Ever Visit A Kid's Clubhouse? I Have. Here Are 3 Rules Children Have Posted On Their Wall:

1.) Nobody act big
2.) Nobody act small
3.) Everybody act medium 

I love all three! Back in the day in SoCal my siblings, Kevin, Kyle, Kathy and I, used to build some forts aka clubhouses with gobs of other kids way up high in oak trees. My dad owned a big camp at the time where a lot of kids from all over the La Canada area did all kinds of stuff like that.

It’s no time for ugly puffed up hubris, religious spiritual pride, arrogance..or even for panic, it’s no time to act puffed up religious or to put on airs. It’s time to depend on the Lord in peace and joy. The Bible teaches us.. simply “act like men”, men. Normal! Women, act like women. Just act like you were born to act (behave). Sure, I don’t mean like some actor just faking it). 

Be real. Listen, you weren’t a mistake. You are indeed loved and have bigger than ginormous value to God, but choose to walk humbly in Him and act medium if ya will. Have not an overhigh estimation of yourself. Why do that? And let another person praise you and not your own mouth -- simply act medium. 

1. Joshua 1:9 - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

2. Jeremiah 17:7 - But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.

3. Psalm 27:3 - Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.

4. Psalm 139:13–14 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

5. Proverbs 3:25-26 - Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared.

6. 2 Chronicles 32:8 - With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.

7. Isaiah 32:17 - The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

8. Isaiah 40:31 - ..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.

9. Isaiah 41:10 - So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

10. Philippians 1:6 - being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

11. Philippians 4:13 - I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

12. Ephesians 3:12 - In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

13. 1 Corinthians 2:3–5 - I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

14. 2 Corinthians 12:9 - But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

15. Hebrews 4:16 - Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

16. Hebrews 10:35–36 - So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

17. Hebrews 13:6 - So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

18. 2 Timothy 1:7 - For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

19. 1 John 4:17 - This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

20. Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 

Have confidence in God, be not afraid. Be real and live disciplined in Jesus. God is SO for you, not against you. Do you have an assurance of your own personal salvation? You can.. right now (read more..). Now is good -- don’t put this off. 

Our top aim today? It’s Pure worship -- you were made to the praise of His glory. It’s to simply act medium as you trust and rely on the Word of God. It’s to know Him well and make Him well known. Yes, all your friends need Him too. It’s to enjoy an intimate daily obedient relationship with Almighty God -- the Living One (your best Friend) who won’t ditch, but will fight whatever battles you may be facing. 

Think about it. When here did Christ the sinless Son of God walk around acting big? He served people. Fish4souls.org

- Humility and submission to Direct and to flawed Delegated Authority go hand in hand. God’s Word tells us that, as Christians, we are to our leaders short of sin and submit to one another in lowliness of mind. “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” 1 Peter 5:5-6

- Being submissive and viewing yourself as “medium” (aka humble, doesn’t mean in any way, shape or form that we are to strangely bow down to other people. We are to wisely serve other people. Paul was very clear when he said that we are ultimately to serve God and God alone. For, “you were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.” 1 Corinthians 7:23. He also writes: “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10

- It doesn’t mean that we are always silent or that we’re apathetic, lukewarm spiritually, fatalistic, carnal, worldly.. trying to draw people’s applause towards self.. or like passive impractical people. Nope, live redhot in-love with the Lord. “Do not let your adornment be merely outward.. rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.” 1 Peter 3:3-4 (See the contest on all verses)

- It means not standin’ in front of that full length mirror too long.. you know, thinkin’ about yourself too much as so many do.. instead of thinkin’ about Jesus, about wisely applying the Word -- yes, about other people in need as well. What does this mean, Kurt -- it means choosing to think right just like you were created to think. The Bible says, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Romans 12: 3. To have a humble mindset is to think accurately, and soberly about oneself. This means that we don’t boast of our own accomplishments and abilities. Rather, we acknowledge that our sufficiency is of God in all of things. I say go brag on Jesus cuz He is so brag-worthy. (See 2 Corinthians 3:5)

- It means that we use our God-given talents and capabilities for His glory here. “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 4:10-11.

- Thinking this way is basically a key to your progress. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you… Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:6-8, 10

- God is very interested in you. He pays close attention to your heart, motives, thoughts, and attitudes. He is so ready and eager to help you when weak. He can strengthen all those who desire to live for Christ as a good witness for His glory. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool..‘But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.’” Isaiah 66:1-2 Fish4souls.org

Thank you beloved believer for your faithfulness to Christ and for your important ministry as He leads you. Do let me know of any special prayer needs or challenges okay. 

Am way grateful that you are there growing in Christ. Keep on sharing and caring in His Name. He sees it and will reward you. 

