Philippians 3:12: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.”
To be perfect is not to be sinless but to be grown up in character and like Jesus in character. Paul says he has not become perfect yet but is working toward that goal. God helps us in the journey towards perfection by bringing trials into our lives.

James 1:2-4 “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 you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, that is my goal, and I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was saved. Many see getting into heaven as the goal of our life. “I am going to heaven, hallelujah; nothing else matters now.” Being given eternal life is a gift from God that we did not earn or deserve. Being born again is just the beginning. Now, we are on a journey of growing into the image of Christ. The power of goals is the most effective tool I have to help me grow to be like Jesus. Paul goes on in Philippians and says, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” I, like Paul, am a long way from being perfect, but I press on toward that goal. I set goals, examine my life and confess all known sins, read the Bible daily, memorize and meditate on God’s Word, and practice the basic disciplines of the Christian life. Character flaws and weaknesses tend to appear in relationships, so I pay close attention to my reactions to what people say and do to me. Being right, treated well, or being first doesn’t matter nearly as much as being perfect. I will press on toward becoming like Jesus so that when I see Him, I will be like Him and not shrink away from Him in shame at His appearance. I need to be diligent in my “pressing on” because I am running out of time.

On Wednesday, I went fishing on the Siletz River and caught a nice steelhead, and my friend caught two. On Thursday, I went out on the ocean fishing with three friends, and we all limited out with two ling cod and four sea bass apiece. One of my ling cod was 22 pounds. Both days were Sunny and relatively warm. If you wondered why I hadn’t written a blog since Monday, it is because even though I love to fish and had a wonderful time both days, it still tuckered me out. I also preached Wednesday night at the Wednesday service, and Thursday night, I taught two Leadership classes, 6:00 to 7:00 and 7:00 to 8:00 pm. But today, I am all caught up on sleep and rest, and feeling good.

The Bible’s most often prayed prayer request is for strength and energy. I don’t ever remember asking God for strength or energy before I was 50, and only a few times between 50 and 70. But now I ask about every hour! My favorite passage in the Bible now is Isaiah 40:28-31. The word “wait” means to depend on, to seek, to ask. 

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

My friend Terrie Hill died yesterday of cancer. He had been part of our church family for 30 years. He was one of those guys you loved having in your church if you were his pastor. He helped with everything, rarely missed services, was very faithful, and never caused a conflict. He will certainly be missed. It seems like the people that I am friends with are dying at an increasingly faster rate. I think that is because I am old and most of my friends are too.
When a friend like Terrie dies, I think of it like he is on a two-month trip to Hawaii. I don’t feel bad for him; he is having a great time. I feel envious because he is there, and I am here in the cold Oregon rain. You don’t think about missing someone who will be gone for two months; you will see them soon enough. I might live 20 more years, but probably not, and if I did, looking back on 20 years of my life now seems like two months. At this very moment, Terrie has a new body that feels amazing. Lots of energy, a clear, sharp mind, lots of brown hair, skinny, no glasses, a big motorcycle (maybe), incomprehensible joy, zero problems or pressures, and so much more that we won’t know about until we get there. We tend to think about death as the end, but it is just the beginning of a brand new life and experience.
I once heard someone grieving at a funeral say,” I will never see you again.” That’s not true. I will see Terrie in two months or so. I don’t feel very sad, but I do feel very envious.

One of my favorite reading areas is the early church fathers. They lived in the first 100 years of the church and were often disciples of the apostles themselves, so they heard much of what Jesus taught the disciples firsthand. They wrote Epistles and sermons to various churches and people. Reading the various early church fathers, I noticed they all had common themes or topics in their writing. A major one dealt with various false teachings that crept into the church from the beginning. Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:1, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” A significant way that the devil wants to destroy the church is by introducing false teachings into the church. A second area of emphasis that all of the early church fathers repeated often was the importance of unity in the church. They emphasized that unity and love for one another validated the gospel’s truth. False teaching not only caused people to believe in a false gospel but also caused much infighting over what was true and what was false. The trick is to stand for and teach the truth without causing conflict.
What was true in the early church is still very true today. What was a problem in the early church is still a problem today. There is so much garbage proclaimed over the internet as truth, and there are so many “doctrines of demons” being taught as truth. Let me leave you with four guidelines in this area.

