Thursday: Fathers 4

"Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and 'love your neighbor as yourself."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is raining here at the Southern location of the North Pole. Gosh, if all the rain we were having would have come in the winter as snow, we would really need that sleigh and the reindeer to get around. I am not complaining, for God is in control. Today is family day on the line, the day we pray for families, and today I ask you to pray for your neighbors' families and for the Saylor family, the Everhart family, Vicki's family, and please, please pray for the families of God who gather on this line. Also brothers and sisters, please remember our Blog Spot. carrythelight4Jesus.blogspot.com The spot is kept up to date by our ministry partner, Pamela Bower. Pamela has been with our ministry since it was formed over 15 years ago. (Gosh I was young then.)


Fathers 4 - With Fathers' Day coming this Sunday I thought it just might be nice to look into some good fatherly advice and some even better Fatherly advice. Growing up in a home where both parents were school teachers, I was given a lot of advice from both my mom and my dad. Some of the fatherly advice that I messed up on, reported to my father from my mamma, was installed on my backside, if you get what I mean. My dad, understand, never beat or abused me, but he did not spare the rod, or the switch as he called it, a nice fresh thin branch from a Weeping Willow tree. I guess that is how the tree got it's name, it was a Willow Tree and when the branch had contact with my backside, I would weep.

While my mother taught me most of the basic things in life, like how to potty which including putting down the seat (something I still do today, thank you), she also taught me the table manners and how to dress, and I don't mean just how to put on the clothes but how to wear what you had. Play clothes, school clothes, and Sunday clothes ... in our house, we always put on our best for God when we went to church. SOMETHING I STILL THINK SHOULD BE DONE. (Amen) I was also taught to walk on the outside (street side) when walking with a lady. Those who know me, know that I still do that today.

Anyway, the things that my dad taught me were things like how to toss a ball, how to catch, how to ride a bike and at the age of about 11, yes eleven, to drive the car (bad dad, happy kid). That was done on the dirt roads out in the country, and it came with this advice ... drive safe, don't drink (not don't drink and drive, just don't drink) and never take a car on the road before you are of age and have your license. Oh yes, and there were more fatherly instructions. Some of my fatherly instructions were passed on down to my children, and some were installed in somewhat the same manner as how my dad installed the advice, with some taps on the backside.

Fathers 4: A lot of the fatherly advice that my dad gave me, really was Fatherly Advice given by God the Father, and relayed by my good old dad. Today I want to start looking at some of that Fatherly advice, and note when my dad taught it to me. Making it Fatherly, fatherly advice ... Following Instructions, the first thing we really must learn is not one bit of the Instructions or advice does any good if you do not follow it.

In the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth ... and if you want you can read the creation story in Genesis Chapter one, starting with verse one. Let me start with verse 26. Then God said, "let us make man in our image, in our likeness." (NIV) Now let me pause here and ask you to look close at this. Let US make man in OUR image and in OUR likeness. Sounds to me like God the Father is working with God the Son right from the very start (God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit). So, my dear friends, I want you to note that God made us the very best He could because we are made in His own image. Then God said "let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all creatures that move along the ground." Now my friends, no one loves animals anymore than I do. But right here, is some good Fatherly advice. Animals are not people, and as much as I love them dearly, people still come ahead of our family of animals, 9 dogs, 2 cats (and 2 that stop in to eat), 3 Pigmy goats and 12 hens. In Genesis 1: 27 - So God created Man in His own image. In the image of God He created them ... Male and female He created them ...

Fatherly Advice: Now here comes some more Fatherly advice. Verse 28 - God blessed them and said to them ... "Be Fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it." No place here on any other place in the Bible does it tell us if we do not like the sex of the child in the womb, or we see a defect in it, that we should kill it off, no abortion, no murder. Just go forth, be fruitful and increase in number. Now my earthly father gave me advice on this subject also, and it was good advice. Why he told me to wait till I was married to have sex, no practicing first. He said to date, fall in love, get engaged, get married, and then produce the family. No head starts on the family, he told me over and over again.

Fathers 4: Now God said, "I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." Then God gave us every green plant for food. And God gave us all these things and told us it was good. Now it also talks in here that God made man from dust of the ground and breathed life into us. God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there He put the man He had formed. Now God made this Garden really beautiful and it had all kinds of plants and bushes in it. In the middle of the garden He put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then God told man it is all yours, but and here comes the advice, it is all yours but do not eat from that tree. Then God made woman for man was alone, and this was a good thing. And I truly mean that. In here it also talks about marriage.

Of course this is also the first place where man (and woman) did not follow the Fatherly advice and we all know what happened. They ate the fruit from the tree that they were told not to touch. Had to find out, and I am not going to be like some and place blame on this. I am just telling you that this is the first recorded place in History where man (woman) went against the advice of their Father, and in this case Adam and Eve were direct children of God the Father. And they were punished, and it was severe. Pains of childbirth, and gardens with weeds, just to name a few of the punishments. Now putting this together with advice from my father, I can remember going into the woods and he would point out things I could eat, berries and nuts that were good and good for you, and others that you should not eat. I still to this day, at this time of the year go into my back yard and eat from a mulberry tree. In fact I was eating some of them just yesterday. And they are good.

Fathers 4: Tomorrow we are going to dig into the Bible and find out more Fatherly Advice, instructions, and see if we have been following them or if we have not followed the advice.

Dear Father in Heaven, thank You for parents who cared enough about me to give me advice and to hand out faithfully, punishment when I did not follow the advice. Thank You for parents who cared enough to punish me, for after being a parent I know that when one hands out punishment, it hurts the parent more than the child. Dear Lord, please protect the children from abuse for there is indeed a difference between good punishment and out and out abuse. Lord, I know You must hurt when You see all who are sinning and not abiding the rules and advice You have given. Please forgive me when I have failed, and forgive all others who might be asking right now. Help us dads give good advice and to be part of our kids' lives even after they have left the nest. Lord, I want to be a good dad, I failed in the past, but want to do it right from now on. Lord, thanks for the message of today, and I pray for one tomorrow. In the name of Jesus, the one who loves me enough to have died for me, I pray. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, if we all would just follow the advice in the Bible, if we all did that, the world would be like God wanted it to be. One thing we really need to do is share our blessings. Maybe if we all would share our blessings real, real good, there would not be the need to tax us so much so the government would need to supply the food banks with dollars for food to help others. Brothers and sisters, we are told by our Lord to help the poor and hungry. Let's really put feet on this. Put your feet into sharing your blessings.
Love ya, dan.

PS.. I would love to hear from you on just what blessing you have shared in the past few weeks ... take time to tell me please ... Amen