Good Thursday afternoon, my dear brothers and sisters, and it is a beautiful, beautiful, wonderful day, and yes, it is the day that the Lord has made... The Son and the sun are both out today and folks, they are both indeed out each day. Some days the sun is clouded over or the earth is in rotation where we cannot see the sun, but on days when you cannot see the Son, then either your eyes are clouded over by something, or you just plain ain't looking, for The Son of God, our Lord Jesus is always with us, He does not sleep, and He watches over us night and day. An Amen would be nice here... Today is schools and families day on this line, and while I know some schools are out for the summer, and others will be soon, we never stop praying for our schools and all who enter the doors.
Please pray today for Kathleen, Ronald, and others with cancer, and for Pastor Charles and others who have had strokes. Pray for the Saylor family, Eleanor, Robert, Sharon, plus Daniel and his family.
Storms (Day 2) Psalm 107:25 - For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. 26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths in their peril; their courage melted away. 27 They reeled and staggered like drunken men, they were at their wits end. 28 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He brought them out of their distress. 29 He STILLED THE STORM to a whisper, the waves of the sea were hushed. 30 They were glad when it grew calm and He guided them to their desired haven. 31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. (NIV)
Storms of all kinds pass us each and every day. Yesterday I pointed out to you from the book of Job how God still rules over the storms of the earth and today from Psalms I am doing the same, although today it is mostly about the storms out over the seas. Today as I look around our area it is a cloudless sky and I just stop and wonder if we all repented from our sins and worked with God each day, would each day be like this? I wonder just how many of those really bad storms are being sent our way just to tell us to get in line with what God wants and to show us He really still is in charge. While most people think we have an all-loving God, and I happen to believe that also, once in a while a loving Father, just like a real loving father and mother here on earth, must do things to keep their wayward family in line. If I would step out of line, and I know I have told you this before, but if I stepped out of line my loving mamma would lay out some punishment and it would not be her counting to ten. The same with my dear daddy. I know once in a while my mother would tell me to go and stand in a corner, and she would mean stand and I was glad for my butt was not in sitting condition. Do you know now if a teacher were to make a child sit or stand in a corner, the teacher would be in trouble as they would have caused the kid to have a mental problem.
My mamma and dad would say when they punished me, it would hurt them more then me, and until I had kids of my own and had to punish them, I did not believe it. I would think that God is the same way. I don't think that God got any pleasure out of flooding out His people and starting over with Noah and his family and washing away all others. God showed great love for us when He saved Noah and his family and all of the animals. If you have parents that never punished you as a child, then folks, you were either so perfect or and may I say this, your parents did not love you enough to punish you. One thing parents find out if they punish their kids by making them stay home or no TV, it in most cases punishes the parents also, so only parents who really, really love their kids will give them punishment that also hurts the parents.
But my reason for bringing out the scriptures of this week is to show you a few things, one is that God does care enough about us to punish us and also loves us enough to have given us a way out. You remember of course the way out, right? It is the love affair that Jesus has for us, and that we SHOULD HAVE FOR HIM. In our scriptures of today we see that God spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves of the sea. What a powerful voice, and when did we see that power before? Yes, He spoke creation into being. So with His voice God created this big storm on the seas, and when His people prayed and called out for Him, then what did He do? "He stilled the storm to a whisper."
Brothers and sisters, God is 100% in control and don't think He is not. And may I add, try not to forget it. Once again in spring some who do not believe are trying to push themselves against believers. A school has services for a graduation class and has prayer, hundreds are going to graduate but one does not want the prayer and the others back down. No prayer and another strike against God. If I were in that class I would get in trouble as I would get together with a lot of people and on a signal we would all stand and say the Lord's prayer.
It is high time we Christians stand up for God and even do it in public before God really gets mad and makes America go away, and that could happen. It is time we in the Christian Army start MARCHING OFF TO WAR... IT TIME WE GO TO WORK FOR GOD AND STOP ABORTIONS, IT IS TIME WE START TELLING PEOPLE "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE." AND IF WE NEED TO GET RID OF SOMETHING IT WOULD BE THE STATE.
Tomorrow tell your kids to get together with other kids, hold hands and pray out loud for their lunch... I am tired of being put down as a Christian, I was told by The Museum of Bus Transportation that we could not pray "out loud" before meetings and events... I QUIT THE BOARD OVER THIS. I wished I had not done that, what I should have done was just stood up and prayed and left those who did not want the prayer leave... It is time we come together and fight for the Lord instead of walking away. I messed up big time on that one. People laugh out loud sometimes when a person stands on a corner and preaches. I listened to one, just recently down at Third and State in Harrisburg, each word this street preacher said was true. HE WAS STANDING UP FOR JESUS.
Ok, calm down Dan, get a blood pressure pill. I am sick of it, really sick of it and I am thankful that God is in control. We have churches that are saying it is ok for a man to marry another man, or a woman to marry another woman, and our tax dollars pay for the benefits of these sinful marriages.
You have churches that support abortion. Come on, Christians, stand up and fight, love others, show your support for Jesus by sharing your blessings. And don't be afraid to pray out loud and in public.
Dear Father in Heaven, I love You and I have left You down and more than once in my life. I was wrong, Lord, when I walked away from the Bus Museum, I should have stayed and prayed and not let Your word be silenced. I am sorry, please forgive me. Help me work harder and harder for You to get Your word out. As long as I have breath that comes from You and all of our breathing come from You... As long as I have breath, let me work for You. Set me down, Lord, when I am wrong, punish me and then put me back to work. I want to get it right, dear Lord... In Jesus' Name, Amen.
My prayer got personal today, and I am not sorry for it, I needed it and maybe you do also... please, folks, stand up for Jesus and while you are at it, please, please share your blessings... love ya, Pastor Dan.
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