Twenty-eight years ago, all eight of our kids were living at home. The oldest was 20, and the youngest was eight. Back up ten years, our oldest was twelve, and our youngest was a baby. For about thirty years, we were raising and training kids. That was a lot of years ago. Now, they are all doing what we were doing.

Most of our kids are visiting for a few weeks, and I am enjoying the time very much. I keep having flashbacks of memories of different events we had with them over those thirty years. I love those memories.

The family consisting of a Dad, a Mom, and kids have been, from the very beginning, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, and nobody knows how many more existed at the beginning of the story. The basic family unit has existed in many countries and cultures for thousands of years. It has endured because it is God’s plan from the beginning.

Our family has been the most significant source of joy in my life. They have been the greatest source of fulfillment and meaning in life.

I am also part of God’s family. He is my Father, and I will live with Him forever. He calls me son, and Jesus calls me brother. It sometimes seems like a long time before I will be with Him, but time does fly, and it won’t be long now.

One of the things that I aggressively do is look for open doors with great anticipation. God orchestrates our lives, and He will provide opportunities to serve Him if we want to serve Him more and ask him for those opportunities. An open door is an opportunity God gives us to do something for Him that matters. We must look for them; they aren’t easy to spot unless we look carefully. We won’t look unless we want to do something great with our lives for Jesus. And we need to ask and pray, over and over again, that God will take us off the bench and put us in the game.

Often, we miss an opportunity because we are tired and don’t want to do anything more. Sometimes, we miss an opportunity because we are so distracted by all the activities of the world. And then there are those wide-open doors we choose not to step through because we are lazy or fearful of failing.

I am over at the coast teaching a group of Pastors for three days because I got a phone call and an invitation. I didn’t want to do it because of my schedule and the time it would take, but I have prayed every day, asking God to provide opportunities like this one; I couldn’t say no.

1 Corinthians 16:9 for a wide door for effective service has opened to me.

2 Corinthians 2:12 Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ a door was opened for me in the Lord,

Colossians 4:3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word.

Revelation 3:8 ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

In my last blog that I wrote about family, I said that we hadn’t had any major crisis except our parents dying. Later, I thought, “Well, sure we have; our son-in-law, Thomas, broke his neck in a farming accident and is paralyzed and in a wheelchair. What is even stranger about forgetting about that is that he, Sherri, and their two kids live with us.

I think the reason that I skipped over Thomas’s accident in my mind is because they and everyone else in our family managed it so well. Everyone has such a strong faith in the love of God that we all believed that God would bless, provide, and use this for His glory and in our growth in our relationship with Jesus. It isn’t that we weren’t sad about all the restrictions and hardships that had now come into Thomas’s life and in his family’s life, but we all trusted the Lord that He was causing the best to happen from His perspective to happen.

There is a lot of complaining, grumbling, and self-pity happening in most people’s lives over every trial and inconvenience that comes into their lives. Very few people faithfully practice 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.”

God dramatically uses those who rejoice instead of grumble during trials, grow to be like Him in character, and will be near Jesus for eternity.

I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Almost all eight of our kids and grandkids will be here in the next few weeks. Of the 45 total in our family, 40 will be here. It is funny how you get used to them being gone, but when they come back to visit, it is a major source of joy. We poured our life into those kids with the goal that they would move away, get married, have kids, and do their own thing, but it is sure fun when they come back for a visit. A major blessing for us is that I grew up in a very healthy family, and Patty did as well. Our own family was unified and loving, and each of our kids has a family that is close and abounding in love for each other. As a Pastor, I have seen so many very dysfunctional families, especially in this day where there are so many drug and alcohol problems. We have worked hard to have a good marriage and raise good kids who love Jesus, and all the work we put into that was well worth the effort.

So far, we have been fortunate that my parents and Patty’s parents dying has been the only major crisis of any kind in our family, with no significant sickness or accidents. It is only a matter of time before a major crisis happens to someone; we know that, that is how life is, but we have the hope of eternal life coming up. So many people don’t have that hope; I don’t know how they manage cancer and other severe diseases and unexpected death.

I just got back from three days at Cannon Beach, where I was attending the annual “Prayer Summit.” The first was in 1989, and there has been one every year since, except for a two-year break for COVID in 2021 and 2022. I have been to every Summit that has been held, that is, 34 “Prayer Summits” that I have been to.

I would have gone back to farming in 1989 had it not been for the spiritual renewal I received at the first one. As a result of that first Summit, I became a Pastor devoted to prayer, and JBC became a church devoted to prayer. Every Summit since then has been good, but nothing equals that first one for me in terms of life change and spiritual growth.

Several “coincidences” resulted in me being at that first Summit, but none of them forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do. God opened some doors and made choosing to go relatively easy, but I still needed to choose.

