a victor rather than a victim. And how we do in the midst of suffering is the best measuring device we have for determining how much faith we really have.

If I knew without a doubt that Jesus was coming back to take His Bride, the Church to heaven tomorrow, nothing that happened to me today wouldn’t affect me much. If someone was rude to me, I wouldn’t really care because tomorrow I am going to be in heaven with Jesus and with my new glorified body. Any and every trial, no matter how difficult, no matter how much pain would be easily endured with no fussing, because what does it matter, I am going to heaven very soon.

Psalm 39:4–5  “LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.  “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.

James 4:14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Philippians 3:20–21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;  who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
I like to sing songs during the day that are simple, short, and easy for me to remember. One of my favorites is “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King”. I sing that line over and over and over and then when I feel like it I switch to “No more crying there, we are going to see the King”, again over and over and then ending the song with, “No more dying there, we are going to see the King”. I have been known to sing that song for 30 minutes straight while fishing or working on a car.

“Soon” is obviously relative, but if we grow strong in our faith, waiting eagerly for Jesus to take us to heaven, it becomes more and more the focus of our life and our faith, and it is so much easier to deal with problems, big problems when we know it won’t be long now.

Pastor Mike began a series of sermons this weekend at JBC on suffering. This Wednesday night as I continue my preaching through the book of Philippians, I will be on

Philippians 1:29, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake”.

Isn’t that an interesting statement, “it has been granted to us”, which means, “Wow, we are incredibly blessed to get to suffer for a Jesus”! I bet not many of you get to the end of the day and say, “Thank You Jesus for the suffering that I went through today!”

Acts 5:40-41 after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

You have got to be kidding me😳 they rejoiced because they got flogged! which was a very painful experience, many even dying from it. Why would they do that instead of complain and grumble and possibly even wondering if God really loved them? It seems like they had some understanding, some level of faith, and some character that most are missing today. Jesus is called the suffering savior, why? What was the purpose of His suffering?

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

Hebrews 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

So, let me make a few obvious observations about these 2 verses;

1. God the Father caused the suffering to happen to Jesus.

2. Jesus was almighty God, but He emptied Himself of all that He was as God, and became flesh just like us. Though He never sinned He was born without character, just like us, but the Father “perfected” Him, that is developed character in Jesus through suffering.

3. I am now a son of God, born again and adopted into His family, and I need the character of Jesus in me.

4. I am pretty sure that if Jesus needed to suffer to learn obedience to the Father, and to be made perfect in character, I do as well.

5. If God the Father “for whom are all things, and through whom are all things” brought suffering into the life of Jesus, He will bring suffering into my life as well, guaranteed.

So now the question is, “What am I going to do when that God caused suffering comes into my life? Feel sorry for myself, grumble and complain, wonder why this is happening to me, doubt God’s love for me, get bitter, all of the above, or can I choose to rejoice and ask God for the strength to endure with joy. If I choose to react the way the world as a whole does my suffering designed by God to build the character of Christ in me will have been wasted, but if I consider it all joy I will grow towards the goal of God of becoming “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. I think I will choose to trust God with my life and rejoice always.

My life purpose statement is to influence as many people as possible to become devoted followers of Jesus, and to influence as many followers of Jesus as possible to bear much fruit for Him. One of my tools for accomplishing this life mission is writing this blog. I pray every day for wisdom in writing it, and I pray and ask God to bless it and use it for His glory. In 2018 there was 57,300 views of my blog not counting Face Book, and this year there was 67,500 views, which is a 1,200 view increase. My personal goal for 2020 is that I will have 100,000 views which will be an increase of 2,500.

My strategy to accomplish this goal is to pray about it everyday, and to ask God to give me wisdom in my writing so that I write in a way that does influence people spiritually, and is also written in a way so that people enjoy the reading experience and are inclined to continue to read it, and to encourage others to read it. I also am reading books on how to write successful blogs, and listening to audio and video presentations on successful blogging.

I would like to ask those of you who are subscribers of my blog to help me in my pursuit of my goal. The first thing you can do to help me is by recommending it to others. A great way to do this for those who are on face book is to repost my blog so that your face book friends can read it. A second way is to email or message me any suggestions you have on how to write it better. It might be grammar or spelling suggestions or it might be style or content suggestions. I believe in the Biblical principle that “in many counselors there is victory” so counsel away!