1. Attend a church where God’s Word is taught accurately. Pray for your pastor that God will keep him focused on the Word of God, and doesn’t get led astray by strange teachings.
2. Read and study the Bible daily so you will know if you are hearing some false teaching. Satan introduces false teaching in small doses, so we don’t notice.
3. There are a lot of variations of view on certain doctrines among denominations that don’t matter that much. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Is Jesus coming for us before the Tribulation, in the middle, or at the end? I know what I believe and I believe it firmly, but I will not fight with someone with a different view. We will all find out soon enough.
4. In defending the faith and the essential doctrines of the Bible, do so graciously. You are not more convincing because you are mean-spirited. Being a defender of truth and causing conflict in the process is not a good trade off, and is exactly what the devil wants to happen, don’t be his pawn.

I have purchased two commentaries on 1st John after researching comments and recommendations of many professors and Pastors on which ones they thought were the best. I have also found three sermon series on 1 John done by pastors, with whom I have confidence in their doctrine and scholarship. My new goal is to listen to all the sermons and read both commentaries next year as I memorize 1 John. At some point, after I have gotten the book memorized well, the commentaries read, and the sermons listened to, I will begin writing a sermon series of my own on 1st John.

The goal that I work hardest on is my scripture memory goal. Last year, I spent about 30 minutes almost every day working on my verses. This year, I am increasing that to 45 minutes every day. I finished the year with 815 verses memorized well, and my goal is to end this next year with 1000 verses memorized well. I get more out of the passages I memorize as opposed to just reading them. I think about the content of the Bible passages I am memorizing by going over and over the verses to learn them well. I also noticed more details in the passages than I got from just reading them. When I lie down to sleep, I mentally pick out verses I have memorized and meditate on them. It is a great way to eliminate worry or fretting that many people struggle with as they try to fall asleep. Another significant blessing, especially for people my age, is that the discipline, mental effort, and focus it takes to memorize keeps your brain strong and able to think clearly. I have found that the more time I spend memorizing scripture, the easier it is for me to write sermons, lessons, and my blog. My brain seems to create ideas better and think logically in a straight line in a focused way rather than jump around to a dozen different totally unrelated topics. The mental energy that it takes to memorize is enormous. After 15 minutes, I noticed a significant drop in my success in memorizing a passage. I usually work on my verses for 10 to 15 minutes and take a break, even a nap. Probably the greatest blessing I get from memorizing God’s Word is the success He gives me in the things I do because I honor Him by honoring His Word.
Psalms 1:2-3 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

I used to run track in my other life😀 One key to finishing well was having a good start. If you had a poor start, it was hard to make up unless you were running a long race. When I ran marathons, the start was not much of a factor. I ran a marathon in Vancouver, BC, and there were 15,000 runners. They put you in line at the start according to your projected finish time, so I was way in the back. When the starting gun sounded, it was 15 minutes before I moved. It didn’t matter because we all had timing chips tied to our shoes, and when we ran over this pad at the start line, it recorded our start time and again when we finished. Some fast guys would take off and weave around other slower runners trying to reach the front. I was content to shuffle along at the back, waiting for things to spread out and open up before I started running very hard, which was only slightly faster than my shuffle.
Someone complimented me recently by saying that I had accomplished a lot in my life. They were a young person and interested in knowing why. I told them that I accomplished a little bit every year, and if you faithfully accomplished a little bit every year, you would end your life with a lot of things done that mattered under your name. I went on to tell them that I wrote my first list of goals when I was 13 years old, have written a list of goals every year since then, and have included something significant in the goals each year that would have eternal results. The first time I made a goal to read the Bible in one year was when I was 13. That year, I also made a goal to memorize 50 Bible verses. And I also made a goal to win first place in the Grange essay contest for 12 to 16-year-old kids. I finished reading the Bible for the first time in my life, memorized 15 Bible verses, and won the writing contest for a prize of 25 dollars.
I wrote 12 goals that first time because it seemed like a nice number, and I decided the next year to write 14 for my age. I have kept it up every year since and have 76 goals this year. Over the last 67 years that I have set goals, starting with 12 and with 76 this year, I have set a total of 2,876 goals. That list includes a lot of duplicates, but if you are faithful and do a little bit every year, it will end up being a good-sized list. I have lived a life like I ran marathons, shuffled along steadily, and finished.

