Historic Railroad Tunnels @ Lake Mead, Nevada
“Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.”
Philippians 4:11
Hi Men:
I pray you had a great week “in” Christ. Check out these mind-boggling verses:
“…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…….
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
[Please read all 8 verses (NKJV): Ephesians 3:14-21
Contentment: Where did it go? I had a lot of thoughts as I was reflecting on the words of Paul from Philippians 4:11, but I thought I might let you reflect on his words, not only in verse 11, but verses 10-14 (click here). Paul learned how to get along with little and a lot, being filled and going hungry, having abundance and suffering need. So he learned to be content in whatever circumstances he was facing. Can we say the same? What are you facing today? Let’s circle back on that next time……….
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What’s with the photo?
Last month I mentioned to my wife, that for my birthday, I wanted to 
hike the old railroad tunnels that brought equipment and materials when they were building Hoover Dam. Can you believe I have NEVER hiked these tunnels in the 61 years of living in So. Nevada! These tunnels are huge…… 18’ wide and 25’ tall. It’s a moderate hike, only 5 miles and even though it was warm, 99° at its peak, it cooled way down when you entered these (5) tunnels. The thing that struck me was the hardship these workers endured and especially the families, as they constructed the dam. Not only the scorching hot summers, dust and sandstorms but insect infestations. Red ants were a huge problem since they had large colonies near their living quarters.
This was also during the depression, so poor wages, housing shortages, isolation, sanitation, lack of medical services and the high-risk work was the order of the day. Jane and I were commenting on the fact of how good we really have it. The question we pondered: Are we truly grateful? Maybe even going back up to Phil 4:11……. Are we content in whatever circumstance God places us? There’s a lot of information on these tunnels. If interested, you can Google: Historic Railroad Tunnels.
By the way, if you want to watch a corny “time-lapse” video I took, here it is (YouTube 56 seconds)
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IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD …… and down the street
I was in Home Depot a couple weeks back looking for several plumbing fittings for our tack room at the barn. A really nice guy by the name of Rueben offered to help me. He really knew his stuff and found all the parts for me.
I thanked him and then said I have something for you. I pulled out the Million Dollar Book of John and explained it how it worth way more than a million dollars. The look on his face was priceless. Inside I had inserted “Steps To Peace With God” and thumbed through it with him. I mentioned this tract is the Gospel and it literally changed my life. Rueben was 100% engaged in our conversation. I shared a brief version of my testimony with him and also gave him the “Are You A Good Person” tract.
What happened next is wild. He couldn’t stop thanking me and said when he gets home he will go over all these with his wife. I tried to give him a Starbucks gift card, but he said you already gave me what I need. We took a couple photos then hugged each other (he gave quite the bear hug!) and then he left…….. but he came back twice to thank me. I kid you not!!
Men, you never know who God is working on! Be faithful to those opportunities all around you.
PLEASE CHECK OUT LEE YIH’S, Going from Pusillanimity to Boldness (See Below)
See how he decided to “up the ante” on himself. I had to look up the word Pusillanimity 😊
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“What is your life? It is just a vapor, appearing for a little while and then vanishes.”
Lord, may I finish well…….
Dan
(Galatians 2:20)
Zion
Please Register
PHOTO: Lee Yih waiving at our first Zion
Conference held in December 2009!
Zion Boot Camp December 8-10, 2023
2023 Speakers:
Jerry Bangert, Physician – Tucson, AZ
John Hartshorn, Businessman – Dacono, CO
Bill McCurine, Federal Magistrate Ret. – San Diego, CA
Winston Parker, Businessman – Jacksonville, FL
Lee Yih, Businessman Ret – Walnut, CA
“But you and I know people who, in a moment of passion,
sell Jesus for 30 seconds of pleasure!”
Men: Still some of the scariest verses in the Bible:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!‘” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Sadly, many in the church today may very well hear these terrifying words from Jesus …………………
Judas – Day 281 Red Book
The purpose of these devotionals is to help you think Biblically
Solomon said, “As a man thinks, so is he”
¹ Matthew 26:21,24
REST
by Bill McCurine
R12.2 Blog – Sept
Men:
Take a moment and read this great article by Bill. It is so good. Here is one of the paragraphs:
The divine, eternal rest includes a desire for ever-deeper intimacy with Christ. Throughout eternity we will never have enough of Him. There will always be something new and alluring to discover about Him. We will never be bored, and life will never be humdrum. As our desire for Christ deepens, our dissatisfaction with our polluted world will correspondingly increase. We marvel at sunsets and sunrises, but they pale before Jesus who is “the radiance of the glory of God.”(Heb 1:3) Sin will increasingly lose its allure until at last our eyes will see all sin in all its terrible repugnance. We will no longer be deceived or beguiled. We will be forever free from the desire of Lot’s wife to look back and long for Sodom and Gomorrah.
