God leads us and guides us into His perfect will and plan for our life.

Nehemiah 9:19
You, in Your great compassion,
Did not forsake them in the wilderness;
The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day,
To guide them on their way,
Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go.

That would be cool if God would lead me that way now. That would be pretty decisive and hard to miss for sure.

Psalms 31:3 For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me.

Psalms 48:14 He will guide us until death.

Psalms 73:24 With Your counsel You will guide me,
And afterward receive me to glory.

Psalms 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

Psalms 25:8-9 Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in justice,
And He teaches the humble His way.

Psalms 27:11Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a level path

There are numerous ways God guides us, and the wise person will learn what those are. Key for us is to have an attitude of submission to God’s will, be paying attention, looking and listening as He leads, and then be decisive in obeying.

There are three basic areas that I pay attention to as I work at figuring out God’s will for me.

The first is His Word. I read 12 to 14 chapters everyday, I memorize two new verses each week and review all 700 that I have already memorized each week, and I study books, topics and themes in order to teach. As I spend time in the Bible I learn principles and I gain wisdom so I can make good decisions and choices based on that wisdom.

Second, I pay attention to the desires that grow inside of my mind and heart. I believe that God puts His will in me and it comes out in the form of a strong desire or dream. I am careful not to get carried away on this one because I know that I can have very carnal desires at times. Most of my goals come from the desires that I identify in me that I believe God put in me.

Third, I pay attention to circumstantial clues that God brings into my life. Opportunities, open doors, people, words that people say, events that pop into my life, and counsel that I get from people both solicited and unsolicited. It is like being a good detective paying attention to small things that happen. Again, I am careful because ai know that the devil can control events in my life.

One of my strengths is decisiveness. I make decisions quickly once I am convinced it is God’s will for me, for my family, or for our church. If I mull things over to long I almost always get hesitant as the fear of making a wrong turn in life begins to paralyze me.

Every year I start writing my goals on October 1st and finish them by October 27th, my birthday, and start pursuing them.

