In 1997 Edith Schaeffer wrote a book entitled, ” What is a Family?” I read it when the youngest of our 8 kids was 10 years old, and it had a very profound impact on my thinking, and caused me to give great praise to my heavenly Father for the amazing gift He had given to Patty and I. Today we have eight children, I guess it is hard to call them children now with the oldest being around 45 years old. Today we have been married almost 51 years, we have six daughters and two sons, all who are married, with good marriages, and 27 grandchildren. They all love Jesus, each other, and us.

The term ”nuclear family” is one that consists of two parents, father and mother and children, one or more living together in the same house. The nuclear family is the basic unit of any healthy culture and society. There are many discussions today about what has gone wrong with America. There are many different issues and causes, but I am sure that the demise of the nuclear family is a major one. The percentage of kids raised in a ”nuclear family” has gone down every year. Right at the end of World War II the percentage of families with two parents was almost 80%, and today it is less than 50%.

Today in my life as a pastor one of my main activities is to pray for every person in our church every week. I pray for God to work in marriages, to give parents wisdom to train their kids to be champions, I pray for every husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church, I pray for divine protection around every kid so that they are not deceived and led astray by the devil and his demons, I pray that every person follows the Lord and serves Him with their talents and gifts, and I pray that every family is bound together by love.

I won’t know until I get to heaven what difference and impact my praying has had, but by faith, I believe it is great.

We had an outdoor service today with great worship, sweet fellowship, and incredible testimonies from twelve people who got baptized. It was a very blessed day that filled me up to overflowing. We are God’s church, we are the ”Bride of Christ”, we are the ”Body of Christ”, and we are the ”Family of God”. God was with us today in a very real and powerful way, it was truly an awesome day.

Today people in government are messing with the church all across our country. They are not just messing with an organization, but with the eternal companion of Jesus Christ, the Church who Jesus died for, the apple of His eye.

Those people who are doing the ”messing with” don’t have a clue what they are doing and the consequences that they are storing up for themselves in the ”day of wrath”

Romans 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

The blessings that come from God in this life and at the Judment Seat of Christ are given to those who love His church, give their lives for His church, who help make His church beautiful, and who invest their lives, energy, talents, gifts, and resources to help make the eternal Bride of Jesus growing, healthy, and vibrant.

The book of Revelation is known for it’s descriptions of end-time judgments against our world and the people who live on it for their rejection of God. Many of the judgments are severe, and some of them are very difficult to understand. Before the description of the Tribulation on the world begins, the Apostle John, who wrote the book, writes a message to seven different churches. We are living in an increasingly chaotic time, which very well could be the time not far from the events written about in the book of Revelation so the messages to the seven churches should probably be especially appropriate for us today who are followers of Jesus. There a several phrases repeated to all seven churches which obviously should be of special importance. One of those repeated phrases is ”to him who overcomes” or ”he who overcomes”. In each of the seven instances it is followed by a very special reward from God which are in stark contrast to the judgments poured out on most of the inhabitants of the world.

An ”overcomer” is one who wins a wresting match, who conquors an enemy, and who finishes a race. An overcomer is faithful, committed, strong, and devoted. John, writing in the Epistles of John says that we can overcome the world, it’s temptations, and it’s values. He also says we can overcome the devil and live above his attempt to control our life. They are very real forces that are trying to destroy our life and pull us away from devotion to God.

The message to the seven churches in chapters two and three is obviously right before the remaining nineteen chapters describing famine, war, disasters, and tribulations, and it is clear that some will overcome and some will not. An overcomer is someone who enters a war mentally prepared to fight, to resist, and to be a warrior. An overcomer isn’t one who in the middle of the battle wonders why his life isn’t comfortable or easy. An overcomer is always aware of his enemy, and is always aware that his enemy is striving hard to devour him. An overcomer is not a wimp.

I have memorized Revelation chapters two and three and review them mentally at least once each week. These two chapters are packed full of information, encouragement, principles, and commands on how to be an overcomer.

Ephesians 6:11-12. . . stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Revelation 12:12 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.”

1 Peter 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

2 Corinthians 2:11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

The devil has schemes that are well thought out, and he is very effective in accomplishing his goals.

There are a couple of priorities in his plans. The first is to destroy Israel, but God has promised to protect her. Watch the news.

The second thing the devil has his sights set on is a one world Government and ruler.

Understand that the devil drives most of what is happening in politics today.

The wise person who understands this resists the devil and his schemes, but doesn’t get uptight about current events.

People come from all over the world to fish the Kenai River in Alaska. Many of them fish at the same place we are fishing. We usually catch way more fish than most do so we often attract attention from the other fisherman. Some ask what we are doing and we usually share some of our methods and I often share some of the stuff that I fish with. My friends and I have been coming to this place to fish for sockeye salmon in the middle of July for over 20 years. We have experimented continuously with methods and gear over the years and have fine-tuned our system for catching reds. Occasionally someone will be out fishing us, and we ask questions, observe them, and make adjustments. Sockeye salmon are primarily plankton feeders so getting them to bite anything is a major challenge. They don’t bite to eat, they bite because of irritatipn, and for something to irritate them it has to be right in front of them. If it is 4 inches over their head or under them it won’t provoke a strike, it has to be right at their nose. Sockeye generally swim upriver on their journey to spawn with their belly 2 inches from the bottom of the river, so our lure needs to be 4 inches off of the bottom of the river, not 5 inches or 3 inches. The factors are the size of the hook, the length of the leader, the size and number of corkies, and the speed at which we retrieve. The factors that change a successful presentation of our lure to the fish and an unsuccessful one are minor. Those who catch fish are very fussy about their method and are constantly making adjustments in order to catch more fish.

