Wednesday 8/29/12 The Story 3

Matthew 2:13 - When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "Take the Child and His mother and escape to Egypt.  Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him."  14 So he got up, took the Child and His mother during the night and left for Egypt.  15 Where he stayed until the death of Herod.  (NIV)

Luke 2:39 - When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.  40 And the Child grew and became strong; He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.  (NIV)

Luke 2:41 - Every year His parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.  42 When He was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.  43 After the Feast was over, while His parents were returning home, the Boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.  44 Thinking He was in their company, they traveled on for a day.  Then they began looking for Him among their relatives and friends.  45 When they did not find Him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for Him.  46 After three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  47 Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers.  (NIV)

Dear Father in Heaven, Thanks for another great day, thanks for hearing our prayers and acting on them according to Your will.  Thanks, Lord, for Your healing hand on Lou's eye.  Thanks for restoring that sight.  Lord, we ask the same for Art, please, Lord, heal his eyesight.  Lord, it is healing day on this line, and we ask that You hear our requests and heal according to Your will for those needing the touch.  Praise and honor to You, Lord, for the safe trip for Tom Sansoni with those working Your fields of Harvest.  You are wonderful, Lord.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

Good Evening, dear brothers and sisters.  Yes, it is Healing Wednesday, the day we pray for God to heal folks, regardless of their problem, be whatever it is.  A few weeks ago I prayed for two neighbors, two men, both having eye surgery on the same day.  Art and Lou both needed the surgery.  Lou told me today that his sight in the eye that was operated on is great, and he gets the other one done on the 10th of September.  Art in the meantime still has not had the complete touch of the Lord, so we keep praying and keep our faith that it will be healed.  You remember how Jesus touched the eyes of the man who was blind and the man said, I see men as trees walking, so when God touched his eyes again he could see.  I have faith that Art will receive that sight, please keep praying for him, and please sing the praises for the healing of Lou's eye and pray for his other eye.  Please keep praying for Joe who has cancer, and also a priest from Saint Katherine Drexel Catholic Church for healing from cancer, I forgot the priest's name, but will get it.  Please keep praying for Pastor Larry Hale, as he gets stronger after recent heart surgery.  Pray for Patsy, Burt, Barbara, and please add Nan Clugston to your prayer lists.  Please keep praying for Vicki, also for Ruby.  There are some more, and I will be posting more tomorrow evening.  Now for the message.

The Story (Day Three).  Maybe I should call today's part of the message The Great Escape.  Let's look at our scripture ...

Matthew 2:13 - When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.  "Get up," he said, "Take the Child and His mother and escape to Egypt."

When they had gone refers to the magi who brought the three gifts.  Now I am not going to run those numbers on you again today, I think I drove them yesterday.  But look, the angel of the Lord is back talking to Joseph in a dream.  "Get up and take the Child and escape."  Now as we go forth we find out that this dad, this man called Joseph, was a really good earthly father for Jesus, he really cares and he listened to the angel and we find in the scripture that Joseph got right up and he woke up Mary and they escaped in the dark.  This earthly father protected our Lord Jesus from being killed when He was a Child so that He could grow older and then be killed, this time for us.  That is why it is said, "He was born to die!"  So where did His parents take Him to hide out?  To Egypt, and the Bible tells us that they stayed there until Herod died.  After that they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.  So what happened next?  Well, we do not know a lot  about Jesus until He was twelve, but we do know this.  As He grew He got strong.  Look at this from the scriptures ...

Luke 1:40 - And the Child grew and became strong; He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.

So what happened when He was twelve?  Well, He headed out with His parents to go to the Feast of The Passover held in Jerusalem and there we find out a few things about Jesus.  One, He went to the Temple and, well, hung out there, asking questions and giving answers.  The Bible tells us this.

Luke 2:47 - Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers.

At twelve, He was blessed with understanding given the ability to ask questions.  Yes, I said Jesus was blessed and He was.  Now we also know something else happened.  His parents left Jerusalem without Him, and you will just really not believe what happened when after three days they found Jesus in the temple.  Yes, you are not going to believe it.  Let me ask you these questions for tomorrow.  Did Jesus smart mouth His mother and earthly father?  Did Jesus really talk back to them?  The answers might surprise you, but you need to wait until tomorrow to find out.  Tomorrow we will also move out  hearing from a man from the wild.  Do you know who that might be?

Now go forth and share those blessings.  Oh, I forgot to tell you, we did not get our new baby yet.  We were all ready for the kid, but it looks like it did not come to pass.  Yes, our dear mother goat is not in the motherly way again, or so we think now.  Now you know about our new "Kid".  I do need to just have a tad bit of fun once in awhile.  Love ya, Pastor Dan.

P.S.  Did you hear about the man who was mowing the grass and by accident ran over his dog and cut off its tail?  He then picked up the dog, grabbed the cut off piece of tail, and headed to Wal-Mart.  Why in the world would he not go to an animal hospital?  Well, he just knew that the Wal-Mart was a re-tail store.
Bye-Bye.