today we had a big family project of picking our apples and grinding and squeezing them into apple cider. We had 5 of our kids, their spouses and 14 grandkids here, it was a blast. We finished the day with 30 gallons and probably another 5 that was drunk during the day. Over the years that we were raising our 8 kids we usually kept them home from school most Mondays and had a family work day. We did all kinds of projects like making apple cider, cleaning up the place and going to the dump, cutting and stacking firewood, painting, cleaning the house, weeding in the garden, and on the list goes. Our goal was to teach the kids to enjoy working, to work hard, to work together with others in unity, and just to be together as a family doing something productive together. Those family work days are some of my best memories of our kids when they were home, and today was a blessed time of reliving the good old days.

In the Bible the character trait of diligence is mentioned a lot, in fact probably the only character trait mentioned more would be love, it appears to be very important to God.

If you had a garden full of tomatoes and said to me, “my tomato’s did terrible this year, I didn’t get a single tomato!” So I volunteer to look at your tomato’s and see if I can offer any advice. When I look at the dozen plants they are all brown, shriveled, and dead, and I say, “You have to water them if you want them to grow and have tomatoes!” Your response is, “I did, I watered them when I planted them and again 2 weeks later”! My response is” that is not nearly enough” thinking to myself, “is this person really that naive?

A major part of living the Christian life is nurturing your own soul by being faithful to the basic disciplines of the Christian life such as prayer, Bible reading, and gathering with other believers. Many Followers of Jesus aren’t doing very well at growing and maturing in their character, and I find out as I visit that they do pray, read their Bibles and get together with other Christ followers, but not nearly enough.

So how do you know if you are watering your tomato plant enough? It is green, growing, and bearing fruit, that is what tomato plants do if they are healthy. How do you know if you are praying enough, reading your Bible enough and the other disciplines. That is easy, you are green (there is life, passion, and energy in you), you are growing, and you are bearing fruit.

I talk to parents who have problem kids and they will say, among other things, “I prayed for them”. I think to myself, I wonder how much, there needs to be a lot.

The difference between successfully living the Christian life or not, between raising healthy kids or not, having a great marriage or a bad one, is usually just “not enough” of what it takes to succeed in these areas of our life. We are dumb or naive about this basic principle, “you have to water the tomato’s plants or they won’t have tomato’s“. It is as simple as that. We, as people, are into token amounts so that we can say that we did it, but token amounts won’t do much.

I am memorizing the book of Philippians in preparation for teaching through the book on Wednesday nights at JBC. In chapter one Paul is talking about the positives of dying and being with Jesus or of staying alive and being able to serve the Lord here on earth some more. He used the term “fruitful labor” as the blessing of continuing to live on earth instead of in heaven. The longer I live the more I can accomplish for You Lord. Paul appears to be very passionate about the desire to accomplish more with his life, I wonder why? What was the underlying motive that drove him. I have that desire to do more, much more, and I often wonder why. It often bugs me that I can’t figure out my own motives. I periodically wish that I didn’t have this inner drive to do more and more, that I could just relax and do nothing. Get up any time I felt like it, spend most of my time with my grandkids, take lots of naps, have an easy, relaxing hobby like putting puzzles together instead of hunting, fishing, building things, bicycling across the nation, rafting down the Colorado River, and running marathons. I want to teach another seminar, write another book, grow our church bigger, teach another “Leadership Class”, start some more daughter churches, why?? Is it just pride? As I think about it I have come to the conclusion that is a result of my every morning prayer of commitment. One of the lines in my morning prayer of commitment is “today I will live my life as if it is the last one I have before I stand before You, Jesus and give an account of my life and am rewarded for the work I have done for You.” I have prayed that prayer every morning without fail for over 20 years. So, I will declare along with the Apostle Paul, “to live longer means more time to accomplish more with my life for the Lord”. I think I will still play with my grandkids, and take naps, but I will skip the puzzles!

