Before announcing her candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Kathy Barnette endured an upbringing fraught with dire economic and personal hardships.

“I was born on a pig farm in southern Alabama, I was born below the bottom rung on the economic latter. I was born in a home with no insulation, no running water, an outhouse in the back, and a well on the side.”

“When I say poor, we could not afford the other ‘o.’ We were just po’.”

The senatorial candidate is the direct descendant of generations of black slaves who were also raised in that same home. When Barnette’s mother was 11 years old, she became pregnant with Kathy by a 21-year-old man.

“I am the byproduct of rape,” Barnette said. “I am one of those exceptions to some people’s rule, and yet my life has value. I am so very grateful to God that there were adults in the room.”

Despite her grandmother’s lack of education, Barnette credits her with recognizing the dignity of her life in the womb and saving her from abortion.

“She wasn’t from the world’s standard a very knowledgeable individual, and yet my grandmother knew that what was in my mother’s little body was a life, and she saw value in me,” said Barnette, crying. “And I am so grateful … I am so grateful.”

Despite the circumstances surrounding her arrival and childhood, Barnette’s family did not let those hardships dictate outcomes in their lives. The family may have had little in terms of material wealth, yet Kathy was given an abundance of love and protection. In fact, Barnette credits the conditions of her early years for her strength of character and success as an adult.

“My family could have cried victimhood at any moment,” she reflected.

“I remember my grandmother asking me to help her in the garden. And I thought she just wanted to spend quality time with me. But it wasn’t until I grew up did I realize that, in large part, that was for our survival. If we wanted beans, or greens, or potatoes, we had to grow it.”

Barnette rejects the spirit of victimhood prescribed by the left as the antidote for America’s woes. It is an attitude that is utterly foreign to her character. The false compassion of ‘wokeness’ that is foisted upon Americans in both education and the mainstream culture has compelled her to run for office and come to the country’s rescue.

“All of it is Marxist-related, and Marxism comes into a nation not to improve that nation, but to divide that nation,” Barnette explained.

“And I refuse for that ideology to be taught to my kids because I am not a victim. I am a victor.”

Awhile back a young lady asked me what Baptists believed. I said to her, “are you asking me what Jefferson Baptist Church believes?” She said, “Yes.” I responded, “we believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. “ With a wrinkled up forehead, she said, “what does that mean?” I chuckled and said, ”yeh, I guess that is a bit theological sounding.” I continued and said, “we believe that God wrote the Bible through men, that He put His words in their minds, and they wrote in their own style the truth of God. Over the three thousand plus years since Moses wrote the book of Genesis many copies have been made by hand and that as a result there are many variants from that first writing. But take those variants in the many fragments of parchments found over the years, either randomly or the worst possible choice, and the message of the Bible is consistent. We believe that the message of the Bible is true, the Word of God, and it is our sole authority for living life. We believe that the Bible tells us what is right and what is wrong. We believe the Bible tells us about God, how to know Him, and how to live forever with God after we die.

She then asked me what our church believed about abortion. I said to her, “Let me ask you a question before I answer that, do you believe in Jesus?” she responded emphatically, “Yes!” I said, “What do you believe about Jesus?” “I believe that He is God’s son, and that He died for our sins on the cross.” I asked her, “Do you believe that He left heaven and become human like you and me?” Again she responded with a very emphatic “Yes.” I asked, “When did He leave heaven?” That question puzzled her so I asked, “Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus?” When she responded positively I asked her what that meant to her, and she, without hesitation, said, “It means that Mary didn’t have sex with anyone but that the Holy Spirit made her pregnant with Jesus.” I complimented her on her good understanding of the Bible and the good teaching she had obviously had at some point in her life on the Bible. Then I asked her again the question, “when did Jesus leave heaven and become human?” After thinking for a few minutes she said, “I guess when Mary became pregnant with Jesus.” “So, when did you become a human, at the point of conception or when you were born?”

Before she could respond to that question I asked her, “Do you think it would be OK for me to shoot my wife because she is my wife using the argument that it is my choice?” She responded, “NO! She has her own rights even though she is married to you!” So, if I shot Patty it would be murder, right?” I went on and said, “Do you not think that an unborn baby has the right to life, and that if someone decided to end their life that it wouldn’t be murder?”

At that point she evidently decided that she didn’t want to talk anymore, and politely excused herself. If she had stuck around I would have said to her, “The question for you to ask isn’t what I believe, but what you believe is true according to God’s Word, arriving at that conclusion not based on convenience for yourself or others but based on the fact that every person is going to stand before God and give an account to Him for their life and their choices.