God is constantly opening up doors and making it easy to choose to do things that will produce spiritual growth in us. We must look expectantly every day for those events and times that are the perfect environment for growth.

My Mom made me go to every VACATION Bible School event near us, and I went to Summer Camp every summer. My Mom used to say that events like those that got you away from everyday life and focused on the Lord were always life-changing with a capital C.

Many Christians seldom choose to go to retreats, camps, seminars, and classes because they are too busy, but the real reason is that they are not passionate about growing in their faith. If you want to grow close to Jesus and bear much fruit for Him, take advantage of every opportunity to get away to an event that focuses on Him.

Most people have expectations of us. Those expectations will create a growing pressure in us to conform to please those with the expectations. A significant part of the problem is that we can’t succeed at pleasing them because we are only doing what is expected of us, and as we do succeed at meeting the expectations, the bar is usually raised. Husbands and wives do this to each other without even thinking about it, parents do it to their kids in the name of good parenting, and bosses and supervisors do it in the name of successful business. These expectations, which are seldom identified or acknowledged, make us prisoners and jailers to each other in our relationships. An added problem is that we often have multiple people with expectations of our lives, and they are different, one with this set and another with different expectations. One way to deal with these expectations that others have of us is to rebel, throw a fit, and let them know in no uncertain terms that we are not their slave. That method of escaping often destroys relationships and hurts people.

Let me suggest a few things to do when you find yourself in a jail that others have built around you, one bar at a time, one expectation at a time. First, identify in your thinking what the expectations others have of you are that you don’t like. Try to be as precise as possible in identifying them in your thinking. Don’t fret about them and make them bigger than they are. Expectations that others have of us are like a piece of sand in our shoes; they irritate us, and, pretty soon, it is all we can think about. Then remind yourself that they set these expectations without thinking about what they were doing; we all do it and are seldom aware of it. If it isn’t a purposeful attempt to control your life, it is harder to get upset and feel used and abused by it.

So your wife expects you will not be home later than 5:15 pm. Your husband expects that the house will always be spotless, your boss expects that you will always work overtime, your parents expect a 4.0 grade point every semester, and on the list goes. Not all expectations are wrong or oppressive, so decide which ones you can live with patiently without fussing about them, verbally or in your thoughts.
When possible, choose to “go the second mile” and do more than expected. When you only do what is expected, you are a prisoner; when you do more than what is expected, you act in freedom.
In the Old Testament, Daniel was expected by his captors to eat food that violated Jewish dietary laws. They had this expectation because they believed it was the healthiest food and would make Daniel strong. Daniel graciously suggested a test where he would eat foods that were approved by the standards of the Laws of God for a time, and then the “boss” could check and see if Daniel was healthier. Gracious communication can often clear up expectations and let others know how you feel about them.

There are a lot of verses in the Bible about seeking God. Almost all of them have a significant promise attached to them. To seek God isn’t trying to find Him; He is everywhere; it is an admonition to grow close to Him in our relationship with Him.
Staying close to God is like having a good marriage; you pursue intimacy by following basic principles. If you don’t follow the principles, your emotions and feelings will fuel your efforts to grow closer in your relationship, and your emotions quickly become focused on self-needs and wants, and your efforts at a growing intimacy will become lazy and inconsistent.
For much of my Christian life, I thought that knowing God meant understanding Him theologically and knowing all about Him. To know God as I know, Patty seemed illogical because I couldn’t see, touch, or hear Him.
My journey towards genuine intimacy with God has been gradual but steady and has come from being faithful to the principles and disciplines of the Christian life. I read my Bible devotionally almost every day, which is different than studying for a sermon; it is reading with an inner ear alert for a thought that could be from God. I spend time in prayer talking to God daily, often while reading His Word. I confess all known sins to God daily, reflecting on the day, examining my life, and asking Him to show me what needs working on. I work very hard at worshipping well when I am at worship services with our church family, and I try to thank Him all day long for every blessing that comes into my life.
An old retired missionary I used to go to for advice and mentoring said, “When we get to eternity, everyone will have a different relationship with Jesus, just like Jesus did on earth when He was a man. Some will be very close and intimate with Him, while others will be distant in their relationship. What will determine our eternal relationship will be the relationship we have with Him in this life. Some people are very close in their walk with the Lord, and when they step into glory, it will be the same.”

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and soul.

1 Chronicles 16:10-11 Glory in His holy name;
Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.
Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face continually.

Psalms 9:10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Psalms 34:10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

Psalms 63:1 O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalms 105:4 Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually.

