I had 8 guys over to our house to hang out and watch Monday Night Football tonight. Everybody brought snacks. One guy brought barbecued tri tip, now that was a snack. My daughter Sherri made mashed potatoes and we had a cooler full of Pop, half of it diet to make up for all the chips I ate. It was a very enjoyable time of fellowshiping. One of my memory verses is Hebrews 3:13, “encourage one another day after day as Long as it is still called today, so that none of you become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” In order for that kind of powerful encouragement to take place there must be a relationship strong enough to allow it. Many men don’t have strong friendships with other men that would allow for and encourage honest conversations about backsliding, unfaithfulness to God and worldliness. Without those blunt conversations no one is strong enough on their own to persevere in their walk with God. That is just the way it is. I want to finish life at a sprint running faithfully towards Christ, and I would be stupid to think I have it together to the point that I can do it on my own from here on out.

Preaching this weekend at JBC was fun for me. Not all sermons are fun but this one was. Started with a video of me swimming with a couple hundred shark. A couple years ago when we were in Hawaii I went out on a boat and they put us in a cage submerged in the water and because they would regularly chum the waters the Sharks came in thick when we sat there thinking we were going to feed them. I had a go pro camera fasted to my head and took a lot of cool pictures and videos of sharks swimming literally so close I could have touched them had I wanted. A bit later a I showed a short video of sheep going through a sheep dip tank to get rid of ticks and lice. both video’s were illustrations in my teaching about demons and how we can be protected from them by God. The video’s seemed to work in helping to create a mental picture of the techniques of demons and how we can resist them and win the war between us and them. I am going to work hard so that this next weeks sermon is much better than this weeks and all who hear it will have a divine encounter with the living God. Help me Lord to preach and teach Your Word so that all who hear will be edified.

God made me a teacher. I love to teach, especially the Bible but my favorite teaching time is my Saturday night Men’s Leadership class. This year I have an even dozen guys in the class. I teach how men can be leaders in their family, at work, and in their church. Every year I say the same thing, “I think this is going to be the best class ever”. Tonight I had an especially good time in class teaching and interacting with the guys. It is so rewarding to see a guy start reading his Bible every day, praying with his wife, and basically becoming a faithful man who learning how to exercise self control over his speech, his thoughts and choices in life. They grow to become “useful to the Lord” for ministry and good works for Him. I think this is the 35th class that I have taught and it is still the best thing I do. What is especially rewarding is having guys who have gone through my class teaching the material in another church and to have pastors teaching the material in their own church. By the way, tomorrow is my 39 year of pastoring at JBC. If I can keep going at it for 13 more years I will be 80 years old and 52 years pastoring. That seems doable with God’s help.

I have this ongoing battle between my will, my desire, my dreams and reality. There is so much I want to do and accomplish with my life and most of the time I think I can, but there are times when weariness, and pain and life in general tends to make me think “you had your shot, now just take it easy and let someone else take over from here on”. I have more knowledge, more wisdom, more experience, more character, than I have ever had but I am such a victim of this physical body that I live in. It seems odd that God has made life so that when you have the most to offer you have the least amount of energy and drive to give it to those who need it. I am fully convinced that life is all about character development and the ” I think I can, I think I can, I think I can” attitude that doesn’t give up is the ultimate character builder. So it is not just about doing something that matters it is doing something that matters when it is very hard to do it. Persistence, endurance, faithfulness, grit are the ultimate character traits that propel a person towards Christ like character rapidly. My thinking about and understanding about life is so very important to me making right choices. A motto of mine is “do the right thing because it is the right thing and remember that God sees”.

I have this ongoing battle between my will, my desire, my dreams and reality. There is so much I want to do and accomplish with my life and most of the time I think I can, but there are times when weariness, and pain and life in general tends to make me think “you had your shot, now just take it easy and let someone else take over from here on”. I have more knowledge, more wisdom, more experience, more character, than I have ever had but I am such a victim of this physical body that I live in. It seems odd that God has made life so that when you have the most to offer you have the least amount of energy and drive to give it to those who need it. I am fully convinced that life is all about character development and the ” I think I can, I think I can, I think I can” attitude that doesn’t give up is the ultimate character builder. So it is not just about doing something that matters it is doing something that matters when it is very hard to do it. Persistence, endurance, faithfulness, grit are the ultimate character traits that propel a person towards Christ like character rapidly. My thinking about and understanding about life is so very important to me making right choices. A motto of mine is “do the right thing because it is the right thing and remember that God sees”.

