Got up this morning to a thick blanket of fog.  It was so thick I couldn’t see the trees a couple hundred feet away.

Cleared up a mite and the sun came out, bathing the hills around us – but not enough to show us Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams.

Carla was asked to come in to work today but should have Friday free for more outside work.  The church she has babysat at for eons was in a ‘pickle’ and asked her to babysit Saturday morning, she agreed. 

Hard to believe that this year is almost over.  It has been a long and a short year for me.  I often lost track of time as I dealt with one issue or another, such is life.

Glad the elections are over.  Hopefully, we can settle down and get things done, soon.

“Preparation is vital. Let this be noted by everyone. We can seek God today and get prepared to meet temptation tomorrow; but if we meet the enemy without first having met God, the outcome is not conjectural; the issue is already decided. We can only lose.”  AW Tozer

1 Samuel 17:37 David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. KJV

Both come from one of my devotionals this morning. 

One of the things every leadership class I ever took pointed out was:  failing to plan, was planning to fail.

I can remember a budget committee member stating, as we went over the Sheriff’s Office budget, Art, you always expect the worse.

He was not too far from the truth, what I responded with was that I HAD to plan for the worse.  I had to be ready for the worse to happen so we could properly respond.  I didn’t necessary think that it would happen, but by planning I could reduce the risk of it happening or getting out of hand.

You learn what may likely happen based on past history and what is happening all around us.

When I became Sheriff we had an Emergency Manager who had retired from another job and was working part-time in that position.  HIS emphasis was on nuclear war and how to prepare for it.  Not really relevant any longer even at that time.

However, between some of his scenarios and training from other sources, I learned how to handle a major problem. 

The main thing I learned was that if I train for one scenario, earthquake happening, and how to set up a command post and all that goes with dealing with the situation – I could apply that to almost any other serious situations, such as flooding's, or fires.

While the training might be for one disaster, it could be applied to almost any disaster.

David was prepared.  His live experiences, his time in meditation and communication with God prepared Him.

He had experiences he could draw from where God had delivered him from the lion and the bear.  He knew that God would be with him in facing Goliath. 

He had never faced a man, especially such a large powerful man, in a fight, but the experiences and training God had given Him could be applied to the battle with Goliath.  He, of course, won.

Sometimes we are lucky, we get by or get away with something that should have destroyed or at least hurt us.  But we cannot depend of ‘luck.’

Every successful General, Admiral, leaders of commerce, even down to the local high school football coach has a plan to lift his ‘army’ up and on to victory.

Not always do the plans work, sometimes they get blindsided by something totally unexpected.  The leader then has to drop back and reconsider what needs to be done.

But the leader that goes into a scuffle without planning his options is doomed to failure if not immediately, then soon.

As Christians, we are not only soldiers and servants of God, but we are to be prepared to be leaders for Him if/when the time comes. 

We must prepare ourselves with both His Word and in prayer then accept the challenges He places us in and stand for Him.  We learn to rely on Him and to know that whatever comes upon us is something we can learn and build upon for the future.

He tells us how to do just that:

Ephesians 6:10-12  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

¹¹ Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

¹² For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Then He tells us what those weapons are.

But to use them effectively we must train with them and do so before the battle not after it has begun and we are so inundated with the sin around us that we lose hope.

While we can and should plan things out, we can also rely on the fact that there is a master plan for the Universe – only God knows what it is – but from the beginning of the world God already had it in place.

Any plan we have must be based on that fact, He is in charge and He will honor those that follow and obey Him.

As His servants, we need to learn to do exactly what He tells us and be as faithful to Him as we possibly can.

We can look at many of the ‘small’ men and women who became great leaders for God.  Gideon, Daniel, David, Moses, Abraham, Peter, Paul, John, Ruth, Ester and so many others who’s dedication to God and HIS plan enabled them to accomplish great things in HIS name.

2 Timothy 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

God’s plan may not be totally revealed to us, but His Creation and the intricacies involved in it shows us HE KNOWS what He is doing.

Later, Art (-: