June 1, 2010 What's in a Name? 6

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Wow, would you believe it is Tuesday already and it for sure will feel like Monday all day long. I pray you all had a good holiday and that you took time to remember and reflect on those who have gone on before us and that you also remember all of our veterans living and deceased.

Today is Tuesday and that means it is Schools day on our prayer list. While I am writing the opening, please, make this note, I will not be writing this Friday. This is a very, very busy week for me. This is the weekend of our big Museum Of Bus Transportation spring fling which will be on Friday and Saturday (161 Museum Drive, Hershey Pa.) if you care to come. See all kinds of antique cars, trucks and buses. I am the cook at Dan's Diner for Friday and Saturday but that is the easy part, it is getting the place ready which we will be doing all week. I spent yesterday doing some precooking. I love serving God with the men and women of the Car and Bus Museums. So if I miss some of your prayer requests, please send them in marked URGENT PRAYER REQUEST, otherwise I will be catching up next week... Thanks for understanding.

What's in a Name 6: John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (KJV)

What a great name for our Lord and a great way to start a new month. The Name of course is "His only Begotten Son". Let's look at a few things, how did God give us "His Only Begotten Son" and why. First He gave us His Son through the virgin birth, with Mary being chosen by God because she was a virgin and I am sure a lot more went into that than just the fact she was a virgin. I am sure she was outstanding in all things in her life and that it went far beyond just the virgin part. I am sure that the picking of Mary had a lot to do also with knowing that Jesus would be raised right in those tender years. I am also sure that the picking of Mary had a lot to do also with Joseph, the earthly father of this child.

Now I could write for days and days on the why did God give us "His Only Begotten Son", so let me just highlight a few of them. The first in my opinion might be two or three in one... The forgiveness of sins, Salvation through His Son, and the promises of His return to get those who believe. But there are so many more, His Son set an example of just how we should live, he walked without sin, He showed how He could feed thousands with very little, and folks, does He not still do that today? Again, I could go on and on, on the why part, but we catch that in another message down the road... Let me move on with a couple more names today...

John 1:49 - Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." (NIV)

As we look in this one verse where Jesus was calling Nathanael to follow Him, we find three names that were used for our Lord God... "Rabbi, Son of God, and King of Israel". Of those three names, I would think the one we use the most, or hear of the most out of those three would be "Son of God".

John 3:2 - He (Nicodemus) came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with Him". (NIV)

I guess it only fitting that God gave me this one on Schools day Tuesday, where another name for our Lord is "Teacher". Now I did not look this up but I think that Rabbi means Teacher. Now again I bring up that Jesus did not just teach by words, He taught by example. Would it not be nice if today our teachers would not just teach by words and books but would also set examples of the way kids should live? I must in closing up today look back at my mother and daddy who were teachers, and back in the day, lady teachers had to wear dresses, or skirts and blouses, no slacks, jeans or anything other than dresses, or skirts and blouses. And the men, they had to wear suits and white shirts, long sleeve white shirts and a necktie. It did not make a difference how hot it was, they had to have that suit coat on when out of the class room. They could hang the coat over their chair in the class room. And it was a suit, not slacks and sport coat, and the shirt was white, not a dress shirt of color. Oh, and you did not see a teacher in a bar back in those days, at least not in the district where they taught. I think things started to go downhill in our schools when we started dressing down our teachers. And while I have mentioned this to some teachers and they said it is the home life, that just made it all the more important to me that OUR KIDS NEED SOMEONE TO LOOK UP TO. Did our Lord Jesus not give us someone to look up to? Not across at or on an even scale, He did it right and lived to show it. Here I go, going to get into trouble, but if we are going to get our schools doing better it MUST START AT THE TOP. Put the teachers on a dress code, folks, a suit does not cost more than jeans or slacks and a coat, and white shirts are not more costly than other shirts. And those in Washington should start setting examples, and I could go on. Even drivers of buses, for most companies, look really good, but some, well they don't, and it shows just how the business is taken care of. Even our president of our Bus Museum, Tom Collins, dresses like he is the president, in fact most often he is dressed better than the President who lives in Washington. Ok, enough on dress, it is about setting examples of how we need to live. Jesus set examples for us, can we try our best to carry them out.

Dear Father in Heaven, help us to follow the examples of Jesus, and help us to teach by example just as You did. As we pray for our schools today, I want to pray for those who have that control over our kids and pray that we might get back to teaching by example. Lord, in a lot of homes parents are missing or drugged or drunk, so those in leadership, I pray will step up and go to bat for the kids and set examples. Help me this day to set examples for others by walking in Your light. In the name of Jesus, The Begotten Son of God, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings and setting examples for others. In all you do, you can be an example for someone else. Love ya, Pastor Dan.

Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050