Wednesday 2/20/13 Love (3)

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters.  It is a cold and windy morning here at the Southern Location of the North Pole.  When driving, be alert for flying trash cans!  Thanks for all who responded about the picture of our new food pantry trailer.  All glory and honor goes to God.  Tomorrow bout noon it will be anointed with oil and dedicated to do the Lord's work.  It sort of reminds me of a day back in the mid eighties when Dolores and I mounted our Honda Goldwing and followed a tour bus down to Nashville.  On board the bus was Duane Nicholson and a group called The Brotherhood.  That is where we met Doug Boyer and Tim Beitzel.  Yes, all on the bus were together, Dolores and I purchased seats for the touro but left them sell those seats again as we chose to follow on our bike.  What a trip.  On the way home, the charter bus stopped at a truck stop for a food and potty break (always a welcome thing on a bike) and when we came out of the truck stop all gathered around the motorcycle and hands were laid all over the bike and trailer as it was dedicated to do the Lord's work and anointed with oil.  You should have seen people looking.  Brothers and sisters, please do not be afraid to dedicate things to the Lord, and a really good place to start is, are you ready for this?  Start with yourself, and then start dedicating your family and your stuff to the Lord.  I remember one time when we purchased a new motorcycle getting out the anointing oil and putting a cross over the windshield.  When the saleslady walked out and saw it, she said, "wait, something happened on that windshield, I will get someone to clean it."  I stopped her and told her what we had done as we had already dedicated the bike (a Harley) to the Lord.  We don't ride anymore, but the first bike we had is in the garage.  More than likely we will give it to a museum!  Like us, it is an antique!!

Please pray again today for our firefighters, also pray for Bob Everhard as he readies for heart surgery, Cindy Barr who has had lots of problems since a botched operation at a local hospital.  A simple test gone bad.  Pray also today for Dolores as she found out yesterday that she needs cataract surgery in both eyes.  I was told I did  not need a guide dog yet.  Let me get to my message on Love.

Psalm 118:1 - Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.  (NIV)

Psalm 118:4 - Let those who fear the Lord say; His love endures forever. (NIV)

1 John 3:11 - This is the message you heard from the beginning; We should love one another. (NIV)

And they call it puppy love.  The words from a song, my dear brothers and sisters, the words from a song.  When I was but a child, back when the dead sea was still sick, I had this thing called puppy love.  I can remember even back in elementary school where I had this puppy love thing on girls.  Yes, I walked some home and once in awhile my mind goes back to one or two of them.  Puppy love, it was called.  But guess what, folks?  My real puppy love was, are you ready for this?  Puppies, yes, dogs, and you know, I still love  puppies and older dogs also.  Maybe because I am an older dog!!  Thinking of being with my eye care professionals yesterday it got me thinking of  one thing I would like to do in life.  Yes, I want to borrow a "seeing eye dog" and a "white tipped cane", or is it a white cane with a red tip?  I want to borrow those, walk up a street using the cane and dog, then coming to my car, open the door, put the dog in, and get in behind the wheel and drive away.  I just love to joke and have fun.  I really do and always did.  But one thing over the years, after I came back to my Lord Jesus Christ and took Him into my heart I do not joke about is my love for Him.  Now I really do think we can have fun in all we do after we fall in love with Jesus, as long as we do not hurt others doing so.  As you all know I am ready to hear good (clean jokes and love to tell them.

To this day, I love animals, all kinds of animals.  Dolores and I h ave dogs and cats, goats, and even a pet chicken.  Our goats are as spoiled as our dogs and cats.  Even our chicken is spoiled as right now she is in the house so she does not get cold (no, she is not running loose).  Now I brought up this love of animals for a real reason.  Have you noticed how your animals love you?  Unless you train them to be mean or someone teased them, their love is unconditional.  You can scold them for doing something wrong, put them in a cage for awhile and scold them some more.  Then you go out for a few hours and when you come home they welcome you back home and jump up and down.  Wow, this sounds like I need to get out another scripture other than the ones above.  But first, let's work on them.

Psalm 118:1 - Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.

The Bible tells us that God's love for us endures forever.  Forever, folks, and that's a long, long time.  It means He loves us from the time we were but a twinkle in our parents' eyes, yes, before we entered the womb, and He loves us until the day He welcomes us home.  Even if we have wandered away, He welcomes us back.  We do need to come to Him with our love for Him, if we want to be with Him in Heaven.  Yes, there are some rules.  We will talk about them on another day.  The Bible also tells us this ...

Psalm 118:4 - Let those who fear the Lord say; His love endures forever.

Take a look at this, folks, we need to "fear the Lord."  I have told some people that and they have said we should not fear the Lord.  Folks, it is reverent fear, and we should fear the Lord for we should be fearing what might happen to us, if we do not take on Jesus as our Savior.  We will also talk about rearing the Lord in the future.

Luke 15:20 - "So he got up and went to his father.  'But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.'"  (NIV)

I talked above about how our dogs and other animals have this deep love for us and while we are gone, they wait for us to return.  They jump up on us and kiss us.  Do you notice the scripture above about the "lost or prodigal son?"  This is one of the great parables of Jesus.  This is Jesus telling us how He welcomes back those of us, and yes, I was one of them, those of us who were lost.

Were you ever lost and had to find your way home?  They say men will not stop and ask for directions.  Let me tell you, when you are lost, don't get out that thing, what is it, a GPS?  Don't get out the old road map.  GET OUT THE BIBLE.  In this wonderful book you can find out how to get home, and brothers and sisters, it is all about LOVE.  let's pray.

Dear Father in Heaven, I give thanks that over the years I have found my way back home to You, I thank all the helpers along the way, Lord, too many to name.  Lord, I do remember a lot of them, so many.  Now, Lord, I pray that You use us, not just me, but us, those in our ministry team, those on this line, those in churches, or ever those working at their office, use us all to show people the way back to You, or how to get to You in the first place.  Help us do this this day and not put it off.  Lord, look over our prayer requests and honor them according to Your will for us.  In the name of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings.

Love ya, Pastor Dan.