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We received a letter the other day from Christian friends in their 70s. Their lives are filled with travel and golf. What was intriguing was their explicit declaration that life was “boring” despite their describing each activity as “fun.” 

What’s wrong with this picture? It doesn’t sound as if they are experiencing the “abundant life” that Jesus promised:

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10.10, NKJV)

Some people may define the abundant life as living on a golf course and traveling to exotic places, but that strategy doesn’t seem to be working. (I’m not against golf or travel; remember, it is these people who describe their life as “boring.”)

Maybe no one has told these lovely people that God has important work for them to do no matter how old they are! That they can be generating Holy Moments that can impact the world. That if their antenna is up for people God wants them to help, they can be involved in the Great Adventure of the Great Commission. God wants to use them on their Frontlines.

But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. (Mark 4.19, NIV)

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15.1, 2, NIV)

O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. (Psalm 71.17, 18, ESV)

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Persistence keeps coming up! Liana persisted in catching her fish. The Lord desires persistence in prayer. And here’s another story.

We spent last week at Spring Canyon, a conference center operated by Officers’ Christian Fellowship. When you’re at such a place, it looks like it’s always been there, but, of course, that is not the case. Spring Canyon resulted from the vision and persistence of one man: Cleo Buxton, an officer who was conducting discipling adventure tours in the 50s and 60s. He believed a permanent location in the mountains would facilitate “vacations with a purpose.” 

When he found the property, owned by people who wanted to sell to a Christian organization, he pitched the idea to the OCF Board. They replied something like, “Thanks but no thanks. We’re not in the conference business.” Undaunted, Buxton formed a non-profit organization, ROACT, raised the money from like-minded friends, and bought the property in 1962. OCF formally purchased it from ROACT for one dollar years later. And it’s been used to bless thousands of people through the decades.

One guy. And when told no, he persisted until he succeeded. (They’ve named part of the Spring Canyon conference center complex after him!)

God often raises up one person to initiate important actions to move his story along. The person is often outside the existing authority structures: Moses, a shepherd in the desert; Gideon, a fearful winemaker; Nehemiah, the king’s servant in a country 600 miles away. Jesus himself was outside existing structures, as were the first disciples.

The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote–Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1.43 – 46, NKJV, emphasis mine)

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4.13, NKJV)

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I wrote yesterday that persistence is a measure of faith. Here’s an example from the dark ages of military phone services.

When I was on active duty, 1970 – 1990, there were three kinds of telephone lines connected to many desk phones, which had a row of buttons to choose the line. 

One line dialed only numbers on local military installation. Another would get you to a local outside line, accessed by dialing “9” to get the outside line dial tone. Some phones were equipped with a line that would dial other military bases through the AUTOVON system, and we accessed that system by dialing “8.” The challenge was there weren’t enough lines for more than a certain number of people on the base to use AUTOVON at the same time, so “8” frequently got you a busy signal even if you were on an AUTOVON line. You also got a busy signal if you dialed “8” on a non-AUTOVON line.

Question: how many times would you dial “8” to get an AUTOVON line dial tone? Answer: it depends on how urgently you needed to make that call AND how sure you were that you were on an AUTOVON line. When I visited another base and needed to call my office, I would use someone else’s phone. And if there was no one around to ask which line was which, there was the uncertainty.

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. (Luke 18.1, NLT)

Our ability to “pray and never give up” is a function of our faith in God AND how sure we are that we are asking for is appropriate. Someone said, “You ought to pray before you pray,” meaning, discern the will of God before you ask for something. Then, like Liana and her fish, persist! I’m still working on this practice!

And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. (1 John 5.14, 15, NLT)

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Last week we took our three granddaughters to Spring Canyon, near Buena Vista, Colorado, and one of the highlights for them is the time on the ponds. There are watercraft of many types they can paddle around in, and there is fishing! By Thursday afternoon Kesley and Shirah had each caught a fish. Liana, the youngest, age 10, hadn’t. So she worked at it for about an hour after the picnic Thursday. Nothing. I tried to explain that when you go fishing, sometimes you catch something, and sometimes you don’t. But that didn’t help her disappointment. 

