I was driving home this evening from Joseph, Oregon from hunting, and when I got to where 205 joins I-5 the traffic was all stopped, totally, all lanes. I was on the ramp about 100 yards before it joined I-5 which gave me a little elevation so I could see down on the Freeway, and what I saw was about 5 big pigs running around through the cars and a guy with a rope chasing them. Pulled off on the side of the road was a pick-up with a stock trailer and the gate in the back was open. I guess what must have happened is the gate opened while he was driving, and his load of pigs jumped out. The traffic was heavy so he must have been going slow enough so that the pigs didn’t get hurt. They looked plenty healthy as they outran the guy with the rope. People started getting out of their cars to help the guy round up his pigs. They were pretty big pigs so I don’t imagine getting them back into that trailer was going to be very easy. I was in the inside lane which started to move, the only one that was so I didn’t get to see how the pig rodeo turned out. I am hoping someone got their handy dandy cell phone out and videoed it and will put it on Facebook.

So, let’s pretend a group of us are having coffee together and someone shares the most embarrassing experience of their life and we all join in telling our stories, each of us thinking that our experience was the best, or I guess worst is a better word. If the pig farmer on the Freeway was in our group I bet nobody would top his story, and we might even think that he was making it up, but nobody could make up a story like that!

If the dude chasing the pigs was a very committed Christian, he loved Jesus with all of his heart, what is going through his mind as he runs between the cars on I-5, apologizing to each one as he runs by. He will probably be praying a simple prayer, ”please Jesus, help me!” Did you know that ”help me” or the equivalent, is the most often prayed prayer in the Bible. When we pray that simple prayer we are declaring our faith that God is there, that He sees, that He hears, that He cares, and that He could send a bunch of angels to round the pigs up and get them into the trailer. I imagine that as David was running up to take on Goliath that he was praying, ”please help me Lord, please!” I lost control of my car once driving on I-84 towards Hood River on black ice, and as my car went around and around in circles while going 60 mph down the freeway, I yelled out, ”help me, Lord!”

Matthew 14:28-31 Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him,

Some people are critical of Peter because he sank instead of walking successfully on the water, but he is the only one who got out of the boat, he was the only one who took the risk, and he did take some steps, and when he started to sink he knew what to do.

Psalms 28:2 Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward You.

Psalms 30:10-11 “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me;
O Lord, be my helper.” You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,

Psalms 40:12-13 For evils beyond number have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, And my heart has failed me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; Make haste, O Lord, to help me.

Psalms 70:5 But I am afflicted and needy; Hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay.

Praying and asking God for help is not a sign of weakness but of strength. He is my strength and the basic principle is, “the more I ask, the more I receive.” The basic message of the Bible is “God loves to help those who depend on Him, who cry out to Him, whose battle cry in life is, “apart from You, Lord, I can do nothing, but I can do anything by Your strength!”

1. I will read 14 chapters in my Bible every day. 2 chapters in the Old Testament, 5 chapters in Psalms, 1 chapter in Proverbs, 2 chapters in Matthew – Acts then Revelations, 4 chapters in Romans – Jude. That gets me through the Old Testament once in the year,  Psalms once every month, Proverbs once every month, the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation 5 times a year, and the Epistles once each month.

2. I will pray by myself for 30 minutes every day using my Prayer Journal and I will keep it up to date with names and pictures and prayer needs and answers.

3. I will read 80 pages every week in good books, some of that will be audio.

4. I will pray with Patty 3 times minimum each week.

5. I will write my blog every day, working at improving my writing and praying, asking God to bless and use my blog for His glory. The number of subscribers was 58 in 2018,  80 in 2019, 451 in 2020, and the goal is 600 for this year. The number of views was 57,000 in 2018, 70,000 in 2019, 80,000 in 2020, and I am praying for 100,000 this year.

6. I will ride my stationary bike, or lift weights, or punch the heavy bag, or run for a total 60 minutes every day.

7. I will restore my 1969 mustang coup with my grandson Isaac, and it will be his car when we finish it.

8. I will faithfully meet with  Brandon, Preston, Ben, and Josiah each week for at least one hour. I will write down observations, goals, and reminders after each gathering in order to improve my mentoring and training of each one for ministry.

