Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Nov. 11, 2025
Update	: Nov. 11, 2025
Parts	: 03

Synopsis:



Continuing our discussion from part one, of course, at this stage of my life, I still refrain from drinking, smoking and cussing. I particularly hate the f-bomb and a few other ugly expletives which take our Lord's name in vain. Neither do I watch pornography, take drugs or womanize. Of course, I very much doubt that there is even a sane woman who would want a scraggly, old, toothless dude like me. Ha! Seriously, I am not interested anyway, because there are much more important things for me to be doing with my life, as some of you will already know and fully understand. I have no idea how much time I have remaining in this world, and I still have a lot that I really want to accomplish. Thus, I dedicate as much of my time as I possibly can to the Lord's Work by way of the Bill's Bible Basics ministry which consumes most of my waking hours.

Now, despite what I said in the previous paragraph, please do not get the mistaken idea that I view myself as some kind of sinless saint, because I most certainly do not. I have got no holier-than-thou horn to toot in anybody's face. As I said at the very beginning of this series, we all have our personal history of sins and mistakes, and I am no exception. I won't go into explicit details -- because doing so would in no way glorify the Lord -- but there was about a 6-year period in my life where I failed the Lord in the past, and I did not live fully according to His Word. However, that was years ago -- decades in fact -- and I've traveled a much straighter course since that time.

While I refrain from the aforementioned activities, it is not for the exact same reasons as before. As I already explained to you in part one, when I was an idealistic, young teenager, I simply assumed that avoiding such activities would somehow win me special merit points with God, and thus strengthen and validate my personal righteousness before Him. However, for many years now, aside from the fact that such activities are not in accordance with God's Word -- and thus not pleasing to the Lord -- my goal has been to live as long as I can, and as healthy as I possibly can, so that I can complete my personal mission for the Lord. That being the case, drinking, smoking, taking drugs, etc., are obviously and simply quite out of the question. Besides, I have absolutely no desire for any such things anyway.

As I have shared with my readers on previous occasions, as a matter of personal choice, neither do I take OTCs -- over the counter -- medications such as Aspirin, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, etc. Likewise, I am supposed to be taking a medication due to previous occurrences of DVT -- Deep Vein Thrombosis, or blood clots in the legs -- and Acute Bilateral Pulmonary Emboli -- which is blood clots in one's lungs -- and another medication for hypothyroidism, which I never even showed symptoms for. I stopped taking both drugs a number of years ago at which time I also stopped seeing my personal physician.

Before I started seeing him in 2017 for my DVT, I didn't have a personal doctor for three full decades. Unlike many people today who are trained to rush to a doctor for every cough and sniffle, I chose to take a different route. I simply hunker down and endure whatever ails me until it passes. I allow my body to do its own work, no matter how long it takes. As I've mentioned before, I quit playing the customer-for-life game where doctors are constantly trying to convince a patient to take a drug for every symptom under the Sun, or when their lab report numbers don't match the established medical levels. You should know -- if you don't know already -- that a lot of doctors have very cozy relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. They will promote their products in order to get kickbacks. I came to realize that this is seemingly what my doctor was doing as well, so I stopped seeig him.

On a final note regarding this particular subject -- I know that I have gone off on a bit of a tangent; please bear with me a little longer -- it might interest some of you to know that I have not been vaccinated against anything since I was about ten years old, if not earlier than that. I'm now 72 at the time of this writing. Neither do I get annual flu shots, and I have never received a single COVID jab. Neither have I actually ever had COVID itself. I prefer to view it as God's blessings in my life. You may prefer to view it a different way.

In sharing these personal details with you regarding my own life, please understand that I am NOT criticizing anyone who does take medications. I am simply sharing my own personal experiences and choices with you. Also, I fully understand that some individuals -- such diabetics, for example -- must take a medication -- in this case, insulin -- simply to stay alive. Again, I do NOT condemn any of you for doing this. In the case of Christians, we must each live according to our personal measure of faith. We cannot pretend to have faith for the sake of appearing spiritual to others. While Apostle Paul was discussing observing Jewish kosher laws and holy days in the following verses, I think they can be equally applied to Christians who feel the need to take medications:

"Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."


