Thursday: Be Dressed

Be Dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning.

Hey, it is family day on the line, and Good morning to all of my on-line family.. and yes by now, after all these years we are family, and more than just a family of God. Some of you I have never seen or talked to yet I seem to know you well, others have sent me pictures, and still others I have even had breakfast or lunch with. I am just so blessed that God lets me do this daily, that He trusts me enough to do His work, and folks, He trust you also, so if you are not working for Him, start today.

Please pray today again for families and pray for Vicki and her family. A cousin now has been told of cancer. So please support this family in prayer. Also please pray for my Aunt Romaine who has been taken to the hospital. Also please pray for Jim, who is stationed in Iraq. I have withheld his last name and the location as he is on special assignment. And yes, pray for all of our troops who so proudly serve our country ... Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines, and all those reserve units. And pray for the Pennsylvania Striker Brigade now serving in Iraq, and pray for their families.

Be Dressed! Years ago when I was a lad, my buddies and I liked to "sleep out." We would put up a homemade tent or just sleep under the stars in one of our back yards. And when not sleeping out with my friends I would sleep most often on the glider on our back porch. Back before AC we did these things. One of the neatest things was our "free Chocolate Milk" and also that we would always sleep in our clothes. Yes, we were dressed (didn't take a bath either) and ready and we had fun. And we did not get into trouble except for that "free Chocolate Milk". I have confessed this one over to God also. Back in those days people had a "Milk Man". For those too young to remember, milk, bread, meat, eggs etc were delivered to your home. So back to the "Free Chocolate Milk". We knew where the milkmen would stop and we would put a note in the box, please leave a quart of Chocolate milk, and after the milkman would leave the milk we would go and get it. When my dad found out we did this, I had to go to the houses and pay the people, so my Free Chocolate Milk was no longer free. Anyway, backyard camping out was fun and we were always dressed.

The Bible tells us we are to be dressed and ready. Again I ask you to read today from Luke 12: 35/48. Let me just write a few verses for you. Luke 12: 35 - "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning". Verse 40 - "You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him." (NIV)

If you read all of these scriptures on this subject, you will find that Jesus uses an example that we must be dressed as a servant ready to serve his master. And we shout always be ready to serve Jesus. This does not mean we go to bed dressed as I did when camping out. This means to me that we must come to Christ, we must "dress our hearts" so to speak. We must wash our robes, and again I am not talking clothes here, I am talking about our souls, our minds, our hearts, our brains, we need to have them cleaned up by our Lord, we need to ask to be forgiven and we need to follow in His footsteps, we need to be ready to serve Him here and we need to be ready to "check out of here" when He calls for us or He comes. Are you dressed and ready to serve God today?

I have gone to stores where the employees look great, look like they're ready to serve you, and I have been in some where the employees looked like, well, not like employees should look. I think our schools went down hill when the teachers started to dress down. Again I go back to my mother and dad who were both school teachers. Dad had to wear a suit, white shirt and tie. Not slacks and a sport coat, or a colored shirt, it was a suit and white shirt and tie and the shirts were long sleeves. Now he could take off his suit coat and put it over his chair in class, but when he went to the hall between classes his coat had to be on. The lady teachers like my mother wore dresses or skirts and blouses and no slacks, none, zip. This to me set an example for the kids to LOOK UP TO, and not across or down. I think if we had a dress code again for teachers, it would after a few years make a difference to our kids in school. And for the business that let their employees have a dress down day, they need to learn that just puts the business down one day a week. When I owned service stations, my employees were in uniforms. And look at our postal carriers, they are furnished uniforms, yet some look really bad, shirts hanging out ... think about this proper dress.

And let me point out one more thing. People go to church dressed in some cases really bad. And while we say it is better they come to church than how they dress, that is somewhat true, but I still think we need to Look God to God. When serving God we need to wear our best. Again I would love to hear from you.

So now let's get back one more time about being dressed. The heart of this lesson is to have our heart and soul dressed and ready for the Lord. But we also need to be dressed daily to serve Him. If you send two guys out to the street dressed in coats and ties and two dressed like, well like bums, and they are both wanting to talk to people about God, who do you think stands the best chance of having a door opened?

Dear Father in Heaven, we want to dress not to show off, but to show we love You and show respect for You and to be ready to serve You. Help us find the line and do it. Lord, bless families today, be with Don Saylor and with Vicki and her family. Lord, bless the families on this line. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Go forth now, sharing your blessings and dressing for your job and dressing yourself for the Lord. Live daily for Him, for it just might be tonight when He comes back or we get called home. Be dressed and ready ... love ya, dan.