A ritual that I now have in my life is sitting in my hot tub for 30 minutes right before I go to bed. It really helps me to sleep better, but the thing that I really enjoy is spending that time praying for my kids, their spouses, grandkids, other family, church goals and needs, and staff. I can do all that from memory and because I pray through that list every night I now do it with a high level of concentration and fervency. It is outside on the back porch and the jets are fairly loud so I feel comfortable praying out loud with passion. I also think through the day and confess all the sins I can remember. I always climb into bed with a great feeling of having just done something of great significance. Thank You Lord for the power and authority of prayer and the ability to influence and make a huge difference in my families life through intercession.

Some days everything just seems to click. Today was like that for me. It was grandparents day at East Linn Christian Acadamy where our oldest daughter Sarah’s three kids attend school. I got asked to speak at the event, and that went very well, and Patty and I got to see the grandkids school, classroom, and to ear lunch with them. It was a very enjoyable morning. Patty was driving and on the way home I took a very nice nap. Today is Wednesday, which is sermon writing day. I am committed to not going to bed on Wednesday until my sermon is done. I was getting a late start so I expected it was going to be a very long day, but when I got to my office I was very focused and all the thinking about this sermon that I have been doing the last couple of weeks made it easy to think and write fast. I was all done by 5 pm and I felt really good about the content of the sermon. I am looking forward to preaching it this weekend. After that I came home and worked around our house and got a lot of things done. Then I went into my exercise room and worked out hard for an hour, and felt super good after that. While I was lifting weights I worked on memory verses and I got several new verses memorized and a number of old ones reviewed several times. While I was pedaling my stationary bike I read my Bible on my IPad and am current on my Bible reading schedule. I had a great dinner and finished that off with a big bowl of ice cream!. Now I am sitting in my recliner petting my dog Russel and writing this blog. Nice day.

I want to grow in character. Another way of saying that is, I want to be a better person. I want to be righteous. I want to be holy. I want to sin less. I want to have pure motives. I want to love people as much as Jesus loves me. I want to be as much like Jesus as is possible. The common word in those sentences is the word “want”. The truth is that the stronger the “want” the faster the change and growth in me will be towards Christ likeness. My natural inclination is to ignore character flaws, justify poor choices, blame others for failure, give myself grace when I sin, and compare myself with others. I don’t want my unrighteousness acts to crush me but the right way to experience God’s forgiveness, grace, mercy, and power to change is to acknowledge that I sinned, confess it to God as a violation of His will, repent, grieve over my sin, and then to express with all my heart my desire to be holy. God says “hunger and thirst for righteousness, pursue righteousness, want it, want it, want it, and I will be satisfied. I spend time each day at the end of the day examining my behavior, thinking about my motives, and working hard not to become content with where I am. It is slow going, but I will not give in and relax and accept the view that “I am just human”.

That was one of the closest games at the end that I have ever seen, and it looks like it should have even been closer, as the refs missed a call at the end. That is the way life is at times, things just don’t go our way. Detroit hasn’t won a game and can’t get a break. I have felt like that in the past, and in the midst of it wondered if God really loved me. The main reason I felt like that in the past is that I forgot that God is totally and completely just and that everything balances out at the Judgment Seat of Christ when God rewards us for the life we have lived and the sacrifices that we have made. Eternity is what matters not this life.

I believe without a doubt the the entire Bible is the inspired Word of God. When I read it I am reading the mind of God. Even though all of the Bible is the Word of God I do have favorite parts because they seem most pertinent to my life. My favorite chapter in all of the Bible is Johnn 17. It is called the “High Priestly Prayer of Jesus”. The entire chapter is the words of a prayer that Jesus prays just before His death. A portion of the prayer is for us today so it is fun to read what Jesus prayed for us then and what He continues to pray for us now. I am going to preach and teach on this chapter for the next 6 weeks. These are going to be very practical sermons that will teach us how to have a growing and powerful relationship with God and to have His power and blessing working in our life. I am excited about this series because I truly believe that I will grow a bunch because of the truth that is in this chapter and I am going to work hard at being honest and transparent enough to learn and apply this truth to my last. By the way my series will have a break in it on October 24th and 25th because on that weekend we will be having a super good seminar on “Evolution and the Bible”. This will be an amazing weekend and if you really are interested in knowing the truth don’t miss this weekend.