Friday: Great Gifts 4

"Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." "Father into your hands I commit my spirit." He is not here, He has risen!

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is Friday, and spring is appearing this weekend here at the Southern location of the North Pole. Friday, the day we pray for those who work the fields of Harvest for our Lord Jesus. Also pray for Goldie Karnes who is in serious condition in the Holy Spirit Hospital. Goldie is a long-time volunteer for New Hope Ministries, a local food bank. Prayer also for David Fortney as he turns 50 this weekend. Happy Birthday Dave! Dave has been a long time friend, a true believer, and a helper many, many, times with Carry The Light Ministries. He along with his wife, Joanne, who sang with us, would help with the equipment after my many back surgeries. He also has driven our truck pulling our floats in parades. Dave has also been a great inspiration to our son Matthew.

Great Gifts 3 Luke 23: 34 "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." Luke 23: 43 "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23: 46 "Father into your hands I commit my spirit." Luke 24: 6 He is not here, He has risen! (NIV)

As I look at great gifts again today, I want to talk to you a bit about things we have that we don't thank God for. Let me just explain for a minute what I am trying to say. There are a lot of people that have some problems, most of us hurt in one way or another from day to day. Let's say we have a really bad back, we pray and we pray for healing to our back, but do we take time to say thank You Jesus for all the other parts of us that are working fine? Let me tell you about a wonderful man that lives at the Bridges. This man, a retired pastor, has had a stroke and has lost the use of his right side. We are praying daily that he will be healed and be able to preach again. In the meantime, we need to praise God that he has his speech, that he can eat, and all his plumbing works well. While it is hard to always stay upbeat, we must not lose our faith, for if we really want to have the healing hand of God, we must, I say again, we must keep our faith. So we need to look at the great gifts that God has given us, and when we lose one of them, or even a couple of them, we must have faith and look at the rest of the gifts. I was in a bad motorcycle accident and have had many surgeries on my back, but I need to look at that accident as a gift from God, for it was that accident that brought me into the ministry to work full-time for our Lord Jesus. And even with all of the problems that the accident has caused, God has carried me through each step of it and the pain I have today. So I must remember all the other gifts He has given me, and all of the years I was able to work, earn a living, save for retirement, and how He takes care of us in retirement. I still have a voice to sing, and He has given me talent to write each day. (Someday He might give me the talent to spell.) So let's look at all of the great gifts that God gives us daily.

Now let me review what I think the greatest of all gifts from God are ...
God gave us His Son Jesus.
Jesus died for us, so our sins could be forgiven if we ask in faith.
Jesus was risen from the dead so we also know we will be risen to be with Him in Heaven.
He gave us life and free will to choose what we what to do with it.
He supplies our needs.
He gave us family.
and the gifts go on and on ...
One of my greatest gifts is ALL OF YOU ... AMEN!

Dear Lord, thanks for all of our blessings and gifts. Please help us to share all of our blessings and gifts. Please help all who work for You, protecting them along the way. Please be with Goldie and heal her. And Lord, thanks for the blessings of Joanne and Dave in my life and in the life of Matthew and also in Carry The Light Ministries. In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.

Go forth now, knowing your great gifts from God and sharing them ... Love ya, dan.

Carry The Light will be singing at Manor Care in Camp Hill, Pa., Saturday at 2:00 PM. Sunday, we will be preaching at the Bridges at 10:00 AM and at Perry Village at 2:00 PM.

Be blessed, dan.