Make sure you read all the questions at the end. As a sample, here is one of the questions:
- Observe those around you and look for opportunities to introduce them to the One who can give them true rest. Their countenance reveals much about their condition.
Remember, you can talk to Bill more about this article and other things at Zion.
To read the article, see the attached PDF “REST”
A Moment with Lee Yih
Men:
Don’t miss reading the note below from Lee. We talked about the surprise party for Lee in the August 25 Friday Letter. If you missed it, click here: E²Vegas.org/Friday-Mens-Group-8-25-23
Also check out at the bottom what Lee wrote: Going from Pusillanimity to Boldness
Going from Pusillanimity to Boldness
When I lived in Cambridge, Mass, I helped two families from mainland China each buy a condo close to Harvard. It’s either superstition or Chinese fable, but if you buy an apartment for your kid near Harvard, it shows your confidence that they will someday get in there. To get a New England triple decker, they gave me an “irresistible offer” to buy the 3rd unit, so I would have some “skin in their property”. I had to hire someone to manage it after moving to California.
I have been talking amicably to my manager, a single lady with an MBA from Harvard, for about ten years now. Over the course of these many months, I would lob a few Christian references into my conversation and she eventually got curious, asking me questions from time to time. She also found Charles Stanley on the radio to fill in her blanks.
After getting inspired by the “stories” coming from Dan Russell in his blogs, I decided to up the ante on myself and her, going from pusillanimity to boldness. Basically, I “moved” her to “formalize” her faith in God by asking her to commit her life to Christ with a prayer with me as a public witness. My boldness came by adding the dreaded “Lordship” into the commitment, by explaining that “following” Christ, meant turning your life over to him to rule. Her prayer of “commitment” was shocking in her willingness to trust her life to Jesus Christ. Sometimes boldness is nothing more than just doing something without thinking about it.
Past Relationships
Remember what I wrote in the Friday email of 9/8//23? Feel free to scroll down and review at this link: E²Vegas.org/Friday-Mens-Group-9-8-23
Reach out to someone this weekend you haven’t talked to in years………..
Anyway, I reached out to another one of my former Boy Scouts that I hadn’t spoke with in several years. I called Phillip and we grabbed breakfast together. Phillip is in the USMC, having served 18 years and only has a couple more to go (now in the reserves). He had 2 deployments to Iraq and 1 to Afghanistan. In addition to the Marines, he is the senior design person for a nationwide pyro-technical firm. He’s the one that flips the switch at these huge firework events, New Years, Super Bowl and is currently planning the Formula I that will be set off down the middle of the Las Vegas Strip.
We had a delightful visit and Phillip expressed his interest in attending the Zion Boot Camp. Like Nick, Phillip and I are committed to staying in touch.
The photo on the left was taken in Sept 2005. The one on the right….. 18 years later 😊
God is Impartial in Judgment
Part One – May 2016
Men:
We are going to start a four-part series that Walt Henrichsen started to write just before he was promoted to glory in 2016. Attached is the PDF of the first part. Here are a couple paragraphs of the article:
“Heaven is where everyone desires to go. The Bible is quite clear that hell is where everyone deserves to go. God, because of His infinite grace, provides a way for the sinner to go to heaven through the propitious death of Jesus Christ. This is the good news of the gospel.”
“As the church in our culture has camped on the grace of God, fear and judgment are no longer vogue. Any suggestion that there are eternal consequences for temporal behavior is rejected. A loving God freely forgives and immediately forgets. This means that people end up serving God on their terms – doing whatever they want and then being forgiven. Our objective is to analyze this thinking in light of Scripture.”
See attached PDF for Part One
Voice of the Martyrs
Men: These articles always humble me……………
Make sure you watch this short YouTube
International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians
4 year old is sent to a Buddhist monastery in Nepal for 9 years
Watch on YouTube (5:38 minutes)
Nothing new under the sun…… Spurgeon gave this quote almost 150 years ago!
Pastor arrives into church on a zip-line
Watch on YouTube (30 secs)
Cathedral of Hope blessing drag queens
Watch on YouTube (1 min)
Meanwhile at the Vatican
Watch on YouTube (59 secs)
“Come, Lord Jesus”