At dinner she said, I want to go back to the ponds after dinner. I have to catch a fish. So she and Kesley got some bread from the kitchen went down to the ponds, found a cane pole (Kesley’s favorite kind—very superior to rods and reels because of its simplicity!), and…Liana caught her fish! We had no tools to clean it, so we just bagged it, froze it, took it home, and ate it there.

Persistence. It’s a trait that will serve her well. Moses led the Israelites through 10 plagues and 40 years to leave Egypt and reach the border of the promised land. Ezra and Haggai pushed through and rebuilt the temple after a long delay. Nehemiah finished the wall through opposition in 52 days. Jesus hung in with the 12 for three years.  

Persistence. Persistence is a measure of faith. I’ll write more about that tomorrow.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11.6, NLT)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. (Hebrews 12.1 – 3, NLT)

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When you read this, we will have returned from our week at Spring Canyon. Wednesday was a free day, and we took the granddaughters to the Mount Princeton Hot Springs, just a few miles away.

June and I first saw the facility more than 25 years ago, and, quite frankly, it was a bit of a dump. In recent years, someone has poured some money into it, and it’s quite nice, even though the 100-year-old bath house is still in use. As I looked at the attractive naturally heated pools, one for soaking and one for swimming, and the 400-foot water slide, recently added, I thought about accessibility. 

The hot springs have always been there, but in their natural state, they would be hard to use. It would be rocky. Those pools and the slide didn’t build themselves. Neither did the roads we used to drive to them. A number of people worked hard to make the hot springs accessible to the public and enjoyable. 

I wrote the other day that I stand on the shoulders of others. We all do. Someone has worked to make our following Jesus accessible. I’m always encouraging us to spend time in the Word, which we couldn’t do if someone hadn’t translated it and someone else hadn’t printed it or made it available on an app. 

I’ve devised a simple method to get you started with daily time with God, a method someone taught me. Lectio Divina is a similar system, but mine is more accessible since it’s in English (joke)! Following Jesus through the challenges of real life is hard, but preparing to follow Jesus needn’t be. 

Please remember that as you help others. Pass on to them the tools you’ve been given. Show them how you use them. Keep making following Jesus accessible to all.

Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few…These 12 Jesus sent out…” Matthew 9.37, 10.5 (Jesus made going out accessible!)

Freely you have received; freely give. (Matthew 10.8, NASB)

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I’m working on a book that I hope to finish by the end of the year: it will be called Everyone on the Wall, starting with Nehemiah 3, where, when they built the wall, nearly everyone was involved. It’s been on hold for a while, and part of the reason has been this blog! I’m getting the hang of producing a blog EVERY DAY(!), but in so doing, I haven’t quite figured out how to keep the book writing going.

That said, one of the problems may be that God stalled the book production until some ideas that need to be in the book came together. Among those are the 6Ms of Fruitfulness on the Frontline by Mark Greene and Holy Moments from The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity by Matthew Kelly, both of which I’ve written about in this blog. 

But just today, I’ve modified the 6Ms! Here they are, as Mark lists them, ways God can use me as I’m fruitful on the frontline:

• Model godly character
• Make good work
• Minister grace and love
• Mold culture
• be a Mouthpiece for truth and justice
• be a Messenger of the gospel

All good things, but we missed one! There are two ways to increase the amount of fruit in the world. I need to bear all the fruit I can:

Every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. (John 15.2, ESV)

The other way to increase the amount of fruit in the world is to help other bear fruit! So let’s add the 7th M: Make disciples! We increase fruit, for example, by making good work AND by helping others understand that making good work is the godly and fruitful thing to do. By creating all the Holy Moments we can and also by helping others understand how they can create Holy Moments.

By this is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit; so will you be my disciples…You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit… (John 15.8, 16, NKJV)

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We’re still enjoying the teaching of Chaplain Dan Holcomb at Spring Canyon. “Disciplines of a Warrior” resonates with a lot of the things that I teach (of course—we all have the same book!). What’s sad, and I discussed this with Dan, is that he’s been in ministry 41 years and just discovered these principles about 4 years ago.

