I am going to work on the 1969 mustang with my grandson today. I went out and turned on my propane heater at 7:00 am, and right now at 8:30 it is still pretty cold in my shop. I like working on cars, but I don’t like working on cars if I am cold. The older I get the more that is true. I have a wood stove in my shop but at some point in the past the wind blew my stove pipe over. I must have decided when I installed it that I could screw the stove pipe together later and forgot to do it. I need to get my ladder out and get up on the roof of my shop and reconnect the stove pipe and screw it together, but Patty will get very upset if I go up a ladder and get on the roof, she thinks that I am old and decrepit. I will have to do it without her knowing.

I had a diesel space heater that put out a lot of heat, but I couldn’t get it to start so I sprayed some starter fluid in the burn chamber and caught it on fire. By the time I got the fire put out the heater was toast, and my beard was all singed, oh well, it was kind of a smelly old heater anyway, and my beard needed trimming. I guess I will drive to coastal farm and buy another heater.

Living life is like that. There are problems and barriers and sometimes in the process of trying to fix them another bigger problem is created. The key thing I remind myself of constantly is don’t get uptight, enjoy the ride, never grumble, rejoice always, and keep the fire extinguisher close.

I finished filling in my calendar for 2023 tonight. I have almost every day filled in though some days are a guess, but I will probably be right or close on most guesses. We have four “Five Day Prayer Events,” and I am pretty sure where they will fall. I fill in the high-priority events first and then I move to the next level of priority, and then the least important. My “Leadership” classes start the first weekend of October, and go for every weekend until the end of April, super, high priority. My bicycle trip down the pacific coast starting on the Canadian border and going to The Mexican border starts on May 25th and ends June 23rd. My Alaska salmon fishing trip to the Kenai River in Soldotna is from July 12th to August 7th. The Portland Sportmans Show is February 16th, all day. The Portland Swap meet is March 31st. The JBC Sportsmans show is February 10th, 11th, and 12th. I can’t miss that!

The events of 2022 are in front of me on my 2022 calendar, so, on many things, I just transferred events from last year to this year. A couple of dates that I don’t know for sure is “The Rapture,” I wish I did, and the day I die and go to heaven. I don’t think either will be in 2023 but they both are very probable soon. If the rapture happens first I won’t die, and if I die first I will find out the date of the rapture from Jesus. It is fun to write about those days and guess when they will happen.

In all of my planning I remain flexible, but I want to be rigid enough so that planning is valued and followed.

A problem in the church today in the U.S. and probably all over the world, is that there are many people who think they are Christians headed for heaven who are not, and won’t discover it until it is to late to do anything about it.

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:22&23 On that day. . .I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me,

Notice that it says that many enter through the broad and easy gate that leads to destruction, but few enter through the narrow gate that leads to life.

How do I know if I have real faith, how do you know that you are on the right path to eternal life with Jesus in heaven, and not relying on a pseudo-faith. You pass the test. My granddaughter took a Final today in College, and she got an “A” she more than passed the test; she aced it. What is the test for real faith? Read this next couple of verses very carefully so that you understand what they are saying.

1 Peter 1:6-7
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

What do you do when you go through trials? Do you grumble and complain or do you rejoice? The answer to that question is the answer to the question, “is your faith genuine or false?”

Yesterday was the Christmas Concert at Agape Family Fellowship in Albany/Tangent where I am the Interim Pastor. We had seven special music performances that were solos, instrumentals, and duets. The music was so good, it was obvious that everyone put in a lot of time practicing. I am sure that everyone in the audience was incredibly blessed by the music. My part was to preach a short 10-minute gospel presentation at the end that made it clear what Christmas is all about. It is funny, a normal sermon that I preach each week is 40 minutes and I don’t get nervous about it, but this short sermon made me very nervous about how I would do. I went over it in my head dozens of times, and rewrote it three times. I think the reason that I was so nervous is because I expected a number of people to be in the audience who didn’t know the Lord so I wanted what I shared to be very clear. I prayed a lot asking God to use me, to speak through me, and to help me not to mess up the message. I get to preach the same message this coming weekend at JBC on Saturday, and twice on Sunday morning so I should be practiced up after yesterday. I love teaching “Leadership class,” writing my blog, preaching through 1 Peter on Wednesday nights, and getting to preach occasionally on weekends, and other occasions as they pop up. Preaching and teaching the Bible is God’s method of drawing people to Himself so that they become believers and followers of Him. He expects that those who are given this responsibility will be faithful and responsible and will prepare well. That is what I get nervous about.

