Wed 11/21/12 The Story 3

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another day of life here on planet Earth.  Thanks for all You do for all of us.  Thanks for taking care of our families.  Dear Lord, please give traveling mercies to those who are on the highways for this holiday, and please bless all those hunters as they go out to hunting camps next week.  Please be with Dick Mowery and heal him from cancer.  Please, Lord, be with Patsy, Burt, Barbara, Ruby, Vicki, Donna, Beverly, Matthew, Sterling, and Luella, and Lord, please be with the family of Stanley Bingham, who came to be with You.  Thanks for all his service to our country.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

Hi, brothers and sisters, and happy Thanksgiving Eve.  New to our prayer list this day is Dick Mowery, who has lung cancer.  Dick is the brother of our ministry partner, Pamela Bower.  Please keep praying for those on our ongoing prayer list.  Please keep praying for our son Matthew who is back in the Holy Spirit Hospital.  Please pray for peace in our homeland of Israel.  Pray for worldwide peace, meaning pray for Jesus to come  back and get we who know Him, in the meantime, pray for God to use you in some way to get out the Good News about Salvation through Jesus.  Now let me get back to the story.

The Story (Day 3).

Luke 1:30 - But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.  32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will never end."  34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"  35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the Holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.  36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.  37 For nothing is impossible with God."  38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered.  "May it be to me as you have said."  Then the angel left her.  (NIV)

Yesterday I talked about how scared Zechariah and Mary must have been when all of a sudden this angel of the Lord, Gabriel, showed up and told them He was sent by God.  We found out that even at an old age Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth would have a baby, and now Mary who is a virgin and very young is going to have a child, and not just a child, but Jesus, who will be King of all kings and Lord of all lords.  And most of all He will be our Savior.  I must wonder, did Mary really know that someday this child she is having will save her from death, so she will pass to heaven?  Mary did not ask but one question of the angel, "How will this be since I am a virgin?"  After she was told by Gabriel, she said, "May it be to me as you have said."

Mary could have asked a lot of questions.  Ladies, put yourself in the shoes of Mary, look back when you were a virgin, and maybe some of you still are.  Look back and think about this, you are young, you are pretty, and you have never been with a man, but you are dating this fine gentleman and would love to marry him someday and you find you are with child, and no one has touched you except the Holy Spirit.  What are you going to tell this guy, what are you going to tell your parents, what will your friends think?  Think about the pressure that could have been on Mary, but she was a true servant of the Lord and she took on the assignment.  What about you, brothers and sisters, when God gives you an assignment, do you question Him or do you just say, "I am your servant, Lord, Thy will be done with me."  Each day we pray, or should pray, for an assignment from God, and we should work for Him each day of our life.  Yes, we need to live our lives for Him and follow in His footsteps not just once in awhile, not just for one hour on Sunday, not just at choir practice, but in each step you make, you need to let people see The Son of God in your walk.  Let Jesus be your guiding light unto your feet.  With His light you will not fall or fail, without it you surely will fail and fall.  The neat part of walking in the light of the Lord is it does not run up your electric bill and you need to change batteries once in awhile.  Jesus is indeed the light.  Without Jesus in your life and if you are a Christian but not walking daily with Him, you can find yourself in total darkness even in the bright light of the day.  Brothers and sisters, there are givers and takers in this world today, but we all need to walk with the Lord and if we indeed share the blessings that He has poured out on us, we will be blessed even more.  How about it, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, will you please take time to give thanks for what You have, and in some way share it with others?

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I am going to finish this writing and then go get the turkey out of the fridge, all 30 pounds of it, and make some stuffing and stuff it full.  Most of the time when I cook a turkey, and that is about once a month, I do it with some sort of juice, peach juice, or pear juice, or mixed fruit, but not this time, this time I am making a "bacon turkey."  I am going to drape the turkey with some good smoked bacon and let the bacon juice cover that outside.  I am also making a ham and will do that in pineapple and that is always good.  So the menu will look like this.  Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and more mashed potatoes, and even more mashed potatoes.  Wanda is baking corn and Grant is making pumpkin pie.  We will have cranberry salad and green beans and some good old corn bread ... wow, what a feast.

On Black Friday, Santa's House opens for visitors from 10 to noon and from 2 to 4 so if you are out and about, stop in to see old Santa and have those kids or grandkids hear the real story of Christmas.  Same hours on Saturday, folks.  All who come will receive a toy, little ones will receive a toy that they can paint or color and give to someone else, maybe a grandparent, plus they will get something for themselves.  Wow, no disappointments at Santa's House ... Groups are also welcome.

Dear Father in Heaven, please bless Thanksgiving for all, and please make it special for our troops wherever they are serving.  Lord, protect them.  Lord, be with all our police and firefighters and keep them safe.  Lord, please keep blessing the many ministries of Carry The Light Ministries as we head into a very, very busy season.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings ... Santa's House address follows.  Love ya, Pastor Dan.

Santa's House
Southern Location of the North Pole
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg, PA  17050 (Silver Spring Twp.)
Group appointments - 717 691 8200 (Retirement homes, nursing homes and senior centers welcome.  This is not just for little kids.  Big kids are okay also.)