Monday 2/11/13 Getting Dressed

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters.  Let me start this day asking all of you to pray for Pope Benedict XVI for his health.  Pope Benedict is stepping down from being The Pope by the end of February according to Fox News.  Please also pray for the Catholic Church and all of our Catholic brothers and sisters as they follow their religion and elect a new Pope.  We have many folks from all religions on this line, many church affiliations are represented on this line.  I welcome them all, and indeed will stand beside all those who confess their love for Jesus and support them with our prayers and I ask that you do the same regardless of your church standing.  As we all know, it is Jesus who gets us to Heaven and not a church.  Working with schools long ago, I also knew and still know that the Catholic schools are some of the very best, and the neat thing about those schools over the public schools is Jesus still heads up the school while the public schools have thrown Jesus out.  So please join me as we pray for them this day.

Other prayers for this Monday, for our President and all of our leaders, for our veterans and all of our military, for our police, firefighters and all who work hard to keep us safe and well.  Now let me move forward with the message, getting dressed.

Getting Dressed 2/11/13 Day One.

This morning while I was praying, I asked God for a message.  It was slow coming this morning.  After devotions and those prayers I was doing my morning taking care of our animals when God spoke to me telling me it was time to get dressed.  Yes, I did not have my shower then, and I had on my, well, never mind what I had on, but I was covered.  But clearly I heard Him tell me it was time to get dressed and I knew right away what He was talking about.  He was telling me it was time to put on the Armor of God and to tell others to do the same.  So for this Armor of god we are going to go to ...

Ephesians 6:10 - Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His  mighty power.  11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  12 For our struggles are not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  13 Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.  (NIV)

One of the very first things we learned to do as a child was to get dressed ourselves.  I would like to tell you that I remember all those things from back in the days of my childhood, but I really don't.  However, I am proud to say that as of now, about to turn 72 in May, I can say I have mastered the art of getting dressed the way we think of it, although like many men I have to be told once in awhile that my fly is open.  I don't know if I still know how to tie my shoes and like many guys my age, I get shoes with that Velcro stuff or just wear loafers.  Before that, I wore cowboy boots, so it truly has been a long, long time since I tied my shoes.  Years ago, I could not see my feet, and now that I lost the weight and can see my feet, I can't bend over that far to tie shoes without falling on my face.

I do remember some of the basic things that I was taught growing up.  My mamma was a good teacher, and she taught me my underwear went on first!  And so far I have remembered that.  She also taught me that the tag goes to the back, and I did go on that one until someone started to make undershorts and tee shirts with no tags.  Now I need to figure it out all over again.  Let me see, the fly goes to the front.  (Did I really say that?)  Let me see, socks go on before your shoes.  Some people forgot that one and don't wear socks at all.  Let me get serious now, I have been having way too much fun with this today.

The apostle Paul is telling us that we need to be strong in the Lord and we need to put on the full armor of God.  He is telling us that we need to take a stand against the devil's schemes.  But I want you to take a look at what the apostle Paul is telling us about where these devil's schemes are coming from.  And I want to quote it right from the Bible.

Ephesians 6:12 - For our struggles are not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world.  (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, the words of this Bible are as good and true today as back when Jesus walked this earth.  Brothers and sisters, if you are going to believe one part of the Bible, you need to believe it all, for how can we pick and choose?  I am saying this because some folks are going to get upset when I make this statement ... Look what is going on around us today.  I mean really look, what is going on with our rulers?  Our freedoms are getting less and less each day, and I want you to think about that really well.  Take a look at it, now some is good and some not but look at the authorities today.  Police some places pull you over because you look out of place.  (Have you seen me?  I look out of place all the time.)  I have had some black folks tell me that they get pulled over for "driving while black".  I want you all to check this out, go to one of those programs and pull up an earth map, put in your address, and you can see what is in your backyard.  Not only that, they can if they want to, see what is going on inside your house.  I mean this equipment is nice if used right, like the Drone Aircraft, which took pictures of inside the bunker last week to see what was going on inside and they got that little boy out safe from the bad man who kidnapped him.  Now I don't want to frighten you but we need to keep good people on board in Washington and in our State houses so this knowledge is used properly.  Think about it, folks, we have had the dog wardens come into our home to check on our dog records, and we had it happen more than once.  Yes, we have the records!  Now when they came, I could have asked them for a search warrant and they would have gotten one and torn the house apart, so I just said, come on in, and showed them what they wanted.  I ask that you really look over this section, and tomorrow we will start to get dressed in the armor of God and talk about what each piece does according to the Bible.  See you tomorrow.

Dear Father in Heaven.  Thanks for this line, and thanks for the message of this day.  Please help me with this all week as I know it will be a really hard one to write and talk about.  Dear Lord, I pray today for Pope Benedict and ask that you would restore his health to as new.  And be with the Catholic Church officials as they elect a new leader of their church.  Please comfort all of our Catholic brothers and sisters as they stand with their leaders.  Dear Lord, I want to take this time to pray for all churches that they would put You ahead of all else.  So many seem to have forgotten who is in charge of the Church.  Please help me to remember always that You are indeed in control and in charge of Carry The Light Ministries and help us to never forget it, not even for a second.  Please be with our president and other leaders this day and keep them safe.  Please, Lord, I pray that they would always run the peoples' business before You, before it goes before the people.  Lord, be with our veterans and our current military and our police, state and local, please help them flush out the officer on the West coast who is shooting other police.  Please, Lord, please bring peace on this earth, please, Lord, please consider returning soon, and until that time, Lord, help us to keep working for You in all we do.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

Now go forth this day and share your blessings, and walk with God, as I am sure He wants you walking with Him.

Love ya, Pastor Dan.