It is very important to read from the Bible everyday, but I also read other books. These are my favorite books from the past several years. Most all were found at thrift stores or used online.

Anam Cara by John O’Donohue (A book of Celtic Wisdom)

He Leadeth Me by Walter J. Ciszek (American priest that spent 23 years in Soviet Gulag)

Holy Desperation by Heather King (Praying as if your life depends on it)

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (A novel of the Viet Nam War, but actually Karl’s story)

Evangelical is Not Enough by Thomas Howard (Worship of God in Liturgy & Sacrament)

Dakota by Kathleen Norris (A Spiritual Geography)

The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris

Prayer Shield by C. Peter Wagner (How to Intercede for Pastors & Other Christian Leaders)

The Unnecessary Pastor by Marva J. Dawn & Eugene Peterson

Working the Angles by Eugene Peterson (The Shape of Pastoral Integrity)

Ten Things Wrong with the Modern Church by Paul Washer

Knowing God by J.I. Packer (Took over a year to read, so much good information.)

Catholics Wake Up by Jesse Romero (Be a Spiritual Warrior)

Map of My Dead Pilots by Colleen Mondor (The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska)

What if your football team only came to weightlifting one day a week? Would the team get better with this one day a week workout? Would the individuals on the team be able to increase their personal maximum best lifts and be able to run faster and jump higher with greater agility with a one day a week workout?

Everything that I read about weightlifting says that if you lift once a week you are just maintaining what you have. You are not increasing your strength and you are basically standing still.

So in our spiritual lives if we work out with God only one day a week do you suppose you are growing your strength and faith or are you just standing still?

Get busy and grow your strength and faith in the Lord to your maximum potential by working out more often with our Father in Heaven.

Isaiah 40:30-31 Even youth grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

This video was not put here as a political statement on who I voted for or didn’t vote for. This video was put here to stop men and women from dealing with the pain of abortion.

A good friend of mine got his girlfriend pregnant in college and paid for her to have an abortion. She ended up in a mental institution for a period of time and my friend became a drunken drug addict. Both of them eventually found Jesus, but they were never together again.

It takes courage to stand up for what is right and this priest has got it right. I pray we have more leaders of faith do the same.

https://youtu.be/M92PX3Df7HM

Several weeks into the football season, the coach would tell us he wanted a perfect play drill. He would call an offensive play and we were supposed to perform it with no mistakes. He then would put the offense against the defense and expect the same perfect play. As you can guess it rarely happened to be perfect against the defense.

In life we are not perfect either. King David was a man after God’s own heart. He knew the Ten Commandments, he knew right from wrong, but he saw Bathsheba and desired her in his mind first, which lead to coveting, adultery, lies and murder.

You and me are men just like King David. We know we should not commit adultery, lust or fornicate, but we do have inner thoughts of things we should not do and at times we fail even if it is just in our imagination.

There is no perfect church where there is no sin. There is no perfect pastor, priest or preacher. If your pastor and church is held up as the perfect place you know it is a fake. None of us are perfect, but we must strive for perfection.

Paul the Apostle talked about this imperfection in men and claimed he was the chief sinner of us all. He took the Gospel to the gentiles and wrote many letters that are in the Bible today. A great man, but still a sinner, just like you and me.

1 Timothy 1: 15-16 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

Romans 7:15-20 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Coach Larry Huck passed away this week. He was our head football coach from my freshman through junior year of high school. Part of our daily ritual at practice during warm up calisthenics was doing up downs. Coach loved up downs and as players, we hated up downs. If coach was unhappy with the team, the more up downs we did.

One day at practice the up down session was going extra long. One of the players on the back row yelled out, “Coach you are killing us.” Coach yelled back, “Killing you am I?” As we ran in place waiting for the next whistle to blow coach lectured us. “I am not killing you. You have more in you than you realize and I know you can do one more” as he blew the whistle again. And he continued to tell us we could do one more and continued to blow the whistle for what seemed like an eternity.

What coach was teaching us that day had a little to do with football, but more about life in general. No matter how tired you are, no matter what life throws at you and it can get difficult with death, sickness, marital issues, family problems, work problems you get knocked down, but you need to get back up.

At the time we did not understand the lesson coach was teaching us. We thought he was being……well I don’t want to tell you what we thought of him at that moment, but they weren’t nice thoughts.

Jesus said the same thing to his disciples at one point, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (John 13:7)

I’ll come and see you coach, after my up downs are done on this side.

During my junior year of high school I needed to have an operation to remove a bone spur from my right knee. My parents and I decided to have it done at the end of basketball season and at the start of track season.

