Friday 6/24/11 Onward Christian Soldiers 5

Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.

Good Friday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Wow, lots of rain here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. Picnic update. Please remember our Picnic at Willow Mill Park, July 2nd. Music starts at 11.00 AM and we eat at noon, and then more music. Remember we are having Reverend Timothy Beitzel coming to sing for us... And this update... Do you remember "Baby Allie" who we have prayed for over the years? She will be at the picnic with her mother and father and sisters. Please come and see this beautiful, beautiful child. What a day this will be, rain or shine. Please bring a lawn chair. Menu, hot dogs, BBQ, meatball sandwiches, turkey corn soup, salads, lots of desserts, and stuff to drink (no alcohol). Also, McDuff Wotring will be coming for your enjoyment. Disc Golf, fishing (need a Pa license).

Ok, back to prayers, and today we pray for all of those working for the Lord! And brothers and sisters, we all need to be working for the Lord. ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS...

Onward Christian Soldiers 5: 1 Samuel 8:20 - Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles. (NIV)

All this week I have been writing about how we Christians have come under attack. In our lead scripture today we see that we will be like nations, all the other nations, and yes, I believe that "we" Christians are a nation of peoples, living throughout the world. The scripture tells us that all those other nations have a king or leader to take us into battle. The difference as I see it, is they have a king to lead them, and we have THE KING, KING JESUS, TO LEAD US. With that I need to do this.

PRAISE YOU, JESUS.

I was blessed growing up having a wonderful Christian mother and father, true believers, and my mamma was very strict. She raised me to "turn the other cheek" if someone would attack me. I was also blessed to have an older and stronger, much bigger brother who, after we turned the other cheek would protect me. (He beat me up many times, but he would protect me from others.)

So, folks, it is fair for me to say that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is also to me a "big brother".

As we look at the wars that America is involved in today, we see we always have leaders. Over the years some leaders were better than others. Not being a historian I can only tell you this, our leader, and I am talking our Lord Jesus here, is The Best leader we will have. And He will not change, He will lead us for good over evil.

Psalm 24:8 - Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord Mighty in Battle. (NIV)

As you start this day, as we start this day together, we need to call on our leader, our Lord Jesus who is "Mighty in Battle" to lead us. Surely before this day is in, before darkness falls upon us, someone will come to attack us and I am not talking about someone who will put a gun to our heads, although that could happen. I am talking about someone attacking us for following Jesus, or someone attacking us with "road rage" and we need to call upon our Lord before the attacks happen.

If we get something from the store that needs put together what do most people do first? They get out the instructions and read them and then work on what they got. However, there are some of us, and I am one of them, who tries to do the task without looking at the instructions and when things do not go well, I will look at the directions, and then still if things are not going well, I will call upon the Lord for help.

Folks we have a big day ahead of us, and yes, we have instructions, written instructions on how to handle the day. In case I lost you on that one, I am talking about your Bible. So we take time to read it some and then we go out and go to work, but wait, we read some in the Bible, but we forgot to check in with the boss, or our leader, our Lord Jesus. So today, and over the weekend I am sure we will have some battles, and this morning we have talked a tad about them and we read some scripture about them, and now together it is time to call on our leader, our Lord Jesus to lead us, to protect us, and to help us move forward for Good in His work and also in all we do to help others and ourselves. Ready, let's call on our Leader.

Dear Father in Heaven, Dear Leader in our Christian Battles, we call on You today to help us. You have told us to take the Good News to the world and to help the poor and needy. To do this we need some leaders here on earth, but most of all we need You, dear Father, to lead us. Your word tells us that You will go ahead of us in battle. While in some armies the generals stay behind, but not You, Lord, for You are our leader. What we need to do is learn to let You lead us, help us with that. Help us to always rely on our instruction book, and our talking with You. In the name of Jesus, help us, dear Lord, lead us, open doors for us, and protect us as we take Your word into the world. Lead us into battle, Lord, in the name of Jesus... I pray in the mighty name of our leader, Jesus. Amen.

Onward Christian Soldiers, going on before, sharing our blessings like never before. Christ the Royal Master leads us through each day, ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, working for Jesus starting right now... Love ya, Pastor Dan.