9. I will memorize the book of Colossians.

10. I will teach through the book of Philippians during the Wednesday night service until finished, and then I will move to the book of Colossians.

11.  I will take some  grandkids fishing to Detroit Lake at least 5 times.

12. I will study, write, and prepare teaching content and a syllabus for a 2 day seminar for church leaders in January 2022 on training leaders.

13. I will start 3 new men’s accountability groups.

14. I will work  to improve, revamp, and organize our “Home Group” ministry by recruiting 2 people to help me, and having a monthly meeting with leaders.

15. I will faithfully, accurately, and in detail keep track of how I spend my time each day.

16. I will work with Brandon to plan, organize, and hold 3 “New Comers” dinners.

17. I will be a faithful part of my pastors accountability group, and schedule and plan 3 lunches with them.

18. I will learn how to fish for and catch pike minnow in the Colombia River, and earn at least $100 in bounties.

19. I will attempt to identify, and recruit from JBC a faithful, available, and teachable person, and to train them to be a volunteer staff/pastor.

20. I will pray on my kneeling bench in my office at least 3 times each week for 15 minutes minimum each time.

21. I will exercise self-control, and keep my weight under 200 lbs.

22. I will faithfully work on Scripture Typer for 30 minutes each day, maintain the rank of 200^th place, and increase my total verses memorized to 1,000.

23.  I will train and run a 10 K and a half marathon.

24. I will go fishing in Soldotna, Alaska for 2 weeks in July, and will attempt to take a son, son-in-law, or grandson with me.

25. While in Alaska I will build an 18 foot fiberglass drift boat at Tim’s place and leave it there for fishing on the Kenai for Sockeye Salmon.

26. While in Alaska I will take the 18 ft drift boat out in Cook Inlet Halibut fishing launching off of the beach at Ninilchik.

27. I will, without a doubt, organize my shops, super well, and keep them that way.

28. I will expand the front of my shop, reroof it,  re-side it, and paint it.

29. I will begin the 2 year goal of putting in a fish pond on the front of our property.

30. I will diligently prepare to teach my “Men’s Leadership Class”, “Ladies Leadership Class”, “Leadership Class II”, and “Leadership Class III”, and I will work super hard to improve all aspects of all the classes.

31. I will take Patty on a date at least twice each month, and I will work hard at communicating well with her.

32. I will faithfully attempt to encourage those who have drifted away from faithful attendance at JBC to return.

33. I will go on a week long catfish fishing trip to the Snake River  June 13^th to the 19th with friends.

34. I will watch the instructional DVD on taxidermy, and do a full body mount on the mountain lion I killed. If it turns out good, I will put it in the house, and if it turns out bad I will put it in my “Man Room”.

35.  I will write 50 hand written notes each month to people in JBC.

36.  I will study, prepare well and teach a weekly class on theology and doctrines from October through May.

37. I will pray through the JBC church family prayer letter each week, and transfer serious prayer requests to my prayer journal.

38. I will write in my personal journal at least twice each week.

39. I will write a devotional book using my best 365 blogs out of the approximately 1,500 I have written. I will find four people to help me read and pick the best, and two people to help me improve on the writing of them.

40. I will faithfully write a weekly and daily “todo” list, and refer to it often during the day.

41. I will end each day with a time of reflection, self-examination, and confession of all known sin.

42. I will pray at a minimum of 3 corporate prayer times at JBC each week.

43. I will go tuna fishing at least once this year.

44. I will pray at least 30 hours in each of the 4 “Five Day Prayer Events” that are held at JBC.

45. I will begin every day with a prayer of commitment presenting my life to Jesus, declaring Him Lord of my life, asking Him for guidance and strength for the day to please Him in all that I do.

46. I will attend a major “Church Growth” seminar and take at least one staff member with me.

47. I will give Patty and Sherri at least 2 hours of work on “Home Improvement” projects each week, and ask them to make a list at least one week in advance.

48. I will be in bed by at least 10:00 pm 2 nights a week, and by at least 11:00 pm 2 nights a week.

49. I will rebuild and restore my 1978 GMC pickup.

50. I will buy a good, used engine and put it in the Dodge van for a good car for Patty.

51. I will go shad fishing at least 5 times between June 1^st and the 12th and take at least one grandkid each time I go.

