January 18, 2010: The Journey 30

"Do not see revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself."

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr., Day my dear brothers and sisters. It is a really nice day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole and it is above freezing, Praise the Lord. It is Monday and the day we pray for our leaders as we are directed to do, but wait a minute, those leaders are also neighbors and we are also to love them. The Bible does not tell us that we must like what they do, but we must love them. That also goes for those who are living in sin and promoting those sins, we must learn to hate the sins (both ours and others) but truly love the sinner as ourselves. It is also the day we pray for Military, and remember to pray for those in Haiti and for all down there right now. Also to pray for our police, firefighters and all others who work to keep us safe. On that list should be those search and rescue teams that we so often forget. And remember, folks, to pray for those K-9's that work so hard on these teams. We have prayed often for pets on this line. Did I tell you that we are receiving a half of an elk and a half of a really big buck? The hunter, 85 year old Stanley Bingham, who resides at the Bridges, took it to a professional butcher shop and I told him we would pick up half of the butcher bill. It will come back wrapped and ready for the freezer. I am sure this bill will not be little and trusting God to help us with that... God is good.

The Journey 30: Leviticus 19:18 - "Do not see revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself." I am the Lord. (NIV)

Our Journey continues this week as we walk with Jesus and He calls some of His first disciples. However I will jump into that tomorrow for today I want to talk to you some about His calling of disciples later on, meaning after He left this earth to return to the right hand of His Father in Heaven.

Do you know and understand that Jesus to this day is still calling His disciples? Let's face it, brothers and sisters, all of those original disciples have been long gone, and if others would not have answered the call, where would we be today?

Martin Luther King, Jr., is a good example of a disciple called into work for our Lord Jesus, and yes, it cost him his life. Does that remind you of the others that worked for Jesus? And folks, there have been many, many missionaries that were truly disciples for Jesus who have lost their lives doing duty for our Lord Jesus... Martin Luther King, Jr., made a speech, and folks, you will hear it time and time again today if you have any news on... "I had a dream", and I do not know all of the speech but I know it included in it that black children and white children would play together and that regardless of color all would get along. Today, Lord, I want to tell you that I also would like to see that come true, but sadly I think we might have gone backwards since we have our new president. I am going to be very bold here... Do you know that a lot of folks have been looked at as racists if we did not vote for President Obama? Let me tell you that I am not a racist and I did not vote for him nor would I again, as I vote life.

Brothers and sisters, if you want to see good examples of loving your neighbor, look at those search and rescue teams that are in Haiti right now going in under those fallen buildings and pulling people out. I think if Martin Luther King, Jr., were alive today he would see that his work was not done in vain but is being carried out. These teams, some of them the same who responded to New York on 9/11/2001, are the same as in Haiti right now. They love life and love people. If you saw the news this morning you would have seen 3 children pulled out from under a house, alive, today, and how the people loved it. Yet still on this same day unborn babies of all colors are being aborted, some getting done on the tax dollars of those of us who hate this. How can anyone take the life of those babies? Do you know our pets get better protection than our unborn children? Do you know that an unborn baby is our neighbor who we are to love? Do you know that we are killing off future leaders of countries, do you know that we are killing off future tax payers who would someday help support this country and fill jobs? Do you know that we are killing off future disciples of our Lord Jesus?

Let me get back on point here today. Folks, as we talk this week about Jesus calling His first disciples and also His disciples of today, I want to ask you this question from the bottom of my heart... Are you a disciple of our Lord Jesus? If you can truly say yes that is great, that is good, and we need to pray for you to keep up the work. If you are not sure, we need to pray for you for that and maybe, just maybe, before this week is over you will have a change of heart on this subject. If you say right out, no I am not a disciple, then please follow this line this week. Our Lord Jesus needs more and more disciples today, He needs millions of disciples. And it does not matter about your age, I have seen teens and younger who were disciples and I have seen old, old men, some called very young in life and are still working hard for the Lord, good examples of this, are Dave, Duane and Neil, called into service as disciples and still going strong and I believe getting stronger and stronger. Praise God for these men and others like them. I thank them for setting a good example for me and many others to follow.

As we go through the week I will tell you just when I was called to be a disciple and where I was when it happened. Ok, enough for today. Lets pray and remember those personal prayers coming in are listed at the end...

