Friday: Sticks and Stones 5

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is Friday, and the day we pray for those working in the fields of harvest -- those on trips for our Lord, and those just walking and TALKING for and about our Lord Jesus. I remind you of this often, and I will keep doing it, we all need to be on this prayer list as we all should be working those fields of Harvest. For all the "bus people" who follow this line, you need to read today's message in "Our Daily Bread". It is about a bus driver.

Just an update, our phones and computer are back with Verizon, and we also brought in the Fiber Optic service. After being treated really poorly by Comcast, we are happy to be back, and we had the nicest installer ever. And the service, Comcast, had the wrong cables on our sets. We have HD TV, we rented their HD boxes, but the cable they put between the two did not carry HD... so we really never had what we paid for. Today, I will visit Comcast to return the equipment, and I will be tested on what I have been writing about, as I try and explain how they lost us by their very, very bad service. And folks, this will lead into my message today, so that is why I am telling you about this.

Sticks and Stones 5: Today, I hope to wind up the series on the subject about what comes out of our mouth. Did you ever in your life get your mouth so deeply into trouble that someone wanted to punch it off your face. Maybe you were telling everyone how big and bad you were and then someone wanted you to prove it. Maybe it happened years ago in sports, you might have been telling folks how good you were in your sport and in the game they laid you out, so to speak. There are times in our life when we might be asked to prove what comes out of our mouth. Sometimes small lies told over and over again might be believed by even the one telling them, but it does catch up. I think if we all think about this, we all know people like that, maybe in a group or club we belong to, or maybe even at our church. It has recently happened with those who people trusted with their savings. Over and over again we were told that we should keep putting in money, all is fine, then we come to find out that the person investing our money was investing it in their life style. You might be on the side of this that got hurt, or, OR, maybe, just maybe you are the one who puts out those little white lies that seem to take on a life of their own. Think about it. Even telling different stories to different people tend to catch up.

1 John 4: 12 -- No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (NIV)

While the Bible tells us that IF we love one another, God lives in us and while that is very true, there are people who will tell us with their mouth they are Christians but in no way are they living that life. In all things, what comes out of your mouth is open for judging, and while we are not to judge others, we do need to be aware of what people tell us and we need to, well, test the waters on this. About judging, let me say there are times when we must look deep into things. We should not ever judge someone on their faith, that is the work for Jesus and Him alone, but we at times need to really look at things. Maybe like when we go to the store and we are looking at fresh fruit and fresh veggies, we need to look them over ... we need to be inspectors of the fruit and veggies and we need at times to be an inspector when it comes to looking at others, and other things in our lives. Oh, and most of all, we need to really inspect that one who looks back at us when we look into a mirror ... YES WE DO.

There is a saying that if you "walk like a duck, and quack like a duck, more than likely you are a duck." But today as we know, some ducks do not quack, they say Aflack. So today I say, when we stand before people, when we tell people we are Christians, and we might even pray for people and really do a lot of Christian things, do we really live to show people we are Christians, or we really are "Christ Like"? When we love one another, God lives in us, DO WE GIVE HIM A GOOD HOME? Do you live for God, 7x24x365 and even add a day on leap year? Can others see Jesus in You? I have some dear friends, married to each other and deeply in love, and have two wonderful kids.. Years ago I remember how Mr. --------- told me that they changed churches because there was no Jesus at his old church. It seems that even a church, which is a group of people, would talk about Jesus, sing about Jesus, but when it came down to really living for Jesus, well the bottom line is, Jesus was not really there. Folks, what about you? I have labored on this today enough, what about you, and believe me I asked myself the same question, what about me? Am I living a life that is pleasing to God, are we on this line living to please God? Folks, if we live to please God, and that does not please people, our friends, etc., then that is on our friends, for if we please God, really please God in the way we talk and live, then we are doing it right. If we are living to please people, or living to please our very own self, then we need to adjust our living for God.

In short, it is what comes out of your mouth, what you are living. My friends, please think about this, are our words like sticks and stones and hitting on the one we should love the most, our Lord Jesus, or are our words true, and loving to all others including Jesus? Please, today live like what you tell people you are, UNLESS YOU ARE TELLING PEOPLE YOU ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN, then please change your life, and talk and also walk like a Christian: Be the Christian you say you are, don't just talk it ... WALK IT ALSO ... AMEN.

Dear Father today we invite You into our hearts to live, we really want to walk with You, not just talk about it. Help us to let You show in our walk, and in our life. May what we say be a credit to You, as shown by our living for You. Help us to help others, to show our love to one another so that You feel welcome living in us. Lord, we just need your blessing in all we do, in all we do we need You. Lord, today I pray for all those working in the fields of Harvest for You, and I pray that as we do the work in the fields that we have already been through the harvest and have been living for You, and Lord, as I wind up the series on Sticks and Stones, or what comes out of our mouth, Lord help us ... Protect all those who work the fields, be they in far off lands, or on the streets of America. Lord Jesus, we love You and we pray in Your name today. AMEN.

Now go forth sharing your blessings, and sharing your love for Jesus by living for Him. You are welcome to come to the Susquehanna Senior Living home in Millersburg Pa. tomorrow, Saturday. at 2.00 PM. for a concert by Carry The Light, and like always, you are invited to church at 10.00 AM at the Bridges. And please keep this date open if you can -- Carry The Light Ministries has rented a big covered pavilion in Willow Mill Park for Saturday July 4th ... More details coming ... and you are invited. Time to go, please share those blessings. love ya, dan.