Saturday Special: Talking to God 6

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters, and happy Saturday to you. Early in my years of writing on this line, I put out a message seven days a week. My good Christian brother, Tom Sansoni, told me that I should be taking time to rest as God tells us to. So since so many receive the message at work, I cut the weekends. However, once in a while I am pushed just a tad to get a subject finished. This is one of those days. For those who might miss a day or want to review, remember you can go to our blogspot where the messages are posted daily. Ministry partner Pamela Bower takes care of this spot. She also spell checks me there ... http://carrythelight4Jesus.blogspot.com keeps you up to date ... and please, you may talk on our blogspot.

Today is Saturday and I am going to ask you to center your prayers on Vicki for healing. This young lady has a lot of health problems, and that also has her having other problems and no money. Center those prayers please.

TALKING TO GOD 6: Today I want to finish up on the Lord's prayer, I don't know if I will have more on talking to God on Monday or not. Why? I need to talk to God about it.

AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES: Forgive us is just what it says. Forgive us, Lord, as we ask God to forgive us of our Trespasses, or Debts, which means forgive us Lord of our sins. Brothers and sisters, we need to be asking Jesus to forgive us of our daily sins. For if you are like me at all, even though I try hard to repent of my sins, it seems that I still get in a few each day. In this day and age I think, and maybe I am wrong on this, but I think people are praying to God to have their debts forgiven, as in money they owe. Folks, please remember this, first of all, this prayer is talking about our sins, however, HOWEVER, our Lord God is also good at helping you with your debts. Here is the answer which most of you know already. If you give back to God some of what He gives to you in the first place, He will give you even more. It is the blessings thing I talk about. But if you think you can go out and buy a $300,000 dollar home, two Beemers, and a couple of Caddies, and think God is going to foot the bill, while you stay at home and draw welfare on unemployment, think again. The Bible tells us very plainly that those who will not work should not even eat. Sorry I got off subject a tad. Anyway, we are asking God to forgive us of our sins ... and He will, but listen to this next part.

AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US: Matthew 5: 43/44 tells us this. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Now let me put together the last two lines of the prayers and watch as I bring out some key words on this. Forgive us our trespasses AS WE forgive those who trespass against us. STOP ... Did you see what we are asking God to do? We are asking our sins to be forgiven just like we forgive others in our lives - MEANING - If you have someone you are holding something over, someone has hurt you, maybe way back in your life, and you have not forgive them ... then please note that God is only forgiving you as you forgive others. Sorry brothers and sisters, I did not make these rules, I am only telling them to you. But I am not going to softsoap this to you. Dig up those old hurts and forgive the others, even if they do not forgive you. I see it in families where brothers and sisters and even parents and children let things build up and carry this burden forever and ever. No, get it out and forgive. If they do not forgive you, then it is on them. And try hard, when you forgive, do not bring it up again. God does not cast up to us our past, we might bring it up on our own in our minds, but God, once He has forgiven us, it is over and done with. Please learn from this, from these lines in this prayer. One more time here ... God is going to forgive us just like we forgive others.

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION: We are asking God not to let us get into places where there is evil, where temptations are strong. God is not the one who leads us into temptation, it is Satan, but if we are not walking right with God, and we are coming back, or we have been just giving lip service to God, we need to be really thinking about this line. God, please do not let me get into those areas where I am weak.

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL: Ok, so we walked ourselves into the temptation into areas of sin and now we are asking God to bail us out. God's the bondman, you might say. Dear God, pay our bail and get me out of here. Deliver me from that sin. Put the lines together and it reads like this.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Or keep me on the straight and narrow, Lord, and keep the hands of Satan from me.

FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOREVER: Here we are telling God, it is His Kingdom, and He has the Power, and we need to give Him the glory, and we should do it all the time. This is, well sort of like the end of the TV show, or movie and you see the credits. God is the producer, the director, and He made the sets. He has the control. However, He gave us free will. Again, this closing line is a praise line for our Lord. Jesus, when telling us how to pray, put in all the five prayer types.

AMEN: When used at the end of a prayer it means "So be it". Amen could also be used when you agree with something someone else has said. Or if you are like most of us pastors, we like to hear an AMEN once in a while as people agree with what is being said about God.

Now let's go to prayer one more time today and now lets pray it ... and think about it, and give Jesus glory for it ... ready.

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."

Be blessed folks, and thanks for sharing your weekend with me. Must tell you I got to go up and sing with Duane, Dave and Neil last evening and I loved it. They let me pick the song and they put in the background. The song, my most liked old hymn, The Old Rugged Cross. Today I get to sing along with Dolores and Pam at Chapel Pointe in Carlisle at 2.00 PM ... if you want to stop in. Now go and share your blessings, and FORGIVE OTHERS ... love ya, dan.