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another day of life, and thanks for calling me to be a disciple, and thanks for trusting me to do service for You. Thanks for Martin Luther and also for Martin Luther King, Jr., and all others who have worked for You and all who work for You today. A lot have given their lives, Lord. Bless those today on our prayer lists, from our leaders to those down in Haiti who are pulling out the ones trapped, Lord bless these folks and bless all in the country. Lord. we do not understand why the earthquakes hit, but we sure can see good things now coming out of this. Lord, may Your glory shine though this. Father while we see people responding to Haiti we see babies being aborted here in the United States, Lord help us stop it, help us, Lord, to stop this murder of Your children. Lord bless our military regardless of where they are, Lord, it sure is good to see them on peace keeping and helping and not just what most people think they do. Lord thanks again for this line. Now may we all go forth working for You... In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Go forth now sharing your blessings. Love ya, Pastor Dan.

Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050
Home 717 691 8200 Cell 717 991 0754

January 18, 12.38 AM Isis Rane is born. Please pray for the family, not just the baby.
Skip Shoemaker is doing good after a scare the other day, he is home and recovering.
Edgar is coming home today.
Please pray for our flock at The Bridges, lots of colds and flu like things being passed around.
Pray for my wife, Dolores, who works so hard for God, and is in heavy pain each and every minute.
Prayers for me also, today I can hardly see the screen on the computer for my eyes are plastered shut with something (doctor today) I have had to wash them clear as I even write this message.
Now an update on one we have been praying for... Pray for this family

Warren Lewis forwarded this e-mail from Zina...

Hello to all,
I wanted to send everyone an update to let you all know what is happening in Baltimore. Allison is doing so well. She was moved from ICU on Thursday afternoon. She got a Dilaudid pain pump at 5:00 AM on Thursday morning which helped immensely with her pain control. She told me that the night in ICU was the longest night of her life. She must have asked me 100 times what time it was. She was able to cough and walk on Thursday. She coughed up a lot of thick stuff and walked pushing a wheelchair for support. She has bruises all over from multiple IV lines and heparin shots to prevent blood clots. She has done amazingly well post op.

Yesterday they took out her IV and started her on clear liquids. She has a lot of bloating in her belly and was afraid to eat until some air passed. Today she finally walked enough to pass some air and eat some solid food. It was a real struggle with a lot of tears and discomfort. Allie's incision is probably about 13-14 inches around her right side, directly under her rib cage. It looks like a giant smile! That is how we like to think of it. Today we got her pain medication figured out and got her to eat some real food. Her nurse's aid said she was making a trail of dust walking in the halls. The nurses here have been wonderful!!

Dr. Choti was in today and told us that he hopes to have a biopsy result by Wednesday. He will call us. He says Allison can go home tomorrow as long as she feels comfortable. He also commented on the number of cards he received. He didn't know an exact number but he said there are a lot and they continue to arrive daily. His secretary told me the first day she got cards he got well over 20 that day alone!! Thank you very much. This made a definite impression on Dr. Choti. He also had the head of the oncology dept. come and talk to Allison about sarcomas and the types of treatment and what to expect if the cancer is one that is sensitive to chemo. That is our prayer, that we will get a good biopsy report of a cancer that is treatable with chemo. Allison said to me that she wants to start treatments ASAP. Dr. Choti said her incision should heal a little before she starts. We are hopeful that she will have effective treatment and are praying for an accurate diagnosis and excellent treatment results. We would really like to hear some good news from a doctor. We have had too much bad news.

Well, Allison has made a rut in the hall around the nurse's station with the number of laps she has done tonight. She is doing so much better. Yesterday she had a lot of company and was overwhelmed by evening. I do ask that when we get home, if anyone wants to visit, please keep your visit short and we will try to coordinate visitors so Allison is not too fatigued and able to get the rest she needs to heal quickly. Everyone wants to help and we are so blessed by everyone. We have learned to be humble and say thank you alot to all of our angels of mercy. We appreciate your interest in our daughter and thank you for all the many measures of support being shown to her. Please keep praying and I will update when we get a biopsy result. Thank you to each and every one of you. Also, Andy was able to go to school all week but left school early on Friday and came to Baltimore Friday night. He was relieved to see his sister and help her in any way he could. Also, we still have enough food to feed ourselves for the rest of the week. We even fed all Allie's visitors and some of the nursing staff. Thank you for the food, love, encouragement, and prayers. We are not giving up this fight. As far as we are concerned, the fight has just begun!!
Blessings to all. We love you!!!
Tom, Zina, Allison and Andy