Monday: Faith, Hope, Love 1

Love never fails!

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. What a wonderful day we have been blessed with.
Today is Monday and the day we pray for our leaders and for our military and for all those who work to keep us safe and free, including our police and firefighters. And right now I am hearing the sirens of the big fire trucks and ambulances heading to an accident near our home. God bless these men and women who most work WITHOUT pay. So please support your local fire companies with prayers and put some feet on those prayers and bless them with some dollars.

Also brothers and sisters, Carry The Light Ministries has been blessed again. We have been asked to go to the Boys and Girls Club in Harrisburg Pa to be Santa and Mrs. Claus. We picked a date that fit, then the people who wanted us there as the Claus's told them about our food pantry and asked if any families needed help. And we have taken on 33 new families for food. Last year we helped 55 families, so folks, you do the math. We have decided that the new families will get canned goods and boxed goods as others, but to get them turkeys and hams we need to have a sponsor. Even if we just take a turkey along it would be nice. So start praying about this please...

Please keep praying for Vicki. They found some rare tumor and she will be calling the doctor today. Please add Stanley to your prayer lists. Stanley is one of our flock at the Bridges and has been dragging for a while. Stanley is up in his 80's and still goes hunting, last year shot an elk, and this year is going again. Told us our food bank will get half. (Anyone have a big used chest freezer?)

Faith, Hope, Love: Matthew 17: 20 - Jesus replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you." (NIV)

Let's today talk about faith. How much faith do you have? Do you pray for healing or for money to buy fuel and nothing happens? Could it be your lack of faith? How much faith do we really have?

Do you know that we must also use good judgment when it comes to faith? Oh, you want me to explain that one. Folks, we must not test God when it comes to our faith, we just must have faith in God and believe. Let me just make up a couple of examples... Ok, you have faith that when you cross the street you are not going to get run over by a vehicle. Do you just walk out in traffic saying no one will hit me because I have faith that God is protecting me, or do you cross at the cross walks, look both ways till traffic is clear before you cross, and then have faith that no vehicle will hit you? Do you have faith that God will heal you but never, ever go to the doctors that God has lent talent to? Or do you go to your doctors and get treated and have faith that God is working directly and also through your docs? I have three doctors, my family doctor, a pain doctor and the one who handled my cancer. All of them have faith in God through our Lord Jesus and each one of them prays with us when we are in the office... God is good. Now you say, why go to the doctors if you have faith in God healing you? Listen to me on this one... You pray for food, does God provide this food? Yes, but the sky does not open up and food drop on your plate because you have faith. God works through the hands of many on this food chain. Think of it from the farmers, who go to the farm stores to get their seeds, so it starts way before the planting. The fields get readied, and then the planting and the tending and all of that and then the harvest. Oh, and God does send the rain, and if in a dry area, He lent talent to men and women to put in systems to water the plants...

So if we put our faith in God, and we really listen to Him, it will work out. Oh, and that mountain that needs moved, and the Bible tells us in a quote from Jesus that we can move the mountain. Folks, men and women of faith have moved the mountains, think about it when driving out the Pennsylvania Turnpike and you go through the tunnels. How much faith did it take to make those tunnels, how much of that mountain had to be moved? Again here I go with a quote from my singing partner, we need to put "feet on our prayers" (Pam Bower), Not only for helping others, as in we are praying for our neighbors to have enough to eat, we put feet on those prayers and go and buy them a big sack of potatoes. Oh Lord, I need gas in my car... do you not go to the gas station to get it?

Faith in God involves the hands of many people working together in that faith. One last example, we pray for healing and a person still dies.What about that, you ask. What about it, Pastor Dan, we pray and pray for healing and then they pass away. Folks, I must tell you that when God takes you home, if you believe in Jesus, which is the only way home, you will be healed, zip, zap, pain is gone, sickness is gone, and the person is home with Jesus. FAITH... More on Faith, Hope and Love tomorrow...

Dear Father in Heaven, I love You and I have faith in You. I ask today that You are with our president and that if he is not saved that he will come to You and humble himself to You. I pray for His family and all of our other leaders in Washington and in our State Houses across this great Nation You have lent to us. Lord, I pray also for our military, first for our veterans that You will watch over them and provide for them all their needs and also for their health care. I pray for our current military and not just those in war zones. I pray that You bring our ones in unsafe areas home, and that the wars and rumors of wars will end and You will come back to us. Thanks, Lord, for our police and firefighters, and we pray You keep Your hand of protection upon them. Also all those in the medical field, from those who work the streets on ambulances to those who do research and to those who treat families. Lord, bless them with knowledge and talent that we know is on loan to them from You... In the name of Jesus, I pray, and please Lord let me add this tag, please heal Vicki and remove that tumor. Thanks Jesus.

Now folks, have a very blessed day, have faith, have hope, and share your love today with others... and be sure to share your love of Jesus and share from your many blessings... love ya, dan.