There is a lot of stupid politics going on today about everything that is good, Christian, traditional, and American. One of those is the call by some to cancel Colombus Day and change it to “Indigenous People’s Day. “

Democratic Rep. Nydia Velázquez of New York described the Italian explorer as “a genocidal maniac,” and went on to say, “Today should just be IndigenousPeopleDay.”

When I was a kid I picked up many heroes that I admired and wanted to be like. Some of them were real people that I knew, but many were historical people that I learned about in school and in history books. One of my heroes was Christopher Colombus. He was on my hero list because he was brave, he had a dream and he went for it, and he did what everyone else was afraid of doing. When I was an Eighth-grader I asked my teacher Mrs Fosmark if she had any books about Christopher Colombus that I could read, and she brought me several that I devoured quickly so she brought me some more. She asked me if I would like to write a paper about Christopher Colombus from what I had learned from my reading. She told me that if it was good enough I would earn an “A” in history. I wrote the paper and entitled it, “Christopher Colombus, the Brave Explorer,” and I got my “A.” She entered it into a State writing contest for me that included kids up through Seniors in High School and I won first place.

Today almost everyone is afraid of COVID or something. In Colombus’s day everyone was afaid of falling off the edge of a flat earth. They were afraid of something that wasn’t true, but it didn’t matter that it wasn’t true, it still restricted their life. Columbus wasn’t afraid and because of his bravery he opened up the world to Europe. Most of the fear that controls and restricts people today is no more true than a flat earth, but it doesn’t matter if it is true or not, it still controls the lives of people

Columbus was a dreamer and he didn’t let the fear of failure keep him tired up to a dock in Europe, and he didn’t let the fear of death keep him from sailing to the edge of the known world and beyond, he pursued his dream. Most people have no dreams, no aspirations to do something great with their life, they are tied to the dock by their fears of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of pain and loss, and fear of death.

Columbus Day is a great day to celebrate and remember not only because of it’s significance in American history, but also because it commemorates the character that made America great in the past.

Matthew 7:28-29 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

The teaching that Jesus did was compelling, the listeners were anxious to do and live what Jesus taught. That authority is supernatural, it is the Holy Spirit empowering us and working in the hearts and minds of the hearers. The question is, “what will it take on my part for God to give me that same authority that Jesus had.

God blesses those who are faithful, responsible, and diligent in their preparation. Whatever we are teaching on or about, we need to study the passage well or the topic we are dealing with. Studying is so much easier today than when I started as a preacher and pastor. Back in the ’70s and 80’s all my studying was done in books and encyclopedias. I often drove into Corban to use their library because I didn’t own enough books to study some passages or topics well.

Now with the internet I can sit in my recliner and look up information on every topic under the sun and include it in my sermon.

But even with the internet diligence is the character trait that God honors, blesses and works through. Being diligent to study hard, to read the text repeatedly , read commentaries, listen to other sermons on the topic or passage, and to write, write, write.

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

2 Timothy 4:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

1 Timothy 4:16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

I listen to 4 to 6 sermons everyday while I am driving, working by myself, and riding my bike. I listen to sermons by those preachers and teachers I most want to be like. I listen for what makes them good preachers and I try to learn from them.

Record your sermons and lessons that you have taught and listen to them, and become your own worst critic. I listen to the sermons I preach and evaluate what my strengths and weaknesses are. I will often replay a section repeatedly as I try to figure out what doesn’t sound right to me. I listen for enunciation and speed to determine if I can be understood easily. I ask myself if I am boring and what I can do in my delivery to jazz up my preaching a bit. I want God to anoint my preaching and for Him to speak through me. I know that God amplifies our diligence in preparation and evaluation so I try to give Him plenty to amplify. I know that God blesses the humble, and listening to my sermon is one of the most humbling things I do.

Pray, pray, and pray some more. I read books written by the early church fathers, and the main emphasis they made on improving preaching is to pray a lot asking God to anoint, and to work in the lives and hearts of those listening. Many of them emphasized the need for the time spent in praying to equal the time spent studying. I pray for everyone in JBC every week. The ones who are in my leadership classes I pray for several times each week asking God to speak through me into their lives. In a couple of weeks when the Wednesday night service has been going long enough to make a list of regular attendees I will pray for each of them on Wednesday before the service. I am also in the process of making a list of people at Buena Vista Community Church where I am preaching on Sunday mornings. The more I pray the more God works in my preaching. Nothing communicates to God and ourselves that we can’t preach and teach the Word of God without His blessing and strength as much as prayer does.