I am commanded by Jesus to be a fisher of men, that is someone who is seeking lost people to share the gospel with effectively so that they trust Jesus Christ as their Savior and are transferred from an eternity of torment in the Lake of Fire, to heaven, a place of eternal joy. How do I do that so that people listen and respond positively? I need to become an effective and successful fisher of men. Do I work as hard to learn the most effective way to catch men as I do to catch sockeye salmon? I should, and you should as well.

A group of 3 of us have been in Soldotna, Alaska fishing on the Kenai River since Friday. This coming Friday is our last day to fish. We are fishing for Sockeye Salmon, commonly called “Reds”. So far the number of fish that have gone up the river to spawn has been small and we have had to spend 15 hours a day fishing to get our limits of 3 fish apiece, but we are hoping that the daily limit is raised to 6 fish per day, and that the run gets good. Our goal is to bring 100 lbs of fish home apiece. The fishing experience in Alaska is amazing even if I don’t catch a single fish, and any fish I catch is gravy. I need to remind myself of that periodically so I don’t get overly focused on catching fish and and make myself feel bad because we aren’t catching a lot of fish.

Life is like a fishing trip. There are the short range goals, the less important goals, and then there are the longe range goals, the ones that have significant rewards or benefits in life. Often we get so focused on the short range goals that we forget the long range goals. We forget to pursue them, and to be thankful for the progress made in accomplishing them.

Today we did something I have never done before. We went out into the ocean Halibut fishing in a drift boat that the guide rowed, no motor. He rowed us out a mile and we fished out of it all-day until the wind was blowing so hard that there were waves and the boat was rocking like a bucking horse, and he rowed us back on. We didn’t catch any halibut, but we had an adventure that I will remember for a while. We took a short nap and are headed out to fish all night. There will be a couple of hours that we will need a headlamp but most of the night it will be light enough to see. The big run of salmon hasn’t started yet so we are hoping it is tonight. If it is still slow at midnight we will probably come back and go to bed.

We landed in Anchorage last night at 11:30 pm and by the time we got through the COVID line checking our paperwork, picked up our luggage and got the rental pick up it was 1:00 am and then a 2 1/2 hour drive drug out to 3 because of road construction. We got checked into our room at 4:00 am and were on the river fishing at 7:00 am. We fished until 4:00 pm, but only caught 4 salmon so we took a break, ate dinner, took a short nap and are headed out again and will start fishing at 9:00 pm tonight. It is light until midnight, but we may fish until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning using headlamps if the fish are in.

We fish on this medal walkway that the city of Soldotna built for us out of State fisherman. It is very comfortable and easy to fish from for an old guy like me😀

Me and two other guys are leaving this evening for Alaska, where we are going to be fishing for sockeye salmon for a week. Alaska won’t let us come into the State unless we have had a negative COVID test within 72 hours of entering the State. I went to a place yesterday that said we could get results back in 24 hours. I got there and went inside to answer questions and fill out papers and when I finished they said go outside and wait in my car and they would call me on my cell phone when it was my turn to get tested. I waited for about 30 minutes and then was directed to drive to a white tent where I would get tested while seated in my car. When I drove in the tent and turned off my motor they had this electric gizmo that they swiped across my forehead to read my temperature. I had been sitting in my little car in the sun so my temperature registered at 106 degrees. The young girl who took my temperature got all excited, I mean, really excited. I wasn’t sure what the problem was, but she sounded like I was on the verge of dying. I felt fine, but I will have to admit, she made me nervous. The older nurse came over and asked me to go sit inside in the air conditioned waiting room for 15 minutes which I did and it came down to 97 degrees. Whooooeee I thought I had the creeping COVID for a minute, oh yeh, my test came back negative as well.

I was talking to a guy in the waiting room who had a similar experience as I did, and he also was headed to Alaska to fish. We were comparing notes on all the hoops we had to jump through to get up there this year and he said, “ Yeh, it is easier to get into heaven then it is to get into the State of Alaska. I laughed and said, “yep, I am headed for heaven, and hopefully soon, very soon!” We had a nice 15 minute conversation between two Christians waiting for their temperatures to drop.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

If you would like to get started memorizing some key Bible verses to meditate on, and to get into your life, Philippians 4:4 is a good one. It is short, it is simple, and the truth in it is profound, be happy. Here are some simple observations and applications from this verse;

1. Most people think that our joy is a result of our circumstances; good circumstances = joy, bad circumstances = no joy.

2. If we believe that our circumstances dictate our level of joy we will feel like victims most of the time. A person with a victim mentality is difficult to have a positive relationship with, they become increasingly pessimistic about life in general, anxiety over the future increases, they are afraid to try anything new, and they increasingly become less responsible in life blaming every failure on something or someone else.

3. We can choose to act happy in spite of circumstances, and if we do we will soon feel happy.

4. Those who discover this simple law and live by it, rejoicing always, are free, they are not controlled by events and circumstances.

5. Those who consistently practice Philippians 4:4 will be very attractive to other people; people enjoy being with happy, positive people.

6. Those who consistently practice Philippians 4:4 will be healthier, have more strength, and have more energy than those whose joy is a product of their circumstances.

7. Those who faithfully ”rejoice always” as an act of their will, will be successful at solving problems and barriers in life, because their motive is not selfish but a service to others, prompting God to bless our efforts.

8. A simple way to teach ourselves to rejoice always is whenever we get down a bit because of crappie circumstances, think about heaven, the fact that we are going there, what it will be like, and how we will feel, it really does work.