July 19, 2010 Four Letter Words

"Abba, Father," He said, "everything is possible for You. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what You will."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is very early here at the Southern Location of the North Pole, in fact right now it is 4:30 AM and our Lord God is putting on one beautiful light show. We are having a very heavy thunderstorm going right overhead. Six of our dogs are huddled right at my feet and one is on my lap. Oh, how we need this rain! Thank You, Jesus. Hey, it is Monday and the day we pray for our leaders and be you like our president or not, we need to lift him and his family in prayers. Also all of our other leaders. Prayers also for our veterans and remember some of those wounded veterans are just 18 years old. Pray for our current military, our local and state police, FBI, CIA and everyone else that works hard to keep us safe and healthy; firefighters, ambulance folks, etc.

Prayers today also for Doctor Larry Cox, DO, he is my doctor, and he is born again and today his football camp opens. So as we pray for the football camp we also pray for Carry The Light Ministries food pantry as Dolores and I will go this afternoon and pray for the kids, and talk to them about bringing in food. Wednesday we will go back and pick it up. Last year about, my best guess, about a half ton of food.

Prayers for the family of Mary Dugan, one of our first row girls in church, who went home to Jesus yesterday just before church. Pray also for the staff at the Bridges as they get very close to their guests.

Four Letter Words: Mark 14:36 - "Abba, Father," He said, "everything is possible for You. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what You will." (NIV)

Are you like me, sick and tired of going places and hearing all those "four" letter words that we just do not want to hear? Are you sick of hearing those four letter words and also curse words taking down our Lord Jesus? I heard on the news just last week that the courts have now told the radio and television producers that those once forbidden four letter words are now ok to use. Well, early this morning God laid it on my heart that it is time we point out some GOOD four letter words, so we have them in our minds and can use them. So where is the very best place to get the very best four letter words? Well, if you said the dictionary, you are so WRONG, the best place is the Bible, of course. However, I invite you to take each four letter word that I bring out this week and look it up in the dictionary.

Getting started, I just went to the A's and found Abba, and look at the message it gives. Abba is an expression of a special or close relationship. It is also used as a title of honor. But I don't want to stop there for I want to really point out from our lead scripture today that this is Jesus using the four letter word when talking with His (our) heavenly Father. Don't stop there, it is the content of this scripture that is so important, the example that this scripture shows, please note when Jesus says to His Father, Thy will be done, not my will. Yes, they are my words, His are quoted in the New International Version (NIV) as "Yet not what I will, but what You will." It is always important when we pray to pray in faith, and also know that it is God's will that should be done.

Let's look at one or two other four letter words today...

Pray: What a great four letter word, and to pray is to talk to God, and to listen to God. Jesus even took time to teach us how to pray when He taught us what we know as the Lord's prayer. Your prayer life is very important, and all of us should pray often, sometimes when we are alone, sometimes as a group, and of course, on line, in church, I mean to tell you that God's line is always open, and I just love this prayer that my mamma taught me. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray my Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, please have breakfast at the gate. Ok, I changed it somewhat. Just talk to God, when you pray you do not need fancy words, you just need to talk to God, and yes, be sure to listen. And if you hear those four letter words of cursing when out and about, just say to the person, I am going to "Pray" for you.

Ok, one more for today, and these are in no set order; however, the four letter word that sets the tone in my opinion for what Jesus did on the cross will be held till last. That will give you a chance to email me, telling me what word you think it might be.

Holy: Holy Spirit, thou art welcome in this place... Yes, the four letter word "Holy". We find it throughout the Bible, and I for sure cannot cover them all. But from the beginning...

Genesis 2:3 - And God blessed the seventh day and made it "holy" because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done. (NIV)

and on to the end of the Bible --

Revelation 22:11 - Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is HOLY continue to be HOLY. (NIV)

Of course we all know about the seventh day and keeping it Holy, but do we do it? And those words from Revelation are right in the mix when Jesus is saying this.. "Behold, I am coming soon."

Let's pray... Lord, we have lots of four letter words that are good, and we need to pull from them, and not use the ones that are nasty, dirty and mean. Lord, help me, and help us all to only let good words pass from our lips, and forgive us please for when in the past we have messed up. Give us also the nerve to talk to others who curse your very name. Please honor our prayer requests today according to Your will for us. In the name of Jesus, our Lord, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings, and share good things with others. Love ya, Pastor Dan.