Wed. Feb. 15, 2012 No Rewards

"Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in Heaven."

Good Salvation Wednesday, my dear brothers and sisters. Yes,  Salvation Wednesday and the day we pray for our brothers and sisters who might be lost and also pray for we who are saved to go out and help bring in the lost. Also please keep praying for those on our prayer list this week. 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, and pray for Billie Jo and Catherine her grandmother.

A short update! It seems I am doing better writing in the evening when my hand is working better. However, this seems to make my writings a day late. So I am going to start writing the evening before for the next day. Also I am going to keep adding to the prayer lists, leaving the names on for a week, and at the beginning of the week, I will clear that list and start anew, leaving on those who I know still need that prayer daily. Yes, I can copy and paste this way and it helps with my typing for now. I am not going to stop writing as I want to do this for God, and also the doctor said USE IT!!

February 15: No Reward: Matthew 6:1 - "Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in Heaven." (NIV)

I want to try and relate this to Carry The Light Food Pantry. Over the years we have debated if we wanted to call in the news folks on the one day a year when we have our big food distribution. (All other food distribution is done by appointment with those coming for food.)

While a few years ago, Chuck Rhoads (ABC 27 TV News) did an Out and About with Santa and Mrs. Claus, and we also do TV shots to get food in, we have never had the news come on a day we handed out food. And I base this on the above scripture and of course it is supported by our ministry team. I cannot say that I have not been tempted to call them out, for we would more than likely pick up some who would donate food, I just think it would be out of line and we would lose our rewards in heaven.

With all that said, we have hit a point where we must get the word out to the needy, that we do have food to hand out, for as we have grown, God has been good, and this year after our big day, we had almost as much food on the shelves after we gave out as we did going in, of course we purchased a lot of food for just that reason. While we had over 165 families call on us during 2011, we need to keep letting the public know we are here. Most of our names come in from schools, and children and youth. So I need you to pray for me, and for our ministry team as we seek ways to get the word out, without crossing the line and looking for a pat on the back. ALL OF US, on the ministry team and those who come to help throughout the year will receive their rewards in heaven. We also need to be careful that we do not over-extend ourselves and have our food bank emptied in a few days. In other words, I do not want to put an ad in our big city paper saying WE HAVE FOOD, COME AND GET IT.

Just today I did the following. I contacted the veterans administration in our county as we keep hearing that we have veterans who do not have enough to eat. I think that is really bad and we need to always stand by and help those who have given for us by their service to our country. As they have said many times about those in the military, "All gave some and Some gave all." On our ministry team we have two veterans out of the five of us. Grant is an Army veteran and Dolores is an Air Force veteran (thanks for your service to our country).

I contacted the county to see if we were listed on their list of food banks, or food pantries and we were not. We were on, and we are now on again. Again this is within the county (Cumberland County Pa.) where we have our food pantry. With that said, we do not stop at county lines helping others and we never have. NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN TURNED AWAY. Other food pantries also know that if they cannot by their rules help folks, or they are not near a distribution date, they can refer people to us.

I also contacted a small paper called "The Guide" who said they will run a story that I write about Carry The Light Food Pantry.

I also want to thank all of you on this line, who support our efforts with your dollars and food donations, it is indeed appreciated. Please pray for us as we take another step out in faith and grow. We also have put a bid on a big shed type building that was damaged in the flood last year. Please pray about that. If we do not get it, we are going to need to either purchase a new one or stick build one. Our basement is running out of room. God is good.

Dear Father in Heaven, we love You and we look to You for our Salvation and for helping us to reach out to others. Please keep blessing our ministry, so that we can pass the blessings along to others, and Lord, please help us to remember always to keep sharing our blessings and wait for our rewards when we get home with You. Lord, please look over our prayer requests and as we really would like all them healed, it is Your will we want You to do. Thanks for all You do for all of us each day. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Now folks, go forth and share your blessings, and again, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing your blessings. Love ya, Pastor Dan.