Our Ten Commandments for a wonderful 52 years of marriage.

• Anger is never acceptable in our communication, and in our problem solving and dealing with our frustrations with life and each other, not even a little bit.
• We can communicate frustration and discontentment with each other, but never in a way that dishonors or tears down, never scolding or shaming.

• We both have flaws and defects in our character and behavior, but we both are so much better than we were when we first got married, so let’s major on the positives, we appreciate each other’s strengths.
• We do not restrict the others freedom to serve, to develop our giftedness, or to be involved in our church. We will not be overly dependent on our mate so that we become jealous and controlling of their time away from us.

• We never deny sex to each other, even if we are tired.
• We are always eager to serve each other, no matter how long the “honey do” list.,

• We do not correct our spouse in public
• We pray with each other, and for each other.

• We will forgive each other quickly of any offense
• We will laugh at each other’s dumb moves, but never humiliate.

I have a picture of a king salmon that I caught several years ago on the Salmon River on the Oregon coast. It is hanging on a big scale that was at a fishing lodge. So in the picture, you can see the face of the scale because it was big, and you can see the needle pointing to 65 lbs, and me standing next to the fish as I show it off. 65 lbs is a huge salmon, but the problem is the fish was only 42 lbs, and the 65 was a result of my hand, which was out of the picture pulling down on the fish. I didn’t realize that I was pulling so hard; I intended to add just enough that it went over 50 lbs just a little bit. I must have been more muscular back in those days than I am now. It has been so long since I have shown that picture to anybody that I don’t even know where it is now. Maybe after I die Patty will find it and have it on display at my memorial service to validate my claim to be the worls’s greatest fisherman.

One of the things that our brain can do is make problems and trials seem much bigger and more serious than they really are. When I get my picture taken with a fish I hold it as far out in front of me as I can to make it appear bigger than it really is. We make bad events and circumstances look bigger by thinking about them over and over. Every repeat in our brain results in a magnification of reality in our judgment. As the size of the problem grows in our brain the urge to think about it some more, fret about it and to get increasingly paranoid about it increases as well. It doesn’t take long before we have a major crisis going on in our life or the world.

The Bible commands us not to fret or worry about a matter, in fact it makes this command over a dozen times. Some would say that choosing not to think about a problem or crisis in our life is impossible, but it isn’t, it will take some effort, but it is very doable.

Fretting and worrying takes away our joy, it takes away our peace, it drains our energy, it negatively impacts our health, it lowers are our ability to resist viruses like COVID, it makes us grumpy, it keeps us from sleeping well, and it destroys our faith and security in God’s care for us. You may not be a fool when you start fretting, but if you keep it up you will be a number one, Proverbs kind of fool.

The way you stop is by praying for and about whatever is bothering you, choose to do that. Write your prayer out. Also memorize Bible verses that command you not to fret, that promise God’s protection and meditate on them, every time you start to worry set you mind on the Word of God. And the most powerful way for me to take my thoughts captive is to think about the details of eternity, heaven, and my glorified body.

In Psalm 55 David is running for his life and every day seems to be more challenging, and his enemies seem to be increasing and he writes Psalms 55:5-8;

Fear and trembling come upon me,
And horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
“Behold, I would wander far away,
I would lodge in the wilderness.
“I would hasten to my place of refuge
From the stormy wind and tempest.”

How many times I have thought, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.”

But then David writes this in Psalms 55:16-18;

As for me, I shall call upon God,
And the Lord will save me.
Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur,
And He will hear my voice.
He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me,
For they are many who strive with me.

It is OK to grumble, but only to God; it is OK to complain, but only to God, He understands us, and He understands life.

After unloading on God David writes this in Psalms 55:22;

Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you;
He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

For me Hebrews 4:15-16 is an awesome promise for times like now, Jesus knows what we are feeling, He sympathizes with us, understands us, and He gives us His strength to succeed.

“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. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Every year around this time I go archery hunting for deer and elk. For the last five years a new problem has arisen. When I start practicing, usually I start around the first of August, I can’t pull my bow back. I seem to be getting weaker as I get older. You probably knew without me telling you that if you can’t pull your bow back, you won’t be killing an elk or a deer; that’s just the way it is. My bow has an adjustment for poundage built into it. I can turn the screws back until the bow is at 40 lbs, or I can tighten them up so that the bow is at a max of 70 lbs. I have been hunting with the bow adjusted to 62 lbs for the last five years, but as I have already stated, when I first start shooting 62 lbs is to heavy for me to pull. So I lower the poundage of the bow to it’s lowest, 40 lbs, which I can pull easily. My goal is to shoot 50 shots each day as I get ready for hunting. Every day I turn the screws on the bow one complete turn which increases the pull by 2 lbs, so in 11 days I am back to 62 lbs. I did that today, in fact, I increased it by two turns, and I am now up to 64 lbs. I have 10 more days left until hunting season starts so I might be able to increase to the maximum of 70 lbs. That would be cool, I would feel like a young man again.

The method that I use to get stronger is to shoot 50 shots every day, and to increase the poundage gradually. It is pretty simple to understand my method and even simpler to do. Even though it is simple, it is not easy. I have to get up and go outside and shoot 50 arrows. When I first start, I have to divide the 50 into three times shooting 17 shots with at least 30 minutes in between each group to let my muscles recuperate. And I have to keep increasing the difficulty each day. Today, because I increased by two turns, four lbs, I could only shoot ten shots before hitting the wall, so I have to interrupt whatever I am doing and go out and shoot five times with at least a 30-minute break. It is easy to find an excuse not to shoot, to skip a session or even a day. “One day won’t matter, I can make up for it the next day.”

