I spend several hours almost every evening sitting in my recliner reading, writing, or praying. While I am in my chair Roscoe our new dog is usually sitting on the footstool between my legs. He is a cross between a Jack Russel Terrier and a miniature poodle and they are called a Jack a Poo. So far he has turned out to be a really good dog with a great disposition, very smart and easy to train, and the grand kids all think he is wonderful. He just had his 6 month birthday, I don’t know how much bigger he is going to get, he weighs about 15 lbs now, and they usually grow to be about 25 lbs. Even though he isn’t very big I think he will be a good watch dog. He regularly hears something outside and perks up his head and starts to growl. When I get up and check it out it is usually the neighbors cat, and how he hears that cat is amazing to me. I would think it would be annoying to be able to hear that well.

The word dog is in the Bible 15 times and the earliest was when Israel was leaving slavery in Egypt and crossing the Red Sea 3,500 years ago so people have had dogs for a long time.

Roscoe is the ultimate picture of devotion to his master. Wherever I go he wants to go, and he follows me without hesitation. If he is sound asleep in his bed and I get up to go outside for something he is immediately up and at my side. If I go out and work on something in my shop he lays down, not far away and watches everything I do, hardly ever taking his eyes off of me. The ultimate reward is a scratch on the head, and a “good boy,” he practically wiggles out of his skin in joy.

Psalms 123:1-2 To You I lift up my eyes,
O You who are enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Lord our God,

When Jesus was being interrogated by Pontus Pilot, pilot responded to Jesus by saying to Him, “What is truth?” The Pharisees, the political party that had all the power in Jesus day were desperate to get rid of Jesus and they brought all kinds of false accusations against Jesus to Pilot to try and get Him crucified. Pilot was responsible to try and sort through the all the conflicting information and determine what was true, and in the process in frustration uttered those famous words, “what is truth?”

Today in the political scene, and with the media there is a ton on conflicting information, and everyone is declaring that everyone else who disagrees with them is a liar. The only thing that people in authority get called more than a “racist” is a liar. We who watch the news often cry out in frustration voicing the same words of pilot from 2000 years ago, “what is truth?”

As Christians it is more important than ever to read the Bible everyday. The Bible is the Word of God and it is the truth about everything.

2 Samuel 7:28 Now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are truth.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

It is important for us to understand that the devil and his demons are the ultimate source of all lies.

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

Jesus declared in John 8 that if we knew the truth it would make free. Èè

When I was about 25 years old and still farming, I wrote out these verses in a little notebook that fit in my shirt pocket, and I read them several times everyday. I was prompted to do it because of a sermon a visiting missionary that our church helped support gave in a Sunday morning service. The sermon was on the power of our words. With our lips we worship God, tell our wife we love her, share the good news of the gospel with a lost person, and encourage someone so that they choose to serve the Lord. But with those same lips we grumble about hard times, gossip about our neighbor, hurt a person terribly with our angry words, and speak or yell curse words.

The words that the missionary spoke that convicted me deeply was, “God is always testing people to see who He can use to do His work and accomplish great things for Him, and a primary test are the words that come out of our mouth.”

As a 25 year old I wanted desperately to serve the Lord and accomplish a lot for Him, but I knew that the words that often came out of my mouth would disqualify me from doing much that mattered for Him. As the missionary put it, “I was going to be on God’s bench instead of in the game,” and I had ridden the bench a lot as a High School basketball player, and I hated it. I did not want to ride the bench in the game of life. So, I wrote out those verses and read them over and over again until the power of God’s Word began to change me from the inside out. Occasionally I get them out and read them some more when I hear myself talking rude, or mean, or gossiping, or slandering, or complaining. I like being in the game.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties. I am well content! I am well content? Why? There must be a reason Paul is “well content” when all of life is bad, “with insults,” that is bad, “with persecutions,” that is doubly bad, “with distresses,” WHAT!

What does Paul mean when he says, “I boast about my weaknesses,” about the insults, the persecutions, the distresses, and the difficulties. I don’t think he means to boast in the sense that he accomplished something worth glorying in, but that he sees these bad events and circumstances as a good thing because when he does so God blesses and rewards him with power, God’s power, supernatural power.

How much of an advantage in life would I have if I had great power, God’s infinite power. I don’t think it is a limited commodity, this power of God, I think that the more I rejoice in my trials the more power I will get, the more I refrain from grumbling and complaining, the more power I will get, and the more I thank God for His infinite love for me in the midst of hard times, the more power I will get.

“I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me!” “so that,” “so that!” “So that” means if I do that then this will happen. If I boast about my weaknesses, my trials, the things that I hate in life, then I will be a mighty man, like Popeye, like Superman, like Samson, like David, like Jesus. I wonder what that feels like, “to have the power of Christ in me!”

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Whether it is reading 3 chapters everyday in the Bible, praying for 15 minutes each day, memorizing a verse a week, faithfully attending worship services, giving, or witnessing even just a little bit, most Christians don’t because it is to hard.

Everything that causes us to grow, and that gets rewarded at the “Judgment Seat of Christ” is hard, and very few Believers choose to do them because they are hard. Our flesh is lazy and enjoys comfort, and we let our flesh run our life.

The narrow way, the hard way or the broad way, the comfortable and easy way, we choose all day long, many times a day. As a Pastor, over the years I have seen so many people mess up their lives, destroy their marriage and do a very poor job training their kid’s, become totally unusable for God, and get to the end their life with nothing to show for it, but a house, a car, a boat because they continually chose the easy and comfortable way.

I teach a “Leadership Class” each year that is life changing for all who get involved, but many choose not to attend because they perceive it as to hard.

Every year in my goals there are a number that I make just because they are very hard, and I want to continually train myself to choose to do hard things. I am going to climb Mt Adams taking three days to complete even though I have failed to make it to the summit for the last 5 years, this year I will make it to the top. I am going to run in and finish a 10 K and a half Marathon even though it has been 5 years since I have done any running. I am going to memorize the book of Colossians and review the other 600 verses that I have memorized every week so as to keep them sharp in my mind. I am going to start a “Satellite Church” even though I am 72 and it is time to retire.

Those who consistently choose the hard and narrow way all day long are the ones who receive God’s strength and power, they are the ones who change other people’s lives for all eternity. They are the one’s God chooses to give more responsibility to and they keep on doing more and getting better.