After surgery I went to track practice every day and did trainer or manager duties such as filling water bottles, helped tape guys and gave rub downs on tired, sore legs. At the end of that six week period I was given a doctors release to start running again. I was able to run in two practice sessions before that Fridays track meet, where I was put in a half mile run.

That Friday I ran the best race I could. When the race was over, I did not feel good. I walked to the goal post on the football field and vomited. My lack of practice time and my running as fast as I could for two minutes caught up with my out of shape body. I was sick. I vomited several more times in the next five minutes.

Now I had been at track practice every day for the past six weeks but had not been doing the workout on any of those days. Just hanging out at practice will not keep you in shape to run the race.

Can you see a comparison between going to track practice every day and not doing the workout, and in our daily lives of not exercising with God the Father every day?

We are supposed to be working out with God the Father every day. We are to read the Bible, pray, study, meditate and be in touch every day. If we don’t spend anytime working out with God week after week, then what do you suppose will happen to us when we are put in the real race of life and must give it every thing we have?

So are you in shape from working out with God the Father or are you just hanging around and are an out of shape Christian?

1Timothy 4:8 For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

There were a couple of brothers that lived down the street from where my family lived. We went to the same church, same Boy Scout troop, were roughly the same age as my brother and me and their Dad worked for the same company our Dad did. We hung out together a lot.

When the older brother was in 8^th grade he set the middle school record for situps at 1,100 or 1,200 during his P.E. class which lasted roughly an hour. The situps were done while someone held your feet solid to the ground and as you did the situp your knees were bent and your hands held together behind your head. As you came up you touched your knees with your elbows. When you went back down you had to have your back and shoulders flat on the gym floor.

The record holders little brother was in 7^th grade that year and little brother decided when school started in the fall he was going to break his big brothers situp record. Recently, I asked little brother how he prepared for the competition that fall.

He began doing situps as soon as summer started. Before he went to bed each evening he did 20 situps. He continued to raise the number each week until he was doing 200 each and every night before he went to bed.

I asked him if he did pushups during this time. He said he did pushups in the same way with each evening doing so many and increasing the number each week. The most he did was 50 before bed each evening.

When school started he felt ready to claim the situp record. During the competition he felt great and never was hurting. He did 1,550 situps and wanted to continue, but the P.E. teacher made him quit, because had to go to the next class.

There is always competition between brothers of the same family. The Bible tells the story of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, the prodigal son and his brother. Those stories tell a difficult and hard lesson to learn. May you have competition with your brother, but may your bond to your brother be strong.

1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

https://youtu.be/NtxWTRt0vhI

My memory, of my Grandfather Mac is of me sitting on his lap at his home and him reading the Bible and the great stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, Jonah and the whale, Moses, Samson, David and Goliath and about Jesus. My Grandpa Mac died of a heart attack walking home from work at noon hour when I was three years old and he was sixty three. My own Father found his Dad dead on the city sidewalk as he also drove home for noon hour.

My Father insisted that we go to church every Sunday. My Dad came from a family of 6 kids and he was the only one that took his family to church every Sunday. My Mother also came from a family of 6 kids and they did not go to church. When I was about 12 years old my Mother asked me how I could believe in God or Jesus when you can’t see them. I asked my Mother, “Do you believe in the wind? You can’t see the wind, but you can feel the wind. I can’t see God, but I feel the presence of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in my life.

Both sides of my extended family had issues with sin in their lives, adultery, alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitutes, sexual immorality, divorce, early deaths, suicides, children out of wedlock given up for adoption. My family is probably a lot like your family. We all have problems with sin.

There is a story written in the Touchstone magazine about the truth about men and church. The research is from 1994 and the article is from 2003, but my guess is it is very appropriate still for today. Here is a quote from that shocking article: if Dad does not go to church, no matter how faithful his wife’s devotions, only one child in fifty will become a regular worshipper.

So today, I am humbled, grateful and thankful that my Grandpa Mac and my Dad took our family to church every Sunday back in the day.

Here is a link to the magazine article.

Kevin Stephenson first discovered St. Augustine while in seminary at Oral Roberts University, and wasn’t exactly sure what to make of him. But when Kevin read the Confessions, it moved him deeply; he was able to relate to the struggles of St. Augustine on a very personal level. Kevin was also surprised to see Christianity alive and thriving on Augustine’s home continent of Africa that early in Church history; he had been under the impression that Christianity was relatively new to Africa, and didn’t realize it was one of the first apostolic mission fields. St. Augustine became a Christian in the year 384.