I love my wife, Patty, very much; I love my eight kids, my six sons-in-law, my two daughters-in-law, my 27 grandchildren, and my church. This coming October will be 46 years that I have been here as the Pastor of JBC. Over those 46 years I have worked thousands of hours, preached several thousand different sermons, and given money to the point of being crazy. I love my church the way Jesus loves it. I have given my life to doing all I can with the spiritual gifts God has given me to help make His church healthy, beautiful, and growing.

Colossians 1:24-25 In my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,

The church is the eternal companion of Jesus, His Bride. The church is the “Body of Christ,” the physical manifestation of Jesus on the earth. Jesus the man was “Body I,” the church is “Body II.” My love for Jesus my Savior is no greater than my love for His Bride my church, my commitment to Jesus who is on His throne in heaven is no greater than my commitment to my church, His Body on the earth.

Ephesians 5:25-27 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.

God blesses us in a variety of ways. God’s blessings are conditional, that is we earn His blessings. James 1:25 says that those who are doers of God’s Word, not just forgetting what they read or heard, will be blessed in all that they do.

There is no activity that brings God’s blessing into our life more than our blessing His church with our service, our prayers, and our giving.

There is this faulty thinking in some people’s mind that burnout is caused by overwork. Burnout is a result of our emotional energy gas tank hitting empty. Overwork will use up the energy in our gas tank, for sure, but there is a much better explanation of the cause of burnout and its prevention than simply overwork. If I head off on a hunting trip to Texas and run out of gas after a couple of hours of driving and am stranded beside the road, your explanation of what happened wouldn’t be that I had driven too far but that I had failed to stop and fill up with gas at a gas station.

People who experience burnout have not learned how to fill up their emotional gas tanks. Those who have learned how to renew themselves rarely experience burnout.

We all naturally recover from physical energy tiredness and emotional energy tiredness, but if we are using more than what is coming into our gas tank we will run out of gas, resulting in burnout. The two skills that those who want to accomplish a lot with their life need to learn is how to read their gas tank gauge so that they know that they are running low before they hit the wall and run out of gas. The second skill is how to fill our gas tank with energy on a regular and systematic basis.

Our physical energy is renewed when we sleep, eat, and rest. We know what tiredness feels like and we take a break to rest and be renewed in our energy. Sleeping for eight hours each night and eating three meals at pretty much the same time each day is systematic energy renewal. We need to learn how to do that same thing with our emotional energy.

Our emotional energy is where our inner drive comes from, our passion, enthusiasm, and desire. When our emotional energy is gone we feel depressed, unmotivated, and we don’t care about much.

The technic for filling our emotional gas tank is different for everybody, so each person needs to learn what works for them. For me doing nothing is not what works well to renew my emotional energy. Most think it works because it does work well for physical energy renewal. For me doing something with my hands, by myself, that requires thought and concentration is super effective. After spending a couple of hours working on my 1969 mustang trying to figure out how to get the dash lights to work makes me feel like a million bucks. I have other activities as well that are emotional energy filler uppers.

Once I have discovered what works I need to schedule them into my life like sleeping so that my gas tank is always above quarter full. When I am motivated, enthused, excited, and passionate I accomplish a lot with my life for the Lord and for people, so it is important that I keep filling up my gas tank.

What works for you? Have you got this part of your life figured out? All high achievers have, and they are always fine-tuning the process to accomplish more and more.

I pray through five chapters of Psalms every day. There are 150 chapters in Psalms, so I get through it once each month. Most of the Psalms are prayers, and many of them where written by King David. Before David became King of Israel Saul was King, and he was always chasing David trying to kill him because he was jealous of him. One time David was hiding in a cave from Saul and while he was hiding in the cave he wrote Psalms 142.

I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord;
I make supplication with my voice to the Lord.
I pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare my trouble before Him.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me,
You knew my path.
In the way where I walk
They have hidden a trap for me.
Look to the right and see;
For there is no one who regards me;
There is no escape for me;
No one cares for my soul.
I cried out to You, O Lord;
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
“Give heed to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are too strong for me.
“Bring my soul out of prison,
So that I may give thanks to Your name;
The righteous will surround me,
For You will deal bountifully with me.”

One of the reasons that I don’t get down or depressed anymore, at least not for very long, is because I unload all my frustrations, fears, irritations, and failures onto the Lord. David said, “I pour out my complaint on Him; I declare my trouble before Him.” It is amazing how the tone and content of the Psalms that I read on any given day most of the time fit me right where I am, and by praying them back to God, making them my own, I am blessed by Him with joy, peace, and strength.

