We have been saving up for the work that Patty needs to have done on her teeth for about 6 months. The estimate that we got from the dentist was $2,000. We got it all saved up, but I used $1,800 to buy an outboard motor for my boat this past week. Patty’s sciatic nerve was causing so much pain I didn’t think she wanted to go to the dentist anyway. Oh well, we are $200 headed towards the goal again. The motor I bought was an older Mercury but it had been totally rebuilt so I was confident it was going to be a good motor for my boat. I got it home and mounted it on my boat, but it wouldn’t start. I did all the normal checks and found that there was no spark at the plugs. I tried taking the wire out of the coil that goes to the distributor and I couldn’t get it out. I pulled and pulled until I pulled the wire in two, and I broke the nose off of the coil trying to get the wire out with a screw driver. Outboard motors are compact engines and it helps to have hands the size of a two year old while working on one in order to reach all the nuts and parts in order to get the coil out. I finally did get it out, and took it apart and found that a mud dauber had gotten into the end of the coil and filled it with mud and cemented the wire in there. I got it all cleaned up, got a new coil wire made up, and a new coil face, and put it all back together again with only a couple of parts left over, and hallelujah it started right up. When I took it to Detroit Lake to test it out, it ran great and then died. We waited a bit and it started right up and ran great and then died again. We did this a half a dozen times, and then we gave up, got it back to the loading ramp and took it home. I worked on it today and found that the gas hose had somehow gotten under the 50 gallon tank and when I filled it with gas the weight crushed the gas line and plugged it so only a little gas could make it through. It seems to be running great now using the garden hose and the muffs to run it and keep it cool. I will take it back to Detroit this next week and give it a good test, and see if I should have spent the money on Patty’s teeth.

There is a journey that must be taken to become a faithful, self-controlled servant of Jesus Christ who reads their Bible every day, spends time with God in prayer every day, complains about nothing, rejoices always, only speaks words that give grace to those who hear, takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, loves their wife the way Jesus loves the church, and serves their church using their spiritual gift.

The journey starts with a commitment, let’s say, to read the Bible every day using the “Bible Project” reading plan. So then, the commitment will look something like this, “Dear Lord, today I will read your word, please help me to keep this commitment.” write the commitment out on a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper in big letters, and tape it to wall in your bathroom. Then put some tape on your toothbrush handle, a lot of tape so you can’t miss it. Then put a cross on the tape with a felt tip marker that reminds you of your commitment. Every time you brush your teeth, you will be reminded to remake your commitment, “Dear Lord, today I will read Your Word, help me to keep this commitment.” Then you make a chart on your smartphone or Ipad for the month, and check off each day after you read your Bible. Then you ask some people to hold you accountable and tell them you are going to email a copy of your chart to them each week. Then you write out a deal to yourself sharing it with your accountability partners that if you read your Bible 28 days out of the month you are going to reward yourself with $100 to take your wife out to dinner, or buy something special for yourself, but if you fail you will give a hundred dollar bill to a homeless person or something similar. Resolve to do this with no excuses or bailing on the plan just because you fail or get discouraged.

It will probably take a year, but if you don’t wimp out you will have established a habit. Now reading your Bible is going to get much easier. If you keep it up for another year you will move to the place that Psalms one calls “in His Word he delights, ” reading the Bible is the delight of your heart, it is no longer a grind it out discipline.

The problem with most people is that they want to jump right to “delight, ” but it just doesn’t work that way. It is a journey that starts with “dry as dirt duty”, then it moves to habit, then we become a person who loves reading the Bible every day, and you couldn’t not read the Bible, it has become such a part of who you are.

Take on one discipline after the other using the same plan, and it won’t be that long before you are a faithful disciple of Jesus who is bearing much fruit.

Very few Christians ever get there, because they can’t get past the “dry as dirt duty.”

In John 10:14 Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me”

I have a goal of knowing everyone’s name in our church. I don’t right now, there are a number of newer people who I have not yet got their name and their face put together. I have several methods that I am using to accomplish my goal. One is I work very hard before and after each service greeting as many people as possible, majoring on the ones I don’t know very well. If I don’t know their name I ask what it is, and then I write it on the palm of my hand and look at it repeatedly in the next couple of hours. I also take pictures of people with my phone and put them in my prayer journal. I pray for every person in our church every week and I look at the picture that have with their name and various prayer requests that I have collected for them. Doing that week after week I soon remember their names.

