Wednesday: Prepare The Way 3

Good Morning my dear brothers and sisters ... Brrrrr, it is cold outside. Each year as I get older (hey, you are also), each year I dislike winter more and more ... I do love snow, but gosh, can't we have it at 72 degrees ... Anyway, I promise God each year that if He gets me through the winter, I will never complain about the heat of the summer ... so to that statement today I want to add this ... COME ON SUMMER!!! Now let me get down to doing some work for our Lord Jesus.

Praise report, all tests were good that were done on Beverly Orner (Allie's mother). Prayers for Jennifer who is having back surgery...

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters ... It is Wednesday and that means it is Salvation Wednesday on this line ... For all of you new folks coming on board I say welcome, and we do have a daily prayer schedule ...

Monday is for our leaders, our military, our police, and firefighters and others who work for our safety...

Tuesday is Schools day and the day we pray for all schools and those who enter the doors.

Wednesday is Salvation Wednesday and the day we pray for the unsaved and also pray asking God to use us to bring in the lost so that He can save them. We always need to remember we plant the seeds, work the fields, and bring in the harvest ... But God takes care of the rest, as in getting the product to market ... The product? That would be the lost!

Thursday is family day.

Friday is the day we pray for all of God's workers.

Saturday you are on your own, and Sunday, well we will just let that one up to your pastors or in many cases on this line to "you pastors".

Plus on any day we can pray for things you want to pray for.

Prepare The Way: Again our bus ride is taking us to hear this loud voice calling out in the wild ... PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD ... And today we are back traveling with old John. Born just six months before Jesus and now out working for our Lord Jesus in the fields of Harvest telling all of the coming of Jesus and Baptizing in the name of Jesus. But I think the most important part of his message is not just Baptizing, but his teaching about repentance.
Lets talk about it today. Repentance of sins means that we should turn away from sin ... Not back and forth, not riding the middle of the road, but turning our back on sins and walking away from them.

I want to ask you this, and again I get right down to it a lot ... Did you ever pray a prayer like this? "Dear Father in Heaven, please forgive me of my sins and the sin I am about to do" Did you ever set out knowing you are going to sin so you are asking forgiveness in advance? Confession time folks, I have done that in the past, I really have and I have asked God to not just forgive me of my sins, but have asked Him to forgive me of the sins I knew I was going to do. And brothers and sisters I try very hard not to do anything like that again ... That is like, well like spitting in the face of God ... When one is planning in advance to pray to be forgiven for a sin they are about to do, well tell me where is the repentance from that sin? Folks, we need to repent of the sins, or we are just, well just wasting God's time and even our own by praying for sins to be cleaned when we fully know we are going to do that sin over again ...

As far as getting baptized, some will say you cannot get into heaven unless you are baptized while others will have the battle over how you get baptized ... Put under the water, or sprinkled? Well John put people under the water, and He also did that to Jesus ... Tomorrow we will talk about the day John baptized Jesus, but for now, lets get back to just the act of being baptized. First and foremost we need to know that being baptized is more then an ACT, or it should be. It also means nothing if we do not repent from our sins. Also we need to know that it is just an outward expression of an inward feeling ... So which way is correct ... Folks I am not going to get into a fight between denominations for again, neither mean a thing if we don't repent of our sins ... For that reason, I personally do not believe in baptizing babies (as I was). I believe it should be done when the one who is being baptized is able to know why it is being done and be accountable for their own sins before God ... However, I do have a story about this five year old son of a Baptist Pastor ...

After watching his dad baptize people at church and hearing his dad preach on being baptized and how different religions do it differently, this young man decided to baptize the family kittens ... The family had three of them, and one Sunday afternoon, after a service of baptism at church, Junior took the three kittens into the bathroom and closed the door ... He then filled the tub with water and took the first kitten in his little hands and pushed it under the water ... The cat came up and the boy said, I baptize you in the name of The Father, Son and Holy Spirit ... The cat ran and hid ... He got the second kitten who was watching the first and started to fight just a tad ... After a little struggle, Junior got the kitten under water and left him up again saying, I baptize you in the name of The Father, Son and Holy Spirit ... And now it is time for the third kitten and this one wanted nothing to do with this ... Junior tried and tried, but the kitten just would not go under. After many scratches on his little arms the boy just sort of gave up, taking the kitten in one hand and taking a handful of water and putting it on the kitten's head ... saying these words ... I baptize you in the name of The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and if you want to be a Methodist that's ok with me ...

Ok, so much for the joke today ... But let's take from this lesson today that the important part of the work that John was doing and that we need to be doing in our teaching of others. First we need to repent from our sins ... There is no doubt in my mind that that is the main message that John was teaching, and teaching that it needs to be done sooner and not later ... the reason, for the Lord was coming ... "PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD, MAKE STRAIGHT PATHS FOR HIM." Luke 3: 4 (NIV)

And to make straight paths for Him is to repent of our sins ... Folks, the time might be different but the message about the same ... We should be in the fields of Harvest telling all ... "PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE RETURN OF THE LORD". "Make ready yourself for Jesus is coming back as promised". Yes the times are different, the wording might be a tad different, but when I add this it comes out the same ... "REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR."

And Father in Heaven we ask today that You once again forgive us of our sins, if You would please help us repent, help us to turn from sin and walk away ... Help us teach others about Your return ... Help us on this day we call Salvation Wednesday to be like old John and go into the world and tell of Your coming again ... Help us to tell others about the need to repent, but Lord only after we have repented ... We want to work for You, but we want to be clean when we do, and we what You to show in us, and on us ... In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

REPENT AND SHARE YOUR BLESSINGS ... For the return of Jesus is coming, each day brings us a day nearer to going home ... REPENT AND SHARE YOUR BLESSINGS ... Love ya, dan.