On one particular Sunday morning I preached what I thought was the worst sermon that I had ever preached in my life. I was so disgusted with myself and embarrassed at my efforts that I wanted to slip out without talking to anyone. But I forced myself to walk out into the foyer to talk to people. The first person I talked to raved about my sermon. I thought they were just making up praise because they didn’t want me to feel bad because of the bomb I had just unloaded on them. But then another person said the same thing, and another, and another. I received more praise that morning for my sermon than I could ever remember receiving before. Patty and I have a deal to help eliminate conflict in our marriage, she doesn’t say anything negative or critical about my preaching for at least three days until I am less sensitive about it. But that morning on the drive home from church I mentioned what happened, and she agreed with me that it was the worst sermon I had ever preached. I asked her why I got so much positive feedback from people then, and she said, “That is easy, it left your mouth bad but God fixed it before it hit people’s ears.” I laughed out loud at her simple explanation, and thought, wow, prayer is powerful.

Tell good stories that illustrate the points being made in the sermon or talk. I work very hard at telling good stories. I am always thinking of every event in my life as a potential story. I read lots of short stories written by the best to learn the secrets of engaging storytelling. I have subscribed to several online classes on learning how to tell captivating stories. Over the years I have written and saved hundreds of stories so that I have them available to put into a sermon or lesson that I may teach. Good stories, that are well told have great power to hold people’s attention but poorly told stories are worse than no story at all.

Tomorrow

I have a class that I teach on how to teach and preach effectively. In the first class I shared some basic principles that I was taught year’s ago. I have tried to follow these over the years as I have had the goal of getting better, just a little bit better every time I speak.

1. Always be learning. A basic law of God is that people learn from a learner not a know it all. Once a person thinks they have it all figured out they stop learning and they stop teaching effectively. Learners read a lot, they listen to good teachers and preachers, and they seek counsel and advice from wise people in their life. Learners are constantly expanding the breadth of their knowledge-seeking. A teacher and preacher of the Bible can spend all their time studying and learning from the Bible but if he learns how to tie flies, learns how to weld, learns Spanish, learns how to grow blueberries, and many other things his teaching will become much more alive and interesting.

Proverbs 2:2-5
Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.

2. Learn how to write well. I read a lot of books, but I buy three times as many books as I read. When I start to read a book that I have purchased I give it one chapter to prove to me that it is a good book worth the time it takes to read it. If it doesn’t hold my attention well, then I throw it away or delete it if it is a Kindle or e-book. I want to learn how to write so that I hold people’s attention as they read, so I will only read books that do that to me so that I become a better writer by reading good writing,

A fundamental law of communication is that the better you write the better you will teach. As I write my daily blog I am constantly going back over and rereading what I wrote to determine if it makes sense, if it is clear, if it is logical, and if I think it will hold people’s attention as they read it.

A cool thing about the program that I use to write and publish my blog online is that it gives me a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly count of how many people read my blog. As I look at the numbers, it gives me the motivation to learn how to write better and to work at my writing harder.

More tomorrow.

I spent about 3 hours this evening planning the trip that several of us will take to the East Coast on bicycles this summer. The trip is about 4,000 miles and we will average about 70 miles each day. What I was doing was picking out campsites at approximately 70-mile intervals. Most of the time we have to reserve campsites at least two weeks ahead of our arrival date to be sure we will get one. I have an app on my iPad that shows every campground in the US, and there are a lot. But even with the good number of campgrounds many of them are full weeks in advance. And even with the number of campgrounds there are days when we will ride only 50 miles and days we will ride a 100 miles because that is just the way the campsites work out. We will be riding what is known as the TransAmerican route established by an Association of bicycle riders called Adventure Cycling years ago, so the route has already been determined, I am just figuring out the daily ending point. One of the cool things is that because this is an established route, we meet a lot of other bicycle riders doing the same thing we are. Meeting and talking with other bicycle riders is one of the enjoyable things about this kind of trip.

Once I get everything all figured out, I will have a library of maps, one for every day of the trip. Each night in camp we look at the next days map, what the next night’s camp will be like. We check out the elevations to see how much we will climb, and I check the route on Google maps to check out the road conditions, especially if there are rumble strips and what width the shoulders are.

