Monday Oct. 3, 2011 Promises

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; they rod and they staff they comfort me.

Good Monday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is trying to rain at the Southern Location of the North Pole, but hey, we don't need to shovel the rain. Last evening for the first time this year, I put the pilot light on, on our free standing gas stove in our great room, and fired off a tad bit of heat. Needed to get some of the dampness out of our home. We have been so blessed with all the rain, we do not even have a damp wall in our basement, which is wonderful for that is where the food pantry is located. We do have a dehumidifier running along with a couple of fans to keep the air moving.

Monday and the day we pray for our President and all of our leaders, and please when praying for our president, pray first for his salvation, and also for that of his wife. It is also the day we pray for our veterans and please today pray for WW2 Veteran Stanley Bingham, as he had a major fall. Also pray for Viet Nam Veteran Grant Crockett. Grant is having trouble with his legs. Pray also for our current military, our reserve units, police, firefighters, river rescue units, and all others who work hard to keep us safe and healthy. Remember to pray daily for Baby Boy Noah. Please pray for Keith and Christy Lehman, our grandson and his wife, who are going to be parents.

Promises: Day 1: Psalm 23:4 - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and they staff they comfort me. (KJV)

Promises, this would be a good week to talk about promises, and not where do we hear more promises than when people are running for office and moreso when the office is for President of the United States of America. I promise if I get elected president I will see that there are more jobs and there will be no more taxes, read my lips, no more taxes. I think we come to expect those folks to make promises that they just know they cannot keep, so if they know that upfront, does that mean it is a LIE? How often in your life can you remember having someone make a promise to you, and then not keeping their promise? Oh, and what about you, how many times have you made a promise or promises that you did not keep? Sometimes we do our best to keep a promise made and mess up some way, maybe we promised to pay our bills, oops, did I say that, we put something on a charge account and then promise to pay it back, and when we pay the other bills we don't have enough money left to pay one of them, even though we promised to pay it. Oh yes, over the years I would say that all of us broke a promise or two maybe even more.

I know when I was young and was going to school I would promise my mamma and dad that I would do homework and then I would even lie and tell them it was done. Bad Danny, bad Danny! Only once in a while would my mamma or dad break a promise made to me, and most of the time I would be happy about it... What, I was happy about my mamma or dad breaking a promise? Yes, for once in a while they would tell me, the next time I step out of line I am going to tan your backside, and the next time I stepped out of line, they forgot about the promise and my hide was not tanned.

This week I want to take a look at some of the promises that we can find in the Bible, and folks, you can trust that God will never break a promise He has made to us. Do you remember that God even made a reminder sign to remind Himself that He would never again end this world with water, or a big flood? What is the sign? A rainbow, of course. God sets a rainbow in the sky to remind Himself not to flood the earth again. Today the scripture from Psalms is just one of many promises made to us.

Here we find God telling us even when the end is near, when we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, He will be walking it with us, and He will comfort us. Like a shepherd has his rod and staff to help him comfort his flock by keeping away the critters that might harm them, our Shepherd walks with us, and not just when we walk the valleys, but when we are in good times also. We just need to be asking Him to take the walk with us. Let's pray!

Father in Heaven, please walk with us each day, and Father teach us that as You make promises to us, You always keep them and we want to keep our promises made to others but also we want to keep our promises we make to You. How often do we ask you to clean us of sin, only to sin again, and Lord, to me that is breaking a promise for we say we will not sin, but we do. So forgive us again this day and help us to be a promise keeping and not a promise breaker. Lord, please look over our prayer requests and honor them according to Your will for us. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth, sharing your blessings and keeping your promises made both to God and to man. And remember this, I love ya, and that is a promise I can keep... Pastor Dan.