Peter was the hottest of Jesus’s disciples. He made the faith statements, got out of the boat, and used the sword to defend Jesus. But Peter denied that he knew Jesus at His trial; in fact, he denied Him three times. So he is done, finished, washed up, good for nothing, fallen away, But then Jesus appeared to Peter after His resurrection and asked him, “Do you love me?” Three times, He asked him, and Peter reaffirmed his love and devotion to Jesus as a result of that breakfast.

As people who have a sinful nature, live in a fallen, sinful world, and are constantly tempted by the evil one, we all tend to cool off, drift away from our faith, get entangled in the world, and become ineffective servants for Jesus. We need to have a fresh encounter with Jesus like Peter had.

The “Lord’s Supper,“ often called “Communion,” is an event, a practice, initiated by Jesus and reaffirmed by the Apostle Paul that the Lord intended to be a time of personal reflection on where we are in our walk with Jesus and a recommitment to follow Jesus as His disciple and bear much fruit for Him.

The Communion service has become, for many Christians, a meaningless ritual that is “nice” but changes nothing.

We are having a “Communion Service” at JBC tonight after our “Five Days of Prayer” at 7:00 p.m. in the “Old Sanctuary.” The five days have been a fantastic time of experiencing the resurrected Lord, so this communion service is a perfect time to say, “I love You, Jesus!”

Deuteronomy 4:29
But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

1 Chronicles 22:19
Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God;

James 4:8
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Matthew 18:19-20 Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

An intimate and growing relationship with God is what I desire more than anything else in life. I am convinced that the times of corporate prayer that we have as a church are the most powerful times to grow in my relationship with Jesus. I seek Him diligently so I go where He says He will be, and that is at a gathering of two or more people who have gathered for prayer.

There is a lot of phoniness by people who claim to have a close walk with Jesus but don’t. There are a lot of self-deceived people who think they have an intimate relationship with Jesus but don’t.

There was a pride factor on the part of many Jews in the Old Testament when it came to seeking the Lord. God said, “You will seek me where I say,” but they said, “We will seek you wherever we want.”

Deuteronomy 12:5 But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose

But the people disobeyed doing things their own way.

2 Kings 14:4 Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

In the New Testament the Lord says He will reveal Himself, manifest His presence, to the church gathered. But many have a pride problem, they don’t think they need the church, and they can seek God on their own, by themselves. We can experience the Lord in our own private prayer times , but only as a corollary to corporate times with the “Body of Christ.”

JBC’s “Five Days of Prayer” is just about over. Ten hours a day of praying with the “Body of Christ” for five days is amazing.

One of the things that happens to many people as they get older is that they become increasingly more senile, which is defined as the loss of mental faculties. The loss of mental faculties! That sounds terrible!

One of the things that also happens with age is the loss of muscle strength, but you can reverse that with exercise. Another loss is balance, but you can also change that by jumping rope. So what can I do to reverse becoming increasingly more senile? Memorize Bible verses, lots of them. And besides keeping your mind strong, you also grow in wisdom as the Word of God fills your mind and heart.

I spend 30 minutes every day memorizing new Bible versesand reviewing ones that I have already memorized. I also spend time meditating on those passages of the Bible that I have memorized well.

Psalms 1:2-3
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Joshua 1:8
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

Very few people will systematically do this discipline because it is too hard, it takes too much self-control, as they would say, “I just can’t do it!” If you get into some kind of accountability group where you would mutually encourage each other to memorize the Bible, you will not only keep your mind sharp, and grow in the wisdom of God, but you will also grow spiritually and become more and more like Jesus Christ in character, guaranteed.

This morning I participated in the third annual “Farmers Prayer Breakfast” just South East of Albany, Oregon. I am guessing that there was about 1,000 there at the event. There was a free breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and bacon with lots of coffee at 7:00 am. At 8:00 until 9:00 there was a series of farmers who prayed on the stage with a microphone for different subjects related to farming. I got to be one of the prayers because I am an ex-farmer. It was a great experience, and a great picture of unity in that there were dozens of churches represented at the event. It was tremendously encouraging to me in that I have such a high view of the power of prayer, especially unified, corporate prayer. It was great to see that many people gathered together to pray for our country and for their own livelihood. The motto of the event this year was “You can complain or you can pray.”

It is interesting to me that so many people give lip service to prayer, but so few people really pray with any degree of sacrifice, diligence, or importunity. Token praying is when we give God a little leftover time, convenient time, a time that costs us nothing, and expect that God is going to honor and answer that prayer.