Dear God, We need you every moment of every day. Glad You keep working in us. You by Your Spirit are our inner motivation, help, Guide and full on inspiration during these last days. Give strength and anointing for Your world-changing Purpose. We want to stay focused on You, involved in Your will for the Great Commission. Lord, we love you and need You each day. Seems like we need more minutes each day, but we trust You. Help us daily to hear, to cultivate biblical faith, to obey You.. and to just do our part. Please continue to provide and fight our battles. I pray you'd mightily bless, comfort and equip the missionary reading this today.  Amen. 

Okay, so There are Some Dangers with Rivers, Lakes and Seas to be Aware of. Yes, Oftentimes Along the Banks, or in Tributaries or Swirling Eddies You Come-across Em.

Walk on.. not alone or with those who keep pullin' ya down.  Go forward, win the good battles you face.  Get past the muddy danger zones. 

My two brothers ..Kev and Kyle and I.. we used to get in some fairly serious mud-fights around river waters and lakes. 

Been called water-kids with a water dog (a shepherd named, Blitzen), but sometimes it was really more about mud or a horse trough with us boys. 

Yup, at times, like you probably also did... we’d have a tug of WAR ..over something like a mud-hole or bathtub for watering horses at.. and we'd find ourselves waste deep in the mud at some So Cal River..flingin' that stuff at other kids who also gladly join in, who enjoyed this pastime. 

As was our custom, we'd together do at least 100 miles down the Colorado River every year at Easter time.. down to Mexico with a bunch of other Tom Saywer Camp kids. 

My grandfather Bill started it, and then my dad owned and ran this camp biz (more on that here). Dad would enjoy driving the ski boat the whole time for the kids on four to six rail-road tie rafts that we'd built and traveled south on... so he didn’t always see the gnarly battles with the flinging of mud at the guys on the other side. When he was a kid, he was in em too, so of course he understood.  

Been stuck in mud at the Devil's Gate Dam before. Needed a little help that time. But I remember one time while in the heat of it all (mud flyin').. while getting stuck and s l o w ly sucked-in ..up to my waste in the mud, and then up to my chest as a mud fight raged on. 

Didn't really take it seriously. How can you, it's kid's a mud fight. And we all pretty much were laughing the whole time while still flingin' and whipping some soggy fast balls at those guys “the enemy”..chuckling out loud I was, that nature had somehow actually handicapped me to almost a standstill. It had tightly grabbed 'hold of me. Is this happening for real? Naww. No way! Oh yes -- WAY! 

That rubbery clay like mud was a little different this time..more rubbery-like. I was stuck, but not like before. It was holding me at bay and gradually sucking me downwards the more I tried in my own power to get above it to free myself. It can happen -- slowly gettin' stuck in near-quick-sand. And that was one time I actually needed some help to out of there.. help with a long two by four and it took a little while too.. for my buds to tug and TUG me on out. Embarrassing. With mud all over the face, it was sorta like a rescue. 

Here's what to do. Listen, in certain areas near an eddy or a muddy river bank where you can find so called "jelly-sand" (near-quick-sand) is, you can just walk fast over some of it.. not really sinkin' in much. But you have to keep on walking. If you are more on the edge of it, then keep goin' instead of ceasing to walk over it. Man, you would start to sink down in the crud, and then might even need some friends to throw you a line to pull you out. 

Now in a context where the Colossian believers were starting to get stuck.. sucked on down by an amalgamation of spiritual weirdness ..a quicksand of Gnosticism, Judaizer-legalism, religious heresy, mysticism and asceticism, the Apostle Paul warned those people of the Lycus Valley saying, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Col. 2:6-7 nkjv

Be on the move forward, not sideways or backwards! Together with the body of Christ -- in a healthy Bible teaching church. Get your feet on the solid Rock (the Jesus Christ of the Bible), get yourself on stable ground in the Word of God. Come to Him. Have you gotten distracted away a bit.. taken a stride from the Master's side? Turn and trust -- come back to Him. Get back to your roots, believer, back to the basics of simply walkin' securely.. instead of gettin’ all sucked-into danger. Now is good. Return today, get home before dark. 

Listen, Jesus walked and overcame. You too were born to walk in victory--you were created by Him to win in the battles of life!  

At the beaches you shuffle your feet through the sands cuz the dangers under-neigh the water could be riptides, skates, stingrays or bigger sharks some 35 yards out. But at different Southern State rivers like the San Gabriel, the Colorado, and Santa Ana River etc the dangers could be ‘quick aka Jelly Sand.” We all love gettin’ in the water when it’s hot out, but be cautious and vigilant, prayerful.. especially with all the children playing around you there.        

There was once this Texas man that was killed by gettin' stuck in Jelly-Sand on the San Antonio River not all that long ago.  

Did you hear about, Mr. Jose Rey Escobedo? He went missing back on July 7, 2015 around 10 a.m. On July 8, police received a call reporting a light blue car had been parked underneath the San Antonio River Bridge in Goliad County. After succumbing to his battle, eleven game wardens found him on the 11th in South Texas. 