I don’t need to learn every person’s name, but I feel so much more power in my praying when I know who I am praying for, and pray with some understanding of who they are, what their needs are, and what is there state in their relationship with Jesus.

Whenever I say “I love you” to people in our church, I am saying it as a commitment to them. I am committed to praying for them, I am committed to doing whatever I can to help them grow in their walk with God, and I am committed to knowing them as a unique person and being their friend.

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” I am not “the” good shepherd, only Jesus can be that, but I do want to be “a” good shepherd.

(I pray this prayer every morning without fail.)

Today, Lord Jesus, I declare You Lord of my life. I will obey You and do whatever You ask no matter how difficult or hard it might be. I am not boss of my life, You are, You purchased my life with Your blood, and I am Yours.

Today I will read Your Word.

Today I will be devoted to prayer.

Today I will love my wife the way You love the church, and gave Yourself up for her.

Today I will only speak words that edify, build up, and give grace to those who hear.

Today I will forgive anybody of anything, because you have forgiven me of everything.

Today I will not get angry at anybody, not even a little bit irritated.

Today so far as it depends on me I will be at peace with all men.

Today I will take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Today I will love anybody You sovereignty bring into my life, no matter how hard they might be to love.

Today I will lift up my eyes and look for divine appointments from You to influence people to love You and follow You.

Today I will seek you diligently.

Today I will live my life as if it is the last before I stand before You at the judgment Seat of Christ and am held accountable for my life and am rewarded for the deeds I have done in the body, whether good or bad.

Dear Lord, I can’t keep these commitments in my strength, would You please fill me with Your Spirit and give me your strength to keep these commitments today.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

I am reading a good book right now that basically says instead of blaming others when we have conflicts with them, even minor differences of opinion we need to take responsibility for the conflict and through honest self-examination figure out what we did wrong, and what we can do different next time.

Most of us are much more abrasive in our communication than we realize. If we would use conflicts with others as our cue to look for character flaws and relational weaknesses in ourselves we would grow much more rapidly as a leader and an influencer of others.

All of us, even the most gracious, have more bully in us than we realize. It is a basic law of relationships, as soon as we start to boss people around, even just a little bit, we will cause tension in the relationship.

As soon as you get the slightest push back from someone, immediately adjust and evaluate what you just said, the tone of your voice, and even your facial expression.

If your goal is to change someone, you will do that much more quickly, effectively and with more joy on both your parts if you appeal to their conscience rather than fight with their will.

The fastest and most effective route to self-improvement and character growth is learning how to talk graciously to people, when we learn to control our tongue we can control our whole life.

Who is blessed by God? I am! Why does God bless me? How many others are blessed by God? What does that mean to be blessed by God? Are there those who have been blessed by God and never realize how much God has blessed them? We say to others, “ God bless you, ” does He bless them because of our words?

I have studied the topic of God’s blessing extensively. I have memorized most of the verses that talk about God’s blessings, and I have read many commentaries on the subject and listened to many good preachers teach on the topic.

One fundamental principle is that God’s blessings are conditional. God doesn’t bless arbitrarily; there is always a reason for His blessings.

A very basic principle is that God has blessed every person in some way, and if we are grateful for what He has done then he will bless us with more, but if we are ungrateful then we will lose blessings from God.

We are living in an era of ungratefulness. Everything is bad, it’s everybody else’s fault, I am a victim, I am underprivileged.

The discipline of gratefulness brings God’s blessings into our life. God loves to bless us, but He doesn’t enjoy blessing those who are ungrateful for what He has already done for them, those who take His blessings for granted, those who are envious of those who are more blessed than they are.

The principle is very simple, look for God’s blessing in your life, and there are many, and thank Him for them, and He will bless you some more.

It has been a while since I have written anything on goals, my favorite subject. The reason it is my favorite subject is that it is my number one tool in helping people to grow, which is my job, my passion, and my heart. You might say, “I would think that the Bible would be your number one tool.” It would be if people would read it, but if I can teach them to write goals and then get them to make a goal to read three chapters every day, then I have accomplished my goal in getting them to read the Bible every day.

