Friday: Where is your faith?

"Where is your faith?"

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is a beautiful, cold morning here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. If you are excited about the coming of spring, let me give you just a few facts. In two weeks, we go to daylight saving time, and four weeks from today, we have the first day of spring. NASCAR started last week, baseball spring training has started, and the "Tiger" is back. But the greatest blessings come each day as God sends us another day of life ... enjoy it!

Today is Friday and the day we pray for all those who work in the fields of Harvest for our Lord Jesus. A correction from yesterday ... Sharon Saylor, a Navy Veteran, retired from the Army depot in New Cumberland, not the Navy depot in Mechanicsburg. Thanks, Sharon, for serving our country.

Today as we pray for those who work the fields, please pray for The Couriers, as they are back out singing, preaching and teaching for our Lord Jesus. Also pray for Pastor Tony Mayeski and his wife Ruby. I have mentioned Pastor Tony before, he is truly a pastor's pastor. As you pray for them, please pray for their eyesight. I also received a praise report from Helen Thomas thanking all who prayed for her in the loss of her K-9.

"Where is your faith?" Luke 8: 25 "Where is your faith?" Jesus asked His disciples. (NIV) I am not just asking you that question today, but I am quoting Jesus as He asked that same question to His disciples. From Luke 8: 22 One day Jesus said to His disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. 23 As they sailed, He fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. 24 The disciples went and woke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 Where is your faith?" He asked His disciples. (NIV)

Now even after traveling with Jesus for some time they must have had questions about Him, or did not have full faith in Him at that point. In amazement they were asking one another, who is this? He not just heals the sick, He also has control over the storms ... YES, HE DOES ... and may I just add here this statement. "How often do we have so little faith that we are scared when the storms pass?"

We need to learn and take safety steps, but we need to have faith that our Lord Jesus is in control and He will protect us according to His will for us. And brothers and sisters, if we do have faith in Jesus,we should never be afraid of His Will for us. Oh, you are thinking, that is easy for Pastor Dan to say, but it is not always that easy, and you are right in thinking that. I have faith that God is going to protect us. Still when a heavy storm or storms are in the area, I start to pace. We have on several occasions taken all of our pets to the basement of the house to ride out a storm. And there have been times when the storm went past so fast that we did not have time to worry about it.

But let me get off the weather related storms in our life, for indeed most all of the storms in our life are those that are not weather related. How many people right now have storms of "no job" or your house payment, your car payment, your credit card payment, and maybe even your wife are all two months late? Did you catch that one? While the lateness of your wife should be a joyful thing as you go expecting a child, it might just be another worry if you do not have a job. Folks, we need to have faith, and a lot of it. Think of this, Our Lord has promised to supply all of our needs, but we need to have faith to receive this blessing, and sometimes this faith requires us to step out in that faith. You have heard me quote Pamela Bower many times on her saying "we need to put feet on our prayers". Folks, let me add a quote of my own today when I tell you this ... "We need to put feet on our faith." Prayer and faith go hand in hand -- as we talk to our Lord Jesus, we need to have faith that He will hear our prayers and answer them, for it is faith that gets them to Him, and brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus will answer your prayers. HOWEVER, sometimes our prayers are not answered the way we want them them to be. Sometimes you might be putting your faith in the wrong place. Think about that, do you put your faith in Jesus or are you putting your faith in man? How many people right now are putting faith in a man who just happens to be President of the United States? I want you all to know and understand that our President is not God, not now, not ever. If you are waiting for Washington to cut you a check, or pay down your house payment, you are placing your faith in the wrong place.

It is time, my friends, to put our faith in God. In doing that, we might need to take a step back before we go forward, we might need to give up a lot of our earthly wants and toys. Jesus has promised to supply our needs, but our needs do not include three big screen TV's, cell phones for all in the family, two new cars, and Friday and Saturday night out on the town each week, etc. It might mean we clean out the cupboards and eat the food that is there that we overlook. Might be time to eat some Spam, instead of Steak, drive a used Chevrolet instead of a new Caddy. But folks, do not give up the faith, for our Lord Jesus will calm your storms in life. Let me sum this up. Most all of the storms in our lives are self-caused, while I am sure I will hear about that statement, I will repeat it, most all of the storms in our lives are self-caused. Still, our Lord Jesus will help you calm them, He will work with You to get you out of the mess. Let's go to our Lord Jesus now in faith and give our storms, our worries, our burdens over to Him. Then after that, let's start putting some feet on the prayers and the faith and work with God as He calms the storms ... Trust me, no, Trust God, this will work ...

Dear Father in Heaven, there are many storms in our lives, some, although few, are weather related. Yes, some of those storms, for some were big, some on this line have had the side of their house torn away, but even knowing one of them as a dear friend, I know that as You calmed that storm, You brought joy into his life that he might not have known without the storm. But Lord, most all of us have had storms that we have caused on our own ... over-extended ourselves, lived beyond our very means, and then so many expect that government will bail them out. Lord, today we are looking to You to help us, but Lord as we put our faith in You and trust in You, we want to work right with You, we want to put feet on our prayers and on our faith, and we want to walk with You in faith, we want our faith feet and our prayer feet to not just look at our own storms, but to also look at our neighbors storms and help them. Lord bless those who work in Your fields of Harvest. Bless the Couriers with a schedule that You are helping them put together. Bless also Pastor Tony and Ruby ... In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Go forth now sharing your blessings and putting feet on those prayers and on that faith. Go in love, and know where your blessings come from ... and where they don't come from ... don't be fooled, and don't be a fool ... trust Jesus, not Washington ... love ya, dan.