It is nice knowing what the next day will be like, but often that knowledge makes us nervous and apprehensive. If we see that a very steep hill is coming up the next day sometimes I struggle to sleep because of the nervousness caused by the foreknowledge.

Even with maps and computers there is still most of the next day left as mystery as to what will happen. God is sovereign and He promises to direct my steps and guide my way, so the challenge is to learn how to trust him and live each day with peace and joy.

I am restoring a 1969 Mustang with one of my grandsons, and I am having a really good time. I am doing quite a bit of the work by myself of late, now that school has started, and Isaac has less time. I go out to my shop all times of the day usually for just 30 minutes of working time, at a time because of the business of my schedule. I was out there a couple of nights ago from midnight until 1:30 am. I am working on the engine, the brakes, the steering, the body, and the transmission and driveline. I have been falling asleep in my recliner while watching YouTube videos of some aspect of restoring a classic mustang, and I have learned a ton.

I think the reason I am enjoying this project so much is that it is such a major challenge. It was a total rust bucket when we got it, and every part of the car needs rebuilding. I am learning something new every day, and I am acquiring a dozen new skills.

As I work on the car I pretend that it is me and that I am God turning this pile of rusty nuts and bolts into a beautiful car. In the same way, God is in the process of transforming my life into a person who is holy and righteous like Jesus. Sometimes I will say out loud while working, “Lord, are You having as much trouble with me as I am having right now on this car?” “Please help me to cooperate with You as You transform me into something beautiful and valuable.”

I am having so much fun that I have started looking for another car that I can restore when we finish with this one. I am trying to find one that will be worth some money when I finish with it so I can sell it and make some money. I am getting a little faster and better in my rebuilding skills as I am getting plenty of practice.

I have a lot of different ministries happening right now. I teach five different Leadership classes each week, I am preaching at our Wednesday night service each week, I am preaching at Buena Vista Community Church each Sunday morning, I am involved in five different accountability groups each week, I just volunteered to lead the Seniors ministry, I am leading and overseeing the “Small Group Ministry” in our church, I am working on and preparing to teach a two-day pastors seminar in January, I write a 300 to 500-word blog every day, I meet with 3 to 5 different people each week to talk about ministry, marriages, kids, jobs, etc., I am teaching for two hours this Saturday at the Men’s Conference, I am preaching two weekends in November while Pastor Mike goes to Africa to teach, I pray for every person that attends JBC every week, which takes about an hour every day, I work with the staff at JBC, and every night I pray and thank God for the privilege of serving Him and building His church. Then I asked Him for a little bit more to do.

Some people worry that I am going to burn out, but that will never happen, and here is why;

-I love doing ministry, I love serving the Lord, I love building His church, it is so fun being in the game and not on the bench.

-I never feel sorry for myself for being so busy, tired at the end of every day because serving the Lord is a great privilege and blessing that many don’t have. Many Christians are on the bench, many are bored out of their head just mowing their lawn, feeding their cat, and watching television.

– I thank the Lord every day for blessing me with so much to do for Him.

– I never grouse, complain, or grumble about others in our church who don’t do much. Ministry is a privilege not an obligation, it is a blessing not a burden. It would make as much sense as me saying, “Why do I have to eat all the ice cream! Look at Jude over there, he is not eating any ice cream!” Complaining and grumbling makes you tired, being thankful gives you passion.

– Every day I ask God for His strength and passion to do His work. God loves to give His power to those who ask for it and who are doing His work. Busy is not hard or tiring when you have supernatural energy from the infinitely powerful God.

– When I do well in ministry I thank God for giving me the strength, the wisdom, the giftedness, and for making me adequate as His servant. Pride short circuits God’s power, his joy, and future service.

-I constantly remind myself that God would not give me an opportunity to do something for Him without giving me the energy to do it, without giving me the resources to succeed at it, and without giving me the wisdom to build His church, His body, His Bride, and to glorify Him.

– I remind myself everyday that I am going to stand before Jesus at the end of my life, and He is going to reward me for everything that I have done for Him, and those rewards are going to be eternal and amazing.

– I take naps, I go fishing, I build cars, I bicycle, I spend time with my family, I hang out with friends at JBC, I sit in my hot tub, and I read my Bible every day.

Life is good, very good; God is good, very good. He loves me, and I love Him, and I love to sense His pleasure in me as His servant.

