“The most
important one,” answered Jesus, “is this:
‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” “Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The Second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Good
Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. I
am sorry about yesterday, I did not get to the computer to work on a
message. I confess, I slept in. I as a rule just wake up about 3:30 AM or if
not, Marvin, my big cat, comes in and rubs his face on mine about 4:00 AM as he
wants to eat. It was about 6:00 AM when
the cat came in, and the dogs jumped on me to go out so I got off to a late
start. Again, I am sorry and feel I left
God and also all of you who read down.
But we move forward with prayers for our troops and our leaders and also
for cures for cancer and all other of those diseases. New on the prayer list. Joann Zimmerman, who is having major back
surgery tomorrow morning. Also prayers
for a motorcycle rider who while sitting at a traffic signal was hit by a car
fleeing from police. The rider is in
very serious condition. He lost both
legs. Also pray for the family of
Dakota, who last evening got off his school bus and after the bus pulled out
was hit and killed crossing over the street to get the mail. As a former school bus person, I just want to
make it clear, the bus had pulled away, the bus driver DID THEIR JOB!!! The lad was hit by a “Smart Car”, and one
thing about those cars, they do not make noise, and folks, we trust our hearing
also. My heart still rides with school
bus drivers daily. On this last week of
school in most districts, let us pray for those when it comes to school, see
the kids first in the morning and last in the evening, the one who is trusted
with up to 90, yes 90 kids’ safety and to see that they behave, all the while
with their back to them and working in today’s traffic. School Bus Drivers are some of the best
drivers on the road, and those who were driers and went through a good training
program to drive that school bus are better drivers even in their cars … PRAY
FOR THEM, FOLKS.
Yesterday
morning, a tanker driver rolled over and spilled his load of milk all over the
road. Today he will get another load of
milk. School bus drivers haul cargo that
NEVER CAN BE REPLACED. Parents, over the
summer teach your children when getting on the school bus to listen to their
bus driver, sit down, be quiet, and behave.
Safety on school buses requires good buses, good trained drivers, well
behaved children, and parents who teach their kids while in their car HOW TO
ACT. And while I am on this safety kick
this morning, and I just got on it, may I say this to all driers … “HANG UP AND
DRIVE”. After all, my life might depend
on how you drive your car.
Building a
Bridge: Day One: Mark 12:29 – “The most important one,”
answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O
Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” 30 “Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength. 31 The Second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
(NIV)
So why in
the world would I pick scriptures like this and then talk about Building a
Bridge? Well, first of all, these are
the greatest commandments, and truly, if you follow these commandments you will
not break another of what we call the “Ten Commandments”. There are also many reasons which will come
out this week using these commandments … Now let’s get working on “Building a
Bridge”.
I want you
to think about this, when you go from your house, which I hope is a home (can
only be a home if Jesus is in charge of it)… When you go from your home, how
far is it until you cross the first bridge?
Think hard now. Now I am talking
about a bridge of any size. Are you
thinking? If I leave our home by our lower driveway, I cross a bridge
going out onto the street, as there is a pipe under the driveway to carry the
storm water. If I don’t count that one,
I cross several like it as I drive along the creek heading to the main roads. Yes, bigger pipes run under the road. Now most of us like to think about bridges
that have side rails on them. So let’s
talk about a lot of bridges this week, and we will not need a firm with a big
name like you see in the phone book (I know, what is a phone book?) Let me get back inside my driveway again and
talk to you about the first bridge you need to build. You need to build a bridge between you and
your neighbors, and while Jesus told us we must love our neighbors, and folks,
our neighbors are worldwide, I am talking on this point about those around your
home. So I ask you this, do you love those
neighbors around you, or do you build a “spite fence”? While there is not a thing wrong with fences
that keep your animals home and even keep your place private, they should not be
used just because you “hate” those around you.
You see on this bridge, you can see the second one of the great
commandments coming into play. I know
folks that I can say I love all of our neighbors, and I also know that we are sort
of different when it comes to how we live.
We have two acres, we have been here a long time, and we do a lot. With the food pantry, people are in and out
daily, we also have a few old buses, nice antique buses, which are behind our
home, and while we use the buses in ministry, we understand that others do not
like them, but those neighbors love God and still love and pray for us. We always have something going on at our
house, we have animals, we adopt senior dogs with handicaps, but they never get
out. We have goats, and they cry once in
awhile when they see us, they think they need to eat. I guess what I am saying here is sometimes it
is very hard to carry out what God wants us to do and that is “build a bridge”
between yourself and others and they must feel the same if they indeed are
followers of Jesus … It is spelled with four letters … L O V E. And the only way we can have true love is to
love Jesus first …
Okay, folks,
the first lesson is finished, and we have learned to build bridges. We need to have Jesus in our hearts and love
others. I want to ask all of you, how
long has it been since you prayed for a neighbor, one who is near your
home? Have you even just grabbed their
hand, or hugged them, and prayed for them?
I have done this, have you? I
have one neighbor who prays with me all the time, and you know what? He truly loves Jesus and loves us, but he has
confessed, he does not like those big buses I have. Think about it this way, Jesus loves all of us,
and all of us do things Jesus does not like at all, but he still loves us …
Today, build the bridge with Love … It works all the time …
Dear Father
in Heaven, please cover our prayers that we have listed above, and Lord, help
us to start building bridges this week, and help us to build them on Love. Help me as I build on this message of today. Thanks, Jesus, I love You and I pray all on
the line love You also. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Now go forth
building bridges and sharing your blessings.
Love ya, Pastor Dan.
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