Returning to our primary topic of discussion -- which is how to live a victorious life in Jesus Christ -- if there is one thing which the Bible makes very clear, it is that we're all not only susceptible to the same human passions and desires, but we also experience the very same -- or at least similar -- trials, temptations and afflictions. Consider this group of verses which verifies this particular point:

"There hath no temptation taken you but SUCH AS IS COMMON TO MAN: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."


"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy . . . Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that THE SAME AFFLICTIONS ARE ACCOMPLISHED IN YOUR BRETHREN THAT ARE IN THE WORLD."


"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all."


"And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? WE ALSO ARE MEN OF LIKE PASSIONS with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:"


"Elias was a man SUBJECT TO LIKE PASSIONS AS WE ARE, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months."


"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:"


"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."


So as you can plainly see by the previous group of verses, none of us are immune to such things, no matter the type of trial. The big question is how we each choose to deal with them when they arrive to test us. Our personal responsse is what will determine whether or not we are victorious. Will we just let that old Devil beat us over the head, overpower us, and drag us down into a dismal state of misery, despair and self-pity? Trust me when I say that there have indeed been times in my personal past when I have been sad, felt very lonely and even rather unloved, so I actually do quite understand what some of you may be going through.

In fact, I will be honest and tell you that there have been times in the past when I have whined and complained deep in my heart "Why can't I have what other people have? Why can't I have a special relationship like I see other couples have? Why can't somebody love me the way I see others being loved? Why can't I have that same kind of happiness? Why can't I have a wife who truly loves me for who I am, who respects and cherishes me, and who also supports what I do for the Lord?"

But you see, my friends, it was all about me and my personal wants, desires and needs. "Why can't I? Why can't I?" My eyes were just so totally on myself. They were obviously NOT very focused on Jesus as we are instructed to do in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Does that sound like any of you? Then there was the second issue: "I am such a mess, and I have made so many stupid, terrible, selfish mistakes in my life! How can God possibly ever use someone like me? Humph! Maybe I should just surrender right now and forget about it."

Right! Guess who just won? It certainly was not you! It was the accuser of the saints who beat you down, and who totally smothered your flame! That's who! Why did that evil one win? Because you didn't resist him! You didn't gird up the loins of your mind as the Apostle Paul instructed Christians to do! You didn't bring every thought into captivity! Instead, you gave place to the Devil in your mind. You in fact invited him into your very own mental playground. Do you remember Psalm 1:1 from part one? Let me share that verse with you one more time for emphasis and to really drive the point home with you:

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."


First of all, you walked with that old fiend while he talked in your ear. Then you stood still to listen to him even more closely. And then worst of all, you pulled up a chair for him and told him to have a seat, and to just fill your mind with his doubts and self-pity. Everything I warned you about in part one of this series is exactly what you did. Of course, Satan was more than happy to oblige. He told you exactly what you wanted to hear. "Yeah, man, you are just a total mess! It is unlikely that God will ever be able to use you! Sorry, but you just don't fit the bill, kid! You are within your perfect right to feel sorry for yourself! Go ahead! Be miserable and bummed out! Enjoy it for a while!" That is why you are now so discouraged and in a state of terrible defeat. You refused to fight back, as in this simple poem I composed back in July of 2014:

GET BACK UP AND FIGHT!

by Bill Kochman

07-25-2014

Sure, you can sit there,
And feel sorry for yourself,
Like a useless vase,
Sitting on God's dusty shelf.

No one will hurt you,
You will never be marred,
No one will break you,
You will never be scarred.

But think out your plan,
Your strategy is not right,
Aren't you God's soldier?
So then get back up and fight.

Following is another related poem I wrote not quite three months before the previous one. It touches on the very same theme of not surrendering, enduring the battle, getting back up and fighting back, and launching an attack against that sly old serpent who does his very best to try to keep you down and defeated:

GET UP AND FIGHT!

by Bill Kochman

05-05-2014

You can complain, and you can rant,
You can whine, that you just can't,
But if God gave you something to do,
His Grace will help you see it through.