Summers at the Harris House In Laguna Beach

Gotta question for ya if you don't mind.. what have your summer’s been like over the years? Am interested. What's your story? 

I bet it all comes back to you pretty quickly, especially as things warm up and we all are about to kiss Spring good bye. But are there any memories that really stand out in your mind?

Were summers typically good times for your family or.. were there some moments filled with pain, strife or awkward communication among you. I hope they were great times. Perhaps you can describe some of the memories that you’ve had a little bit ..wherever your summers and all took place?

Yup, summer seems like it is fully here now in North Texas with all this warm weather that we’ve been experiencing. I don’t know about you, but I get missing the cool balmy evenings this time of year, with the comfortable salty air, the palm trees, the eucalyptus smell, and the pleasant breezes off of the Pacific. I get missing the sounds of the waves on the rocks as well.

I feel so grateful to have been privileged to grow up enjoying the best summers ever. We had lots of beach bonfires and weenie roasts on the sand with friends and relatives.

Day after day, after day, after day.. was always filled with adventures too. There was always something interesting and novel popping up in the O.C. New music styles, new surfing flicks at surfing theaters, plaid shorts, different flip flops etc. Some of those pop culture nuances and trappings were all around the country at the same time, but unlike the fairly stable society and culture we see here in Texas, there was a vast uniqueness to the West Coast trends and happenings that seemed to change more radically and often ..about every three months or so where I grew up.

It was amazing—O the beautiness (new word) and creativity with a lot of it! Even some of the churches were very creative. I knew of one that met for years on Sundays at a lifeguard tower on the beach. Yes, and the awesomeness of God’s creation especially at sunset time, was overwhelming for a kid that loved nature, the wilderness, surfing, sailing and general rowdiness with ma buds ..along with other mountain and water sports! 

Me and my friends were pretty bad at times and we would just constantly challenge each other to go farther in some of our adventures, but not all of it went bad on us or others.

You know, I just didn’t deserve all the good of it.. or any of it. Cuz me at my best wasn't all that well behaved.

I think I told you before how my family during my early years were committed in a very traditional church. Yup, on Sundays we would say our prayers, but in reality we didn’t know how to pray. What could we do well? Well, we knew how to play!

My mom’s parents, the Becks, lived up in Newport Beach some thirty minutes up the Coast Highway from us (later on my grandfather, John Beck, moved much closer to us from there to San Clemente).

And then there was my sweet little English aunt on my dad’s side, Ida Harris (a noted journalist with the LA Times), who lived about fifteen to twenty minutes north of us in Laguna Beach only one block away from Wood’s Cove. We spent gobs of time in both towns. My dad's mom; my grandmother from England was Stella but we called her "Amie" and her sister was Ida Harris. They were both smaller people, proper, and petite ladies.

Man, between all the body surfin’ trips to Main Beach and Wood’s Cove in that European-looking town of the artists where Ida lived.. the place of notable volleyball players of the area.. between the motorboat trips from the Newport Harbor to Catalina Island and those sailing and ferry-boat rides out on the Newport bay, my brothers Kevin, Kyle, and my ’lil sister Kathy ..and I (Kurt. Yup, four of us kids with K-names.. can you believe that?) never ever felt bored or bummed-out while kids. We all loved our family, relatives and just visiting them. We've got some good history in those parts of the state. 

Religion hadn't done it for us in our upbringing. Later on, we liked to go out and party a whole lot. I was living for pleasure and if you do that you tend to wait a lot like those in super long lines at Disneyland who paid a huge price to get in. 

"But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. And these things command, that they may be blameless." 1 Timothy 5:6-7 nkjv

Did I ever tell you about the history of Tom Sawyer Camp that was established by my born again Christian grandfather, Bill, back in 1926? Pretty interesting stuff! He and my dad, Kim, worked real hard for decades running it and they just loved all the families involved (both got right with the Lord later in life). Anyways, the camp benefited literally hundreds of kids from all over the place all year long ..including my brothers and I. We served as "junior counselors" for a couple years and got away with all kinds of pranks. You can read about some of that stuff later on! But this camp biz was first established in that very same town, Laguna Beach, and I can't describe how radically fun it was to go to! It has since moved but is still functioning better than ever today under the great leadership of a businessman named Mike Horner (with his capable son, Tom)--super nice, creative guys. Perhaps in the future you'll run into some families that have been looking for just such a top notch children/young adult camp like Tom Saywer? They've got multiple locations ..even on Catalina Island now. Check it out!

