Today, Mildred Schindler Janzen lives in Ellsworth, Kansas. This book is her story. It is a great read. Below is a video of her talking about her life in small bits. If you are a history teacher this is history that needs shared with your students. People forget history so we repeat it.

As we get ready to start a new year, we make New Years Eve resolutions. We have Hope to do it better in the New Year.

I wrote this talk just after Thanksgiving. Two weeks later a young guy was at our home doing some work for us.

We did not talk about the weather, football, sports or his faith, we only talked about the work he would be doing. I can still see his face as he walked by me for the final time, on the way to his vehicle. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and by the time he got to town, it would be time to quit working for the day. A week later he was gone, he committed suicide.

We men, when someone asks us how we are, we usually answer, “Good.” We don’t want to get into the specifics of how we really are. We keep that inside of us.

In reality, we are unhappy at what is happening in the world around us. We are unhappy about some of our relationships. We sometimes feel as though we have failed. We feel like church is for little kids and women. We don’t want to go. We would rather cuss, drink, talk to pretty women and watch fist fights.

But the greatest fight, we will have, will be against satan. He wants us dead and with him in Hell.

The following table shows deaths in Kansas only. Unintentional deaths were vehicle wrecks, falls, drowning, etc. Drugs were heroin, cocaine and opioids. These stats came from a Kansas website. These numbers have slowly increased over the last twenty years.

Year                    Unintentional           Suicide              Homicide           Drugs

The table below, from Gallup polls, tells us what Americans over the entire country believe in and how often they go to church. The less you go to church the less you believe in the almighty Father in Heaven and the Devil and Hell also.

Attendance         Belief in God             in Heaven       in Hell              In Devil

I believe people are losing hope. The meaning of hope is ambition, expectation, desire, wishing, dreaming, longing and anticipation. Where does hope come from?

Viktor Frankel was an Austrian psychiatrist who was put in a concentration camp during WW II. He survived and wrote a book shortly after the war called, ‘Mans Search for Meaning.’ While he was in the concentration camp he studied the other prisoners. Why did some survive and some did not? Below are some of his most famous quotes.

“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”

“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by a lack of meaning and purpose.”

The men that survived had a meaning and purpose. Some wanted revenge on the guards and Nazis. Some wanted to see family after the war was over. Those who could see no purpose or meaning to life died in the camps. And these were men who had been selected to work in the camps, not those who on arrival were sent to the gas chambers immediately.

The Bible says hope comes from the Lord.

Psalm 62:5-6 Yes, my soul finds rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

Job 8:13 So are the paths of all who forget God; and the hope of the godless will perish.

The Westminster Catechism was written for the Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1648. What follows is number one on the list of 196 questions.

What is the chief and highest end of man?

Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church in #27 puts it this way:

The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.

Over the years, if I have gotten into a conversation with someone who I think is struggling with life. I tell them, when they reach the bottom of the pit and they feel they are about to lose hope. I tell them to call out in Jesus name and say, “Jesus I don’t believe in you, but if you are real help me somehow right now.”

Mark 9:23-24 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

We come to church each Sunday to be filled again with the Holy Spirit and we take it out into the world. The world sucks it out of us and we need to be refilled, regenerated, and redeemed over and over again.

I don’t believe in the ‘once saved, always saved’ and now I never have to go back to church again nonsense.

We should live our lives in such a fashion as people wonder what we have? Why are they so filled with hope?

Our hope is in Jesus; to save us from this life of sin we are born into.

So live your life each day with hope and be ready to share that hope with all you meet each day of the week. Because as the tables above show, people are losing the battle, they are losing their hope.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

There is the real hope to life. Memorize that verse if you have not.

Merry Christmas to each of you.

December 24, 2023 Gospel Reading and Reflection

During my 8^th grade year of school in P.E. class, we sat on benches in the locker room in alphabetical order, after we had dressed in our gym clothes. To my left was Mike and to my right was Pat. Both Mike and Pat were two of our best athletes in school and were involved in football, basketball and track.

Everyday I would say, “How you doing Mike?” He would always answer, “Good and you?” I would turn towards Pat and he would say something like, “Screw you McGonagle.” Once in awhile, I would answer like this, “Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?” I liked both guys, they just had different personalities.

Several years later, I was having an adult beverage in a local establishment; Pat comes in the door and sits by some guy at the other end of the building. About three minutes later they were throwing punches at each other. As the owner was throwing Pat out of the building, he was saying, “Why me?”

Pat died at the age of 45. Mike died during our 8^th grade year of school. Both of those guys at some point in their lives probably said, “Why me?” I know I have said that to myself many times. Why did Mike die so young? Why did Pat die so early? Why has God kept me around and those two had to go so early?

1 Peter 1:6-8 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer in grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

If you are or have been suffering in grief or any other kind of trials, know that you are not alone. Years ago I saw a sign on the back of the football stadium that said, “It isn’t the life that matters, it is the courage you bring to it.”

Courage and the meaning of fatherhood. One of the best minute and a half speeches of all time. From the 1960 movie The Magnificent Seven

One of my freshman English classes at college was taught by a Marine Corp officer, combat veteran of Vietnam. The only text book I remember from that class was the book The Exorcist by William Blatty. The Exorcist is a book about demonic possession and the attempted exorcism of the young girl who was possessed. It is a novel based on a true story.