The history of the world is primarily a history of war. One of my all-time favorite movies is “Braveheart,” a movie about war. There are many “war movies,” many that are my favorites. The Old Testament books about the history of Israel and the surrounding nations are primarily about war.

I was born in 1948 and the nation of Israel was reborn in 1948. Since then Israel has been in continuous war with the Palestinians and other neighboring countries with little, if any break. In my lifetime the following wars have been and are being fought.

1948 – 1960 the Malayan war; 1949 – the Yangtze war; 1950 to 1953 – the Korean War; 1952 to 1960 the Kenya war; 1950 to 1959 the Cyprus war; 1955 to 1975 the Vietnam war; 1956 the Suez Crisis; 1962 to 1963 the Brunei war; 1963 to 1966 the Indonesian war; 1963 to 1967 the Aden war; 1990 to 1991 the Gulf war; 1991 to 2002 the Sierra Leonean war; 1992 to 1995 the Bosnian war; 1998 to 1999 Kosovo war; 2001 to 2014 the Afganastan war; 2003 to 2011 the Iraq war; 2011 to present the Libya war; 2011 to present the Syrian war; 2014 to present the Yemen war; 2014 to present the ISIS war; 2022 the Ukranian war.

Back in the day before gun powder wars were fought with swords, spears, bow and arrows, and horses. Now there are very sophisticated weapons of war that can kill thousands if not millions of people in a short amount of time. Nuclear war has been hanging over our heads since I was born.

There is a lot about war that I don’t understand. There is a lot about war in the Bible that I don’t understand. God commanded the start of many wars. He commanded the killing of women and children in war. The end of human history as we know it will end with a war that Jesus leads.

I have established five principles to help me live and navigate in times of war around the world.

1. Every person is going to die, whether by COVID or war or old age, and every person is then going to spend eternity in torment in hell unless they have been reborn by faith in Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord. What ought to consume my thinking is not war but lost people and how to reach them. An interesting fact is that far more people come to faith in Jesus during times of war than during times of peace.

2. Very few people know all the information about the why, the motives, the details of a war so I need to be careful about getting on a soapbox about issues of the war until I am well informed.

3. It is governments that cause war and drag the country they are governing into war, but so far as it depends on me I will be at peace with all men.

4. God is all powerful, He can start wars and He can end wars, and my most effective influence in the world is through prayer. In the Bible those who were prayer “warriors” had their most significant victories during times of war.

5. The devil is my enemy and he is trying to destroy me and every other Christian, and I need to fight against him constanty. The physical, visible wars being fought in the world today should remind me of the struggle I have daily against the kingdom of darkness.

It is fun to read stories in the Bible about people who did amazing things, things way beyond what most do. Guys like Samson, David, David’s mighty men, Gideon, Joshua, and a number of others. How were they able to do these super human exploits? The answer is by God’s strength supplied by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. We are commanded to “walk in the Spirit,” “to be filled with the Spirit,” “to be Spiritual” as apposed to carnal, “to be led by the Spirit,” and to be submissive to the Spirit.” One of my favorite passages of scripture is in Galatians where Paul says, “walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.”

We are repeatedly commanded in the New Testament to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Looking around our churches at the lives of people it doesn’t seem like there are very many who have much power. Why? Because they don’t accurately know how to live and walk in the Holy Spirit, the source of God’s power, so the big question is, how do we let the Holy Spirit work in us. A key I’m convinced is found in Ephesians 5:18-20, which says, “be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father”

The key is God-focused worship. Notice five points in these three verses. (1) The worship is Corporate, with others, (2) singing is central, (3) the emphasis is more on our heart singing than our mouth. However, it is evident that others hear our audible voice, (4) we are singing with each other to the Lord, God is the audience, (5) our corporate worship extends to “always” and “all things, great corporate worship leads to an all the time attitude of Thanksgiving. The result of this proper worship is that we will be filled with the Spirit, and live our lives with power.

I was at Seaside the last couple of days at a convention of about 200 people, primarily Pastors and their wives. We had an outstanding preacher and an excellent worship team, and I had a blessed time soaking it all in. What made the worship time powerful was the fact that most pastors and their wives sing well so the volume in the auditorium we were gathered in was very loud. It wasn’t uncomfortable loud, it was impossible to think of anything but the words of the song loud, it was like I imagine heaven will be like loud, it was like one of those heart shocker things but to my spiritual heart loud.