I’m reminded of an incident when I was on church staff back in the early 2000s. I invited Rich, a Navigator friend of mine, to do a one-day seminar which included instruction on daily time with God. In attendance was a couple in their 60s, the wife in a wheelchair. About a year later, Rich came back for another seminar, and the husband came up to Rich and said something like:

Rich, I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your coming last year, especially the teaching on how to have meaningful fellowship with God. My wife really enjoyed putting that into practice and experienced many meaningful times with God. She has since gone to be with the Lord.

On one hand, this is a great story. I’m ecstatic the lady was able to have meaningful fellowship with God before she died. On the other hand, I’m sad. This couple was in their 60s. Her husband was a Licensed Local Pastor (lay pastor in their denomination), and, like Dan, they were just learning what should be the basics of the Christian life. As Dan has said, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ… (Ephesians 4.11, 12, ESV)

One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray…” (Luke 11.1, ESV)

Jesus came to them and said, ”…Go and make disciples of all nations,… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28.18 – 20, NIV)

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I’m thinking about the spiritual disciplines and what prevents our engaging with them. I write often about daily time with God, not because it’s the only discipline or the “end all be all” but because it’s a good starting place. 

So the challenge is setting aside time to do it. I’ve said often: having Time with God isn’t hard. Setting aside time to have Time with God is hard!

Our Spring Canyon speaker told about a particular assignment in which the only time he could consistently have time with God and still get to work on time was 3:30 a.m. That reminded me of Dick Schultz, former Head of the US Olympic Committee and former President of the NCAA. He was in his late 70s when he shared his daily routine during those days: 

Every morning I allow one hour to work out, one hour for time with God, and one hour to get dressed, have breakfast and get to work. So it’s really simple. If my first meeting is at 7:00 a.m., I have to get up at 4:00! It’s not rocket science.

I often have this conversation with men, especially when a man comes to our second meeting with the confession, “I didn’t read my Bible this week.” I always say, “OK, let’s figure this out, and the conversation goes something like this: “What time do you have to leave the house for work?” “7:45.” What time do you get up in order to get out the door by 7:45?” “6:00.” “OK, if we wanted to start with 15 minutes for our time with God, we’d have to get up at 5:45, yes? And to get up at 5:45, what time would we have to go to bed the night before?” See, it’s not rocket science, but it might require missing part of last night’s game.

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. (Psalm 5.3, NKJV)

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. (Mark 1.35, ESV)

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Our Spring Canyon speaker, retired Army Chaplain Dan Holcomb, told a very effective parable that I want to share with you. It’s the kind of thing I wish I had written! (I hope you understand that some of my stuff is original, but I’m also standing on the shoulders of others! Dan credits the story to Chuck Swindoll.) 

Here’s Dan’s story:

A business owner called his employees together and said, “I’m going away for a while, and I want you all to keep the business going. I’ll be sending emails from time to time to help keep you on track.” When the owner returned a couple years later, the business was in shambles. He asked them, “Didn’t you read my emails?” 

They replied, “You bet! In fact, we compiled them into a book, and we have read them all very carefully. In fact, we gather at least once a week to have an email study to discuss them!’

The owner was shocked. “Didn’t you do anything I told you to do?” 

“Do anything? No, we didn’t do anything, but those were some really fine emails!”

Well told, Chaplain Dan!

[Jesus said, ] “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.” (Matthew 7.26, MSG)

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I’m at Spring Canyon near Buena Vista, Colorado, where I had the privilege of speaking last year. This year’s speaker is a 31-year Army chaplain, now retired, and the topic is “Disciplines for the Warrior.” He and I are on the same page.

He opened with a story from a particular denomination that I won’t name (he did!) that he used to be part of. A denomination whose emphasis was get ‘em saved, and get ‘em baptized. I was in such a church not long ago, where after a baptism, the pastor said, “That’s what we’re here for. To see people saved and baptized!” And I thought, “So why am I here?”

Anyway, the speaker’s story went like this: 

I was on staff of a church which had weekly attendance of 2,000. In the two years I was there, we baptized 800 people/year, 1,600 people in two years. And what was our weekly attendance after two years? 2,000. When 2,000 + 1,600 = 2,000, something is wrong.

He said, “Our mission is to make disciples, and disciples grow through the disciplines.” I couldn’t agree more. 

Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples…” (Matthew 28.18, 19)

Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. (1 Timothy 4.7, NASB)