1 Corinthians 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

Stan Hilton, my good friend was killed in a car accident yesterday. Stan, his cousin Gordon, and I used to duck and goose hunt together almost weekly for the duration of duck season most years while we lived in Talbot in the ’70s and ’80s. I went on my first guided steelhead fishing trip on the Nestucca River with Stan. I bought my first drift boat with Stan, an old beater wood boat, I think he paid for it, but we were partners and used it together on the Nestucca River. I made my first fishing trip up to Alaska with Stan. We flew up and and stayed with a friend, Jay Goold who took us all over southern Alaska fishing. We fished the Susitna River, Willow Creek, the Talkeetna River, Sheep Creek, Montana Creek, the Kenai river, Bird Creek, Halibut fishing out of Homer, and Halibut fishing out of Seward. For about 20 years we went to Stan and Betty’s place for the fourth of July and had a feast together and then went to the fireworks at the Stayton High School.

Jesus said to His disciples, “I call you friends.” Proverbs says that a good friend sticks closer than a brother” and that a “friend loves at all times.” I have a book entitled “friends,” and it says that very few men have any real friends, just a lot of acquaintances. I have been very blessed at JBC to have a number of very good friends, and Stan was one of the best.

When I got news of Stan’s death, there was the initial shock and the sense of loss, but it didn’t take long before my predominant thought became, “Stan, you lucky dog, you! You are in heaven and I am stuck here in this life, but I will see you soon!”

Stan Hilton was killed instantly in a car wreck today. Stan is a very good friend and an Elder in JBC. Stan is Gordon Hilton’s cousin and they were in business together for year’s. 35 or 40 years ago Stan and Gordan and I used to go duck hunting together. We would put my drift boat in the Willamette river at the Talbot/ Buena Vista Ferry and drift down to Independence and take out there. We would dead drift the boat and jump shoot ducks as we drifted by them and they would fly up. Stan decided that we would kill more ducks if we would use decoys and sit in a slew only a 10 minute drift down the river from where we put in. So we did that and we shot about a dozen ducks and headed back upriver to the boat ramp. Shortly after we got going we hit a tree under the water and sheared the pin on the prop. Stan didn’t have a spare pin in the boat so we had no choice but to drift down to Independence. It was just getting dark when we sheared the outboard motor pin so we drifted the next two hours in the pitch dark with one oar and no flashlight. Stan’s boat was a small 12 ft boat, and we had it loaded down with decoys, there were three of us and a black lab dog in the boat and it had about 6 inches of freeboard. Did I mention that there had been a lot of rain and the river was at flood stage. Did I also mention that the week before another boat with guys duck hunting like us had capsized and that two of the hunters drowned. We had two fears as we drifted down the river, the first was that we would not be able to recognize or see the boat ramp and drift right by it, and the second was that we would hit one of the pylons of the bridge coming into Independence and capsize the boat. As we headed into Independence we heard the roar of the water going around the pylons and we were scared out of our heads. Well, we made it to the boat ramp and got back to my house around midnight. Sometime that next week Stan trusted Christ as his personal savior, and both Gordon and I figured it was our scaring him to death that prompted him to take care of his eternal life destiny. Stan is in heaven with Jesus right now and I look forward to seeing him again when I get there.

The worst sin would be breaking the most important of all commandments in the Bible.

Matthew 22:36-37 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

If you are married there are two ways you can stop loving your spouse. The first is through neglect of communication and time together you simply drift away and get lukewarm in the strength of your relationship, and after a time both would agree that their love is dead. The second is by betraying your husband or wife by having an affair with another person, you commit adultery, and love has been killed. It can be resurrected in both cases, but takes work by both husband and wife.