Goals are written down decisions. Life is all about choices, but many people make good choices they just don’t follow through on them. If a choice is written down and reviewed often the probability of following through on it is much higher.

Goals are written down commitments. Over the years I have had so many people tell me they were going to do something for me, and then not keep their word. They forgot, got busy, procrastinated. If people do that to me very many times I don’t ask them to do anything for me any more, and if they volunteer I nod my head and smile. God is the same way, “ His words in Matthew 25:21, “well done good and faithful servant, you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many, more things.” God gives those who are faithful to keep their commitments to Him with many more opportunities to do more.

Goals are the desires of our heart written down as a statement of what we really want to do with our life. Many people have strong dreams and desires but they just don’t seem to make it happen. For some reason they just don’t pull the trigger. Often all it takes to get things moving is a single step, and a goal can be that step that is all the difference between doing something and being frozen in indecision.

Most people don’t write goals; it is too much trouble.

When we were raising our eight kids we said “be good” a million times. It was our cover all situations admonition. Whatever they were doing that they shouldn’t have been doing was covered under “be good.” God must think like we did or rather we must have thought the way He did and does because God says “be good” a lot, though not quite a million times.

Deuteronomy 6:18 You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you.

Psalms 34:14 Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

Psalms 37:3 Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Ecclesiastes 3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime;

Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do good; Seek justice,

Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Galatians 6:10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people,

So here is a major principle of life, “the more you choose to do good the more you will become a good person in character.”

A person who is good in their heart, in their character does good like breathing, that is who they are, that is how they think, that is how they act without thinking about it.

We are not born good; we are born selfish, we all are, without exception. Some become good people in character, but not very many. When we choose to do good to another person because it is the right thing to do, not because we feel like it, the action, the choosing changes us on the inside. Keep choosing to do good and before long you won’t have to choose, you just do it, you can’t not do good because that is who you are, that is what you are.

Proverbs 29:9 says a very current thing, “When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, the foolish man either rants or laughs to compensate for his lack of wisdom.”

Here is a corollary to that Proverb, “The fool rants, blames everyone else, and talks loud when he has no clue what he is talking about.”

How about this one, “A fool makes up stuff as he talks to sound like he knows what he is talking about.”

And my all-time favorite from my favorite author Patrick McManus, “If you want to look wise, smoke a pipe, purse your lips frequently, and tap the side of your head as you stare out into space, but don’t say too much or you will blow your cover.”

Proverbs 14:7 Leave the presence of a fool,
Or you will not discern words of knowledge.

A truly wise man knows that he lacks wisdom and is constantly learning and seeking wisdom from others.

A fool thinks he is wise, but everyone who listens to him talk knows he is not.

In our world today a lot of fools are talking. Their goal is to intimidate, not persuade with logical thinking.

A wise man knows when he is listening to a fool and is neither intimidated nor impressed.

Numbers 12:3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.

That verse is amazing to think about. Moses was probably the most powerful man on the face of the earth. He had just single-handedly defeated the most powerful nation on the earth. He leads a million people out of Egypt across the Red Sea on dry ground, as it miraculously opens up for them. He talks to God face to face like one man talks to another. He performs miracle after miracle. And then God declares of him that he is the most humble man on the entire planet.

How is that possible? As I regularly think about who I am, what my strengths and weaknesses are, I examine my heart and reflect on the level of pride and humility that I have. I desire to have God say of me what He said about Moses. The two main areas that I pay attention to is what I think, especially in relation to others, and what I say to others. As I catch myself thinking thoughts about myself in comparison to others that have any hint of pride I quickly confess it to God as sin and ask Him for help in growing in humility. I do the same with words I would say in conversation with others that were a subtle attempt to project an image, or attract any glory to myself. I am surprised at how crafty I can be in doing that impulsively with no planning. I journal about my struggle to grow into a transparent, none pretentious, humble servant of God, and as I write I groan in my spirit over how slow my growth seems in this area. About the time I think I am making some progress I will catch myself thinking, “boy, I am glad that I am not like. . .