Anyways, with the Harris House in Laguna only a stone's throw from the water's edge, we as kids always had a loving place to hang our hats and stay in the summer time. I always enjoyed grilling in the back and hearing the gulls. I also loved hearing about my family's history there and I could hardly imagine how this place looked when they first settled next to the PCH dirt road back in the day. Yup, this was one of the first homes in the entire town! What started out as a one room beach cottage for the Harris clan in 1925 soon expanded into a two bedroom, two bath, very pleasant eclectic Tudor style home. My brothers and I had the custom of being lifted up by an adult to the rafters just to turn on the old lantern lights when it grew dark.

Who did the labor and actually built this place?

Good question! My grandfather Beck was always an accomplished builder who learned how to do this.. up in the city of Angels and built his first home in Indo with full date groves, but this particular house was originally erected slowly by my dad's enate grandfather, William Harris. You see Mr. Harris was an interior decorator at the time, British by birth, and he commuted from the Los Angeles area to get it done. By 1926, when the bulk of his expansion on the small abode was complete, Mr. WH went and installed a weather vane on top of the pointed turret and then this quaint little shack became known by locals as that “weather vane house.”

The Harris clan was pretty excited about it too. Yes, after it was totally completed, the entire Harris family packed up all their modest belongings and they permanently relocated down there to Laguna Beach to become locals themselves. Daughter Ida Harris later joined her parents in Laguna in 1929 when she was only 23 years old. But it was before Ida returned to Laguna to begin her life-long residence in this home.. that she landed job and went full time as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

Her time at the paper also gave her some other interesting stories to tell. One day her boss, the paper's editor, sent her off to capture a story in a small fledgling town down south located some eight minutes inland from Dana Point (where my own father later on moved our family to).

The place the editor sent her to was called, San Juan Capistrano, and it was her duty to interview and produce a short story on the poor struggling church monks at the ole adobe mission. So shortly after arriving and talking with them, she started pointing to one of the near by trees and aunt Ida asked the men "What kind of bird is that?"

And one of the priests replied, "Oh that's a swallow. They're migratory birds, you know, and the interesting thing about our swallows is that they always come back here, every year, on St. Joseph's Day on the dot, like clockwork."

Hummm... Interesting fact! And fascinated by this bit of info, my aunt Ida basically jotted down a simple but creative side bar to her main article and was now fully intending on thinking all this through to figure out what would be best and which story was really worth polishing up to run in her big city paper.

Apparently, upon Ida's return there was an exchange of ideas with her boss and as the story goes.. it was because of my aunt Ida's little LAT piece about these quick little birds that darted about yearly and made their mud homes on the sides of buildings—the swallows—and how they would annually return to the ole mission in San Juan Capistrano (which maintained on its campus literally the second oldest building in the entire golden state..), that the famous song about the swallows was written and sung. And subsequent to the song, the Swallows Day Festival was then started, (as well as all of the other swallows-related fiesta activities)!

Now my wife, Liney, and I were just out there in San Juan a couple months ago visiting and we were really amazed at how large this city-wide event has grown. We laughed to hear about some of the past trouble with it too. But I remember when it didn't even exist and now my own fun-loving mom has set up her beautiful art gallery right there downtown next to the old mission itself. And she often makes beautiful paintings of the mission complex along with all he plant life and birds.

We all had a fun time meeting lots of people in the Swallow's Day Parade decked out in costumes. There were people dressed as pirates, southern bells, cowboys, and even as Halloween characters (they and no one else really seem to give much of a flip about the look ’cause it was simply time to celebrate the day the birds returned). I don’t know how many people really know that the swallows actually return to the entire area for about an entire month. I specifically remember how they used to build nets on our Dana Point home during that month each year as well.

I don't know about all that's involved with the mission and the drinking that goes on, but there is indeed a time for us to celebrate life and rejoice in in the Lord. Listen, if your town has some good history, why not?

Jesus who never got drunk, wants us to be joy-filled all of the time not just one day a year.. being filled with His Spirit. Sure, in Him we can be that way daily! He once said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (Jn. 10:10). Do you have overflowing joy in your life? Is your life abundant, free and blessed? It can be! Can you find reasons around your hometown to celebrate life?

People seem to get tired of the dry ole dog-eat-dog, cut throat mundane routine of life—they have always typically looked for any reason to party, but in the end the wrong kind of partying will just leave people feeling more empty, lonely and guilty. Hey, I can relate. I used to party like that every chance I could get.

Do you ever get feeling afraid to die, or just afraid, empty, lonely and guilty? Jesus is the ultimate Solution, no matter the problem, challenge or feeling people have. 

I hear that some of the revelry coupled with saloon brawls in San Juan Capistrano used to get way out of hand. Several people would sadly end up in jail, but now the local police department who ride horses around town, have got a much better handle on things there and the folk music and country styled bands now make the town kind of an interesting and lively place to visit ..when the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano. All those towns.. Laguna, San Juan, Newport, Dana Point in the summer time. Ya oughta go visit! Fish4Souls.org