I was curious so this evening I did a little study with my Bible program on my IPad and I found over 300 references to singing, music, and musical instruments in the Bible. The command to worship God with music is given almost one hundred times, I don’t know of any other command that is repeated that often, it must be important to God.

On one of our bicycle trips across the country we attended a church on a Sunday. We usually attended the closest church to where we were camping. When we walked in, there was six of us, we came close to doubling their attendance, and as we came in the Pastor asked if any of us played the piano. None of us volunteered so the little old lady that usually played came up and started playing. I think she only knew about a dozen of the hymns in the hymn book, and she didn’t play those very well. The fifteen or so people in the room sang together four hymns, all the verses, along with the halting piano accompaniment, and I think only about half in the room were close to singing on key, and the ones most off-key sang the loudest. It was a worship experience that I have never forgotten, not because of the music, but because of the powerful sense of God’s presence and pleasure that I felt in my heart. This last couple of days was great, but no worship experience that I have ever had has been as holy and anointed as that little church with the lousy music.

I have been in many different churches over the years and many different worship experiences. I can’t think of any that I didn’t enjoy, and wasn’t blessed by. My worship experience is not anyone’s responsibility but mine. I am to direct the words that I sing to God, I am to draw near to God in my mind and heart and soul, and then He will draw near to me. Worship is praise to God, it is Thanksgiving to God, it is exaltation of God, it is all about God, nothing about me. So while I sing I also think of blessings, one after the other, and I thank God for each one of them. My salvation, my wife, my kids, my ministry, my history, and on and on. God inhabits the praises of His people. I know how to pull my thoughts in and make them all about God, I know how to mentally focus like a laser on just one thing – God, I know how To forget everything in life, set everything off to the side except for God.

I think that is why whether it is a talented group of musicians with drums, guitars, keyboards, and state of the art sound equipment, or a little old lady on an old upright piano, I have never had a lousy worship experience because worshipping God well is my responsibility, no one elses.

A number of year’s ago I got asked to preach in another church on a Wednesday night on prayer because they wanted to develop a prayer ministry in their church. I drove three hours to the church and got there an hour early. The service was scheduled to go 90 minutes and it began right on time at 7:00 pm. The Pastor began with some announcements that lasted fifteen minutes, and then the worship leader took over and led worship for a little over one hour. Then the pastor got up and introduced me with some stories that lasted for ten minutes. So I got up and prayed and sat down, so the worship leader got up and led a closing song and apologized for taking all of my time, but said he was following the Holy Spirit’s leading.

As I was getting ready to leave the Pastor came up to me and said they wanted to have me back again to speak. I said that I would if I could be first in the service and I could follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and give the worship leader what was left of the time. It was an arrogant and rude statement that I repented of on the ride home. Two weeks later I got an envelope from the church with a thank you note, a check for $150 for mileage and $500 for the honorarium. I thought, wow, I shouldn’t have been so rude. I wonder when they want me to come back. I never heard from them again.

Sometimes it is hard to think clearly. My thoughts are like popcorn popping, random, unconnected, confused. It is impossible to reason with wisdom and understanding or to arrive at any accurate or reasonable conclusions when I am thinking like that. Those times of popcorn thinking usually happen when there is a lot of noise, when many people are talking, or when there is sudden pressure. Most often, I experience this kind of thinking when there is a conflict with others and things are tense. During heated discussions, I find it impossible to think in a straight line to arrive at wise conclusions. So, I have arrived at some personal rules for myself. When I recognize that I can’t think in a straight line, I don’t talk. If I do it will not fix anything; it will usually worsen. More importantly, I don’t make any decisions or commitments, not even small ones; they will usually be stupid. It is often hard to keep those rules when I am thinking in circles because I don’t remember my own rules.

Most people don’t realize how seldom they think in a straight line, with wisdom and reason, because they seldom listen to their own thoughts. Their thoughts pop into their mind based on what they see or hear, and as they look around their thoughts are constantly changing. Accurate conclusions and solutions to life situations require disciplined, rational, and wise thinking.

For myself, I can usually only think clearly when I am by myself, and what always shifts my brain into focused, clear thinking is when I start writing. There are not a lot of unique situations in life so as I resolve conflicts in my mind while writing by myself I don’t forget them, and when a similar situation happens I just pull up the file in my mind and follow the script.

That process of increasing the number of files I have in my mind is what it means to grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

Proverbs 3:13-18 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom
And the man who gains understanding.
For her profit is better than the profit of silver
And her gain better than fine gold.
She is more precious than jewels;
And nothing you desire compares with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
In her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways
And all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
And happy are all who hold her fast.