In the early years of my pastoring I used to take an older pastor out for lunch just about every month. I usually had a dozen questions written out on my yellow legal pad that I spent the hour asking, and then I took good notes of their answers. On one particular lunch I wrote a lot of notes that I kept and have reread dozens of times because of the wisdom that was obvious to me in what I was hearing. I have titled the notes, “How to Get Along With Anybody”

Whenever you have a conflict, a disagreement, or even just a little tension in a discussion assume that you are 100% the problem.

That is never true but you will be much closer to the truth than assuming your adversary is 100% the problem.

When you assume that you are 100% the problem, you will work at figuring out what you did wrong instead of being irritated mentally about the 10% that your friend did wrong.

When you assume that you are the culprit you become eligible for a great blessing from God, “If you humble yourself, I will exalt you, but if you exalt yourself I will humble you.” It is amazing how much better God does at creating unity in a relationship than we do.

Focus on the relationship rather than the accuracy of the material being discussed. When you make peace your number one objective, and are willing to eat dirt to achieve it, God will make your enemies to be at peace with you.

Memorize Philippians 2:3-9, meditate on it, and then live it.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him.

There are many commandments in the Bible. Those who are Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, believe that those commandments in the Bible are God’s Commandments to us, and that if we follow them we will be blessed by God. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Here are a couple of truths that are like training wheels on a bicycle that run parallel to the command to obey the commands of God. These truths keep us upright and always moving on closer and closer to the character of Jesus Christ.

The first is that God gives us the power and the strength to live the Christian life successfully. This truth is so fundamental and foundational to our faith in Jesus. John 15 says that apart from Him we can do nothing, and in Philippians it says that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. God gives His strength to those who ask for it and the more we ask the more we receive. The most often prayed prayer in the Bible is the prayer for strength. All day long I am continuously praying, “help me, Lord, please help me.”

The second fundamental truth is found in 1 John 1:9,
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In my pursuit of being a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ I will sin, I will miss the mark. God says to own our mistakes, acknowledge that we blew it and God will forgive, cleanse, wash, and make us holy and pure. This gift from God is not designed to make us careless and casual about obeying Him, but it is designed to provide us with a safety net or harness that takes away the fear of falling.

Anybody on the planet earth can get along with my wife, Patty because she is a very, very easy person to get along with. Philippians 2 says that we ought to work at having the attitude that Jesus had, who always put everyone ahead of himself. That is how Patty functions; she always puts everyone’s needs and interests above her own. Some would say that you can’t do that because people will take advantage of you and violate your rights. I have never known of anybody who took advantage of Patty. It could be that she is so nice that people can’t bring themselves to take advantage of her, or it could be that because of her character and genuine love for other people that God has placed around her His canopy of protection, people couldn’t violate her rights even if they wanted to.

I used to be in endless conflicts and skirmishes with people, not shouting matches or anything too rude, just tensions and hurt feelings. That is not a good thing if you are a church pastor, especially if you are the Pastor of the church that’s subtitle is “The I Love You Church.” I am not perfect now, but I am so much better than I used to be, and the main reason is because of Patty’s coaching. It took quite a few years, we have been married 51 years, but she has had a significant impact on my life, my character, my behavior, and my relationships.

I am a very fortunate and blessed person. I had very good parents who parented me well and taught me the basic disciplines of life, the value of hard work, faithfulness and being responsible. And then I married Patty and she has whittled away on all the rough edges.

There have been dozens of other people in my life who have influenced and shaped my character, pastors, teachers, coaches, counselors, and friends. When I stand before Jesus at the end of my life I am going to have to give away every reward I receive to someone else who is the reason that I get any reward.

I watched a little bit of an NBA basketball game tonight when I got home from our Wednesday night service. Seth Curry who usually plays well and scores a lot of points had a bad night according to the person doing the commentary on the game. I wonder what causes a bad night in basketball. You know, when you shoot just like you always do, except it doesn’t go in. And then again what causes a good night where it seems everything you throw into air goes in. If I could discover the answer to that question and if I could figure out how to control it I would be a multi-billionaire.

What about people like myself who have regular jobs and relationships, and have a day that is a bummer, nothing goes right, nothing goes as planned. Why is that? I would say that it is a mystery. Only God knows and He isn’t telling. In the meantime it is so important for me to act according to principle not feelings. To be a faithful man who does what he is supposed to do, and not to be tricked into some stupid decision.

I have a goal of taking the best 365 of the approximately 2500 blogs I have written in the last seven years and putting them together in a devotional book. I need some volunteers who would like to read through my blogs and pick out the best ones. When we get the best ones picked out, I will need some people to volunteer to proofread them and correct all the spelling and grammar errors and condense them a bit to a max of 300 words. I could do it all myself but I probably wouldn’t ever finish it, but with some helpers, it should be an accomplishable goal and even fun.

One of my major pastoring principles over the last 45 years has been “whatever you do, if possible, do it together with others, because it is easier, more fun, and it turns out better.”