In the Bible Churches are called “The Body of Christ”. That means that a local church like my church, Jefferson Baptist or JBC, is supposed to function like one body or person. That one body or person is supposed to function like Jesus Christ, meaning that we do what Jesus did, or would do if He were physically on the earth now. In order for a church to serve a community and meet needs 2 things must be true of that church. First it must have good unity between all those who attend that church, because great ministries are always the result of many people working together with such unity that they are like one person. Second, a high percentage of those who are part of a church need to function as if they are part of a body. In my physical body if very many body parts don’t work I don’t accomplish much, and I will eventually die. The same is true of a church. If there are to many people attending simply to have their own needs met or to be blessed by the services not much will happen. This summer, like most summers we had a major building project on our facilities. We do these projects in cash from a “Special Offering”, and the work is done mostly by volunteers. This year we replaced all the windows in our gymnasium and in what we call the “Old Sanctuary“, replaced the 40 year old siding with “Hardi-plank” siding, and this weekend we are going to paint it. There have been many different people who have given time this summer on this project and some who have given many hours of hard work. Our facilities are our house, our home as a church family. It is where we gather together to worship the Lord, to teach and learn, to eat and fellowship, to counsel people, to minister to kids, and on the list goes. Our facilities are very functional, they are all paid for, they look nice, and they are a picture of the dedication and involvement of many in our church family.

A command given by God to us over and over again is “do not fear”.

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Deuteronomy 31:8 The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

And the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

So, I have a goal never to fret, worry, be anxious, or to fear anything. I am confident that I can grow to the point of that being true in me, or at least very close, not because I think I am courageous but because God commands it, and what He commands He will give the strength and will to do.

The key is to recognize early on when I am starting to get uptight about anything, and then choosing to set my mind on Joshua 1:9 and other commands and promises from God on peace and confidence. My favorite verse is

Psalms 31:20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.

A life free from worry, anxiety, or fear sounds incredibly attractive to me. I think some don’t even try to pursue that life because they don’t think it is possible given their history and present disposition to being anxious over most every little problem, threat, or perceived threat in their life. I am choosing to pursue a life of complete and total trust and reliance on God, and complete and total freedom from worry, anxiety, and fear of any kind.

Oh, I changed my mind these are my favorite verses,

John 14:1-3 Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

On our bicycle trip a couple of years ago part of our trip had us going through Yellowstone park. There was a pass of about 9,000 feet that we road up and over that had a very small lake at the top called Isa Lake. The lake straddles the continental divide and does something that no other lake does, it has two outlets, one of them flows to the Missouri, then the Mississippi River, and then ends up in the Atlantic Ocean, the other outlet flows to the Snake River, than to the Colombia and then the Pacific Ocean. I used some little sticks to see what way the water was flowing as I threw them in the small lake and watched which way the sticks flowed. From this I came up with a pretty close to center location on the lake. I then took some powdered gator aid and put in my mouth and spit into the lake. The bright orange color of the gatoraide made it possible to watch the progress of several really good spits. Standing in one place I spit and it eventually ended up in the Atlantic Ocean, I spit again, just a few feet to the left of the last spit and it ended up in the Pacific Ocean. This experience was quite amazing to me, just a few feet apart and two spits ended up thousands of miles apart.

Our lives are filled with moments where if things happen one way the result is “miles apart” from where we would be if the event occurs another way that is very close to the first way. Small insignificant differences in events can result in major differences In the outcome in our lives.

Another interesting fact about these defining moments is that almost all of them happen with very little input or cognitive choosing on my part, they just sort of happen.

I believe that it is God in his infinite wisdom who controls and chooses for me that results in most of the outcomes of the various events in my life. If I truly believe that to be true I will worry less and less, and live a life of relaxed intensity.

well, we had a small, outdoor wedding this morning at 9:00 am in Kimberly, Idaho, and Amie and Seth are officially married and headed for “Glacier National Park” for their honeymoon. It was about 38 degrees during the wedding, but it felt like 30 below zero. I had the privilege of preaching the sermon in the wedding, and it lasted less than 5 minutes I am sure, because I was so cold. We had a wonderful time last night as our entire family sang and prayed for Seth and Amie around a big bon fire, and had a Communion Service to finish off the evening.

We are now in the van headed home and will probably make it around midnight. I am working on my memory verses, checking football scores, and sleeping, with an occasional cup of coffee and a snack.

Well, all eight of our kids are now married to wonderful Christian mates who love Jesus, and they all have good marriages and are raising good, well behaved kids who love Jesus. It is a great day, and I think I will take a nap.

A mystery in life is the balance or melding of my choices and God’s sovereign control over the events that occur in my life. There are so many things that have happened to me that from our perspective look like a coincidence, but the Bible is clear, there really is no such thing as a coincidence. God even is in control of the numbers that show up on the role of the dice in a game of Yahtzee.

Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

When I graduated from High School in 1967 I went to a Christian College in Portland, Oregon called Cascade because of the influence of a friend who was attending there. At the end of that school year the school lost their accreditation and it looked like they would not reopen so I enrolled in Biola University in Los Angelos, California, again because of a friend at Cascade who decided to go there. The first part of September in 1968 I moved in with my Uncle and Aunt who lived near the college in Los Angelos, enrolled, started classes, and got a job at a veterinarian clinic. Two weeks after I started classes I got a phone call from a Cascade College official saying the school was going to open, and would I please return. He said he would take care of cancelling classes, getting what I had paid to Biola transferred to Cascade and that my scholarships and financial aid from my previous year would all be good. I packed my bag and was in Portland the next day. That was a significant decision because that was the year that I met Patty. Today there are kids and grandkids that wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t made that move. There was a whole series of coincidences that brought that about. Today sitting here thinking about each of my kids and their lives and all the coincidences that brought each where they are today, it really is quite amazing, such a mystery, and truly wonderful. I still choose but there is a safety net under me, God, His love, and His sovereignty.

Yesterday riding in the van, I read more news on my iPad than usual and the result was a depressed and sad state of feeling emotionally. As I recognized where I was I made some changes, and by the time we reached our camping site I was feeling much better.

We all are in a state of being all the time, a general sense of feeling or an emotional state that influences how we think, talk, and act. Sometimes we feel up and happy, sometimes we are depressed, blue, or sad, and sometimes we feel generally grumpy. It is almost always the events and circumstances in our lives that have the most influence on our emotional state of being. Sometimes it is other people’s treatment of us that shapes our state, other times it can be how we are feeling physically because of tiredness or sickness, and a biggy is the trials and unexpected crises that come into our lives.

There are 2 basic disciplines that mature people practice in their lives in order to control their emotions. The first is, “I can’t control the circumstances of my life, but I can control how I think about the events that occur in my life”. We all understand that our emotions will be automatic following an event, but we can move the needle by choosing and controlling our predominant thoughts following the event. The Bible commands us not to be anxious, not to fear, and not to fret, so we must be able to obey those commands. In the context of those commands is the statement, “God is with us”, “He hears us”, He cares about us”, and “He controls our life”. So choosing to set our minds on God, on His promises, and talking to Him about our life and asking for His help results in His peace, His joy, strength, and sense of confidence and self worth. The simple thought, “I know You are with me, Lord, I trust You that You are causing all things to work together for good in my life, help me now”, will result in a positive lifting of our emotional state.

The second discipline is choosing to act and talk responsibly in spite of how we feel. “You don’t have to act the way you feel”. If we choose to act right we will soon feel much better, we control our emotions by choosing to obey, and by being in charge of ourselves.Way back in the book of Genesis God gave this principle to Cain, but he didn’t get it.

“So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Prolonged periods of a negative emotional state gives the devil much greater opportunities to influence and control us increasing the probability of wrong actions resulting in our emotions moving even lower on the scale.

Ephesians 4:26-27 BE angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.

A key discipline for me to be successful in this area of my life is memorizing Bible verses that I can choose to set my mind on, and meditate on. God’s Word is living, supernatural, and powerful in controlling my emotions, and motivating me to right actions.

There are 45 people in our immediate family and we are all heading for the same spot in Idaho from various locations including Alaska and Hawaii. There are 13 in the van we are presently riding in. We left our house in Jefferson at 3:30 pm and are going to camp in Burns tonight and finish the journey tomorrow. It is pretty noisy in the van with everybody singing and talking, but a fun kind of noise. I can turn my hearing aids off and they are very effective ear plugs, or I can listen to a pod cast of my favorite preacher as my iPad blue toothes into my hearing aids, and nobody in the van even knows! We will all hang out tomorrow and Saturday at Amies house where Amie and Seth and her 4 kids will live happily ever after, after the wedding on Sunday. It is kind of funny thinking about this trip and the gathering this weekend, compared to family trips years ago when we all went to see Patty’s parents or mine. Then I drove the van and told everyone what to do as the Dad. Now I sit in the back and everyone tells me what to do. When the transition started a few years ago I was a bit resistant and often got my feelings hurt as I became less and less the one in charge and more and more “grandpa”, with everyone constantly asking me how I was doing, as if I was on the verge of having a heart attack. Now I am pretty close to being fully adjusted to my new role and place in the family, I just tag along and do what I am told, and enjoy the relaxed time of not having the pressure and responsibility for everyone in the van.