1. I will read 12 chapters each day in my Bible.
2. I will Pray 30 minutes every day by myself.
3. I will Pray for 15 minutes twice each week on my kneeling bench in my office.
4. I will go salmon fishing in Alaska in July.
5. I will Pray at three regular corporate prayer times at JBC each week.
6. I will Pray 40 hours in each of the four “Five Days of Prayer” events.
7. I will Pray with Patty three times each week minimum.
8. I will go on a moose hunting trip with my son-in-law Phillip and others sometime before 2025.
9. I will Pray through the church prayer letter each week.
10. I will Pray for every person in the church every week using my Ipad app “prayermate.”
11. I will Pray for Patty, all kids, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, and grandkids every day.
12. I will Maintain my prayer app, “PrayerMate,” keeping up to date with names and information.
13. I will write prayers in my journal at least twice each week.
14. I will go on a caribou hunting trip with Philip and others before 2025.
15. Patty and I will have a budget meeting once each month holding each other accountable to our budget and financial goals.
16. I will go tuna fishing at least once.
17. I will take Patty on a date twice each month.
18. I will present my life to Christ as Lord each morning, reciting my prayer of commitment.
19. I will read 20 pages each day, five days a week, in a good book.
20. I will work with Preston Mitchell and Rich Sebans on Small Group ministry and have 20 groups functioning well by May 1st, 2022.
21. I will find and train someone to run the small group ministry, replacing myself, possibly a full time staff person.
22. I will go on a catfish fishing trip to the Snake river.
23. I will study, write and preach a sermon at Buena Vista Church each week from October through April.
24. I will study, write and preach a sermon at our Wednesday night service each week from October through April.
25. I will figure out and plan a deer/elk hunting trip this Fall.
26. I will study and prepare well a lesson that I will teach each week in three different “Leadership I” classes.
27. I will study and prepare well a lesson that I will teach in “Leadership II” class each week.
28. I will study and prepare well a lesson that I will teach in my “Teaching and Preaching class” each week.
29. I will fish with Nolan Davis at least twice for steelhead in December through March of 2022.
30. I will meet with Brandon Morris, Preston Mitchell, Ben Dittman, Josiah Dedera, and Josiah Dittman as a group each week for an hour and teach and coach them in ministry success.
31. I will meet with Pastor Mike at least weekly to discuss issues, goals, and strategies for JBC.
32. I will attempt to plan and carry out a kokanee fishing trip to Anderson Ranch Reservoir with Seth and his family.
33. I will keep track accurately and record how I use my time every day.
34. I will write in my blog every day and pray and ask God to anoint my writing and that He would prompt many to read it, I will pray before I hit “publish.”
35. I will go salmon fishing with Dave Maroon on the Colombia at least once in Fall of 2022.
36. I will ride my stationary bike everyday for 1 hour.
37. I will lift weights three times each week.
38. I will run/walk 2 miles twice each week.
39. I will run a 10 k race in the Fall of 2022.
40. I will maintain my weight at or below 200 lbs.
41. I will work on Scripture memory for 30 minutes every day and maintain 200th place.
42. I will continue to develop and work with our JBC mentoring program.
43. I will restore my 1969 mustang coup with my grandson Isaac, and it will be his car when we finish it.
44. I will finish memorizing the book of Colossians.
45. I will have a total of 800 verses memorized by October 27th, 2022.
46. I will work with Brandon to plan, organize, and hold 3 “New Comers” Dinners.
47. I will plan well and ride my bicycle with others from Yorktown, Virginia to my house, a trip of 4,000 miles in May and June.
48. I will hand off the existing “Men’s Accountability Groups” and start three more.
49. I will, with the help of others, write a devotional book using 365 of my former blogs.
50. I will take Sam out for breakfast or lunch every other month.
51. I will put in a quarter acre fish pond.
52. I will start on building a three wheeled car from scratch.
53. I will attempt to find and train someone to be the full-time pastor of Buena Vista Church.
54. I will pray for each staff person and families twice each week.
55. I will, without a doubt, organize my shops, super well, and keep them that way.
56. I will expand the front of my shop, reroof it, re-side it, and paint it.
57. I will paint the trim on my house.
58. I will plan and attempt to go on a week-long fishing trip on a boat out of San Diego before 2025.
59. I will plan and attempt to go on a whitetail buck and pig hunt in Texas before the end of 2025.
60. I will faithfully attempt to encourage those who have drifted away from faithful attendance at JBC to return.
61. I will attend a major “Church Growth” seminar and take at least one staff member with me.
62. I will pray corporately for a total of 300 hours in 2022.
63. I will pray every day without fail for 80 baptisms at JBC in the year 2022, and I will remind JBC people at least weekly to do the same.
64. I will listen to at least 100 sermons on “youtube” and podcasts.
65. I will get my Dory Boat set up for crabbing and learn how.
66. I will attempt to take a grandson with me on each one of my fishing and hunting trips.
67. I will write 100 handwritten notes to different people at JBC each month.
68. I will teach a two-day seminar on the topic of leadership training on January 17th and 18th.
69. I will attempt to establish a coaching relationship with at least two pastors this year.
70. Patty and I will have people to our house for dinner at least six times in 2022.
71. I will work with the Seniors ministry and develop a comprehensive plan and goals by January 1st.
72. I will exercise self control and get at least six hours of sleep each night.
73. I will read these goals at least once each week.

The biggest drain of our energy is unconfessed sin.

Psalms 32:3-5 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin.

We all sin, and God will forgive us our sin, but He requires that we confess to Him that we have sinned, that we own what we did. We don’t confess that we have sinned easily. We naturally protect ourselves from shame, and our inclination is to cover up our sin, to ignore it, justify it, and blame others. The energy loss that comes from unconfessed sin is not psychological, it is supernatural. God drains away our strength not because we have sinned but because we ignore our sin.

Along with our reluctance to confess our own sin is the problem that we have in forgiving others quickly for their sins against us. If we do not forgive others then God will not forgive us of our sins even if we confess them.

Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

There are a lot of very weary people in churches today trying to figure out what is the problem, why they are so tired all of the time.