God is a great, all-powerful God who honors those who make sacrifices for Him, who are diligent, and lay their lives down for Him. He uses them, He blesses them, He listens to them, and He gives them power. They are the Daniels, the Davids, the Joshuas, and the Moseses.

Jesus put it this way, “There is the narrow way and the broad way, the hard way and the easy way, few choose the hard way, and it ends with success, many choose the easy way, but it ends in failure.”

This coming Sunday morning at JBC I am starting a class at 10:20 am in the main sanctuary between the two Sunday morning services. The class is about demons and angels and the part they play in our life. Angels are supernatural beings that serve God, they do for Him whatever He tells them to do.

Psalms 103:19-20 The Lord has established His throne in the heavens,
And His sovereignty rules over all.
Bless the Lord, you His angels,
Mighty in strength, who perform His word,
Obeying the voice of His word!

Hebrews 1:14
Angels, are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

Most of what God commands His angels to do revolves around taking care of us. They are ministering spirits sent out by God to serve us. The classic passage concerning this care and protection is in Daniel 6:22,

“My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths and they have not harmed me”

One of the key principles in the Bible is that when we pray God sends His angels, and the more we pray the more He sends.

Daniel 10:12
Then he said to me, (the angel) “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.

When we pray God also gives His angels more strength, and the more we pray the more strength and power He gives them.

Prayer is not merely making a simple request of God, but prayer is a force in that when we pray God commissions angels and the more we pray the more He commissions. When we pray God gives power and strength to His angels and the more we pray the more power they get.

The “Five Days of Prayer” started Monday and will go until Friday. We pray from 5:00 to 10:00 am and 5:00 to 10:00 pm.

God blesses some people, and other people He withholds blessings, and some He curses. There are very many verses in the Bible that talk about God’s blessings. God blesses those who pray and the more they pray the more God blesses.

What are God’s blessings? Some think it is a problem free life, but that isn’t blessing. Some think that it is lots of money. There is nothing wrong with money, but many people who have lots of it are not blessed by God, not even a little bit.

The greatest of all God’s blessings is joy. Joy that comes from God is steady and strong, not up and down with circumstances or events, not as a result of a good day or feeling good. Joy is more than a happy feeling, though it for sure includes that, joy is a sense of security in the future, a sense that all is well.

A second blessing of prayer is strength and power. God gives strength, God gives power. He gave it to Samson, to David, and to many others. “Those who wait upon the Lord will be renewed in their strength.” I need God’s power and strength so I will pray much.

A great blessing that is promised over and over to those who pray much is peace, freedom from anxiety about pressures and problems. A confidence that God will protect and provide. A freedom from the fear of failing or being ashamed.

Another great blessing that I desire greatly is wisdom. God gives wisdom to people, His wisdom. The ability to make right decisions in every situation. The ability to say the right words in every situation. The more I pray the more wisdom God gives, now that is a great deal.

Jefferson Baptist Church is starting their “Five Days of Prayer” tomorrow, starting at 5:00 am. My goal is to pray for 40 hours during this time. That is not because I am holy, it is because I am not, but I want to be.

My son Sam, his son, my grandson Isaac, and I went elk hunting this last week in Eastern Oregon. We had all drawn cow elk tags, and were hoping that we could get at least one elk between us, but we all were able to shoot an elk, that doesn’t happen very often to me. My pickup looked cool with three elk in the back of it as we drove home. We just about got them all in the freezer today, though it is going to take multiple freezers to hold all the meat. Part of the problem is that I brought home a hundred pounds of fish from Alaska and 50 lbs of caribou from Alaska as well.

I grew up hunting with my Dad and my boys were hunting with me about as soon as they could walk. It is one of my favorite activities, especially with family.

One of the best things about hunting with friends and family are the stories that come out of each of the hunts, we can spend hours telling stories of all the previous hunts that we have all been on, and even though we have heard some of them dozens of times they are still fun to tell and listen to. Stories are a very powerful way to maintain unity in a family or a group of friends.

Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament and much of what he wrote about happened many years before he was even born, so how did he know what to write? Stories that were told over and over and passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes stories go crazy wild in the retelling of them , but other times they maintain a very strict and tight adherence to the original. With the Holy Spirit working in peoples minds and hearts it would have been an easy thing to bring the truth of what happened in human history down through the years until Moses wrote it in the Bible for us to read today.

The Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. He worked in the minds and hearts of men as they wrote history, wisdom, principles, and truth so that we would have everything we needed in the way of knowledge to live our lives successfully and to know God intimately.

The main thing is that we read it faithfully, daily is best, and that we live by the principles and truth that is in it.

As I juggle my various responsibilities and favorite activities trying to get everything done in 24 hours, the one thing that I struggle to keep front and center in my life is prayer. It is so easy to let the amount of time that I spend in prayer slip because of the hectic and busy lifestyle that I live. I like busy and hectic, but maintaining balance and priorities is sometimes like trying to catch a chicken.

The most effective thing for me is corporate prayer that comes around regularly. At JBC we have a “Five Day Prayer Event” approximately every three months. There is prayer ten hours each day for the five days and I make a goal each time we have the “Five Days of Prayer” to pray for 40 hours. My faith in the power of prayer goes up a ton because of this prayer event, and my private prayer life is devoted and hot for a couple of months following.

Prayer changes things, and it changes people. The more we pray the more God works. The “Five Days of Prayer” starts on Monday morning.

One of the traits that some older men go through is tending to lose touch with reality or with who they really are in their abilities. Their mind remembers them doing certain things, so they tend to think they can still do them until they are in the middle of doing something that they once did, and it dawns `on them, “ I can’t do this anymore!” I am becoming more and more like that in my goal-setting. I write my goals, remembering past years, and I think, “No problem, I can do that,” then I realize at the end of the year, “I guess I can’t do that anymore.”

As I have been going over and reviewing my 2023 goals in preparation for writing my 2024 goals, I realize that there are a fair number of my goals that I didn’t quite finish and a significant number that I didn’t even start on. I think, “Whooooeeeeee, I am getting wimpy in my old age! There are some men that, when they realize there are things that they can’t do anymore, quit trying altogether, excuse themselves from most all significant accomplishments, and lapse into a lazy, comfortable, no-pressure lifestyle. They aren’t a bad person, but they don’t finish their life well.

As a person writes their goals, balance is key. Our goals must be hard enough to challenge us, motivate us, and press us on to growth, but not so hard that they discourage us, demotivate us, and make us feel like a wimp. I realize that my physical energy is declining, and also my stamina, I get tired quickly. I can’t do as much as I once did physically. That is a difficult pill to swallow for an ex-farm boy, marathon runner, mountain climber, hiker, hunter, and builder. I make and increase exercise goals, thinking I can still do it. I just have to work harder, but somewhere in that process, I wear out and give up and quit.

But I still have as much mental energy, if not more, than last year. I still have as much emotional energy, fire, passion, drive, and maybe even more than last year. My spiritual part is stronger, I have greater faith, and I am more focused on serving God.

So, as I work on next year’s goals, I am cutting back significantly on the physical goals and focusing on the areas I am most strong in. I will still set hunting, fishing, and building goals, just easier and fewer. Instead of bicycling across the USA, coast to coast, I will do some “day rides.”

I will read more, learn more, pray more, write more, memorize more, teach more, visit more, and play more golf. It is all about being a good steward of what God has given us and bearing more fruit for Him. It sounds like a good year.

I had a discussion with a young man recently about his father who had recently died. He related how his Dad had been a very strong Christian all of his life, but that in the last five years of his life he just faded away in his Christian character and passion. He shared with me that he did a little research on his own out of curiosity, and he found that the majority of Christian men who have walked with the Lord and served Him well most of their lives don’t finish well. This fellow asked me why I was finishing well. I reminded him that I had not yet finished so it was probably a little early to give me credit for doing that. But I also said that I thought about this topic a lot and had indeed noticed that many quit running the race long before they crossed the finish line. My goal, I said, was to finish my life at a sprint, not a crawl. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:6-7, “the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. “ That is what I want to be able to say right before I enter into glory.

So, how can I make that happen, what are the prerequisites to crossing the finish line at a sprint. I think a key is setting and pursuing goals. If we have our eye on the finish line we will run until we get to the finish line. I am starting to write my goals for 2024. I start early so I have a lot of time to think and pray about what God’s will is for my life. Our goals energize us, they keep us focused, they help us overcome the weariness that old age is all about, they give a sense of urgency so that we aren’t content with just sleeping away our life.

I will publish my goals in this blog in the next couple of weeks and I would encourage every reader of this blog to send me a copy of their goals for this next year of their life. Run the race well, run the race with endurance, run the race until the end, don’t grow weary, don’t run without aim, don’t box as though beating the air, discipline your body and make it your slave, not the other way around.