Wednesday: The Great Escape 2

Good Morning my dear brothers and sisters ... and Happy New Years Eve. Looking for something to do this evening, Carry The Light is singing at the Bridges at 6.30 PM and of course you are invited ... always welcome. Please today let us finish out the 2008 year with the Lord and start 2009 fresh ... for that, tomorrow morning I will be having online communion to start the New Year ... Today of course being Wednesday, it is Salvation Wednesday on this line ... so please pray for the unsaved in your life ...

The Big Bus Trip 26 and the Great Escape 2 ... Rev those buses up for we are going to run them today.

Taken from Matthew 2: 13 - When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "Take the child and His mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for The Child to kill Him. (NIV)

Now we have already looked at the fact it was the Magi and not kings that came to visit Jesus and surely it did not happen at the manger. In fact I would say it was back in Jerusalem at his home. We know that Jesus was presented on the eighth day of his life to be circumcised according to Law of Moses.

So this would have happened sometime after that. Again we see the angel of the Lord being involved. So let me just stop and talk about this a minute ... there are so many people that do not believe in angels yet we see it a lot in the Bible ... and around the time of the birth of Jesus it is really very clear ... An angel of the Lord talked to old Zack about the birth of John ... The angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her about being found in favor of the Lord and that she was chosen to carry our Lord and Savior in her womb to birth ... Angels of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and announced the birth of our Lord. And now an angel of the Lord has appeared to Joseph and told him to get up and "get out of town"; Go to Egypt for King Herod wants to kill your Son Jesus ... Take Jesus and Mary and go to Egypt. And like all the other times around the birth of Christ, when the angels of the Lord talked, people listened ... Joseph got right up, got the Child and Mary and left for Egypt ... where he stayed until the death of King Herod.

King Herod gave orders that all the boys in Bethlehem and its area who were two years old and under, would be killed ... This would also be John (John The Baptist) if he was caught. Weeping was heard from Rachel for her children for they were "no more". Found in Matthew 2: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." (NIV)

Now let us bring this forward ... If you had a dream, if in your dream an angel appeared and told you to move your family... Would you do it ... Maybe you live near a river and rain is expected, and this angel told you to move to higher ground, even before the rain started, would you listen ... Ah you have lived there for a long time, you have seen the water come and go before, and although your house basement has been filled a few times you were ok ... you just cleaned up ... but now in a dream you are told to get your family out ... Would you go, would you just get your family to a local motel and keep them safe or would you just set the dream aside ... Not a trick question, for it can happen today.

What if an angel appeared to you in a dream and told you to get out because there is a danger of fire, or a big storm ... what would you do ... Would you listen to a messenger of the Lord ...
Ok, guys, would you try this ... Hi honey, last night an angel of the Lord came to me in a dream and told me to help the workers keep their jobs, we should buy a new Cadillac. Do you think that you could sell that one to your wife ... Ladies, you tell your husband that an angel of the Lord appeared to you and to keep you in good health you need to take a boat cruise ...

Are you tight enough with God to know when it is He talking to you and not the voice of evil, and don't tell me that the voice of evil does not talk to you ... Would you know the difference between the angel of the Lord and one from Satan? My dear brothers and sisters maybe my examples are far off, but they are but examples, but we must always stay in touch with our good Lord, and understand when it is indeed Him talking to us ... Folks we pray and a lot of times we do not listen for an answer to our prayers ... We need to pray and listen ... We have all had dreams and all have had some that seemed so rea l... Just last night my wife dreamed that all of our dogs got loose and she dreamed how we were so worried about them for they are seniors and might not find their way home ... I am sure we have all had dreams that we were really happy to wake and find out they did not happen ... but what if the Lord came to you ... Let me say this once again.. Our Lord is the same today as He was yesterday and will be tomorrow ... so there is no reason to believe that He still will not come to us in a dream, or even talk to us through a burning bush ... I think that a lot of times we just take it will not happen again ... we think that the angel of the Lord might not come to us ... but yet we do believe that God died for us on the cross to forgive us of our sins ...

So today I ask this big, big question, why do you believe some things in the Bible and not others, or think some might happen again, as in God taking us into Heaven on the Word of Jesus and others might not happen like the direct healing from our Lord Jesus ... Folks again, we are serving the same God today and He never, ever changes. So folks when, not if, but when God speaks to your heart, you better listen to Him for God is alive and real and still talks to us ...

Today let us pray for forgiveness of our sins and for us to listen to our Lord when we talk to Him ... We expect Him to listen to us, should He not expect the same from us ... Let's go out of this year clean.

Dear Father in Heaven, clean us of our sins once again, wash us white as snow, and help us to listen to You when You speak to us ... Help us to understand the difference between Your voice and one that is of evil ... Lord be with us, and help us to live to please you each day ... help us Lord, help us ... In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Happy New Years Eve ... enjoy and remember You are a child of God, even on this night so do things that will please Jesus ... Drinking too much is not something that pleases God ... and neither does driving when you have been drinking ... Live for Jesus, and you can have a real blast living for Jesus, and remember to share your blessings. Love ya, dan.