There is one day left in 2024, so it is probably a good idea for me to write about goal setting again. If you write goals, you will always accomplish more in a year that matters. You will always learn more in a year. You will always grow more in character. You will always have more new experiences in your life if you write goals. What I just wrote is true. The ones who would deny what I just wrote are those who have never set goals, so they don’t really know. Another reason a person would argue about what I just wrote is because they don’t want to set goals for any number of reasons and want to justify their reluctance.

Set a goal for your Bible reading. You will read more than you usually do and be much more faithful at it.
Set a goal to pray for 15 minutes every day.
Set a goal to read five non-fiction books this year.
Set a goal to go on a short-term mission trip to Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Set at least a dozen goals, write them down, and read them at least weekly. It will transform your life.

God is a goal-setter. He premeditates everything He does, decides, and plans ahead of time. We are created in His image, and we function best when we function as He does.
Come on, give it a shot. What have you got to lose? You might find that everything I just wrote is true.

One of my goals is to pray for all our kids, their spouses, their children, and our grandchildren daily. Counting Patty, that is 45 different people. As I wrote about a couple of days ago, we received an electronic picture frame as a gift for Christmas. Once pictures are loaded into it from our phones, iPads, and computers, it rotates through all the photos, each staying on the screen for about 30 seconds. I have it sitting on top of a dresser about three feet away to the right of my recliner. We have every family member in it about ten different times, so now, every time I look over, I pray for the person on the screen.
I have great faith in the power of prayer and in my prayers to God on behalf of others. My most significant influence with God is when I intercede for our family. God gave them to us, and with that responsibility, He gave us the power to guard and influence them through prayer. Jesus declared that same power with His disciples in John 17:9: “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me;” I genuinely believe that one of the reasons our kids have turned out so well in regards to their character and their love for the Lord is the fact that Patty and I prayed for them so much. I think we are even more passionate about praying for our grandkids than we were for their parents.
One of our grandkids is driving our old Kia Rio. We bought it in 2008, and it now has close to 300,000 miles on it, but so far, it is running well. I bug him regularly about checking the oil every time he drives it. It only takes a few minutes, but it is easy to postpone and neglect because of business. Once the engine starts knocking, it is too late to put oil in it.
Many parents are busy and don’t take the time to pray for their kids daily, especially not together as a couple in unity. When they see them messing up, the motivation to pray gets strong, but it could be too late.

Over the years, I have taught regularly that God answers some people’s prayers and not those of others. I have also taught that we intuitively know in our hearts how much prayer power we actually have and that many Christians don’t pray much because they know that not much will happen when they do pray. There are twelve different reasons why our prayers don’t get past the ceiling. I have called those barriers to effective praying “The Dirty Dozen.” Let me give you the first two.

The first of the “Dirty Dozen.” If we don’t listen to God much by not reading His Word, He isn’t going to listen to us much.
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Proverbs 28:9 He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

This is the second of the “Dirty Dozen.” If we do not obey His commandments in His Word and work hard to please Him with our behavior, our prayer power will be weak.
1 John 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

Prayer to God is the most essential way for us to be partnered with God to accomplish His will. Paul uses the phrase “working together with Him.” We can achieve a lot and change a lot through the infinite power of prayer, but only if we have gotten rid of the “dirty dozen.”

How motivated are you to pray? How much faith do you have that God listens and works powerfully when you pray? Our apathy or drivenness to pray is a pretty good indicator of how much the “dirty dozen” is part of our life.