I enjoy very much the NCAA basketball championships called “March Madness.” Many basketball enthusiasts fill out their “bracket,” that is, their predictions for every game played in the tournament. I have never done very well on my card and forgot to fill one out this year. There are 68 teams at the start of the tournament, and on April 8th, the two teams that have survived that rigorous tournament will play for the National Championship. The teams that play in the championship game will have played in 6 games, all against the best teams in the nation. It isn’t just a physical marathon for those final two teams. It is an incredible display of managing pressure. These games are all on national television, and there are possible multi-million dollar contracts with NBA teams in the balance.

When the tournament ends, all the experts will try to figure out why specific teams won and others lost. There are always several significant upsets in the tournament. Why did certain players do well while others flopped? There is already all kinds of discussion on why third-seeded mega basketball powerhouse Kentucky lost to 14th-seeded, no-name, dinky college Oakland, who won an NCAA tournament game for the first time in the school’s history.

I wonder that all the time when I see certain people grow like weeds in their Christian walk, others in the same environment plateau and backslide. What is the difference, and what factors made the difference? The apostle Paul used athletics often in his epistles, describing our life as Christians and our service to Jesus as His disciples.

2 Timothy 2:5 Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Some key principles gleaned from the above verses on growing rapidly as a Christian and being hot, not lukewarm is;

discipline is essential as is self-control.
The desire to win makes a huge difference.
Endurance is the key factor in finishing well.
Those who have goals do exceptionally well.
There are many non-essentials we need to get rid of if we are going to run fast.
There are many other verses and principles; see if you can find them, and then live them.

Psalms 67:1-2 God be gracious to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us—
That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
Psalms 67:7 God blesses us,
That all the ends of the earth may know Him.

What does it mean to be blessed by God? It primarily means to be filled with His joy in spite of circumstances. The more we pray the more God blesses us with joy. God blesses us with joy so that we will attract other people to Him. God blesses us with joy so all the ends of the earth may know Him, so that Your salvation will be spread to all the nations.

That purpose seems more than strong enough to motivate people to come and pray at our “Five Days of Prayer.” Seems like it.

I love corporate prayer times at our church. There is such a powerful sense of God’s presence and pleasure in them. We started getting serious about prayer in 1989. Since then, we have had many ten-day prayer events, multi-day prayer retreats, all-night prayer events, fasting and praying, many prayer walking trips in other countries and our own neighborhoods, and our present five days of prayer. In them all, we have emphasized unity and agreement based on Jesus’s words in Matthew 18:19-20, “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Corporate prayer is God’s will for a church; the more there is, the more blessings we receive from Him. God’s blessings mean more people coming to Jesus, more lives healed from sin, more marriages being put back together, and more glory for God.

In all of this praying in the last 35 years, the big problem and disappointment for me has been my poor hearing; I only hear about half the prayers, even with my hearing aids. I have nagged at people to pray loud; I have yelled, cried, and begged on bent knees, but nothing has worked; they still pray soft with their heads bowed. It is enough to make a grown man cry.

Hallelujah!! One of our smart tech people put table microphones on all the tables for this five-day prayer event, and they have wireless headsets with independent volume control. With one of those headsets on, I can hear every single prayer, even those from the quietest person. I feel like I have been born again, corporate prayer is so much more enjoyable now that I can hear and agree with each person praying.

JBC’s “Five Days of Prayer” started yesterday. We pray from 5:00 to 10:00 am and 5:00 to 10:00 pm Monday through Friday. We pray that many people get saved this next year through the people and ministries we have as a church. The more people who pray, the more God works; I believe that with all my heart. “Much prayer = much blessing, little prayer = little blessing, no prayer = no blessings.” That saying has been one of the central foundation stones in our church since 1990.

Every believer will stand before Jesus at the end of their life and give an account of their life and be rewarded for what they have done with their life for the Lord, especially what they have done to reach lost people and to edify the church, the Bride and Body of Christ. I believe that one of the most rewardable activities we can be involved in is prayer, especially prayer with others.

The corporate prayer life of a church drives it, energizes it, and brings God’s blessing to it.

In the last blog, I said I used seven questions to help me prioritize my various activities. Time management is mostly about doing the most important things most of the time. I gave the first three questions in the last blog, and here are the last four.

4. Will this activity contribute to accomplishing one of my goals. I wrote my 75 goals for 2024 to express my highest priorities and what I believed was God’s will for my life, so I need to devote much time to accomplish them. One of the significant benefits of goal setting is that our goals help us prioritize how we use our time and spend our money.
5. Will this activity enhance my relationship with Patty, family, or friends?
6. Will this activity make me wiser?
   Proverbs 2:2-4
   Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
   Incline your heart to understanding;
   For if you cry for discernment,
   Lift your voice for understanding;
   If you seek her as silver
   And search for her as for hidden treasures;
7. Will this activity fill my emotional gas tank and contribute to my overall health and stamina in running the race of life?

Ephesians 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

How do you make the most of your time?
Most people never think about how they are doing, making the most of their time. As I get older, I think about that more and more. Here are seven questions I ask myself regarding my use of time.

1. Will this activity show up at the “ Judgment Seat of Christ” as an eternal reward for me? Eternal rewards are significant and they are eternal. The joy that we will have in eternity is different between every person. Those who have received many rewards from Jesus for a life well lived will have greater joy. Do what is important in this life, and it will last forever.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

2. Is this activity causing my character to grow? What we are in character when we step into glory is who and what we are for eternity. A fundamental purpose of life is to grow our character to be like that of Jesus. The more like Jesus we are, the more He will enjoy us, and the more we will enjoy Him.