Tuesday: The Great Escape

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another day, and Father as we near the end of 2008 with only 2 days remaining I ask that You help us make the very best of those two days living them for You and trying our best to walk them in Your light ... Take us out of this year by lifting and praising You and living for You. On this Tuesday, a schools day on this line, we pray for our schools, even as most of them are closed for CHRISTMAS vacation, which sadly is now called winter break .... Lord some of us will always call it a Christmas vacation. Lord bless those who enter our schools regardless of who they are, the reason they are there, the color of their skin, or their religion ... Just bless them please Lord and help us send in those who love You, not to fight or stand in picket lines but to just live with a Jesus smile on their face and live to please You ... Father in heaven please keep my mind from drifting this morning and just have me write according to Your will ... Keep this line open and free of scum and dirt ... In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

The Big Bus Trip (Day 25) The Great Escape....

Luke 2: 21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise Him, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived. 22 When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. (NIV)

Folks please read this very important story of the birth of our Lord Jesus as found in Luke 2: 21/40.

As we see in this very important part of world history, Joseph and Mary were back in Jerusalem to carry out the law of Moses. Jesus was going to be consecrated to the Lord as was required of families to do by law with the first born son ... I might point out here that Joseph and Mary followed the word of God, listening and doing just want the Lord wanted, but they also followed man's laws ... You remember that following man's laws and orders was why they were in Bethlehem as they were answering the call of Caesar Augustus and were going to go register to be taxed.

This I feel is a good example of how we as Christians should be living our very own lives, as we should follow man's laws unless of course they were to go directly against the laws of our Lord God ... I might say that if we live each day to please our Lord God we will not be breaking any of man's laws anyway ... In the book of Titus we are also told to obey man's laws, that for another day. Now sometime while shortly after the birth of Jesus, and I would think after He was back in Jerusalem to be consecrated to the Lord, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream ... "Get up," he said, "take the child and His mother and escape ...

Tomorrow we are going to dig into this great escape a lot more ... I do want to leave you with a few questions ... First, why did they need to escape from the town they were in, and who all needed to escape ... Was it just Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus or would it be others also? Where did they go and how long did they stay? Now you can read about this in the book of Matthew.

Remember folks, you can get on our blog and talk about these topics, and also look for an Extra that will be written just for the blog, and sent to Pam for her posting. It will tell all about what Carry The Light Ministries does, how it started, and more so about the food drive of this year ... and there will be pictures ...
Now have a very blessed day, remember to share your blessings and remember this also, when you share in faith, God will replace them, as you just cannot out give the Lord ... love ya, dan.

Monday: The Big Bus Trip 24

Good Morning my dear brothers and sisters ... What a great weekend ... Ok, I have a question for all of you today ... and please I would love your opinion on this one ... Here it is ... How many kings came to the manger to visit Jesus on that first Christmas day?

Now while you are thinking of your answer I will give you mine ... Most people will say three because, I would think, they have a song at Christmas song called "We Three Kings". But wait a minute - we really don't know how many kings came to the manger, we just know that they had three gifts ... WOW, wrong again, while we know there were three types of gifts. Gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were brought to Jesus ... But I just cannot find anyplace in the Bible where it tells me it was brought there by kings ... In fact if you read from Matthew 2: 1/12 you will find that King Herod sent Magi to find out about our Lord Jesus, and even they did not arrive at the manger, they arrived at a house ...

Matthew 2: 11 On coming to the HOUSE they saw the child with his mother and they bowed down and worshiped Him ... (NIV)

Now I did something I don't often do and that is get out the dictionary and did some research on Magi and no place are they referred to as a king ... Magi, most often called a Wiseman, came with the gifts and again we don't know how many of them came, just that they had three gifts ...

Now why did I bring this out, does it really make a difference ... I guess not, it makes for a nice manger scene even at churches in their nativity shows ... but I just think we need to get it right ... Most of our gospel songs and hymns are based on the bible, but here is one we have all sung that is wrong ... So next year we should sing ... "We Three Magi".

Dear Lord, thanks for putting me straight on this story and thanks for letting me know that we should always look into the Bible for what we want to know, that we should even question the words of preachers and speakers by looking things up for ourselves in our Bibles ... and coming directly to You for our talks ... Lord it is nice to see the works of others, but we should always trust the final work, called our Bible ... and always come to You to open it for us ... Lord You are wonderful ... Now Lord it is Monday on this line and that is the day we pray for our nation's leaders so I ask that You watch over our president and president-elect and all of their staffs and their families ... and also Lord please watch over our troops, our military and bring them home to their families safe and soon ... And Lord please bless our grandson Daniel as he readies himself to go in the Navy ... Thanks again Lord for keeping this line open and getting it back up when we had some troubles on Christmas ... In the name of Jesus I pray amen ...