Today I am shoveling gravel into a wheelbarrow and pushing it down our driveway and filling potholes. We have a long gravel driveway and about this time of year it gets about a million potholes and some of them are as big as a small lake. I either needed to plant fish in them or fill them up, so I am filling them up. It seems like I get tuckered out quicker than I used to, so I am doing two wheelbarrow loads and then coming in and resting for about 10 minutes in my recliner. While I sit here, I am working on memorizing Bible verses and writing this blog. At this point, I have done ten loads with about four more to go until I finish the job. After that, I will go work on the 1969 mustang unless I am to done in to do it, which is a real possibility. I probably will skip my hour of stationary bicycle riding tonight, counting this as my exercise for today.

At times like this I fantasize about my new glorified body that I am going to get when I enter eternity. In Philippians it says that God will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of Jesus. That is going to be one really cool body and mind. As I sit in my recliner breathing hard and sweating I am so thankful for my relationship with Jesus Christ and the positive hope that I have that this life is just about over and then glory, that will be glory indeed.

Alright, enough of this, back to shoveling.

This last week was a lot of fun. We started on Monday at 5:00 am, praying as the beginning of our five days of prayer. We prayed for ten hours each day, Monday through Friday, specifically for the Missions Ministry of JBC and for the “Special Offering” we were taking this weekend. The offering that we took today was our missions ministry budget for the year, and our goal was $125,000. With all the things that have been happening in our lives it was hard to predict how we were going to do in the special offering. Because the prayer time this last week was so powerful and so many people participated I felt sure that we would reach our goal. There were a lot of people gone this morning from our services because of the ice and no electricity so I was bit nervous about attaining our goal, but so far we have $160,000 that has come in and I bet that by the end of the week when those who were gone give, that we will be close to $175,000!! Yes, God is so good!

We do three “Special Offerings” each year, one for our church building projects, a second for Home Land Missions, and then this one for our Foreign Missions Ministry. Each offering has a special prayer time and a goal for the amount that we pray for. Over the last 40 years of Special Offerings, I don’t think we have missed our goal more than a couple of times. It is always exciting to reach our goal and to know that God has blessed many with extra funds as they have traditionally given sacrifially to our church and special offerings.

Our offering today was an immediate answer to prayer. Still, most of the 2,500 people/hours of prayer this last week was for God to bless the various missionaries and ministries around the world. Many people will be brought into the family of God through the work and ministry of these missionaries and ministries. I believe that because of the extraordinary prayer offered up this last week that many amazing results are going to happen around the world.

Yes, it was an enjoyable week and weekend.

We had a big freezing rain storm last night, and as a result, many houses are without electricity, including ours. We have a wood stove, so we are camping in the living room. I had bacon and eggs that Patty cooked on the stove, and tonight we had chicken, rice, and broccoli all cooked on the top of our woodstove. We also have had some excellent cowboy coffee made on the stove. We have trees all around our house and the limbs all got covered with about an inch of ice. This morning as the ice began to melt big hunks of ice would drop onto our metal roof. It sounded like a war in our house this morning for several hours as very big chunks of ice fell, and our metal roof made it sound like we were inside a base drum.

It was a cool way to spend a Saturday camping in our living room. I stayed very warm, took a nap, got lots of reading done, rode my exercise bike for over an hour, wrote this blog, prayed for everybody at JBC, and did a lot of writing for my preaching and teaching ministry.

One of the characteristics of tough people is that they are flexible, they enjoy the challenge of unannounced difficulties and trials, they are creative in solving roadblocks, and they are always fun to be around, even when the convenience of electricity is gone.

1 John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

The spirit of the antichrist is already in the world meaning satan is working in government rulers now, today. He gives them abilities, charisma, and power to lead and rule. They start out nice, but they soon turn into a beast. The spirit of the antichrist is characterized by an obsession with control and those who are under such leaders increasingly feel restricted and lose more and more personal freedom. It is clear in the Bible that this is what is coming and it will get increasingly worse until Jesus wins the battle of Armageddon.

Ezekiel 28 is obviously talking about satan, but Ezekiel calls him the King of Tyre, because he was in the King of Tyre controlling him. Satan and his demons primary place of residence is in the mind and heart of rulers of countries.

Ezekiel 28:12-14 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire.

As you listen to Presidents, Senators, Govenors, Represemtatives and Judges in our country are there some “signs” that the kingdom of darkness is controlling them? Yes there are several, a key one is that they become “control freaks“, and we are seeing that right now all over our world, not just in our own country.

As we see the antichrist’s spirit becoming increasingly more prevalent and powerful in our government, what should we do, and how should we act? Our job now is not to fix things and make things right; our job is to be a witness for Jesus and reach as many people for Jesus as we possibly can.

I will still be responsible and vote, I will write letters to government officials objecting to what is wrong, I will pray diligently for government leaders that God will work in their hearts, and I will teach people what the truth is and what is a lie every chance I get. But my main job is to bring as many people as possible with me into the Kingdom of God.

Commit to that God-given calling every morning.

Matthew 16:2-3 But Jesus replied to them, “ When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?

Matthew 24:32-33 Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.

Genesis 6:5-8 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Matthew 24:37-39 For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

On Sunday’s at 10:15 to 11:15 am, I teach a class on Eschatology or prophecy. You can listen to the class on YouTube as well as attending the class in person. This week I will be talking about the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven and lands on the earth. It should be a fun class.