The Antichrist is written about in the book of Daniel and in Revelation. He will rise to power and will become the President of the world, the ruler of the world, the dictator of the world. He will require people to worship him just as the Roman Emperors did, and he will require that every one get some kind of mark on their forehead or hand before they can buy and sell. What is that mark about? It is about power, control, and keeping track.

Revelation 13:16-17 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Some basic signs that the day that Jesus comes and takes all true believers and followers of His to heaven is getting close; (1) the rapid move toward globalism, one world ruler, one world religion, and one world economy. (2) Government leaders style of leadership moving rapidly to “lording it over people”, power to control for power’s sake. Government telling us what we can’t do, what we can do, when we can do it, when we can’t do it, all under the guise of protecting us from ourselves. (3) The name of Jesus becoming more and more hated by people in the world, especially government rulers. The word “antichrist” doesn’t mean “in place of Christ” it means “against Christ”. (4) The nation of Israel becoming more and more hated by people and governments in the world.

Mark 10:42-45 Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

In the midst of the craziness of our day I am rejoicing more every day because the day I am going to hear the trumpet of Jesus is getting close.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

I went steelhead fishing on the Siletz river today with my good friend Matt, and we had seven fish on and got five in the net, and of those five, one was a hatchery fish, which we got to keep. Matt and I split the one hatchery fish, and Patty fixed our half for dinner tonight. My oh my, was it ever good!

I have been thinking a lot about heaven of late with all the things going on in our government, in the world, and the COVID thing. Life is full of sad and bad things right now. Today, though, was a taste of heaven. I know heaven will be much better than our day on the river today, but it is hard to imagine how! Over Christmas our daughter Shelly and her husband Philip paid all of our expenses to go visit them in Fairbanks, Alaska. That was an amazing time with them and six grandchildren, and I got to go ice fishing. Then last week our daughter Sally and her husband paid all of our expenses to spend a week in Hawaii visiting them and three grandkids. I got to fish, snorkel, and even got a little tan. Wow, what a special time that was!

Reminds me of a Bible verse I recently memorized in Psalms 30:5, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

When I was a kid my Mom said, “ don’t ever call anyone else a name , it is wrong.” When we raised our eight kids we taught them that calling people names was wrong. When I say “wrong” I am saying that God declares it to be wrong.

Calling people names is what weak people do. We all try to control people. We try to get them to believe what we believe and have the same values that we have. There is nothing wrong with that, we persuade, we debate, we sell, we teach and preach all in an attempt to influence others. When a weak person fails to change another person’s view or behavior they call them a name. It is like having an arm wrestling contest with someone, and they slam your arm to the table and you then call them a name. It is incredibly childish, but adults do it all the time, it has become a major part of our culture. As much as I appreciated many of the decisions President Trump made while he was in office, his practice of calling opponents names was a major weakness in his leadership.

A major leadership principle is that God is sovereign, totally sovereign. That means no human being leads or changes anything without God giving them the authority and allowing them to do so. He loves to give His sovereignty to those who do things right. Today people attempt to lead by intimidation and fear. That isn’t leadership, it is lording it over people and it only works as long as you can keep people intimidated and fearful. It wears off eventually and usually quickly.

Regularly people will disagree with an opinion or view that I express in this blog. Some express that difference strongly but graciously, but others simply insult my character, motive, and intelligence. I guess they think that makes them the winner, but it doesn’t, it makes them the loser in everyone’s eyes but their own.

The name that seems most used now by politicians, the media, and the elite is “racist”. If someone disagrees with our view we call them a racist. It also seems that the person who says it the most often and the loudest assumes themselves the winner, but the truth is, there is no winner. It is like two people playing chess and as one player begins to gain an advantage the other player upends the board. He hasn’t won he just prevented the other person from winning, a very frustrating way to live life for those who know how to play chess right.

The sad thing is that those who call others racists as a way of controlling or intimidating others aren’t solving the racism problem or making it better, they are making it worse.

God is all-powerful, and He is in charge of everything; he makes the rules. When we break God’s laws, there will be consequences, absolutely, and when we obey God and follow His rules He blesses, it is very straightforward.

A major principle of living life in relationship with others is in Romans 12. It says, “forgive others, never get caught up in vengeance, and do good to those who mistress you.”

Romans 12:17-21
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

If a person would consistently live by the principles in Romans 12 God would become very active in our life situations bringing about justice for us. But when we take matters into our own hands God steps out of the picture and says, “You think you can take care of your life, I will let you try.”

I started weight lifting again after being off of it for over a year now. I quit when I went on my bicycle trip last year and never got the self-discipline to start up again. I started up because of the accountability of other guys lifting with me. I have a weight room set up in my “Man Room,” so it is hard to skip out when three other guys show up at my house to lift with me. I reread a book on the importance of exercise for older men, especially older men with Parkinson’s and I got all motivated to lift as much as Sylvester Stallone. Tonight when I came in from lifting I felt really good, not just physically but in regards to my own self-worth. Sometimes I get to feeling like life is over when I get to feeling tired, unmotivated, can’t remember if I took my pills or not, fall tripping over my own shadow, and gaining weight. But tonight I felt motivated, strong, healthy, full of self-control. It is amazing what a little exercise with friends will do. I think the key is the “with friends” part.

