I was watching some video footage of rioting and looting in Chicago, and I thought, “Those people have no common sense, no morals, no sense of what is right and wrong; they are basically half a step above animals.” I wonder what God thinks? If, while I was watching a video clip of looting and rioting, I recognized one of the looters as a son of mine, what would I think? Would I save the video and show it to my friends? Would I try to rescue them from that lifestyle?

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

What does God think of me now? I mess up a bunch. I do so many stupid, prideful, and selfish things.

Hebrews 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

The best thing about the new and modern compared to not that many years ago is the cell phone camera and the picture album I have on my iPad with the “cloud,” saving billions of pictures if I like. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, I start going through my pictures as I did tonight. I have pictures of our kids as young adults, some of their wedding pictures, pictures of baby grandkids, bicycle trips, parties, fishing trips, hunting trips, vacations, selfies, and just crazy pictures of whatever.

As I scanned through them, I became aware of how much I have experienced and lived through and how old I must be to have experienced all of that. Interestingly, the oldest date I can find on any pictures is 2008. I am only looking at 15 years, and it still seems like a long time ago. When I look at those pictures I get a distinct impression that my life has not been a meandering journey with no plan or direction, but that God has been very much involved in my life from the beginning, and that He must love me very much.

Psalms 139:13-15 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. . .My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Hebrews 12:6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.

Because Patty and I have raised eight children, I get asked to teach classes on how to raise champions for Jesus successfully. In the classes, I am always asked about our view on spanking. I responded, “We tried to parent our kids the same way God parents us.”

Another question I get asked is, “What does it mean to fear the Lord?” I often respond by saying, “Believing that God is a good father and will discipline us severely if we need it.”

One of the pervasive beliefs in the Church today is that because God is gracious, compassionate, and forgiving, there is no consequence for breaking His rules. Because of that common belief, there is an extreme apathy to pursuing holiness as a lifestyle. And because of that lukewarmness, few Christians accomplish anything with their life that really matters for eternity.

2 Timothy 2:21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

Proverbs 20:19 He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, Therefore do not associate with a gossip.
Gossiping and slandering are mentioned in the Bible a lot as a sin and are referred to quite harshly. But I bet the average Christian rarely mentions gossip and slander as he confesses all his own known sins to God. I know I rarely think about it as I go over my day in the evening, confessing my sins to God. Why is it that gossip is that sin that we all commit dozens of times each day but rarely think of or remember as a sin that we have committed?

I think slander is so readily accepted in our behavior because it is a major part of our culture; everybody gossips and slanders others all of the time; we hear it constantly, non-stop, every day; it is our national pastime. What we hear non-stop daily becomes the norm, and therefore, not a sin, at least not a very big sin.

If gossiping with our mouths in our conversations with friends and acquaintances wasn’t bad enough, now gossip and slander are a significant part of social media and the news.

A critical command of God to us is to love one another. Gossiping about and slandering another person, tearing down their reputation to others, is about as unloving as possible. However, we do it frequently and easily with little to no remorse.

Psalms 101:5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy.
Proverbs 10:18 And he who spreads slander is a fool.
Ephesians 4:31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Conquering this sinful habit would be a good goal.

Proverbs 25:21-22 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

The Duke translation of this Proverb is “Be nice to those who are not nice to you, and God will bless your life.”
The problem is that this is so opposite of what the world teaches, and our flesh believes that we can hardly make ourselves do it as a lifestyle. The result is that we have a lot of conflicts, irritation, anger, bitterness, hurt feelings, and a whole lot of used-to-be friends.

The way to successfully make this behavior modification in ourselves is to memorize Proverbs 25:21-22 and meditate on it every day, and pretty soon, we will start to exercise self-control over our conversations and responses to people all day long, and God will keep His Word; he will reward.

This trip to Idaho to our son Seth’s place for Thanksgiving was a fun event. We had great fellowship, great food, and lots of snow. I went out driving with the boys, and we saw several hundred deer, some of which were monster bucks. Tomorrow morning at 6:00 am, we will return home to our everyday lives and responsibilities.

I look forward to these special events that are a lot of fun. They happen just about once each month, and I kind of focus on the next one when the present one is over. Most of these events include family, fishing, hunting, or just something out of the ordinary.

The ultimate event, though, is entering into eternity with Jesus when I get my new, glorified body, and this life as I know it is over for eternity. With all that is happening in Israel, it could be soon, or on the basis that I am 75 years old and I could die any day. I anticipate my death and look forward to it with great excitement. I continue to exercise and eat right every day, and I have goals set for my life until I am 88 years old, but I would much rather head for heaven than stay here. I will serve Him well and as hard as possible with all of my energy, but if Jesus asked me my preference, I would be out of here in the blink of an eye.

With so many people, their impending death is an ominous and scary event that they fear. I am so thankful that because of my faith in Jesus, my death is the most incredible single fun event coming up in my life.

Patty and I drove ten hours to Twin Falls, Idaho, on Tuesday to celebrate Thanksgiving with our son Seth, his wife Amie, and their four kids. Our son Sam, his wife Shannon, and their four kids also drove from Stayton. So we all had a great time today eating brisket, ham, turkey, and a bunch of other great food. We watched three different football games between the various courses, and my favorite teams won all three. Last night, it started to snow, and it snowed all night and all day. We ended up with five inches of snow, and the kids had a good time sliding down the hill in the backyard of Seth’s house. Throughout the day, we talked about every topic under the sun. Seth, Sam, and I drove down the road looking for deer and saw a lot of them. We also saw a lot out of their living room window in the field behind their house. It has been a wonderful day for me as a husband, a father, and a grandfather. We have eight kids, six sons-in-law, two daughters-in-law, and 28 grandkids, and we enjoy spending time with all of them.