Every night I take a few minutes and review the day and confess all my known sins to God. I usually do this in my journal so as not to take the process lightly. I also declare to God that I have personally forgiven everybody who has hurt me, violated my rights, and sinned against me. I declare to God that I am choosing to forgive because He first forgave me. If a person’s sin against me comes back into my thinking I forgive them again, and I keep on forgiving until the event no longer pops into my head.

Self-examination and confession of sin doesn’t take that much time at the end of a day, and it should be a daily spiritual discipline if we want to have God’s strength and energy filling us full all day long.

Much of what people call being really tired is self-induced by poor, undisciplined self-talk. We can talk ourselves into just about any feeling or mental condition by what we say to ourselves in our thoughts. I am careful about what I say to myself, and to others out loud because it is often exactly what happens and becomes true.

I don’t say “I am tired,” at least not in a negative way. My Dad used to say, “tired is good, best feeling in the world, means you have been doing something!” If I say, “Whew, I am so tired,” it makes me more tired. There really isn’t any good reason to say to yourself or to others, “I am tired,” unless you are looking for sympathy or praise for how hard you have been working. Neither of those motives are very pleasing to the Lord.

I often hear people say that they are so busy! And I think to myself “Busy is good, means you are in the game and not on God’s bench.” Poor priorities are not good, especially if they have replaced activities that have value, eternal value.

When I have had a particularly busy day I say, “Thank You Lord for blessing me with assignments from You today. Thank You for considering me worthy to be a servant of Yours.”

All day long I ask God for energy, strength, and wisdom. Wisdom to choose what I do well, and energy and strength to accomplish what I have chosen as what I believe is God’s will for me to accomplish.

I don’t say, “It is so hard,” about any activity that I may be doing, that is the self-talk of a wimp, not a champion for Jesus. If I don’t want something to be true than I act and talk like it isn’t. If I say, “It is so hard,” “I am so tired,” “I am so busy,” my words will only make it worse, but if I say, “Thank You Lord for giving me so much to do for You,” I will be energized

1. Read your Bible everyday and spend time memorizing and meditating on the Word of God. I spend 30 minutes reading and 30 minutes memorizing every day, with only 6 or 7 misses a year. The Bible mentions over 50 blessings that come into the life of the person who spends time in the Word of God and one of those blessings is energy and strength. Most of what we term energy is emotional, mental and spiritual, not physical in nature. What sucks the energy out of us isn’t work or business, it is anxiety, fear, and worry. Psalms 119:165 says, “those who love Your Word have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble.” Those who faithfully read, study, memorize and meditate on God’s Word honor Him, and those who honor Him, He honors.

2. Spend time with God praying every day using a prayer journal so that your mind doesn’t wander and you don’t fall asleep. If you are faithful to a regular time and place it will become a habit. You can start out with five minutes each day and then gradually add a minute every month or so until you are up to 15 minutes. You can certainly do more but many bog down after fifteen minutes. During your prayer time ask God for strength. The more you ask the more He gives.

Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

3. Be involved in some kind of ministry that is accomplishing significant things for God. God loves to give His strength and power to those who are serving Him, but He does not give His power to lazy people. The more you serve God the more strength, energy , and passion He will give you.

More tomorrow

Any group of people who are without good leadership will soon be out of control, and a series of bad decisions will be made by those in that group of people that will negatively impact all in the group. That is a basic law of life. The group might be a family, a business, a sports network, a church, a cultural group within a country or the whole country. A major problem in the United States today is that the number of good leaders has dropped appreciably. I am not talking about people with power as a result of being made a boss or having won an election, but regular people who have convictions, high moral standards, vision, good ideas, and know how to influence their work place, their community, their family, their church, and an ever growing sphere of people positively.

Leadership is a skill that is first learned and then earned by integrity and faithfulness. Strong, visionary, moral leaders have become effective by learning lessons progressively that they have put into practice in their life. If the number of these kind of leaders increases then the United States will turn around, and if the number continues to decrease the state of being out of control will continue to get worse and worse.

