April 18, 2011 Holy Week 1

Jesus replied, "I will also ask you a question. Tell me, John's baptism, was it from heaven, or from Men?" Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." Good Holy Week Monday, my dear brothers and sisters, may I start this day by saying to all of you this statement from the bottom of my heart... "I love you!" And may I also say this from the bottom of my heart... "Jesus loves you even more, much, much more!" It is Monday and it is Holy Week and this week I will be writing about just a few of the events of the week. I do want to highlight a few of them. Thursday we are going to have communion with Jesus and then go to The Garden with Him to pray. Friday we are going to watch as Jesus gets beaten and put on the cross. And yes, there will be an Easter Sunday Morning message. Along the way we are going to be praying and praying about giving over our sins and about taking on Jesus as our personal friend. We have a lot to do, so let's get moving. Today we pray for our leaders, and please pray for our President regardless of if you like him or not, we need to love Him and we need to pray for His salvation through Jesus Christ. As we also need to pray for all of our other leaders and also pray for their soul and salvation. Please pray for our veterans, and for our current Military. Pray also for our police and right now for a police officer who was in a very, very, very, very bad crash with his patrol car during the night. His cruiser was crushed, and I mean crushed, the officer was air lifted out during the night. PRAY, WARRIORS, PRAY. Brothers and sisters, also pray for all of our local folks who ride those fire trucks and rescue vehicles and those Medical choppers, and folks, for all those river rescue folks who had to go into high water so many times yesterday to bring out people who tried to drive past those signs. Also please pray for William Sanders, one of our flock at the Bridges, a WW2 Vet who is very, very ill. Dear Father in Heaven, help me this week with the messages as You are so faithful and help me each day. May my messages always be what You want, Your will to be done by me. And Lord, as we call this week "Holy Week" may we also look at it as "Salvation Week?" Lord, a week of messages leading to the cross, the cross on which Jesus died, for us. Save us, Lord Jesus, save us... Help us also understand that we are to get out the word for You and at the same time we cannot save a soul. We are Your workers and we pray it will not just be for this week, but until You call us home. Hear our prayers this day. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Holy Week, Monday, The Authority of Jesus Questioned. The following scriptures are answers that Jesus gave in response to questions from the chief priest, teachers of the law, together with the elders ask this question. By what authority are you doing these things, meaning teaching the gospel... Jesus answered in question form... Luke 20:3 - Jesus replied, "I will also ask you a question. Tell me, John's baptism, was it from heaven, or from Men?" After thinking about an answer they did not give one, so Jesus answered their first question, about who gave Him the authority to teach and preach the gospel this way. Luke 20:8 - Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." Back when I was a child, when we did not want to answer someone we might have said this... That is none of your "beeswax", but if you were to ask me this question today, that same question that was asked Jesus, "Who gave you this authority?" meaning who gave me the authority to write for Jesus, to sing for Him, to preach His word and teach His word, who gave me that authority... HE DID, JESUS DID. In fact, Jesus did not just give us the authority to teach, preach, sing, write and otherwise tell the "Good News", He really commanded us to do it. Yes, we are under His authority and we are commanded by Him. Here is one place and it is where we in Carry The Light Ministries picked up our name. Mark 16:15 - He (Jesus) said to them, (Us) "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (NIV) So how did we get the name "Carry The Light" out of that scripture? First, we are to go into all the world and preach the good news. So we are going to "Carry" the good news to all creation. And what is that Good News? It is Jesus and all He has done for us, and who is this Man named Jesus, He is the "Light of the World!" He is "The Light." So there you have it. Carry The Light, and starting out as just gospel singers, we added many things along the way... those Ministries. So, folks, as Jesus answered a question with a question, I have answered it from The Word of God... Therefore I am writing, preaching, teaching, singing, and even working our large and growing food pantry under "The Authority of Jesus Christ." And yes, I have messed up in my life, and then I go to Jesus for more of His life-saving blood, still flowing today, asking Him for a fresh start, and also checking on order changes and additions. And I do that by just talking to Him and most of all, and I really had to learn this one, I had to LEARN TO LISTEN, as listening was not one of my strong points. So in short today, the lesson is this... GET OUT THE WORD, CALLED THE GOOD NEWS, and by all means, share your blessings. Love ya, Pastor Dan.