Do you ever have times when you feel really, really up, positive, happy, full of bubbly (not literally), you just feel good for no apparent reason that you can pin point, just joyful. I do occasionally, like tonight, and I think and ponder on why. If there is a reason I would like to figure it out so I can do it again, but for the life of me I can’t connect any dots. It seems so random and arbitrary, but I know there is a reason. The hard part about trying to figure out the cause or condition that was met is that God’s blessing of joy is seldom a reward for something we did today, but usually a blessing from last week or month or even a year ago. When Jesus was baptized the Father spoke from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. In the parable of the talents the servants with the 2 and the 5 talents both doubled them, and heard the master say to them, ” well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master”. I believe that when we have lived our life in such a way that the a Father is pleased with us that we sense His pleasure in the form of inward joy. One of the things to consider, especially this time of year when you are writing your goals, is that faithful Bible reading, memorization, and meditation is a major source of joy.

Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;

I read 14 chapters in the Bible every day, and I spend 30 minutes every day memorizing Bible verses and reviewing those I have already memorized. Some would say that I do that because I am a Pastor so I am just doing my job, but if I were running a dairy and milking cows 10 hours a day, I would keep the exact same schedule and discipline that I have now for Bible reading, study, and memorization. The reason is because of all the blessings that come into my life because of my devotion to the Word of God.

Have you ever bought something that you were very excited about, only to get it and not be able to get it to work? I bought a Tactacam camera that is water proof, it will fasten to the front of my bow, to the top of my scope on my rifle, the top of my bicycle helmet, and the top of the helmet I will be wearing when I raft down the Grand Canyon section of the Colorado River, which was my main motive for buying it. I fiddled with it for over 2 hours tonight and I still couldn’t figure out how to get the dumb thing to work. I know, I know what you are going to say, “Call the number that is on the bottom of every one of the 20 pages in the operators manual”, and ask for help. I knew I could figure it out on my own without their help. There is this weird pride in me that just can’t dial the number and ask for help. I think I will see if I can find a You Tube video on it, and watch that. I am a highly intelligent person, I should be able to figure this out.🤪

It kinds of reminds me of people who I have talked to about how to get into heaven when they die. When I ask them if they know for sure that they are getting in when they die their response is “I think so” or even worse, “I hope so”. When I ask them why they think they are getting in, their response is, ” I have tried to follow the golden rule” or something about being good or reasonably so. When I share with them that nobody is going to make it by being good because God requires perfection, that is you have never sinned, not even a little bitty one. There obvious answer is, “Well, nobody is going to make it then”, and I respond by saying, ” I am, and I know that for sure, without a hint of a doubt that I am going to live forever and ever in total joy and beauty.” Could I share with you why I know for sure and how you can as well? “No thank you”!

You have got to be kidding me! It is strange to me that when we are talking about forever and ever, heaven or hell, that a person is willing to just hope for the best rather than take a free gift from God by just believing. My stubbornness and pride has a little consequence, but those who think that they can make heaven on their own will experience an incredibly serious consequence forever with no chance of parole, ever.

Vision is the long range goal we are pursuing. Very few people have established what theirs are. Everything we do without exception is in pursuit of a goal, but if we don’t make any goals that are clear and precise we will switch into our default setting. Our general, overriding goal will be the pursuit of comfort. As we go through the day our goals control our choices, and if comfort is our goal we will consistently choose the easy and broad way, which will not lead us to any kind of success in life. I have 71 goals for this year, but I have one overriding vision for my life that controls everything I do, including the goals I write.

My vision is ” To do as well at the ‘Judgment Seat of Christ’ as is possible with the time I have left, with the opportunities that are given to me, with the health that I will or won’t have, and with the gifts and abilities that God has given to me.” I express that vision every morning in my prayer of commitment by praying, “today Lord Jesus I will live my life as if it is the last day I have before I stand before You at the ‘Judgment Seat of Christ’, and am rewarded by You for the life that I have lived for You, the character that I have acquired that is like Yours, and the work that I have accomplished for You that has built and blessed Your Bride, the church. Please grant me the wisdom and the energy to serve You well today, and to accomplish a ton of work.”

Read, consider, ponder, and meditate on these verses for a week.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

1 Corinthians 3:13-15 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Romans 14:10-12 For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

Colossians 3:24-25 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

Here are some question to ponder about these verses:

-When you stand before Jesus what will be the difference for you for all eternity between doing very well as opposed to doing poorly.

– 1 Corinthians says we will be rewarded for what we have done, what do you think some of those rewards might be.

-What impact will doing well at the Judgment as opposed to doing super bad, have on your relationship with Jesus.

– Why do very few people ever think about the day they will stand before Jesus and give an account to Him for the life they have lived.

-Most believers are incredibly naive about this end of life event, why? Are you?