St. Patrick's Day 2010 Children 3

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, my dear brothers and sisters. It is said that on St. Patrick's Day we all have Irish in our blood. Just so you know I have Irish furniture on the patio. Yes, it is Pati O Furniture. So much for a tired old joke. Now let me talk about Salvation O Wednesday. Yes, it is Wednesday and a beauty at that. The Son is in my heart and the sun is bright in the cloudless sky. Could you want anything better today? Yes, just to work for Jesus, that's all. Pray today for the unsaved and that God will use you in the Harvest to help bring in the lost.

Children 3: 1 John 3:1 - How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!! The reason the world does not know us is they did not know Him. (NIV)

Did you ever think that people really don't know who you are? Maybe you work and have worked alongside of a person for years and years and yet to them you are like a deep mystery. Once we are born again and have taken Jesus into our lives, into our house and made it a home, and most of all into our own body, we change. If you have been working alongside of these same people, they might have noticed you have changed but do not understand why. When a person is overweight and starts to lose weight, people in your office will take notice after a while and see what you are doing. But when you go from maybe just an average "Joe" or "Josephine" to becoming a follower of Jesus, you will make a really big change and people will notice it but might not understand why you are doing this. You might go from one who would go to the break room and get into the gab sessions about others and then you just stop doing that. You go to that room and get your coffee and take it to your desk. People see you at your break reading "Our Daily Bread" or something like that and those things you were reading have been replaced with a Bible. People might start thinking, oh, they have really gotten stuck up, when the fact is you just don't want to hear the trash mouth and the gossip that goes on in those break rooms. You have changed from wanting to hear and remember those off color jokes to not wanting to hear them at all. Why do I know these things? Well you might say that I have been there and done that. Don't get me wrong, after coming to Christ and growing in His love we still like to hear jokes and funny stories, we just want them to be clean. No Lord's name being used, not jokes using the N word or any other words that reflect upon others. The real truth is that when those words are used in jokes or talking about others, it really reflects badly on the ones using them.

Let's look at the scripture again... 1 John 3:1 - How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!! The reason the world does not know us is they did not know Him. (NIV)

We change and those around us (the world) do not know and understand us; they do not know or understand who Jesus really is. So if we want those around us to really now know us and understand us, we must, well, we must really work hard to teach them about Jesus. We must tell them the good news. Also, once we stake our claim on being a follower of Jesus, we must really work hard to do just that for when we mess up, and we will from time to time, it does reflect badly on Jesus. If we claim to love Jesus yet keep in that circle of friends talking about each other and back stabbing others you will soon hear people say things like this. If that is what it is like to be a "Christian" I don't want to be one. Jesus is our Lord and Savior and we need to live for Him each day.

I have started using a saying that you may quote me on or just use it on your own... Here it is.
"God gave me this day and I want to give it back to Him by living a life that is pleasing to Him."
Parents, would not the best gift your children could give you be to live to please God and that would also please you? If your children are all grown and out of the house (Praise the Lord) do you not like to hear from them daily? God wants to hear also from His children. Why not we start this day right now by checking in with God the Father through Jesus His Son and asking Him to forgive us and to teach us to walk daily in His footsteps? Let's go if you are ready...

Dear Father in Heaven, I am Your child and I am checking in, I messed up some yesterday and the days before and I am asking that You forgive me. I could tell you how I messed up but Father You already know. So Lord please forgive me... And Father, I come to You through Jesus who died to save me. Amen.

Now folks, go forward this day, check in with God and call your kids, or kids call your parents. I am blessed. Almost daily we hear from some of our six kids. Sometimes it is great news they want to share, other times it is not good, but most often it is just to check in. Dolores and I are so blessed. We are also blessed to be able to share our blessings... and the more we share the more we get blessed. Oh, how our Father loves His children... and I love you also. Pastor Dan.

Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050
Phones Home 717 691 8200 Cell 717 991 0754
icarrythelight4God@msn.com