Psalms 90:12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

3. Will this activity make an eternal difference in other people in their character or the rewards they will experience from Jesus? We all are mostly a result of other people’s influence in our lives. I want to be a great influencer in the lives of others

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.

The most significant barrier to prioritizing our time well is naive thinking, thinking about today, tomorrow, and even next year, but not eternity. Most people tend to make choices based on the present benefits, rewards, and pleasures, which seldom have eternal rewards.

More tomorrow

When we think of prayer, we should all acknowledge that most of our praying is for others, and it should be. We all have more influence with God on behalf of others than we do for ourselves. God made it that way so that we are interdependent; we need each other.

But when we spend time praying with others, praying for common goals, needs, and people, many significant things happen in our lives.

We grow in our faith. Our belief that God answers prayers and that the time we spend praying makes a considerable difference in the lives of those we intercede for grows stronger and stronger. Jesus said on numerous occasions that our level of faith determines how much God will work in us and through us. If we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains, and nothing will be impossible for us. Praying does for our faith what lifting weights does for our physical muscles.

The level of influence the devil and his demons have in our lives is reduced significantly when we spend time praying with others. They gain influence in our lives through the various sins we commit, such as anger, bitterness, worldliness, and lying. Obviously, the more power they gain in our lives, the more we will sin, and the more power they gain, the terrible downward spiral many are in. Corporate prayer breaks that cycle and cleans us up spiritually.

God speaks to us, and we hear Him in our thoughts. The devil and his demons talk to us as well. Most Christians can’t tell the difference between the voice of God and the voice of the devil, which is obviously a significant problem if you are trying to follow God’s prompting in your life. The devil and his demons masquerade as God, trying to fool us. During times of corporate prayer, the devil and his demons are silenced, and all you will hear in your thoughts is God’s voice prompting you on what to pray for. You will learn how to discern God’s prompting in your mind.

There are many people whom we all know that are spiritually lost. If they die or the Lord Jesus comes back tomorrow, they won’t be going to heaven. The reason is that they don’t believe the gospel and have not trusted in Jesus Christ as their savior. The devil and his demons have blinded their eyes.

2 Corinthians 4:4: the god of this world (satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The most important thing we can do is pray for them repeatedly that God will supernaturally work in their heart.

Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.

Acts 16:14 a woman named Lydia. . . was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.

This next week is Jefferson Baptist’s five days of prayer. We will pray daily from 5:00 to 10:00 am and pm. We will have dinner at 6:00 pm each evening, along with the praying. We will be praying for our Easter services and the names that hundreds of people have written on prayer cards to be prayed for so that when they invite them to one of the Easter services, they will respond and come.

The Easter services will be a fantastic concert with the gospel being presented, with a great sense of God’s presence because of all the prayer offered during the “five days.”

Our most important responsibility on earth in our lifetime is influencing as many people as possible to trust Christ as their savior. God gave us that responsibility, and with it, He gave us the power of prayer, and the most powerful form of prayer is the agreeing prayer of a unified and loving church family.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Luke 24:45,
“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” When I say one of my favorites, I am saying one of the verses I want to be true in my life. I read the Bible a lot and spend hours every week memorizing it. I read commentaries and listen to sermons by the best Bible expositors. I write a lot about what I see and understand the scriptures to say. I want to understand precisely the truth in every passage I teach. When I read and study, I pray and ask with all my heart, “Please, Lord, open my eyes and mind to understand Your Word and see how best to teach it.

Tonight, I was reading a group of people on Facebook discussing the meaning of a particular Bible passage. I was amazed at the diversity of interpretations and the total lack of scholarship or clear thinking on the part of many who were giving their opinions on the passage’s meaning.

For 48 years, I have pastored at Jefferson Baptist Church. My main goal has been to teach people the true and accurate meaning of the Bible and how to live it successfully so that they can grow to become like Jesus in character, build His church, and bear much fruit for Him as His disciples.

When I was 60 I started thinking about what would happen to JBC if I were to die, and I decided that I needed to find a successor that would carry on with the same emphasis on teaching accurately the living Word of God that I had. After much prayer, thinking, and pondering, I decided on Mike Dedera. He started slow when he took over preaching the weekend services in 2015, but he has grown steadily in his preaching skills over the years. It warms my heart when I walk by his office and see him reading and studying in preparation for teaching the living Word of God.

It is more than skill when it comes to being an anointed preacher and teacher. It is Luke 24:45, “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” He does that for those who want it, ask for it, and study hard.

The Apostle John refers to his readers in the Epistle of 1st John as Fathers, young men, or children. He uses those terms to describe his readers’ spiritual maturity levels, and he writes to encourage spiritual growth and the means to making that happen. One of the principles that I use to motivate myself to do the things that cause growth is in 1 John 2:28, “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.” l anticipate every day, all day long that His coming is imminent, and what I will feel like when I see Him and see His eyes looking at me. I can’t imagine how Peter felt when Jesus made eye contact with him right after Peter denied knowing Jesus for the third time. Luke 22:61 “The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.”

I remember the shame I felt when my Dad gave me a list of things to do on the farm before he left on a four-day trip, and when he got home, I had only completed half of them, not because they were hard but because I had not managed my time well and had snow skied with my friends too much.
When I was a kid, we used to get a big Montgomery Ward catalog every year; there wasn’t much you couldn’t buy out of that catalog. When we got the new one, we used the old one for toilet paper in our outhouse. One time, I was looking at the catalog section with women’s underwear for sale, and my mother walked up behind me. I don’t remember what she said, but I remember that it was several weeks before I could make eye contact with her and not feel ashamed.

The first time I make eye contact with Jesus, I want to see glory and joy. I think about that all day long as I acknowledge in my self-talk that He sees me now, hears all that I speak, and knows all that I think.