August 23, 2010 Soap or Blood? 1

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is Monday and a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. Monday is the day we pray for our leaders, Federal, State, Local, Schools, etc. We pray for our Veterans, current Military, Police (all of them), Firefighters, and all those working to keep us safe and healthy. Please pray also for Janet Wotring as she has serious back surgery today. Pray for Vicki who has extreme pain. And please pray for the family and friends of Willie Fordham. "It is with extreme sadness that we write this announcement today, that our Museum of Bus Transportation member, volunteer and dear friend, Willie Fordham, the Negro Leagues Baseball player who has been the center point of the Bus Museum exhibit, passed away suddenly early Sunday morning at Holy Spirit Hospital in Harrisburg. He will be greatly missed. He was a true gentleman, a delight to talk to and a good friend. Willie had just turned 83 in July. His funeral arrangements are pending." This fine ball player was at the museum just last week talking to visitors and signing his name for fans and friends. Please pray for his family and also his very dear friend from the Bus Museum, Oliver Ogden. Folks, I must say this right now... I had a chance to talk to Willie last February when Oliver had a display at the museum for Black History Month. Willie and I talked about baseball and about Jesus, as you folks know me, I ask questions, and I asked him about his standing with Jesus. He is with Jesus now, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Willie got called home fast... HE WAS READY, ARE YOU?????? Baseball in heaven is going on NOW!! And all races play for the same team...

Soap or Blood? 1 Mark 7:6 - He (Jesus) replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites: as it is written, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." (NIV)

Mark 7:1 - The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of His disciples eating food with hands that were unclean. (NIV)

I think it was this Scripture, Mark 7:1, that God directed me to today to cause me to look back over my life and think about the times that I sat down and ate a meal or just a sandwich and did not wash my hands. Again I look back at a mother who taught me right, wash my hands after going to the potty, wash my hands before we eat, and yes, I do wash my hands often when I am cooking, and I love to cook, even at cook-outs I take hand cleaner and paper towels to clean my hands. But let me drift back in time to when I was in my days of childhood (ok, who said I never did grow up?). Anyway in my younger days in the summer I would tell my mother I was going to the "Luce Street" playground and I would take my paper route bag, my morning route was done, I would jump on my bike, with ball glove on the handlebars and a ball in my newspaper bag and a bag across the handlebars. And sometimes a sandwich in the paper route bag. As the other kids, both boys and girls, would come we would pickup teams. It did not make a difference if I was on time, for I was the last one picked anyway... (I had a bad bat, it could never find the ball). But we would play ball and when we boys had to go, it was off to the woods to go. (Boys are plumbed for outdoors.) The girls would run home. Anyway. at lunch time out would come the sandwich and I ate it, and guess what, my hands did not get washed. At fourteen I started working at my brother's service station, and when it was time to eat, I would get out my sandwich and take it out of the wrapper and start to eat. If a car pulled up for gas, the sandwich would lay on the work bench and I would wait on the customer. No, my hands did not get washed and still do this day. I think a sandwich looks better with a big black thumb print on one side and four finger prints on the other. And folks, take it from me, that a tad of gas and oil on the sandwich did not spoil like mayo can. Now folks, that was back then and this is now, and yes, as I said, I wash my hands so often I think I am making up for lost time. Then I read this passage in the Bible and find out, it was ok to eat with dirty hands if you had to.

As we dig into this section of the Bible I invite you to read Mark 7:1/23 which is the story on clean and unclean. This week we are going to find out which gets you cleaner, washing with soap or being washed in blood. Would you tell me your answer and where you got it?

Dear Father in Heaven, I come to You today for a wash job, but today, Lord, I want washed from my sins. I will get in the shower soon Lord and get the outside cleaned, please Lord, clean the rest of me and, Lord, you know I need it. Lord, be with those on our prayer list, touch Janet and all who touch her today as she has back surgery, heal the pain of her back and the pain Vicki and Dolores have. Stop the tension between two of my friends and bring peace upon them. And Lord, bless Oliver and all of Willie's family as they suffer their loss and let them then rejoice in his home-going... In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth and share those blessings. Love ya, Pastor Dan.