God has established areas of authority and submission in the world. The government is one area where there are Kings and Presidents who have authority over people, that authority comes from God. Pilate said to Jesus, “don’t you know that I have the authority to crucify you?” and Jesus responded by saying, “you have no authority other than what God has given you.” The authority God gives is over a given jurisdiction, no further. Today you see government attempting to exercise authority way beyond their God-given jurisdiction and the result is division, conflict, rebellion, and confusion. Another area of jurisdiction is business and commerce where you have bosses, employees, and a hierarchy of authority. Another area is the church. The last is the family. The family is the foundation of all other areas of authority and submission. God established the family first. Every area is set up by God with authority and submission and the person designated as the leader has God given authority within a jurisdiction. Humans because of the “Fall” have a pull towards power over others, a craving that is hard to control, and because of that craving for power leaders in every realm tend to abuse their God-given authority and move outside the jurisdiction that God has given them. The founding Fathers of the United States who wrote the Constitution understood that pull and established a government with checks and balances so that the abuse of power could be curtailed. The Bill of rights were added to the Constitution to limit the power of the government by establishing jurisdictions, and to guarantee personal freedom for the people.

There have always been bad leaders in every realm of life. Leaders have responsibility to protect, to maintain a unified community, and to influence positively, but many leaders are irresponsible and do little to benefit those who they are responsible for.

Leaders are also bad when the craving for power prompts them to move outside their jurisdiction. Some husbands think that being the leader makes them the boss, the lord of the house, over their wife and kids, and they become the dictator issuing “mandates.” loading it over those allotted to their charge.

Whenever leaders abuse their God-given authority, and begin to Lord it over people the result will be conflict, disunity, resentment, anger and rebellion.

A classic example of moving outside one’s jurisdiction was in the news recently.

“In the Virginia gubernatorial debate on Tuesday evening, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe insisted that parents should have no role in directing the education of their children.”

Presidents are leaders by God’s assignment, and employers, fathers, husbands, and pastors are as well. If those in roles of leadership find that those they are leading are angry, and there is little peace the wise thing for them to do would be to seek counsel and wisdom and adjust their leadership style recognizing that they are the problem. Very few leaders are that wise or humble. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

In the Bible God designates the husband as the primary leader in the marriage. That doesn’t mean he gets to decide where the family goes on vacation, or what kind of car they buy. It means that the husband is responsible for a number of things in the marriage and the family, either he makes it happen or it generally doesn’t happen.

The first responsibility of the leader is to maintain a strong unity in the marriage and the family. When a marriage and family are unified, there is joy, great joy. When there is division and conflict, there is chaos, anger, bitterness, and hostility. Leadership exists in any institution for the purpose of unity. You can judge the strength and quality of the leadership in any institution by the level of agreement that exists.

Luke 11:17 Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls.

The devil is the great divider, he is constantly working behind the scenes trying to cause division and strife. He knows that he can destroy marriages, families, churches, and countries by introducing irritants into the relationships and culture.

But good leaders do whatever is necessary to preserve unity, to heal conflict, and to resolve differences. They don’t give up, they don’t blame others, they don’t throw up their hands and let things go on their own. Leaders own the problem, they take the blame, they take initiative, they are not apathetic about their resolve to fix the problems. Husbands that are strong leaders seek counseling early in a conflict with their wife. They are humble enough to know that they often need help as they lead. As a pastor over the years much of the counseling I have done has had two characteristics about it; it was way to late and the wife initiated it.

Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

Psalms 34:14-15 Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry.

Jesus as a man was not born with character, He grew in character by living life.

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.

Jesus was “perfected“ through sufferings. To be “perfected” is to be made mature in character. God designed life in His infinite wisdom to be the ultimate character builder.

2 Peter 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

We have the potential to grow in holiness, righteousness, and character to the point that we have the nature of Jesus.

One of God’s most powerful tools for causing growth in us is marriage.

Ephesians 5:25-29 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,

Jesus is in the process of making the church holy and blameless and that is the responsibility of every husband and every wife, to make each other holy and blameless by our proactive, thought out, and loving influence.

Married couples who understand the purpose of marriage and pursue that purpose have the blessing of God on their efforts and their marriage.

The wise design and plan of God for us can be totally messed up by our poor choices and failure to cooperate with His plan.

Every morning when I get up I pray my “Prayer of Commitment,” and one of the commitments I make is, “Today, Lord, I will love Patty the way You love the church, and I ask You for the wisdom and the strength to influence her so that she becomes like You. I also ask that You will perfect me through her, and that I will be submissive to that influence so that I grow rapidly to be like You.”