I use the same method to grow my Christian character and faith. I faithfully practice the basic disciplines of the Christian life every day. And I usually increase each of them at least yearly. I read 14 chapters in my Bible every day. I used to read three chapters every day, enough to get through the Bible in one year. I increase the number of goals that I am pursuing by one each year. I spend 40 minutes each day memorizing scripture; I used to spend five minutes each week. I also add disciplines periodically to increase the pressure and difficulty of pressing on to maturity. A new discipline that I added a couple of years ago was reflective writing about my weaknesses, character flaws, sin habits, and blind spots, and I write about my strategy for conquering them.

God loves to give His strength to His disciples, but He doesn’t give His strength to lazy disciples.

Jesus taught a parable that teaching the Bible was like sowing seed. Some of the seed falls on poor soil, but some falls on good soil that yields a good crop. The crop is growing in character and serving God, and accomplishing things that matter.

Matthew 13:3-8 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil. . .And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.

I am of the opinion that the more I teach, the more seed that I sow, the greater the odds that some will fall on good soil.

So, starting the first weekend in October I will be teaching seven times each week plus at other events that come up. I will be teaching two “Men’s Leadership 1” classes each weekend, a “Ladies Leadership 1” class, a “Leadership 2” class, an “Advanced Leadership” class where attendees will learn how to teach effectively, I will be preaching at our “Wednesday Night Service” every week, and at Buena Vista Community Church on Sunday mornings at 10:30 am. I am also preaching at our “Men’s Breakfast” October 2nd, I will be preaching twice at a “Men’s Rally” on October 9th, and I will be teaching 8 times in two days at our annual Conference the third week of January.

All of those classes ended last May and I have been reading, writing, studying in the midst of fishing and bicycle riding this summer, and I will end everything again this coming May. This cycle of concentrated teaching for eight months and then four months of recreation and study is working well for me, and I expect it will help keep me teaching into my 90’s.

If you have not attended one of my “Leadership” classes, I urge you to do it this year. They are life-changing.

Books, novels, and movies have an ending. When I was in High School, college, and a young adult I read a lot of novels. I used to go to the last chapter of the book and read it first so I knew how it ended as I was reading the story. That sort of takes the suspense out of the story, and most don’t do that, I couldn’t help myself.

One-third of the Bible is prophecy, and much of the prophecies in the Bible tell us what the end of the story is. I read and study the prophetic books and passages a lot, I read many books and commentaries written about those prophetic books in the Bible, and I listen to teaching and sermons on prophecy.

There is a lot of weird and goofy teaching about end-time events on the internet that comes from poor hermeneutics and a hyper-imagination by the authors or speakers that is said to come from the Holy Spirit.

One thing is clear to me as I read and study the book of Revelation, Daniel, and the other prophetic books in the Bible; we are getting close to the end of the story. The end is relative because time is such a non-issue with God, but nevertheless, I believe we are in the last chapter of God’s plan for this earth.

One clear aspect of the end is the acceleration of events, things will happen, and change will occur faster and faster. I don’t know how things could be happening any faster than they already are, but I bet they do.

All stories have a plot, a theme that all events revolve around. God’s plan from the very beginning of the story has been to create a family, a family of God that would live with Him forever. Every person who has ever lived and is alive now is either in the family of God or not.

So, the most important question for anybody, for everybody to ask themselves is, “Am I in God’s family?” Those people who are not in his family when the end comes have a very sad ending to their story. The answer to the question needs to be based on what God requires as revealed in the Bible, not our personal opinions.

Texas cardiologist and leading medical expert Dr. Peter McCullough recently criticized the mass COVID vaccination program in the U.S., saying that it ‘will go down as one of the most deadly, one of the most injurious and costly in human history.’ 
— Read on www.lifesitenews.com/news/doctor-covid-vaccination-program-most-deadly-in-history/

Here is a very fascinating lecture by a very credible doctor.

I got several prayer requests tonight from several people from locations around the world to pray for hundreds of Christians in Afghanistan who are scheduled to be martyred by the Taliban for their Christian faith tomorrow by being beheaded. As I read the various reports and requests for prayer for these people I felt myself sliding into a blue funk, a melancholy sadness over the state of the world and our own country. It seems like the “bad guys” are winning, and it isn’t supposed to happen that way.

I didn’t watch a single minute of the Olympics this year, and watching the Olympics and rooting for American athletes used to be one of my favorite things to do. I don’t watch football, baseball, basketball, professional or college anymore either. Watching or reading the news is depressing. It seems like kindergartners are running our country. It seems that if I want to feel good about our country I need to watch an old documentary on the “Battle of Midway.”

But then I did what I normally do when I find myself in a blue funk, I read the Bible. Here are some passages that I read.

Revelation 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

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.

Revelation 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

God will always answer the person asking for strength and power to live for God, to overcome sin, and to bear much fruit.

God loves to give wisdom to the person who knows he needs more so that he can talk and act in a way that attracts people to Jesus.

God gives joy to those who serve Him well, to those who are relentlessly pursuing righteousness.

There are very few people living around us who have prefect peace in the midst of the current craziness. I do, because God gives me peace because I ask for it and pray about anything that stresses me.

Those are four requests that God will always answer; strength, wisdom, joy, and peace. If those qualities are yours and increasing, you will be a difference-maker for God in the world today.

A fifth prayer request that God will always answer is the request for something to do that matters, that makes a huge difference in the world. An open door to an opportunity to bear much fruit for God. We are God’s children, the Holy Spirit lives in is, we were created and saved for good works.

But the sad truth is that very few Christians will ever do anything with their life that matters, that makes an eternal difference. The reason is that most believers are so entangled in the affairs of everyday life that they have no desire left do do something great with their life, and their prayers are seldom “give me something to do that matters, ” but instead their prayers are “take away the problems and trials in my life and give me comfort.” Those two prayer requests are incompatible with each other.