Quitters don't win, winners don't quit,
And that is really the gist of it,
So get off your lazy behind,
And prove you're the fighting kind.

God will reward you, it is sure,
But show Him that you can endure,
Up from the ground, no moping around,
It's time to get back into this war.

Now, speaking for myself, do you know what the solution was? First of all, I had to come to the realization that God does NOT use us because of who we are. He uses us in spite of who we are, and because of who Jesus is, and what the Lord can accomplish THROUGH us, if we will just get out of the way! I had to take up my symbolic cross, I had to deny myself, and I had to die daily to my own wants and needs, exactly as we read in the following set of Bible verses:

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."


"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."


"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."


"I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily."


"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."


"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."


"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."


"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."


"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he [Jesus] laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."


I had to also realize that despite my personal imperfections, sins and shortcomings, God STILL wanted to use me anyway. My gosh, my friends, please think about this! If God demanded absolute human perfection before He would consider choosing any of us for His holy service, then Jesus would have never been able to even select twelve Apostles, because they were all far from perfect, despite what some denominations like to claim. Peter definitely had his pride and ego. James and John were definitely on a power trip. After all, they thought that they should call fire down from the sky to destroy a certain village. Judas was an outright devil-filled thief. Matthew was a scumbag tax collector. Saul of Tarsus persecuted and killed Christians. Clearly then, from the start, absolutely none of them exactly fit in the human hall of fame, right?

Furthermore, if you want to dig even deeper into the pages of the Old Testament, well, Noah got drunk following the Flood. The Patriarch Abraham was a liar who purposely deceived the Pharaoh concerning his own wife Sarah so as to save his skin. Lot -- who was Abraham's nephew -- and his family decided to live right in homosexual-filled downtown Sodom. Lot also got drunk after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and engaged in sex with his own two daughters. Jacob was also a deceiver who stole his brother Esau's birthright by tricking his own father, Isaac. Jacob later fought with an Angel and wouldn't let go until God blessed him.

Judah unknowingly engaged in sex with his own daughter-in-law -- Tamar -- who played the harlot. Then, one of the two sons which was born from that sexual union -- Pharez -- became an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Moses was very meek and lacked any degree of self-confidence. He was also slow of speech and did NOT want the job God had ordained for him. Oh, and by the way, Moses was also impatient. After all, he smote the Egyptian and later smote the rock at Meribah twice. Samson was a well-known womanizer. Jeremiah claimed that he was too young to be one of the Lord's Prophets. King David committed second degree murder and also committed adultery with the murdered man's wife, who eventually gave birth to King Solomon.

Need I go on? If you want to learn even more about the rather unusual people who God chose for servants, and the sometimes shocking and unorthodox things He had some of them do, then please consider reading my 2001 four-part series called "My God is a Shocker!", which you will find listed at the end of this same series. So as I'm sure you can see, your excuses are pointless and moot before the Lord, no matter what Satan tries to tell you. Whether we're talking about personal sins and shortcomings, or flabby excuses, God knows and has heard it all before. Despite that fact, as I mentioned earlier, He STILL chooses to use us for His glory in spite of ourselves. In fact, as the Apostle Paul so eloquently wrote, it is in fact because of our weaknesses that God allows His Power to rest upon us. That way, He receives all of the glory, as we see by the following group of Bible verses:

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, THAT THE POWER OF CHRIST MAY REST UPON ME. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."


"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."


So as I was explaining earlier, in my case, the solution and the victory was NOT found in seeking after those things which I mentioned. It was NOT in trying to fulfill my own selfish desires for love and companionship. It was in fact found in FORSAKING those things, and in being thankful and content in whatever situation God chose to place me in. If He wanted me to remain single for the remainder of my life so that I could better serve Him with few distractions, then so be it. This is precisely what the Apostle Paul states in this verse:

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."