One of my ongoing goals is to learn a new skill each year. One year, I learned how to “keep bees.” I bought everything I needed, built the hives, and had two hives of bees for about five years when I gave them away to another up-and-coming beekeeper. I learned how to make soap and made lots of soap for three years, and then I gave all my soap-making stuff to another soap maker. I bought a wire feed welder and taught myself to weld from YouTube videos. I also taught myself how to paint cars from YouTube and am now painting a fourth car. Over the years, I have picked up a lot of new skills. Some have been pretty simple, like canning fish or making sausage. One of the more complicated ones was building a greenhouse, putting a 400-gallon tank in the ground, and raising Tilapia in an aquaponics system; that was a lot of fun. At the end of last year, when I was writing my new goals for 2024, I was trying to think of a new skill I wanted to learn that would be fun, relaxing, challenging, and good for a guy approaching old age. I have a Pastor friend who is an artist who paints beautiful pictures, mostly of different animals. I know several people in the church who are taking painting lessons, and my sister-in-law is a great artist who gives lessons. I “googled” artistic painting for beginners and found lots of information. One article suggested that I begin with “paint-by-numbers” painting to learn the mechanics of holding and painting with a small brush. I found a ton of information on companies that sold high-quality, expert-level pictures with all the paint and brushes I would need, as well as coaching on how to make a “paint-by-number” look like a “regular painting” by blending the colors inside the “hard lines.”

I have finished my first painting of a collogue of wild animals, and it turned out pretty good by my standards. I have it framed and hanging on the wall next to my recliner. I am working on my second painting of an old guy fishing in a creek with a red 1952 Ford pickup parked on the bank. The Ford pickup I rebuilt was a red 1949, but that is close enough.

I have found that I enjoy this new skill that I am working on; it is very relaxing, a positive distraction from life’s hecticness, and a new skill and a learning experience.

I wrote a book on prayer about 25 years ago. NavPress published it and quit printing it a few years ago. I have made a goal to write ten more books in the next 15 years. The first one is in the process now as a few helpers, and I am collecting the best of the blogs I have written from July 2014 until now and putting them in a book as lessons for living the Christian life. I will also write a book for Pastors on crucial lessons I have learned over the last 47 years of pastoring; I will write one on the Theology of eternal rewards, one on parenting, one on marriage, another Pastor book on how to start and teach a “Leadership Class” in your church, a couple of Christian novels, and several about our Bicycle trips across the United States. That is a big goal, but I think I can do it if I write the books like I do my blogs, 300 to 500 words every day. I will also try going away all by myself and writing ten hours a day for a week and see what happens. I might also try doing that for a month.

I have always been a dreamer, thinking about the years ahead and what might be and what could be if I worked hard and had a Nobel purpose behind my dreams. When I was 20 years old, I got married and had many dreams, but not one was about being a pastor; I didn’t have a single thought about writing books. I hoped we would have some kids, but I had no idea we would have eight, that they would all be champions for Jesus, and that we would have 28 grandkids, and I have no clue how many grandkids will show up.

I am fascinated with the concept of writing. We have the Bible in writing; God wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger in stone. Psalms 139 says that God wrote His plans for my life in His book. I will work at writing so that my books last over the years because of their value and power to stimulate life change. I am listening to podcasts on writing, reading books on writing, and reading books on various topics written by good writers. I pray daily and ask God to guide, bless, and use me for His glory through this goal.

I have been a bit depressed for the last year, feeling unmotivated, tired, and sort of bored with life because I needed something to challenge me and motivate me. This goal has gotten me revved back up.

I was recently talking to a guy who had just finished his first marathon. We talked about how your mind takes over around miles 18 to 22 and screams at you to stop running because you are killing yourself. This experience that almost all marathon runners have is called hitting the wall, and until you have experienced it, it is hard to understand. But once you have experienced it, you are amazed at how much power your brain has to control your actions, even when they are contrary to what you really want to do. If a person runs multiple marathons, he learns how to run through the wall by ignoring the thoughts that pour into his mind to quit and replacing those thoughts with positive; I can do it thoughts. On the second marathon I ran in Vancouver, British Colombia, I got to mile 18, and there was the beginning of a one-mile-long hill. As I started up the mountain, my mind started whining and complaining, and then a spectator stood up out of his lawn chair and held up a sign he had written that said, “You can do it.” He shouted, “Hey, number 440 (my bib number), I wrote this sign just for you”. It was amazing how powerful that sign was. It shouted out encouragement at the perfect time, changed my self-talk, and I kept running and improved my first marathon time by 30 minutes. Our minds are like spoiled children; we must train them to be strong and tough. Our mind is connected to our Old Nature, which is selfish, lazy, self-absorbed, and likes comfort. The people who accomplish the most in life train their brains and take every thought captive to obedience to Christ.