August 24, 2010 Soap or Blood? 2

"You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

PRAISE THE LORD, What a beautiful morning. We have several reasons to praise the Lord this morning beside all the things we should be praising Him for daily, like our needs being supplied. Janet came through her back surgery good and is now on her way to recovery... Kathleen's cancer numbers have improved. Both ladies still need our prayers... for Kathleen some complications have set in.

Good morning, my dear brothers and sisters, it is Tuesday and the day we pray for cures for all the sickness and health problems... Brothers and sisters be bold and respectful in asking God for cures, and please remember that a lot of times we add to our own health problems by our own behavior... Did I really say that? You folks know me by now, I do not hold back on my questions and the truth about God. I am sorry I am late this morning, I was up early and at the computer but the computer wanted to sleep in. It was going so slow that I would have two lines typed before they went on the screen and I do not type all that fast, I am some place over 70 words a minute (really).

Soap or Blood? 2 Mark 7:8 - "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." 9 And He said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions." (NIV)

"Tides in, dirt is out." Do you remember that commercial from years ago? We have so many commercials that talk about soap and how they take out dirt, each one claiming to be better than the others, yet none of them really get us clean! Yes, I said that and more than likely you will need to hang in with me all week to find out the reasons why... Just so you know that I did take a shower while I was waiting for the computer to wake up and behave and I used Irish Spring and some kind of shampoo to wash my hair and face. Yes I wash my face with shampoo, if you know me you know I have more hair on my face then the top of my head. Anyway, I washed and washed and washed but did I get all the dirt off? I am not going to tell you right now! Let's get to the scriptures above and what God has given me on them. Again I invite you to read Mark 7:1/23. It is the scriptures on clean and unclean. Which are you??

The scriptures above are worth repeating... Mark 7:8 "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." 9 And He said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions." (NIV)

My footnotes in my study Bible say this: "The commands of God...the traditions of men. Jesus clearly contrasts the two. God's commands are found in the scriptures and are binding: The traditions of the elders are not Biblical and therefore not authoritative or binding."

We need to be so careful, folks, and when I say we I am talking about all of us. I know I will upset some people here but so much of what we do in churches this day is traditions that have been passed down and not really in the Bible. While some of the services in those traditional churches are beautiful, just beautiful, are they teaching us about the Lord? I have sat through services in some of those churches over the years and when I look back I do remember all the traditions in the service, but what I don't remember is the pastor calling people to the altar to pray. I mean that and I was raised by a Christian mother who taught me about Jesus and so did my Sunday school teacher, but not once do I remember our pastor doing what we call an altar call at the end of the service. Not that you need to bring people to the altar each week, but there should not be a service by any pastor that does not either in the message or at the end of the service tell people the rules to get into heaven.

Recently at the Bridges just before I talked to them about salvation at the end of the service, I said this. "Some of you have heard this over and over again and those of you who really know Christ know why I do it, more than likely are already saved. Those of you who get tired of hearing it, might just be the ones who really need it." You see, folks, and I talk about it often on this line, we just do not know who is ready to receive Christ and when, or when people are wanting to come even closer to God and we really need to draw nearer and nearer to God each day.

Now while I do see nothing wrong with traditions if they are good and based on the Bible, a lot of them are not, and when we do the traditions and forget the Bible parts that is what Jesus is telling us in these scriptures. In short Jesus is telling us this. To tell more of the Good News of Jesus and spend less time on the pom-pom stuff. Again, and I want to be clear here, the traditions that are about God are great, but let's stick to them. I know of people who no longer even attend church, gave it up because they were not getting fed, so to speak, and watch some of the TV preachers.

Folks, we can have a good worship service if we have our Bibles, our song books and remember to invite Jesus in through the power of the Holy Spirit, and gosh, you can do that any place, because and regardless of what some might say, our Lord Jesus will come into schools if invited, into federal buildings, into the Capitol, and gosh we just need him and the word and we can get going.

Do I like to see some of the traditions of those churches, the Christmas plays, The Easter plays, and each week the lighting of candles, sure I like to see them, but not at the expense of leaving God out of the program, or making up things that are not in the Bible. Oh yes, I said that and in some churches it happens weekly.

Dear Father in Heaven, right now I ask You to always, always come into my heart and mind and help me with my writings and help me with services, I want them to always be the truth about You. Thanks for looking over our prayer lists and hearing our prayers. Please keep me and all who read this message on track today, with You being our rails... In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Go forth and share your blessings. Right now I am typing with Marlo on my lap, she is our newest dog and she cannot hear a thing. But she has a word for you... I am going to put her paws on the key board. kmijjjjjjjjjjjiuu, well there you have it. Love ya, Pastor Dan.

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That last line was from Martin, he said if Marlo could say hello, he could also...