Here is another picture of our “5 Days of Prayer” in action. One of my strongest “axioms” as a Pastor is that “A church family that is healthy and blessed by God prays together, and the more they pray together the healthier they will be”. A similar “Axiom” is “The only way we will come close to accomplishing our part of the Great Commission is by the participation of most of the church in regular corporate prayer”. I push this probably more than any other of my “axioms”, although “read your Bible everyday, everyday” is a close second. As hard as I push, preach, announce, and nag there are still many who very rarely participate in the corporate prayer life of our church. When you talk about Jefferson Baptist Church, and who we are and what we do, corporate prayer would be at the top of the list, “We are the praying church”, at least that is my desire and vision as the pastor, but in reality we aren’t even close to what I believe we ought to be if we truly want to fulfill our part of the “Great Commission”. Every great revival was ushered in by major participation in Corporate Prayer, that is the most obvious common denominator of the revivals of the past that brought thousands of people into the family of God. Why is it so hard to get people to participate? One of the stories of Jesus that illustrates this is Jesus in the garden right before His betrayal and death in Matthew 26:38-41 “Then He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.’ And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?” It is a mystery to me why people are so reluctant to pray with their church family, but even Jesus had problems persuading His disciples to pray with Him. I believe very strongly that it is critically important if we are going to reach people so I will keep persuading the best that I can.

we are in day 2 at JBC in our Winter time “Five Day Prayer Event”. We have one of these 4 times each year, and we pray for 5 days, Monday through Friday, 10 hours each day, from 5 to 10 am and 5 to 10 pm. For the last 4 years we have been averaging 20 people in the prayer room each hour, but so far this week we are almost at 30 people an hour in the prayer room. If this keeps up I am expecting to see some major blessings coming into our church family, significant ministry accomplishments, people’s lives changing, people gaining victory over sin addictions, bad marriages being healed, prodigal sons and daughters coming back, many people being born again, and some people being healed.

The older I get the less I can do so I pray more, and the more I get done, amazing. Over 42 years of pastoring my faith in the power of prayer has steadily grown stronger because of what I have seen and experienced at JBC and the obvious correlation between the amount of praying we do to the Blessings that we receive. Our church motto is “Much prayer = much blessing; little prayer = little blessing; no prayer = no blessing”.

Another strong belief that I have is that the higher the percentage of people who call JBC their church family that participate in the prayer event the more power we have and the more blessings we will receive. The second city that Israel attempted to conquer after Jericho was Ai, which was a disaster for two reasons, the first was a secret sin in the the camp, and the second was that they decided only to send a small percentage of the army to fight instead of all of the army. The sin was dealt with and the entire army went up and they prevailed and defeated their enemy. As a church we are an army of God and when everyone is involved we will soundly defeat the kingdom of darkness, and those imprisoned by the the devil to do his bidding, will be set free.

Diligence as a character trait won’t be developed in us without a strong motivation. No one is going to be diligent just to be diligent. Money is the motive for many, as is success or accomplishment resulting in recognition. There is a difference between behaving in a diligent way, and having the character trait of diligence. Anybody can be diligent for awhile if the carrot is big enough, but few become a diligent person. Becoming diligent on the inside, the real us, character that goes with us when we enter eternity requires God to work and mold as well as our cooperation, Therefore the motivation that results in a diligent person on the inside must be noble. The strong desire to please God with our life and accomplishments is the motivation that results in genuine Christ like character. Here are a few verses that I use to help me keep my motive and drive to accomplish more and more with my life pure. 1 Thessalonians 4:1, “we exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more”. 2 Corinthians 5:9, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” 1 Thessalonians 2:4, “but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts”. Ephesians 5:10 “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” I believe that we are capable of sensing His pleasure in us, in our heart. God the Father spoke from heaven at the baptism of Jesus saying, “this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. The inner sense of God’s pleasure in us is a very powerful motivation to be diligent.

