Tues Feb 14, 2012 Love Your Enemies

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Happy St. Valentines' day, my dear brothers and sisters. PRAISE THE LORD, PRAISE THE LORD. The stitches in my right hand were removed this afternoon, and although I still have no feeling in the hand, I am to use it all I can. Now I knew going in I had severe nerve damage in my hand and now it is 100% in the hands of God to heal. Not a bad place to be. In the meantime, maybe I can now get back on schedule with my typing. Thanks for all your prayers. PRAISE THE LORD, PRAISE THE LORD. Billie Jo (last name withheld) who comes to our food panty, had her appendix burst on February 8th, and while she was in the hospital for nine days, she was at our home today, and moving slowly and taking her grandmother to the doctors. Ministry partners Grant and Wanda were here and loaded her car, and we sat down and ate together. After lunch I anointed them with oil in the name of Jesus and we laid hands on both of them praising and thanking God for His Healing hand. Please pray for the following:  Ronald (cancer), Donna (Heart), Skelly (Kidneys), Patsy (Pain), Burt (Fall), Barbara Paules (cellulitis). Also Kelly Pallone (brain cancer, has been in a coma for three weeks), Carlene Cunningham, (serious breast cancer and also colon cancer). For the following adult children:  Matthew, Laura and Jan. For Vicki, who needs to be on our list each day. Also for Allison (cancer), Kelly's and Bruce's dads are very ill and need prayer.

Feb 14, 2012 Love Your Enemies: Matthew 5:43 - "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (NIV)

I did not plan it this way, but love your enemies just happened to come up on St. Valentines' day. Our Lord Jesus when discussing gifts that we have received out of all the gifts love is the best. Love is talked about many, many, many times in the Bible. I just want to quote it from four places today.

John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not parish but have eternal life." (NIV)

Now this one reminds me of our men and women of our military and also our police and firefighters.

John 15:13 - "Greater Love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (NIV)

Then there is this ORDER for Jesus:

John 15:17 - "This is my command: Love each other." (NIV)

And from the book of Psalms:

Psalm 36:7a - How priceless is your UNFAILING love!! (NIV)

So let us look for a minute or two at the scriptures and see what the example of Jesus is. The example of Love from Jesus is all throughout the Bible and hard to just point it to these verses, but it is very clear that we are to love everyone, and just look at our main scripture in Matthew today, we see how Jesus not just tells us to love everyone, but he uses the example of sending the sun on the good and the evil and the same with rain. We have learned this lesson at our food pantry, while we pray with everyone who comes for food, we do not turn anyone away, even if we suspect they do not know Jesus as their Savior. In fact when we love on our enemies does that not give us a chance to witness for Jesus when we do this? When Carry The Light Ministries got our 501c3 which among other things would let us get food from the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, we could purchase it for much less dollars than going to the food stores. (We also receive a lot of food donated by others.) Anyway when I went to talk to the People at Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, I was told if we signed with them, we could not have prayer with them. Well. they did not need to go further, for if we cannot pray with people and lay hands on them, they why have the food pantry? We are HERE TO FUEL THE BODY AND THE SOUL. And being able to pray with everyone who comes for food is most important to us. Do you see where I am coming from? Jesus points out that if love only those who love us, what have we gained? So, folks, we need to love everyone. Everyone, Jesus tells us, and while we might not like the life style of some, we are to love the person and hate their sins, and yes, while we are at it, we should hate our own sins also.

Those other scriptures...  John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." We all know this example God sent Jesus to die for us, and folks, that is great love, and He died for all of us, even those who hated them. And then there is

John 15:13 - "Greater Love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (NIV)  Taking the example from Christ who laid down His love for us, many of our military have laid down their lives for all of us so we would be able to be free, and dare I say, all who served were ready to  lay it down if called upon... Our police officers nationwide would do the same if needed... And so would our firefighters.

So enough for today, Happy St. Valentines' Day. 

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for teaching us love, and thanks for working on my hand and for our friend Billie Jo, thanks for sparing her life. Dear Lord, please hear our prayers and answer them according to your will for we know that Your will, is better for us than ours. Thanks, Jesus, and I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings and showing your love for others. And please remember there is a difference between love and lust, and love and sex. Love, real love, is from God... Love ya, Pastor Dan.