The most common struggle that we all have when we try and pray for more than a few minutes is that our mind drifts or we fall asleep. One of the things that I have done for years is to write my prayers. I do this mostly on my ipad so it isn’t as fast as using a keyboard on a computer, but it is about the right speed for me as I think about what I want to pray. I don’t use this method when I pray for the church prayer letter or when I pray for everybody in the church, because I am already reading the prayer letter or reading previous written notes both which keeps me focused and awake. As I go through my “Prayer App” with the names of every person in the church I do write notes, thoughts, observations, and answers to prayer under peoples name.

But the prayers that I pray about me, my relationship with God, my struggles, my sins, my dreams, my goals, and my key relationships, I get so much more out of my time when I write my words to God. I am sure that He enjoys His time with me more as well because of my focus and clarity while writing instead of wandering thoughts or spoken words that get sidetracked with other thoughts.

Another positive is that I can go back and read previous prayers that I have written which are often a perfect fit for what I have gone through that day. Prayer is such an important part of our spiritual growth and relationship with God, and our time praying should be as quality as possible, and for me writing is a tremendous help.

God is infinite in every category. He is majestic, holy, righteous, all wise, the creator of everything, has the power to destroy anything, and the power to punish anybody. Most people have little to no fear of God easily observed by their disdain for God, their blasphemous behavior and their blatant breaking of His laws.

There are many stories in the Bible of people getting killed by God for irreverence towards Him. One of those stories in 1 Chronicles 13:10 was of a man named Uzza who touched the “Ark of the Covenant”which was forbidden. “The anger of the Lord burned against Uzza, so He struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark; and he died there before God.”

I often get a good laugh at some of the satire put out by the “Babylon Bee” and recently I had one with a headline from the “Bee” that said something like this, “Biden and Harris rushed to emergency with severe burns on their hands received when they put their hands on the Bible during the inauguration ceremony because they have been declared to be the most pro-abortion President/ Vice-President combo in the history of the United States.”

People are totally irreverent toward God today because He hasn’t done what He did to Uzza to anyone else lately so there is the notion that God doesn’t care, or that He can’t really do anything about it, or that He simply doesn’t exist. There is a day of reckoning coming in which the Justice of God will happen.

Romans 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

Many who treat God with disdain will do the same with passages like Romans 2:5, saying that God is cruel, angry, and vengeful, but those who know His Word and know Him also know that He is infinitely gracious, loving, forgiving, and kind to those who love and follow Him.

“I want more” is a very good attitude if it is for more godly character, if it is for more significant accomplishments, if it is for more wisdom, if it is for more of God, but it is unhealthy if it is for more money or material things. Unholy lust for stuff, money, and the world kills your passion and desire to please the Lord and to bear much fruit for Him.

Philippians 4:11
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

1 Timothy 6:8
If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

Hebrews 13:5
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

The reason many have such a low desire to do something great with their life is that they have used up all their “fire” on wanting more stuff. You only have so much passion given to you by God, and if you use it all up on wanting more money you won’t have any left to want more of God.

Today is the 48th anniversary of Roe verses Wade when the United States Supreme Court made it a constitutional right for a woman to get an abortion. On this day, today, it is said that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris “celebrated” the fact that abortion is a right of every American woman and that they are “ deeply committed” to protecting this right. It was stated today that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the most pro- abortion President/Vice President team in the history of the United States. I wonder how many innocent, unborn children will be murdered under the name of free choice during the Presidency of Joe Biden.

Since 1973 over 60 million unborn babies have been murdered in the name of convenience. That fact is so sad and depressing for me to think about, and then to read that the President of our United States of America celebrates that fact is sickening. I can’t imagine what our God thinks about that, and what will ultimately happen because of that fact. But there will come a day when God will judge.

Amos 5:24 But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Hebrews 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

It has been a good week in Hawaii visiting with Sally, Aaron and their three wonderful kids, but tomorrow we head back home. Life, as God has made it, is so interesting, as we think about the fact that not that many years ago we were where Sally and Aaron are today, raising a family. It is totally consuming, the desire to raise those kids well, and then they are gone doing what you once did.

At a point in our life, not that long ago, all eight were home, going to school, learning, growing, acquiring character, dating, learning to drive, and then in a blink of an eye they are all gone, and then you are done, you either did it well or you didn’t, and not much you can do about it now.

When the kids were all home we were consumed with them, our life revolved around them, we were always thinking about what we could do better, how we could train, motivate, teach, discipline so that they would turn out to be champions for Jesus. Now we are done, and they all are doing the same thing. Please help them Lord, give them wisdom, give them desire, a strong desire to do well, deliver every one of our grandkids from the evil one, please protect them Lord.

My, oh my, life is so consequential, so important, so final, you only get one chance to do it right.