The admonition by Jesus in John 15 is to bear fruit, bear more fruit, and bear much fruit. He promised that if we bore some fruit the Father would prune us, nurture us, so that we would bear more and more, and that the Father would be glorified by our fruit bearing for Him. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

Diligence begins in our mind in how we habitually think about responsibilities, work, opportunities, and disciplines. Because we are all born lazy our flesh will complain about just about everything we are called to do. We will think thoughts that sound like what my kids used to say to me when given something to do around the house, “Do I Have to!?” To grow in diligence we need to listen to our thoughts and conquer the negative, lazy thoughts, by replacing them with Bible verses on diligence and positive thoughts. Instead of “I am so tired”, think, “tired is a good feeling, it means God has given me something to do with my life, thank You Lord”. Instead of thinking I am overworked, and doing to much, pray and say, “lord, give me Your strength and I can do anything”. If you start thinking that you are under paid or under appreciated set your mind on 1 Corinthians 15:58, ” Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” Meditate on the “Judgment Seat of Christ” that we will all stand in and be rewarded by Christ for the work we have accomplished for Him. Want, want, want more, want even more to do well at that great event, “The Judgment Seat of Christ”.

So tomorrow is Sunday, the day of the week when I move on to the next character trait to use to examine my life with. The character trait for this next week is diligence, the opposite of being lazy. Here are a few verses on this important character trait. Proverbs 12:24 The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to forced labor. Proverbs 12:27b But the precious possession of a man is diligence. Proverbs 21:5. The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage.

Over the years as I have witnessed diligent people and lazy people I have written some observations down about diligence and laziness.

1. Everybody is born lazy, and unless a parent or some person influences, trains or teaches us to be diligent we will stay lazy all of our life. Our flesh feels very comfortable being lazy.

2. A person with the character trait of diligence is very conscious of time, and the passing of time.

3. A diligent person learns the skill of planning and organizing their life to become more productive with the time they have available to them.

4. Diligent people refuse to procrastinate.

5. If anyone wants to grow the character trait of diligence in themselves they must recognize that it begins by how they think, and they learn how to take their lazy thoughts captive and think focused thoughts on how to accomplish their goals.

Jesus was born without character just like you and I. He grew in character just like you and I, but the big difference being He grew faithfully, and rapidly and became perfect in character. Hebrews 5:9 says, “And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,”. We have the potential to grow up into the character of Christ as James 1:2-4 would indicate, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, wow, I would very much like to become that person. Hebrews 6:1 says, “let us press on to maturity”, character growth doesn’t happen just because we get older and experience life, character growth comes to those who desperately want it, diligently pursue it, and know how character growth happens, they know the principles and they practice them. A barrier to perfection in character is that we tend to be satisfied and content with who we are when we are still a long way from being what we could be. There are many reasons why we stop growing but a major one is that we compare ourselves with those around us, and then decide that mediocre is good enough. I try and use the 26 specific character traits as a tool to fine tune my pursuit of character, and the Bible verses that I have located for each character trait to be the standard to grow towards rather than other people. As I push deeper in my pursuit of Christ like character I find so many blind spots in myself, areas of character deficiencies that I am totally oblivious to. My use of the list of 26 different character traits, and my focus on a different one each week really helps in my discovery of who I really am, and my strategy to grow past my character flaws.

There are 26 different character traits that I focus on as I press on toward Christ like character. Instead of looking at my behavior in general I find it very helpful to look at myself in specific areas of character. I focus on one a week and rotate through the list twice each year. This week the character trait I am focusing on is humility as apposed to pride. One of the things that I do is look up a number of verses on the character trait and read them often during the week or memorize some of them. One of those verses for this week is Proverbs 29:23 “A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.” This is a very interesting verse because the motive of pride is honor. We crave it having been created in God’s image with glory and honor, but having lost it when we sinned and continue to sin. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” In our pursuit of honor we develop bad habits in relationships, self absorbed ways of thinking, and ways of talking designed in our head to attract some glory into our life. One aspect of humility is transparency, not projecting an image, not ignoring, blaming others for, or justifying our sins when we commit them. Our natural inclination in pursuing honor and glory is just exactly the opposite of what really works. Every single day, ending the day with a short time of self examination and confession of sin is so important.