The first stage of leadership development in the life of any person is learning and acquiring the principles, the skills, and the self-control to effectively lead ourselves. No person will ever be a positive influence on others until they can lead themselves. People who have become effective self-leaders soon influence a growing number of people in a variety of ways.

One of the most effective tools available to us for self-leadership is goal setting. A goal is our personal vision statement, a target for what we want to accomplish and become in our life. The implementation and accomplishment of our goals requires self-leadership, and the more we set goals and successfully accomplish them the more skilled we will have become at self-leadership.

Most people don’t set goals. It is to much of a bother. It requires to much self-discipline. It takes to much effort and time. It seems to me that the desire to be in control of our own life instead of our flesh, the world, and the devil would be enough to motivate us to take the time and make the effort to set goals, even a few and pursue them.

I want to do good things for the right reasons, it is so easy to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons, and not even know it. I can slip over to being a people impresser easily, and become consumed by the desire for praise from people, and be totally motivated by pride. When that happens I get tired because the Holy Spirit in me is grieved and not working in me. When I stop serving the Lord to sense His pleasure I get grumpy because His joy is a major reward when serving with right motives. As I pay attention to myself and how I am thinking I can catch myself before I lose to many rewards.

Matthew 6:1 Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

My birthday is in two weeks and I am looking forward to it because all my kids, son-in-laws, daughter-in-laws and 27 grandchildren will be here. It is going to be a wonderful time. But more than any other event I am looking forward to the Rapture. The word rapture comes from the Latin word raptura which is the Latin translation of the Greek word translated “caught up” in 1Thessalonians 16-17.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 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.

The Rapture as an event is also described in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

The Rapture is when Jesus comes and takes us to heaven. If I am alive when it happens the first thing that will happen is I will hear a loud trumpet sound coming from heaven. Then my physical body will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. I wii receive a body like Jesus, no more aches and pains, no more weariness. Then I will hear a loud voice say, “Come up here,” and then I will rise from the ground and meet Jesus in the air with other believers and off we go to heaven.

Every day I think about that event and I plead with Jesus to make it today. Most people are going to be left behind on that day because they aren’t following Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

My confidence in my being part of this great Exodus is what makes all the current events bearable.

The Bible commands that we pray for our government leaders.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority,

So exactly what am I supposed to pray for them? I like the prayer David prayed for King Saul in Psalms 108:8-11, and I am tempted to pray it back to God, but that probably isn’t what God had in mind in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 when He commanded me to pray for our government leaders.

Psalms 109:8-11
Let his days be few;
Let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless
And his wife a widow.
Let his children wander about and beg;
And let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes.
Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.

I pray five things each week for Senators, judges, governors and president.

1. I pray that God would bring about an event strong enough to get their attention, and prompt serious thinking about their decisions, as He did with King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel.

2. I pray that He would bring a godly person into their life who would have some influence in their life, such as Elijah in the life of King Ahab, or like Samuel in the life of King Saul.

3. I pray that God would turn their heart like water in the palm of his hand toward justice in all of their decisions.

4. I pray that God would prevent the devil from influencing them in any way.

5. I pray that God would cause them to have dreams like Pharaoh in the life of Joseph, like Nebuchadnezzar in the life of Daniel, and like Belteshazzar also in Daniel’s life. The dreams were reoccurring and scared the rulers split-less causing them to seek for counsel.

Revelation 16:8-9 The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.

There is a lot of climate change mentioned in the Bible, but in every instance, it is God-caused, not man-caused or, I might add, not even man prevented or cured. What can man do about tornados? Nothing, just wring their hands. What can man do about hurricanes? Nothing, just build dikes. What can man do about earthquakes? Nothing, just get under the table. Man can’t do a whole lot about anything, they can’t even fix the problems they really did cause, like the present and coming economic crisis. Now, when man tries to fix something, it just gets worse and worse.

Psalms 2:1-5 Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury.”

In the midst of all that is happening around us, I just trust the Lord. He is in control, and He knows what He is doing. I am riding a roller coaster and enjoying every minute of the crazy ride.