Friday Oct. 7, 2011 Promises 5

Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

Good Friday, the sun is shining bright, morning, to you my dear brothers and sisters. Yes, after a month of rain, we are seeing the sun. Of course I have see the Son daily and pray that you have also.

People have asked me over the years since I gave my life to Christ... How do you see Jesus, how do you get to see God? My answer is very simple, I open my eyes and look around me. I talk about that in the message today. Today is Friday and we need to be praying for all those who work in the fields of Harvest for our Lord Jesus. Be it be a pastor, a missionary, a gospel singer, a Christian Rap artist, or any one of dozens and dozens of people who work for God, or be it you or I just giving witness to our neighbor over the fence we need to be praying for their work for God.

Please keep on praying for "Baby Boy Noah," our three year old with cancer. Please pray for the family of Billie Jo and also pray for Vicki and Josh.

Promises Day 5: Isaiah 65:24 - Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. (NIV)

I love this scripture and the promises in it. Look at it, before they (we) call, I (God) will answer!

Were you ever driving down a road and someone pulled out in front of you, or turned in front of you, and you just knew you were going to hit them? Before you even had time to call on God, He came and helped you and there was no crash. God steered your Caddy (put in your own make of car) around that other car and there was not one problem. Let me tell you about this one...

It was 1:25 PM on December 24, 1990, yes, Christmas Eve. And this old man, was on his big Honda Goldwing, pulling a little trailer loaded with stuffed animals and candy canes and yes, I was in my Santa Suit and was heading for a corner to have some fun. I stopped in a line of traffic and heard the tires screaming behind me. I looked in the mirror and just knew I was going to be hit. Then I heard the crash, but hey, I was not hit, and then there was another crash and that was one of the cars running over my rig. I did not have time to even yell out to God saying help me, Lord, I just remember things going into slow motion. I had both feet on the ground holding up my big white Goldwing and had a hand full of clutch and the hand brake. When I was hit I left the seat of the bike going up and through my windshield. I landed on the street between two lines of traffic, the one I was in and a moving line to my right. My arm went in front of the rear tire of the pickup truck that was in front of me. Here is where God came in, already on location to protect me from more injuries. The driver of the pickup truck heard the noise behind him, put his parking brake on and came back to check on me, had he moved his truck even one foot forward my right arm would have been crushed. WAS GOD RIGHT THERE? YES HE WAS!! As I was waking up on the street and many folks standing over me, I called out for God, and I could hear His voice saying, I am here, son.

BEFORE I CALLED, GOD ANSWERED. Look back over your life and see if someplace or some places in your life something like this happened.

Let's look at some more of that same scripture. "While they (we) were still speaking, I (God) will hear." Gosh, today we call someone and we put a message on their recorder and you don't know if the machine worked or not, or if and when someone will return your call. Think if God worked like this... Hello this is Jesus' phone, but it is so nice out today Jesus is playing golf (with our president I hope). Anyway, if you would be so kind as to let your message at the sound of the beep, I will look it over when I get time. No, no, God does not work like that, when we start speaking to God, we have His attention, I wanted to say undivided attention, but that would not be the case as so many calls for God are made at the same time. When we say "Our Father" he knows we are calling and He even knows what we want. I can't help but wonder in my little limited mind that if God ever thinks, "I wish this guy would call once in a while just to thank me for what I did for him yesterday. Why the only time some call is when they want something or they are in trouble.

I wonder if God ever feels like saying, "now what do you want?" The really nice thing is God knows what we are going to say before we even say it. God is so good and God really loves each of us and really wants us to love Him. He really does.

Now I promised you that I would tell you how I see Jesus. People ask me, do you see Jesus, and I must say yes, because I do and if you don't your eyes are really closed. I can see Jesus with my eyes shut and if I close and picture Him, I can see Him in the flowers coming up in the spring, I like to call it rebirth, I can see Him in the birds flying around in our yard, I can see Him in all of our animals, and I could see Him that morning it was raining so hard and we had a baby goat born. I can see our Lord Jesus in the summer when I look around and see the corn coming about knee high by the 4th of July. I can see and smell Him in the fields of grain. I can see Him as I look toward the heavens as we raise flags and I remember that we are ONE NATION UNDER GOD. I can see Jesus as I walk through our little food pantry and see just how many people have come for food and how amazing it is to still have food on the shelves. Only God through His workers could make all of that happen. Remember how I have told you, if you share your blessings, He will bless you even more. The more we give out from the food pantry the more that comes in. I can see and picture God leaning on my "Rock of Hope" in the front yard, I have told you about that big old rock, from the digging of Hope United Methodist Church. And now I can see Him on the cross right near the rock as my dear friend Grant Crockett made three crosses and he and Wanda put them up. I can see God's hand on this line as day after day, week after week, month after month and even year after year, He gives me messages to send... This from just an old man who loves and wants to work for God till the day I die.

If you cannot see God, if you cannot see Jesus STOP RIGHT NOW, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO OUTSIDE. Look around you, and then tell me you can't see Him... If you can't see God, you just ain't looking... And someone said AMEN AND AMEN.

Dear Father in Heaven, You answer our prayers before we ask, you heal us from things we did not even know were wrong with us. And you stand with us for when we fall, You help us back up. Thanks God for all You do, I love You and I pray others really bring that out as they pray with me this day. Look over our prayer lists and remember the ones I might have forgotten about. Honor our requests according to Your will. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings, and how about taking a look for Jesus and let me know today, did you see Him? Have a super weekend, I love ya. Pastor Dan.