Whenever we are with any of the kids, I always pray for them silently in my head as we sit around, and they all talk away. I probably do some of my most passionate praying in these situations as I listen to them and watch them interact with each other. I believe Patty and I have more influence with God on their behalf because we have God-given jurisdiction as their parents and grandparents. I also know that many parents and grandparents of our six daughters-in-law and two sons-in-law also pray faithfully for their kids and grandkids, so they are well covered in prayer.

We live in a sick world, but our kids and grandkids will be winners in our culture, living as champions for Jesus, and that is why I am so thankful to God.

I spent the morning praying through our weekly church prayer letter. It is comprised of requests written down and dropped in the offering plates at the end of four different services each week. I don’t usually pray for all of them in one sitting because there are so many and because it is too emotionally draining to pray for all of them without a break. There are so many people who have cancer or other serious illnesses, and there are so many who are having family problems of one sort or another, so many looking for jobs and struggling with finances, and so many with family members who have no relationship with the Lord.

I believe in the power of prayer with all of my heart, but I also believe that God doesn’t fix all of our problems because we pray. I do believe that He gives us the strength to manage them, that He provides us with the wisdom to solve them, that He will prompt other people to come alongside and encourage those with the trials, and for sure, I believe that He will use all of our trials to cause us to grow to be more like Jesus in character.

I also believe that the more unified and loving a church is, the more that church will be used by God in a sick world to attract people to a saving relationship with Jesus and to make disciples. Trials in the lives of those in a church aren’t what makes the church unified and loving; it is the volume of prayer for each other, the support, the help, and the encouragement that is given to those who are struggling that causes the church to become a healthy “Body of Christ.”

I am working hard to do my part to be a significant factor in the growth of JBC to be more and more unified and loving as a church family. I hope you are as well.

One of my goals this year is to spend one hour a day, seven days a week, working on memorizing new Bible verses and reviewing the old verses I have already memorized. To keep myself motivated, I review the benefits and blessings that come into my life from this discipline. The first one is that the discipline of memorizing does for my brain what weight lifting does for my physical body; working my brain hard by memorizing keeps me from becoming senile. A second blessing is that God’s living, active, supernatural Word will give me a healthy, growing soul and heart. Psalms 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;

A third benefit is that I will become increasingly more wise. Wisdom is knowing the best thing to do and say in any circumstance God sovereignly puts me in. I need much wisdom as a pastor, as a husband, as a father, and as a grandfather. Psalms 119:98-100 “Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts.”

A fourth reason to spend an hour every day working on memorizing the Bible is that I will sin less and less as God’s supernatural words work in my heart. Psalms 119:11: “Your Word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.”

A fifth powerful motivator for me to work hard at memorizing the Word of God is that I will know God intimately. The Apostle Paul declared that everything in life was garbage compared to knowing Jesus Christ. The command to seek the Lord is given in the Bible over a hundred times. Most of the commands to seek God have a blessing attached, such as in Psalms 34:10: “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.” But the best blessing is that if we seek the Lord, we will find Him, and if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. 2 Chronicles 15:2 The Lord is with you when you are with Him, and if you seek Him, He will let you find Him. James 4:8: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”

The best way to seek the Lord is in His Word, and to memorize it, meditate on it, and hide it in my heart is a very effective way to seek Him with all of my heart, soul, mind, and heart.

I spend 30 to 45 minutes almost every day working on memorizing Bible verses and reviewing those I have already memorized. I will probably up my goal to an even 60 minutes, one hour, seven days a week. I have 700 verses memorized well; my goal is to up that to 800 in the next year. I am presently 248th among about 100,000 people with this same memory app that I have. The app ranks every person in the memory program, giving points for each verse reviewed successfully. My goal is to be lower than 200th place by the end of the year.

So, what motivates me to pursue such a goal? Memorizing Bible verses is the most mentally fatiguing exercise that I do. It takes a great deal of self-motivation and self-control to keep this commitment every day, and I wouldn’t be able to do it if there wasn’t some very compelling reason motivating me. Let me mention five reasons;

Lately, I have noticed that forget things, mainly the names of people. We all forget things, but the problem has been growing noticeably. I also have had several friends my age who have been diagnosed with the beginning stages of dementia. In all of my studies, memorizing is the best therapy and prevention that there is for mental problems, so I am going to work hard on this so that the typical losses in mental sharpness that come with growing old aren’t part of my life.

A second reason for maintaining faithfulness to this discipline, which will take an hour every day, is that the verses I am memorizing are the Word of God, the Mind of Christ, and the Sword of the Spirit. The Word of God is living, active, supernatural, and works in the core of my being, spirit, and soul. I desire to become like Jesus in character, think like Him, feel like Him, and act like Him in every way. I believe the Word of God in my heart will transform me into the Image and likeness of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

Tomorrow I will give you the remaining three reasons that motivate me to spend an hour every day memorizing God’s Word.