Now it is time to go, and folks for a Christmas gift our son Glenn has built us a "Blog" and you can find it at carrythelight4Jesus.blogspot.com and for now our Ministry partner, Pamela Bower, will be posting the daily writings and taking care of it ... Let us know what you think ... now go forth sharing your blessings and know that I "Love ya", dan.

Friday: The Big Bus Trip 23

Good Morning my dear brothers and sisters ... Today is in my opinion, National Exchange Day, and you can quote me on that one ... I never heard it used by anyone else ... It is the day when people take back those clothes that do not fit, or that they do not like, and exchange them for other things ... I can remember one time years ago returning something that did not fit, and I did it the day after Christmas ... The gift I received was a pair of trousers and they were the wrong size ... So I took them back and checked them in and was given a store credit ... Since I liked the trousers and wanted to replace them with the right size I went into that department and found them ... Wow, 60% off ... So with my store credit I was able to get three pair of the same trousers in different colors ... Gosh, how blessed was I that day... and today I am still blessed. Today many people will go to the stores and exchange things for one reason or another, however for us here on the line, we are going back to the manger and take a look at what happened according to the Bible and what might have happened that is not recorded in the Bible. We are going to look at who came and who didn't come to worship Jesus.

The Big Bus Trip 23: We park our fleet of buses near the manger today and the first thing we are going to do is get off the buses and gather around this Child and Worship Him ... So lets do it in song before we step back and watch who really showed up ... I can think of no better song to sing at the Manger then this. Will you join me in what is considered a children's song ...

"AWAY IN A MANGER"

"Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where He lay, The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay."

"The cattle are lowing the Baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes. I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky, and stay by His Cradle till morning is nigh."

"Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay close by me forever, and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children to Thy tender care, and fit us for heaven to live with thee there."

So who was first at at The Lord's side after Mary and Joseph? In my mind, I am going to say more than likely the Inn Keeper who more than likely really felt badly that he had no place for Mary and Joseph to stay other than in the barn ... From there and before any of the visitors I would think the Angel of The Lord would have been there looking, watching, protecting, and then when the birth of Jesus came, going out to tell others. Now the Bible tells us this, that the angel of the Lord went to the fields nearby, and I talked about that yesterday ... The angel startled those shepherds as the angels did when he went to the others. Now since those shepherds were in fields nearby, they most likely came in that first day, with others coming maybe the second day or third, or the rest of the week. Now we also know according to the Bible who did not come to the manger and that is the three kings or three wise men as they are sometimes called. You can find this recorded in Matthew 2: 1/12. Now we know that Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked about the Lord Jesus. And here they talk about the "Star in the East." King Herod sent others out to find Jesus and bring back a report to him so he could go and visit this special Baby. Here is why we know that the Magi did not make it to the manger ...

Matthew 2: 10/11 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. (NIV)

The key word on location here is "house" so we know that the baby was moved to the temple on the eighth day to be circumcised and I am going to write a tad about that on a Saturday Special tomorrow ... So maybe Jesus was in the barn until the eighth day or moved in a day or so, we just do not know and it just does not mean a whole lot, the message is really about the Birth of our Lord Jesus to a very young lady named Mary who was a virgin ... And that we should Worship this one we know as Jesus ... So let me wrap it up today by saying more than likely that everyone from the town of Bethlehem or most everyone came to see Jesus ... After all they could also see the star ... Also all who came to the Inn and all who might have been camping in the fields nearby who came like Mary and Joseph to register ... and lets go out with just a prayer of praise and worship and on this Friday the day we pray for those who go to the fields of Harvest for our Lord Jesus ...

Dear Jesus, we lift You today in Praise, for we know that Your birth was a humble one, Your walk on earth an amazing one, and your death on the cross a cruel one ... But we know Lord Jesus it was all done for us ... Each and everything You did in Your life was done for all of us, yes for us, for me ... and Lord today we just want to go to work for You in those fields of Harvest that You told us to go into and we want to lift You in praise for all of that, and for taking care of our needs ... and for dying for us on that cross and for saving us from our very own sins ... Thank You Jesus, praise You Jesus. Thank You Jesus, we Love You Jesus ... I love You Jesus ... and Lord now I want to get busy and share Your blessings and I pray all others do also ... use us Lord ... Use us ... In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Go forth now sharing your blessings and if you go out and fight the crowds at the malls, put on your Jesus face, smile, for you are a "CHILD OF GOD" and we do not ever want to forget that ... and we need to live for Him and act like Him. And in the stores be nice, let them see Jesus in You ... and share your blessings ... love ya, dan.

New Blog For Christmas

For Christmas my son set us up with a Blog site for Carry the Light. The ministry is 14 years old, but the site is brand new!

The daily email devotionals that I write and send will be posted here, as much and as soon as possible. Here we go!