Everybody says they do, but most really never pray with any degree of focus as if God were real and really listening. The prayers of most are mostly just grumbling about life to God. My relationship with Patty is mostly about the intimacy of our communication, good communication – good marriage, poor communication – bad marriage. It isn’t rocket science, it is mostly an issue of time, intimate communication takes time, pure and simple, and most would rather have a bad marriage then give the time needed to make it good. God blesses those who give Him quality and quantity of time. He blesses them with strength, with joy, with peace, with wisdom, and with healthy relationships if they would spend time with Him in prayer. A first step to a healthy and powerful prayer life is faithfully reading the Bible, faithfully as in daily. Proverbs 28:9 says, “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, (the Bible) Even his prayer is an abomination.” I don’t think someone whose prayer is considered an abomination by God is going to get many answers”. Some good self evaluation questions are, “Do I have strength to manage trials well, and to carry the responsibilities of life with confidence?” “Do I have joy that is constant in spite of life?” “Do I have great peace?” A superficial, cultural, and make believe walk with God will produce no strength, joy, or peace.

It is funny what will motivate me into action. Sometimes I look at myself like a little kid. I have been faithful to ride my stationary bike every day without fail unless I was traveling and it wasn’t possible. I have also done some running on my tread mill, not a lot, but several times each week, mostly motivated by the upcoming 10K run I just did on Thanksgiving Day. But I have rarely, maybe once a month, done any serious weight lifting, even though it brings huge health benefits into my life. Last night after we got back from the movie, “Creed II” I was looking around online about the history of the “Rocky” movies and I stumbled onto a place that described the present workout schedule and routine for Sylvester Stallone who is 72 years old. I was amazed at how strong he is at his age and how rigorous a routine he goes through every day. Tonight I road my stationary bike 45 minutes and read all the time that I road, then I went out to my “Man Room” and lifted weights for 30 minutes and worked on Scripture Typer memorizing Bible verses in the 2 minute breaks between lifts. Then before I went in I punched on the heavy bag for 10 minutes. I know that now that I have started I will keep it up. There are times in my life when I feel disgusted with myself as I observe my weakness and immaturity, and then there are times when I feel good about where a I am at, and how I am doing. It isn’t a prideful feeling or attitude, but it is a strong sense that the Lord is pleased with my growth, my attitude, and fruit. I am going to bed tonight with a strong sense of growth and accomplishment for this day. I sure wish every day was like this one. It isn’t the exercise, it is because I did what I wanted to do in spite of the negative pull of my lazy body, I exercised self-control.

A group of 6 of us had a guys night out and went and saw the movie “Creed II” tonight. Adonis Creed is the son of Apollo Creed the first of Rocky Balboa’s boxing victories. Apollo in a later movie is killed while boxing a Russian boxer named Drago while Rocky was in his corner, and he feels very guilty that he didn’t stop the fight before Apollo was killed. Rocky then goes to Russia and fights Drago and wins in typical Rocky Balboa fashion. In the movie we saw tonight Drago’s son has become a fierce boxer and challenges Adonis to a boxing match, and the movie progresses from there with lots of dialog about motives, family, revenge, etc. again in a typical “Rocky” style. As predictable as the plot is and as corny as some of the lines are, it was still very enjoyable to watch.

I have been pastoring Jefferson Baptist Church for 42 years, and the last half of that time has been very enjoyable with lots of great relationships and memories of good things that God has done. Before that there was lots of conflict, disunity, gossip, hurt feelings, and people leaving. I was always the reason for the problems caused by poor decisions, bad people skills, and just plain stupidity as a leader. At one point I was super discouraged, and decided I was going to quit as the Pastor of the church. I can’t remember what motivated me, but I went down and rented all of the “Rocky” movies that were made to that point, I think 4 of them, and watched them all back to back, I watched movies all night long. After I was finished with the last one I went to bed and slept all day long, and all that next night as well. When I got up on Tuesday morning, I had what I called my “Rocky” fix. I was ready to get up off the canvas and go one more round. Thinking back on that event now as a 70 year old it seems a bit silly and childish, but as I watched tonight I got all jazzed up and decided I would come up with some more crazy goals for my life and ministry.