Monday 3/25/2013 Easter Week

Dear Father in Heaven:  Thanks for the great Sunday.  Thanks for trusting Dolores and me to serve You at The Bridges and thanks for keeping that door open for us to carry Your word to our seniors.  Lord, thanks for a great meal with our dear, dear friends Grant and Wanda and their family.  Lord, thanks for Your healing hand on Ruth Kessler and also Mary Kessler.  Lord, I pray today for Helen Thomas as she has surgery this week.  Please, Lord,  heal  her.  Dear Lord, thanks for protecting this line, and please, dear Lord, help me with the messages this very busy week.  Have Your hand upon us so we can get the work done for You.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, it is going to be a very busy week for we in Carry The Light Ministries.  One thing I do want to alert you on.  On Thursday we are going to  have "online Communion."  So maybe you can plan to pack some grape juice and some bread in your lunch that day.  I will try and get the message out early so maybe you can even have this communion with breakfast or before breakfast.

On Good Friday, Carry The Light Ministries will have a concert at The Bridges.  The concert is at 2:00 PM and you are welcome.  This will be our 20th annual Good Friday concert, all done for seniors at retirement homes.  ALL HONOR AND GLORY TO GOD.  Let me get started with the message.

Easter Week 3/25/2013:  The Authority of Jesus Questioned  (From Luke 20:1/8).

Luke 20:1 - One day as he was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to Him.  2 "Tell us by what authority You are doing these things."  They said, "Who gave you this authority?"  3 He replied, "I will also ask you a question.  Tell me, 4 John's baptism, was it from heaven or from men?" -------------- 7 So they answered, "We don't know where it was from."  8 Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."  (NIV)

Here we find the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders trying to discredit our Lord Jesus by asking Him these questions.  Of course we know by whose authority Jesus was doing this teaching, it was by the authority of His Father, our Father in Heaven.  As we take a look back to John The Baptist, who is six m months older than Jesus (Luke 1:26/36) and was sent as the forerunner for our Lord Jesus, He of course was also acting under the authority of Our Father in Heaven.  We remember how John baptized Jesus and how God The Father said from Heaven "You are my Son, whom i love; with You I am well pleased."  (Luke 3:21/22).

Now brothers and sisters, we need to get out into the Fields of Harvest and be telling the Good News of Jesus, and if someone asks us, asks you or me, under whose authority you are doing this, you need to tell them, "Under the authority of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior."  Now of course I am going to give you scripture on this for as I have told you before, all of us who work for our good Lord need to be able to back what we say with scripture.  By the way, this scripture that I am going to give you on this authority is also the scripture where we took our ministry name, "Carry  The Light Ministries."

Mark 16:15 - He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation."  (NIV)

So you ask, how did we get Carry The Light out of this?  Remember, Jesus is the Light of the World, and we Carry The "Light".  This scripture gives us the authority and there are others of course.  You can also find this in Matthew 28:16/end.  This scripture is referred to as The Great Commission and if my memory serves me right, "The Couriers" business name was/is The Great Commission.  I will find that out for sure this week.  Anyway, as I wrap up this Monday message I want to give you these words as quoted to Jesus.

Matthew 28:18 - Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and The Son and The Holy Spirit. j 20 And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age."  (NIV)

So there, brothers and sisters, you can read for yourself that "ALL" authority in heaven and on earth was given to Jesus.  Please note it was not some authority, or just authority in churches, Jesus was given all authority.  Then Jesus commanded us to go.  Notice here He did not say please go, or if you have time go, Jesus said GO.  And my dear brothers and sisters, we are to be teaching people to obey everything Jesus has commanded.  SO FIRST ... Before we go into those fields, we need to teach the teacher, so address yourself and I am going to address myself over and over again to be sure when I go out working for Jesus I am ready.  Jesus Christ our Lord and the one who died for us has trusted us to work for Him.  Let's get it done and get it done right, for folks, each day is nearer to the "End of the Age."

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for trusting me to work for You, I am unworthy, but very willing and I want to work for You daily until You call me home.  I need Your help in doing this, and we need Your blessings on our ministry and the ministry team.  So we thank You for each day we serve You.  All honor and glory to You, dear Lord, I pray we get it done right, and with Your help and if we listen, we will make a really good go at it.  I love You, Jesus, and pray in Your name.  Amen.

Now go forth, my dear brothers and sisters, and please think about the events of this Holy Week, and please share your blessings with others.  I was asked this question today ... Some people say Easter is the most Holy of the Christian Holidays.  Why?  They were talking Easter and Christmas.  I told them, we could not have Easter without the Birth, and we could not have Easter without the events of Good Friday.  I said do not dwell on which is most important, dwell on Jesus who was indeed "Born to Die, so We can Live."  Got to run, Love Ya.  (Pass it on.)

Pastor Dan.