Our love for God would grow cold in the same way. We begin to have a substitute for God in our life, and commit spiritual adultery, breaking the first of the Ten Commandments by having another god in our life. The substitute for God would be money, cars, houses, cloths, golf clubs, boats, vacations, hobbies. All of those things are legitimate and good under control. How can you tell if you have moved to having an affair with the world? You don’t make time to read the Bible every day, your time in the world leaves little time for prayer, and you use the phrase, “I don’t have time,” every time you are asked to attend any event at the church or to help in some ministry. Because we live in the middle of the world, the world system and everyone around us is loving the world it is very easy to drift away from God and begin loving the world, and it is difficult to see it happening.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

James 4:4-5 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

The key thing is read your Bible everyday, everyday, everyday. When you stop, it is because you are entangled in the world and have lost your desire for intimacy with God and you don’t have any time to do the spiritual disciplines that keep your relationship with God hot.

Revelation 2:4-5 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.

On four different occasions, Jesus scolded the disciples over their little faith. But on other occasions, He praised people for their great faith.

Matthew 8:26 Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.

Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

Jesus declared the great possibilities for anyone with faith even if it was as small as a mustard seed.

Matthew 17:20 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

We grow our faith by exercising it and there is no greater exercise for developing great faith than praying, especially praying together with your church family. While praying, we pray to a God that we can’t see or hear, we pray for things that we really don’t know if they got answered or not.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

We finished day four in our “Five Days of Prayer” tonight at 10:00pm and I will have prayed for 35 hours when we finish tomorrow night. We have a “Five Day Prayer” event four times a year, and I almost always pray for at least 40 hours. Over the last 30 years of having prayer events my faith has grown a little bit more each time. Now my faith in the power of prayer has grown so strong compared to what it used to be, that I couldn’t miss one of these events unless I was dying or a family member was dying. I believe without a doubt that God is in our midst as we pray together, and that our praying together results in great things happening in the lives of people.

The stronger my faith the more power I have with God in prayer, and the more I pray the stronger my faith grows. I talk a lot about “God’s favorites” and in scripture it is easy to see that God’s favorites are the ones with great faith.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

I hear people pray asking God to bless our country with a healthy economy, freedom from COVID, a just and good government, both local and federal, and that all the craziness will end. I am not praying for any of those things, I am going to just wait and see what God has planned. I am praying that the fear and anxiety people are feeling because of all these things will push them to seek for God. The Bible promises that if people will seek for God they will find Him, if they draw near to God He will draw near to them. When things are going well for people, they don’t seek God, but when things start to go wrong, they seek answers and security from God. The quality of life here on this earth matters little compared with the quality of life in the next. Only those who have sought God and have received Christ as their savior will live in heaven; everyone else will spend all of eternity in hell, which is a black pit of nothingness and aloneness. My fervent prayer for all the lost people I know is, “ whatever it takes, Lord, whatever it takes.”

In the early days of our church we decided to do a concert so we could have an event that we could all invite people to attend who didn’t go to church any place else. We were running about 100 people on Sunday mornings and we had a goal of growing up to 200 people in attendance in the next ten years.The problem was that with 100 people there aren’t a lot of singers available with the kind of voices that you feel comfortable inviting your friends too. We were so hard up for quality voices that I sang with three other guys in a male quartet. We sang “I’ll Fly Away”. That experience was so traumatic for me that I still remember it clearly and think about it often.

Last night I bought some airline tickets to fly to Fairbanks, Alaska where our daughter Shelley lives with her husband Philip and six grandkids. I bought a ticket for Patty, two of our local grandkids who are going with us, and myself. All the time I am navigating around on Alaska Airlines website I am singing, “I’ll Fly Away.”

“I’ll Fly Away“ that means I am headed for heaven, “ Soon and very Soon,” is when I am going.

Philippians 3:18-21. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

That sounds to me like, “I’ll Fly Away.”