52. I will pay off all debt except the house mortgage.

53. I will save $500 each month after debt is paid off.

54. I will pray for Patty, my kids and spouses, and grandkids every day.

55. I will pray for a list of people who have visited JBC in the previous  three months 3 times each week.

57. I will pray for a list of key people in JBC every week, which will include staff and families, Elders and families, members of all leadership classes and families, key leaders of various ministries and families.

56. I will research the visitors to JBC and get their picture and information about them in my prayer journal.

58. I will pray for a list of people who have drifted away from JBC every week.

59. I will pray for every regular attender and their families that are not part of the other prayer groups at least twice each month.

60. I will rewrite my book “The Time is Now”, with help, and republish it.

61. I will plan a wild pig and whitetail deer hunt to Texas sometime in the next two years.

62. I will go on a week long fishing and camping  trip to Wallowa Lake taking some family.

63. I will fast one day a week, and I will fast for 56 hours in each of the 4 “Five Days of Prayer” event.

64. I will climb Mt Adams the first weekend in August taking 3 days.

65.  I will locate a place and  start a “satellite Church”.

66.  I will pray corporately for a total of 300 hours.

67.  I will pray every day without fail for 80 baptisms at JBC in the year 2021,  and I will remind JBC at least weekly to do the same

68. I will listen to at least 100 sermons on “you tube” and pod cast.

69. I will plan with my son-in-law Phillip, an archery hunting trip to Alaska for caribou to take place sometime before 2023.

70. I will go on another  moose hunting trip with my son-in-law Phillip sometime before 2025.

71. I will fish with Nolan Davis at least twice for either steelhead or salmon.

72. I will go salmon fishing with Dave Maroon on the Colombia at least once.

73. I will read these goals at least once each week.

I usually start on October 1st writing my goals, but I have a little extra time so I am going to start today. So I always start by reading over last years goals, and doing an evaluation of how I did. I ask questions of myself concerning my goals, and write the answers. Here are a few of the questions that I ask as I determine the answer to the big question, “What Am I going to do next year? (1) Can I do better on this goal if I keep it for another year? (2) Was the accomplishment of this goal worth it in terms of energy, time, and money that it cost? (3) Did I enjoy the pursuit and accomplishment of this goal? (4) Did this goal result in a significant accomplishment in terms helping others? (5) How much desire and passion do I have left for this goal? (6) Is pursuing this goal the responsible thing to do? (7) Is this goal one that I would encourage everyone I know to pursue? (8) I can only do so much so should I replace this goal with one that is more noble? (9) Will Patty be excited about me pursuing this goal? (10) Am I reasonably certain that this goal is God’s will for me?

Setting personal goals, evaluating them, reading them, writing strategies to accomplish them all takes time, but it is the most important time that we can spend if we want to grow as a person in character, bear more and more fruit, and improve in our relationships with others. The most natural thing we do is to get into a holding pattern and keep doing what we have always done because it is comfortable.

Honest self-evaluation of who we are, what we have done, and where we are going is so important, and then acting on that evaluation with passion and desire. Goal setting is the key to “pressing on to maturity”.

God has a plan for our life and it is our responsibility to discover what it is. It isn’t that God wants to make it hard to discover, but He does want us committed to finding it and living it. There are a number of principles that I use, but a key one is found in Psalms 37:3-5

Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

I state this by saying, “get close to God and do what you want”.

God puts His will in us in the form of desires. It is obviously necessary to weed out the fleshly, worldly, and demonic desires, but if you are seeking God, drawing near to Him by being faithful to the basic disciplines of the Christian life, that will be relatively easy.

My goal year goes from October 27th to October 26th of the following year, because October 27th is my birthday, so I start writing my goals on October 1st, and my desire is to write goals that I feel confident are God’s will for my life.

As I review last years goals I recognize that I am not very motivated to repeat some of them, been there done that, no excitement. But with other goals I am very excited about more and better. Because of the COVID thing my ministry goals for last year came up very short so I am chomping at the bit to get way more accomplished in teaching goals, and other ministry areas.

The worst thing anybody can do is just go with the flow. That will result in mediocrity at best, and a very unfulfilled life. God’s will is that we bear much fruit for Him, do great things with our life. We don’t have to be capable of doing that, just willing and God makes us more than adequate to do extraordinary things with our life.

