Wednesday: Building Bridges 3

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Praise God, Praise God, Praise God. Praise reports in this morning... Do you remember praying and praying for Baby Ali? You remember this beautiful child of Jim and Beverly Orner who was born with Down Syndrome. Ali is now two years old and she is walking with a walker. Jim and Beverly are going to send us a place on the web where we can look and see Ali. Please keep praying for this family. Jim is having some spine issues and needs our prayers.

Another praise report.,. Awhile back we prayed for Jim Alemisis, a gentlemen who works for Michaud bus service in Brentwood, NH. Jim HAD cancer, and please note the word HAD... it is gone, out of there, zip, goodbye and we will give all the glory to our Lord Jesus. God is good, and like Jim, I am also healed of cancer, and so is my dear friend Bob Beard... Zip, gone due to Jesus.

Another praise report here... The Michaud family is a supporter of Carry The Light Ministries, and a very good one. Back in June they came to Hershey Pennsylvania for an Antique Bus Museum event and I had one of our Antique Buses on display. When I went to leave I found one of the bays just loaded with food that this family brought to us for the food pantry. God is so good, and He blesses all of us daily. Take a few minutes today and look at how you have been blessed. People say we need to take time to smell the roses, let's change that to say we NEED TO TAKE TIME TO COUNT OUR BLESSINGS. I have been blessed this morning already. I am up, awake, and writing for God, and Dolores just brought me a cup of coffee and set it beside my very big glass of chocolate milk. God is good. I am blessed and SO ARE YOU... count them up today.

Well good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is Wednesday and that means it is Salvation Wednesday. Why do we have Salvation day in the middle of the week? It is where God wants me to have it. Maybe it replaces those Midweek prayer meetings at church. We need to hear about God more than just once a week. I am telling you right now, if God would ever trust to me a church (I pastor a retirement home), the church would have something going on every day of the week. A day of rest? Of course, you just rotate some of the staff. Pray today for the unsaved and for God to use us all in the fields of harvest to help seek out the lost and bring them to the feet of Jesus..

Prayer request today for Ali Smith, a sixteen year old girl who is very, very ill. I do not know the cause but know she is on feeding tubes and the family said "Things do not look good". Pray, warrior,s pray. Also for Sparky (nickname) who is maybe in his mid 30's and has about six years ago had surgery for a brain tumor, and this past week has had a stroke. The stroke appears to be minor, but this man is young and needs the healing hand of Jesus (as we all do). And please keep praying for Vicki for her health and for Don Saylor for his health.

Building Bridges 3: Genesis 1: 1 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (NIV)

Now later on God gave us a way to get from the earth where He in all his wisdom placed us, to get to the place we call Heaven...

John 3: 16/17 - 16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him." (NIV)

John 14: 6 Jesus said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, you can start to see the Bridge I am going to be working on that will get you to Heaven, and again it is a Bridge that is built with Love. But let me just not get ahead of this series and tell you another real bridge story. How many of you have watched and waited over the years for a new bridge, one that is to help with the flow of traffic? In our area not long ago a bridge was started on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a brand new bridge over the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg Pa. This is a very large bridge, nice and wide, six lanes plus wide shoulders.. and it was to replace an old four lane bridge... Now while this new bridge was being built, I contacted our local people at the state house for the old bridge was to be taken down, blown to bits.. Wait a minute, why not use it for local traffic. It is well known that an extra bridge would do good in this area, but of course that would mean less traffic on the new bridge which has tolls. Long story short, new bridge up and old bridge torn down.

So why do I bring this up? Have you ever noticed people, and maybe in the past you have been one of these people, who have worked hard to build a bridge to friendship to someone only later on to come back and do something that would either damage it or take it down? We are to love all of our neighbors and we are to love them forever. Sometimes people seem to only have room in their lives for one or two friends and if they get a new friend (neighbor) an old one gets dumped on.

One of the very best ways to tear down a bridge is not by those powerful explosives, it is not, one of the very best ways to take that bridge down is by, you are not going to believe this one. Yes, here it is, it is GOSSIP, yes, going behind one's back and talking about them. How often has this happened among friends, how often has a good friend of someone been trashed out by their very best friend? Has it happened to you? Or have you done it to another? And maybe you do not even realize that you are doing it... Gossip is a sin, and folks, sin will destroy the very best of bridges. We will be learning how sin will destroy a bridge that you need to get to heaven. Coming tomorrow folks, building a bridge to heaven and then destroying it... can it be done, how do we build the bridge in the first place? It is going to get interesting....

Dear Father in Heaven, Building Bridges can be fun when we build them with Love, and yes even sweat and tears, but taking them down with sin is not, yet we confess we have done it in the past and we want to stop that today. Help us this day to build up love and not take it down. Lord, we give You Praise for the life of Baby Ali Orner and also for Jim Alemisis and thank You for having Your hand on them at all times. Bless them over and over again. And Lord, now we add another Ali in for prayer and ask that You heal this teenager and bring her back to full health, as also we pray for Sparky. And Lord, we pray the same for Vicki and for Don Saylor and his family. Lord, bless and keep them. And Lord, today we pray that we can help bring in the lost to Your feet to be saved. Lord, use us, use us, and help us to work for You daily, not just once in a while. Lord help us. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Time to go, I am being blessed again today, I am heading to the food store to pick up the bread that goes out of date today. It comes back to our food bank and goes into our bread freezer to be given to the needy and hungry. And it comes at a good time as that freezer is all but empty... God is good. Praise and thanks to Jesus and to His helpers, Grant and Wanda for lining us up for this. Got to go folks, I am going to share my blessings today, are you? Get sharing please... and today we will be singing at home, at 2.00 PM today we will be AT THE BRIDGES. You are welcome to come and hear us. love ya, dan.