The book was read aloud in class and we were to read at home also. We discussed the book endlessly through out the semester. The movie came out that year and it was an assignment. The teacher took a roll call outside the theatre and we sat together. The movie, the book, the whole thing gave me the creeps. I couldn’t tell you what we were supposed to have learned, but I never forgot the class.

Among Americans, 50% believe that Satan is a living fallen being created by God. About 50% believe Satan is just a symbol of evil. Those percentages depend on which survey you want to read. If we are to believe Jesus was who he says he was and then he talks to Satan in the Bible in several situations, don’t you think we should believe in Satan?

Several years ago I was watching a sermon online from a well known pastor from a mega church in the Midwest. He said, “We have surveyed our membership and a third of you believe in Satan, a third of you don’t and a third of you don’t know what to think and I am not sure either.”

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis was a conversation between two demons. Screwtape tells Wormwood that the most effective thing he can do to bring souls to hell is to convince people that Satan does not exist.

Job 1: 6-7 There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered, “From going to and fro on the earth.”

1 John 5:19 We know that we are from God and the world lies in the power of the evil one.

1 Peter 5:8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

My friend Ellina Lesnik lives in Ukraine. We hosted Ellina and her husband and three girls this past summer at our home for a 4th of July party. Ellina and her husband have since gone back to Ukraine and are helping to feed hungry people working with Samaritans Purse. Both of them are Christians working to bring the bread of life and bread of heaven to people all over the unoccupied areas of the Ukraine. Reading her emails and facebook posts the struggle and suffering they go through are unimaginable.

She told me this past summer she had written a book titled ‘My Imperfect Marriage’. She opens up her own marriage and the marriage of her own mother and father and shares the abuse, neglect, struggle they have had. Then each chapter of the book tells about a particular marriage in the Bible, of which there are 22, and relates it to her and her parents marriage.

The following is a portion of the introduction:

I promise you that this book is free of sugary perfection, empty romance, and superficial advice. We will talk about difficult family issues, hopeless situations, dead ends, wounded destinies and really bad marriages.

My purpose is to show you, dear reader, that God does not work in perfect marriages, but in ordinary ones. Sometimes even the worst ones. And there is always a lot of hope in His action!

This book has been written to live out in the real world, in real marriages, to give you hope, to encourage you, and to strengthen you as a couple.

If you do nothing but read the introduction to the book and the first chapter you will be encouraged in your own marriage.

Go Fund me page

Sergiy and Ellina tax deductable page

NBC story on Sergiy and Ellina in Ukraine

Luke 13: 6-9 (King James Version) Till I shall dig about it and dung it.

Dung it means manure. This fig tree has no fruit so they are ready to cut it down. The gardener says lets give it one more chance to be fruitful.

Are you bearing fruit in your life? Are you useful to God the Father? He will give you another chance to be fruitful. But first he may put manure around you.

How many times have you heard someone say, “My life is full of crap” or something similar? Crap being another name for manure. Well maybe God is just fertilizing you and expecting some new growth from you, that will then bear fruit.

The football season is getting close to starting. We have been fasting from football. When we think of fasting we normally think of not eating or drinking and we also associate fasting with lent in the spring time of the year. But I am telling you we have been fasting from football for months now and I am ready to start enjoying the savor of eating, drinking and focusing on football again.

I have thought for years we love the game of football so much because we don’t get to play football or watch football year round. Other sports you can play all year long. But football we can only get ready for the game of football year round by lifting weights, playing 7 on 7, football camps etc. We also only have a certain season of life you get to play the game of football. It is here and then it is gone. Enjoy it while you can because soon you don’t get to play it anymore.

Fasting is something we should do in our spiritual lives. Actually, in the world today many have chosen to fast from anything religious and have been gone from church services and Bible reading for years. Covid-19 just emptied out churches and many have struggled to get people back involved.

What we need to fast from is our phones, television, internet, media, radio and other devices that take up our time. I am not saying stay away forever just have a certain day or time of day you choose not to do those things.

John Wesley the founder of the Methodist Church fasted every week from sundown Thursday to sundown Friday. You don’t have to fast from food you could give up a latte once a week and focus on prayer instead. Anything you find comfort in you could fast from such as the phone in the morning. Pick up the Bible first thing on Mondays and not your phone for five minutes.

Mathew 6:16-18 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen and your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Once football practice was over and you went to the locker room and started taking off the football gear you started realizing how hot and dirty you were. When you got under the shower and the water started hitting you sometimes you would just stand there and relax and let that water flow over you. Then you would grab one of the bars of soap that had been given to the school, as the price of admission, at the annual soap scrimmage and start lathering up your body and washing away all that filth and grime and sweat and such that was on you.

Have you ever thought that cleaning is just what God wants us to do with him? Everyday we must clean our bodies, but we also need to clean up spiritually each day.

The shower and cleaning each day should not be taken for granted. Running hot water inside a house, during all seasons of weather, with it draining away is a miracle that hasn’t been in the lives of humans forever.

The spiritual cleaning we need has been available for 2,000 years, ever since Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but we seem to ignore it and think we don’t need it. Many people have this thought; I went forward at a religious service or was confirmed years ago so I am good. Sorry to tell you, but no one is perfect and we all need to be cleaned up every day from the filth, dirt, sweat and grime we live in each day in this world.

May we thank God for the miracle of the cleaning we have available in our lives from Him.

1 John 1:8-9 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.