In short, I had to really seek the Kingdom of God first above all, trust God for my future -- whatever it would hold -- and get my eyes off of myself and my personal needs and problems, and back on Jesus. I had to truly keep busy doing the Lord's Work and forget about everything else. Well, that's precisely what I've been doing for the past three decades plus with my online ministry. I do not have time for my personal problems -- which in actuality are only my health issues -- because I have way too much to do for the Lord, and I am already so far behind. And do you know what, my friends? I can honestly say that I am happy and quite fulfilled in my particular calling and ministry. I enjoy the peace and quiet atmosphere. I enjoy my independence. I enjoy being able to delve into God's Word and write for hours at a time. And, of course I enjoy my two lovely kitties, Polo and Eljio.

You know, it is interesting that whenever my 90-year-old mom and I video chat, she is always commenting about how happy I am. In fact, to my surprise, she recently told me that I am the happiest person that she knows. Wow! What a compliment! In contrast, sometimes she falls into periods of depression and goes silent, which can last for weeks or even months at a time, even though she does know and love the Lord, and is thankful for His blessings in her life.

I really do not understand this. She should be living in a state of victory. After all, she is in a very good assisted living facility where they take care of all of her needs. She does not even have to make her own bed. They serve top quality food there. She has a number of close friends there, as well as others who visit her regularly. They keep their residents quite busy with lots of daily activities so that their minds remain alert, and so that their bodies get some exercise. And yet, despite this very positive environment, my mom still tends to fall into depression and silence. Of course, then I need to revert to my "Quirky Bill" persona in order to lift her spirit again with my silly antics.

On a related note, it has come to my attention that there are some Christians today -- I sometimes encounter them on the social networks -- who will outright complain and say something similar to "Oh Lord Jesus, this world is such a terrible place! Please take me out of here!" Well, that is in fact precisely why I wrote my July 2020 article called "Forget the Express Train!". My personal advice to those of you who feel this way is this: If you are still on this planet, and if God has not chosen to take you Home yet, I can only conclude that it is due to one reason: Apparently, you still have some unfinished business here. Of course, I cannot say what that is, because I'm not in your situation.

So it seems to me that instead of complaining regarding how wicked the world has become, and instead of desiring a fast train to Heaven, perhaps what you should REALLY be doing is seeking the Lord in prayer, and trying to determine exactly why you are still here. God does NOT make mistakes. We each have both our allotted time here, as well as our assigned tasks. If you haven't completed yours yet, then you need to complete them, and you need to be happy while you are doing them. Capiche?

In contrast, my personal prayer is the exact opposite of the Christians who complain. I constantly say "Oh Lord, please give me more time. I still have so much more work to do for You. Help my mind to hold out. Help my eyesight to hold out. Help my body to hold out. Help my health to hold out." And I am very serious and mean every word of it. Sometimes I joke with my friends and tell them that I need to beat Moses in age, because that is how much work I still have left to do. Of course, I am a realist, and so I do realize that my total life span is entirely up to the Lord. He already knows and has determined my allotment of years. Thus, if He decides I have done enough, even if I do not feel that I am done yet, then so be it, and I will fly away, as in this verse:

"The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."


So, because none of us really knows how long we have on this Earth, that is why it is so important that we wisely use the time that we do have for the Lord's glory. For us Christians, that obviously means sharing the truth of His Word with this lost world in whatever fashion He shows us, while at the same time, being careful that we do not become lost in the world ourselves, or trapped by the things of the world, as in this group of Bible verses:

"For Demas hath forsaken me, HAVING LOVED THIS PRESENT WORLD, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia."


"LOVE NOT THE WORLD, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."


"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD IS ENMITY WITH GOD? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the ENEMY OF GOD."


"No man that warreth ENTANGLETH HIMSELF WITH THE AFFAIRS OF THIS LIFE; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."


"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. WHEREFORE COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM, AND BE YE SEPARATE, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."


Please go to part three for the conclusion of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

---

---

Please avail yourself of other areas of the Bill's Bible Basics website. There are many treasures for you to discover.