Tuesday: Martin Gets a Bath 2

You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters, it is Schools day, Tuesday, on the line, and we need to be getting down to some real praying for our schools, for we are just a few short weeks away from a new school year. Please warriors, if you live near a school, go there and do some serious praying and just plain talking to Jesus about the schools. If you live near a yard full of school buses, go and pray over them in the name of Jesus, pray for safety. Please keep praying for the Saylor family. Don is home from the hospital and hospice is now checking on him. Please do not let that scare you, for Jesus is still the one in control. Please pray for Vicki and her family as they have services for her dad.

For all of you who have lost love ones, remember this scripture... It comes from Psalm 30: 5 - For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime: Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. (NIV) Yes, we weep when we lose the loved one, over and over again we might weep, however, if we look at the promises of God, that someday we will meet up in heaven, then we know that there will be joy or rejoicing in the morning...

Martin Gets a Bath 2 - You drive your dirty car down the street, it looks a mess, it has that road dirt, tree sap and bird stuff all over it... you go past the car wash and think, yes, I am going back and either have it washed or I am going to put some quarters in the machine and wash it myself (trust me you need a bunch of quarters). Anyway you go back, you spend some really good hard earned money on your dirty beauty. You pay for the extras, yes, clean and shine those tires, wash the car, clean the inside and put some of that smell good on the inside, clean the windows inside and out, and add the hot wax. Your dirty beauty comes out the other end of the tunnel and four or five people jump on it and in it and finish it. You just spent 20 bucks and now a tip. You smile and get in it and off you go. You are about a mile down the street and a flock of geese do a fly over... splat, splat and splat... You go a little farther down the road and a big truck passes you right where the water was left on the road from a construction job. And then the cloud over you goes dark, where did this come from... and there is just one cloud, and it lets go... and your nice new wash job is gone, down the drain so to speak. Your car looks as bad as it did before. No longer your clean beauty, it is back to being your dirty beauty. Now I say dirty beauty for you know that under that dirt is that bright red, or black, or white, or yellow, or whatever color your beauty might be. Under it is your Caddy, your Ford, your Honda, or maybe your Edsel. But you know that under that dirt is your beauty.

Folks, under the dirt of sin, we are all still God's children. He loves us all, He knows that under the dirt is still a beauty that just needs cleaned up. So we head for a wash job with Jesus and yes, like getting the car washed, we must get it started. Let's face it, brothers and sisters, Jesus did His part years ago on Calvary, He went to the cross for us, He died for us. We have been warned over and over again about this dirt that is known as sin - the dirt that soap will not wash off - the dirt that gets driven in clean to the bone. We make a choice here, we are tired of living in sin, we are being hurt by it, it is slowly taking us down. So we have a come to Jesus meeting, maybe on our own, or maybe at the altar of our church or a church we have never been in before. Maybe some friend took us to a good gospel concert and we responded to the call at the end... We go up and confess to Jesus our sins... we bundled them up for if we did one at a time we would need a week or more - and we GET WASHED. Listen to these words...

1 Corinthians 6: 9 - Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But YOU WERE WASHED, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of God. (NIV)

Under all the dirt of sin, the beauty which God could still see comes clean like that big silver Caddy coming out the end of the Wash Tunnel. Yes, we are clean as clean can be and we get ready to head out for the day. How long will we stay clean? How long will it be till the flock of geese do a fly over us? How long till the splat, splat of the dirt we call sin comes on board with us? We forgot to do something when we got cleaned, we forgot to do it. We have gone out like my little K-9 Martin Martin Lehman (yes that is his full name) and we have got our messed up in sins... Tomorrow, what we forgot to do. Will you join in tomorrow and find out what it was that we forgot? If you have an idea what we forgot, drop me an e-mail and let me know. I love to hear from you.

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for the wash job to clean us from sins. Help me, dear Lord, with the message tomorrow as You did today. Lord, be with the Saylor Family and heal them Lord, and Lord, be with Vicki and her loved ones as they suffer the loss of her dad. Lord, we pray today for our schools and for all those who go through the doors, we ask that You head them up, regardless of what some want, we who love You want You in the schools. You are indeed welcome. Help us to ready our children for school by teaching them more about You. Be with school bus drivers as they learn more about safety and those new drivers stepping into the buses for the very first time. Anoint them to drive in a safe way. And Lord, the Transportation Department at the Central Dauphin School District needs Your help... Please work it out for the good. Lord, I give it all over to You in the name of Jesus. Amen.

And now may the Good Lord bless and keep you, may He cause His face to shine upon you and give you peace, and may He cause you to share your blessings... Amen. Love ya, dan.