Our main enemy is our own apathy, laziness, and fear of failing that keeps us locked into our rut of doing the same o same o all over again which is usually nothing that really matters. How sad it will be to get to the end of our life, stand before Jesus and hear Him say, “you could have done so much more”. We tend to think that because of Grace He will just say, “That’s OK, at least you are here.”

The day we are going to stand before Him and give an accounting of our life is probably getting very close so live life as if it is your last before you stand before Him. Try to imagine how you will feel with your present level of accomplishments to present to Him, the Savior of your life.

If God prompted the writers of the Bible to write something, we believe it is true, and if He prompted the Apostle Paul to write a prayer it must be one He will answer and He wants us to pray. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12 Paul prays this prayer, “and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people,” and he also prays for joy and peace. I like to say that there are many things we pray and ask God for, but we really don’t know if it is His will or not, and if it isn’t His will He won’t answer it. But it is obviously always His will that we grow in love, abound in joy, and have a peace that surpasses all comprehension so when we pray for and with each other for love, joy and peace it is a guaranteed answer. We just finished one of our “Five Days of Prayer” and ended with an average of 20 people praying together every hour for ten hours each of the five days, that is a total of 1,000 hours. We aren’t perfect at JBC but we are a church of great love for each other, we generally are overflowing with joy in spite of the current disaster we may be going through, and we have very few people who are worry warts. A major blessing from God on those churches who are devoted to prayer is love, joy and peace. I hope you were able to be part of this “Five Days of Prayer”, either in person or on zoom, it was an extraordinary prayer event.

I have taught my “Leadership Class” for 40 years. It is probably the most rewarding thing I do in ministry. It is basically an in depth discipleship class where I teach the importance of faithfully practicing the basic disciplines of the Christian life, principles of time management, and the basics of goal setting. It is a great class and most who go through it grow a great deal spiritually. I will start the classes the weekend of October 17th and 18th. I will have 2 Leadership 1 classes with one being Saturday night at 5:45 pm and the other on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm. I will teach my Leadership 2 class on Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm and Leadership 3 on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm.

My “Ladies Leadership Class” is Sunday mornings at 8:00 am.

If any one would like to be in the class let me know. I limit enrollment to 10 per class.

I have been getting up at 4:15 am this week in order to be at prayer at 5:00 am at the church for our “ Five Days of Prayer” this week. Someone asked me if I was a morning person because I am usually the first one at the church and I am reasonably cheerful. I responded by saying “no”, if I had a choice I would stay in bed until 9:00 am every day. But that is not an option most days, so I set the alarm, get out of bed when it goes off, pray my morning prayer of commitment which has in it that I will not act the way I feel, and then off to whatever is on my agenda for the day. It is called “Principle driven living”, know what the principles are and follow them because of the rewards that they bring. I have been collecting principles for years, not that I necessarily have a lot, but I do have clearly written, well thought principles that I run my life by. A major one is, “God desires our prayers to Him, and He gives great blessings to the person who is devoted to prayer. The more time we give, and the more cost that we pay, the more blessings God gives.” The blessings are strength, joy, peace, wisdom, and opportunities. There isn’t much else that matters when you have those blessings in your life.

My favorite heavy weight boxer when I was younger was Muhammad Ali. I think I watched every fight he was ever in. Occasionally now I will watch three or four in a row on YouTube while I ride my stationary bike. I think my favorite fight of his was when he regained the Heavy weight title for the second time from George Foreman when he was a major underdog in 1974. The fight was in Africa and Ali called it “ The Rumble in the Jungle.” using the now famous rope-a-dope technique. My second favorite fight was when he regained the title for the third time from Leon Spinks when he was 36 years old, and was again a huge underdog because of his age and the fact that Spinks had beaten him in an earlier bout. That win was a classic because of Ali’s courage and toughness. He lost the first four rounds on points and then decisively won the next ten. In the final round of the fight Spinks and his corner new that the only way for Spinks to win was to knock Ali out, and they also knew that Ali had never been knocked out. Spinks came out like a crazy man in the last round throwing caution to the wind trying his hardest to win the fight by knockout, but even though Ali was 36 years old and way past his prime he went into his famous Ali Shuffle and simply danced away from Spinks and his flailing arms. Ali finished the fight with his best round of the fight showcasing his boxing skill and totally frustrating Spinks.

