“Bow down and hear me O Lord, for I am poor and needy.”  Psalm 86:1

Yes, Lord, I in myself and we in ourselves are poor and weak.

 Without you we are powerless, directionless, in the dark. Our tendencies are all in the wrong direction: we are naturally proud, judgmental, divisive, lazy, selfish and unbelieving, fighting each other, wanting control.

We are hopeless without you, Lord; alone we can do nothing right. This is one side of the picture. Help us in the church to recognize this.

“Preserve my soul, for I am holy…” (verses from Ps. 86:1-3). The other side is that you have made us holy: you called, cleansed and transformed us; you claimed us as your children; you commissioned and equipped us for special service to you.

Now we stand before you dearly loved, decisively accepted, delighted in, deeply cared for, doted on, and doubly blessed in being your children–when what we actually deserve is Hell.

We are given over and dedicated to you, Lord. We praise you for the great grace, the immense grace, the unfathomable grace you show us in this.

You are the God who deserves worship and praise, love and obedience. May we give that to you today!

Picture: worship followed by obedience

After 78 years of adventures with Jesus, I want to share the many biblical lessons God has taught me over the years. Many of these He taught while having me live in multiple cultures, which makes them applicable most anywhere.  And most of these lessons came out of problems, difficulties and failures, which makes them “battle tested” and trustworthy.

I have now put a number of these lessons into simple videos. They are useful for personal growth, for counseling, teaching and discipling.

They cover subjects such as the following, with more in the works. They are, of course, free.

If you find them useful,  please tell  others about them.

Spiritual Warfare

Using Heavenly Wisdom

The “How to” of Forgiveness

Dealing with Junk Stress

Leading Yourself Well

Happiness and Joy

Overcoming Depression

Quiet Time

Lifting Your Soul to God

Offering the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

The “How to” of Biblical Meditation

Transforming Negatives into Positives

Child Raising

Confessing in Layers

Confessing Ahead

You can check them out at:

EdifyingServicesPublishing.com   or use this QR code to find them:

Another adventure with Jesus.

Last week I lost my iPhone, which is an essential part of my work (and life!). That means not only that I lost my phone, but all my stored information: phone numbers, pictures, texts and messages.

Emotionally this could be equivalent to falling into a deep dark pit (communication cut off), or it could be launching off on an adventure with Jesus. And how does one do that? Simply by trusting, implemented by offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving, as it says in Psalm 50:21, and when we do that, we honor God and open the way for Him to show us the salvation of the Lord.

Well, I kind of hoped He would bring the phone back to me, but He had other plans, little gifts along the way.

–First I found that I could have all calls to my cell directed to my home phone. Great!

–Then I was able to get a used phone exactly  like my old one.

–Then my provider promised  to send out a new sim card right off.

–Then when I got the phone, I found that I could send and receive texts over wifi without the sim card.

–And most importantly, as I was setting up the phone, it prompted me to download all my data from the iCloud! So I didn’t lose all that after all!

But then another bump in the road. The supplier delayed sending the sim card, and after it was finally sent, the mail was very slow: projected arrival was over a week! Hmmm, another chance to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Finally today it arrived but when I tried to install the sim card, the directions didn’t make any sense. Called the provided and a person walked me through the long process, except, it would not allow me to send texts. After several tries, I was connected to apple help; the person there also struggled to resolve it, but after more than an hour got it to work! Success at last! Hopefully that is the end of the adventure.

This was actually not a big thing in life, but embracing this as an adventure protected me from much stress, wasted energy, unhappiness and anger, all of which would have resulted in outbursts at others. But Jesus offers us peace and joy in the midst of difficulty, big or small—if we only will trust in Him and receive that peace and joy (Romans 15:13).

Here’s another adventure: playing a part in snatching people out of the jaws of eternal death in Hell and pointing them to the way to living forever with Jesus.

Today was a” hohum day” for me with phone calls, vacuuming and some computer work. Then two construction workers came to look at a possible rental space.

As is my habit, near the end of our business I said, “You know I have two terminal diseases: A G E, and kidney failure, so I’m going to die pretty soon. But that’s ok because I know where I’m going.

I continued, “And you, too will die sometime.” They nodded. “So, when you die and get to the gate of heaven where the angel asks you, ‘Why should I let you in?’ what will you say?”

As often happens, they were taken aback: they had never thought about that. As they fumbled to give an answer one said, “I did my  best,” the other, “I was kind.” So I shared the gospel briefly and clearly, and gave them a 4 spiritual laws booklet. This led to an interesting conversation with these rough, tough guys. One told about his near-death experience many years ago, the other about his Catholic upbringing. They went away enlightened and thoughtful.

That was an adventure! Now it is time for another adventure: praying for these men. And I will have opportunity to talk more as they have become my new renters!

We are called to be partners with God in His great plan. This is much  more than having the Eagles football time asking you to come and play for them! It is joining the Creator of the universe who breathed the stars, hung the earth on nothing and will bring about the end of history. Nothing is bigger than that!

His word to us is: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that YOU MAY DECLARE the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

The Rescue

The road of life dips and turns, taking us through dark places as well as out  into the light. Our part is to continue on when things look bad and not to hang back or turn in fear. God has laid out the course for us, and Jesus is traveling with us (Hebrews 12:3 “run the race set out for you, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of your faith.”