The last round reminded me of Revelation 12:12 which describes the devil’s actions in the last round here on earth. “Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” Much of what is happening now in our country is obviously demonic in origin and if it is the last round, things are going to get increasingly worse. The devil sincerely believes he can win, but he knows he doesn’t have a lot of time so he is going for the knockout. It is time for us to go into our dance and totally frustrate the evil one. We know that God is just toying with the devil, and when the time is up he will be thrown into the “Lake of Fire”. So we need to live our life as winners, because that is what we are.

Over twenty times in the Bible we are commanded to be strong. Here are a few of those verses;

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Psalms 27:14 Be strong and let your heart take courage;

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

2 Timothy 2:1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

A strong person is a tough person. A strong person doesn’t quit when things get hard. A strong person is faithful. A strong person is responsible. A strong person doesn’t complain or grumble. A strong person doesn’t feel sorry for themselves. A strong person looks out for others. A strong person keeps their word. A strong person acts like a strong person.

When I was a kid I watched Pop Eye cartoons, and Pop Eye got strong by eating spinach, so I ate lots of spinach when I was young. I still like spinach and still expect that it is going to make me strong. Whenever Brutus had Popeye in trouble and Olive Oil needed saving he would just suck down a can of Spinich and the day was saved. Wouldn’t it be cool if it were that easy. So how do we become a strong person?

There is a story in 1 Samuel 30 about David that would have made a great John Wayne movie. David and his mighty men were gone from their city, and while they were gone a band of raiders burned the town to the ground, took everything they owned, their wives, and their children. David and his men returned to the city and discovered what had happened. They all wept and mourned, and David’s men were so upset they threatened to kill him, but then in verse 6, it says,
”Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” After that David rallied his men, and they took off after the bad guys, killed them all and rescued all of the woman, children and all their stuff. So what exactly did David do when it says, ”He strengthened himself in the Lord.”

He prayed and asked God to give him strength. The most often prayed prayer in the Bible is the prayer for strength. God loves to answer the prayer to Him for His strength.

Psalms 105:4 Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually.

If you want a little strength, ask a little, if you want a lot of strength, ask a lot. I ask every morning for sure, and often several times every day. I want to be strong like Samson, not physically but emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.

Someone said to me the other day in a conversation we were having that he thought I was the most confident person he had ever met. I thanked him for the compliment, went back to the topic we were talking about, and didn’t respond on the subject of confidence. It kind of caught me off guard a bit, and I didn’t know exactly what to say. I got to thinking about it later, and even journaled extensively about it trying to figure out what it was he saw in me that prompted the compliment.

I think confidence is probably the wrong word. What I do have is a very strong faith in God, not just in His existence, but in His personal interest in me as an individual, so my confidence is a result of my belief that He will always provide me with guidance, wisdom, protection, and strength. Because of this faith in Him I am not afraid of failing so I will try most anything. Because my relationship with the Lord is so real, that is, I have a very strong sense of being special to Him, which results in wanting to please Him with my behavior. The result is that I am not affected much by people’s opinion of me. I care for people and I want to treat them well, but my sense of worth and value comes from God. The result is a freedom from trying to project an image in order to impress people which results in a lack of intimidation and no fear of looking dumb.

My faith is not something that I have willed into existence, it is the result of my devotion to prayer and my lifestyle of prayer. In 1969 I made seven very clear goals in regards to prayer because I wanted to make prayer the most important activity in my life. I made those goals at that time because I felt like a total failure as a Pastor and I had zero confidence in my ability ever to do better. I pursued those goals relentlessly, sometimes purely out of duty, often with little faith or awareness of God’s presence, but I rarely missed keeping my commitment to the amount of time I had made the goal to spend in prayer. After a season of this ”dry as dirt duty” praying because of my goals I began to change as prayer became the delight of my heart.

Prayer is probably the most faith requiring activity there is. When you pray you are talking to a God you can’t see so you must believe that He exists, you must believe that He hears, you must believe that He cares, you must believe that He will answer, and you must believe that He enjoys and desires our time in prayer. As a result when we pray our faith grows, and the more we pray the more it grows, and the greater our faith in prayer the more we desire to pray and the more power we have in prayer.

So I guess I am confident, super confident, and it came from being a failure with zero confidence.