Dear Father in Heaven, creator of all things and maker of man, I love You and give You all honor and glory for this beautiful day here in Central Pennsylvania. Dear Lord, please give me strength to go through this day, walking each and every step with You. Please strengthen all on this line today. Make them stronger than they might have been just yesterday. Give us additional wisdom and understanding as You open Your Word to us this day. In the name of Jesus, I give thanks for all things and ask again this day to give me knowledge and strength to stay with You and stay away from all things evil. In Jesus' name, I pray for the president today praying he will come to You and bring his cabinet and family along with him. Thanks for a wonderful day yesterday. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Good Morning from the Southern Location of the North Pole where it is sunny and cool, okay, cold. But look at this day as a blessing, for on this date in the year 1993 we had one of the worst blizzards since Diary Queen. We had nearly two feet of snow and then God turned on the fan. When the storm hit every school on the East Coast was closed. (The storm hit on a Saturday.) Most schools in our area were closed the best part of the next week. The snow storm was so bad in our area that the last pile of snow on our driveway just melted in yesterday's rain. Okay, time to get serious and get to the message. It is a blessed day here at our home, and each day we are on the green side of the grass is a blessing. Let's get to the message on Strength.
Wednesday: Strength 3/13/13 Day Three.
Proverbs 24:5 - A wise man has great power, and a man of knowledge increases strength. (NIV)
Psalm 118:14 - The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. (NIV)
Isaiah 12:2 - Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, as you know by now, my parents were both school teachers. As I think aback on them this day, like I do many days now that I am getting older ... My mamma taught second grade and my daddy was a junior/senior high school math teacher. You know in junior/senior high school we had what we call "health and physical education (gym) teachers" and those gym teachers would teach us how to stay in shape so to speak and get strong by tossing a ball called a medicine ball and catching it. It was soft but real heavy. We also lifted some weights and ran a lot. All of these things were to build up our strength. Now after many years I have found in the Bible that my parents teaching what they taught gave me and those they taught more strength. For as the Bible tells us, and it is in the scripture I have written today, Proverbs 24:5, "knowledge increases strength!"
In teaching second grade and before that my mamma taught in a private school and taught kindergarten. She would teach children the basics, like how to get along with other children, how to respect your elders. She taught kids how to count, she got them started in reading and how to respect others. Elementary school teachers who really did their job were special back then and still are today. Of course as we learned those basics as we grew other teachers like my daddy taught us things like how to count,how to figure. While my mamma taught us that 2 plus 2 was four, my daddy taught us how to figure square feet and cubic feet, and also what you would get if you added A plus B to get the X factor. I still do not understand that. I mean I am a car nut, so if I added A plus A plus A I had an Automobile Club (AAA). If you added G and M and B you got Phil Enloe's car, an MGB (stop it, Dan).
What I am saying in my roundabout way is the smarter one gets in knowledge and studies like kids should be learning in school, the stronger they get. Your knowledge increase your strength. I want to give you an example of this. At one time I had a strong back, strong arms and legs, and they did a lot of lifting for me, but now, because they are no longer strong, my brain must lift things. My knowledge lifts things. I have found that for most things, you never need to lift more than half of it at a time. I have learned to work off of pivot points. I have also found out one very, very important thing.
I have strength in the Lord, and I really do. There are many times I have started out to do things and just could not get them done. I could not make something work or I could not lift something. Then I would stop and have a one-on-one, heart-to-heart talk with my Lord Jesus saying something like this. And I invite all of you to try this.
Dear Jesus, this morning I started this job and did not ask You for help. I am sorry, I should have talked to You ahead of time. Now, Lord, I am stuck, I have this job started and I do not have the strength to lift this thing and finish the project. I cannot figure it out and I need You. Will You please help me with it? I will wait upon You, Lord. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.
Then, brothers and sisters, I do wait upon Him, I wait until He talks to me about it, and sometimes it means waiting for help or putting the job away for another day. Other times He gives me fresh ideas on doing pivot points or gripping something. Still other times He has given me extra strength in my weak and tired old body to lift something. I can remember one day a van driver at the school district got out of his school van to move his private car, thus swapping parking spots. This man did this day after day after day. On this day he got out of the van but it did not go into park, it went into reverse. When he stepped down, the van ran over his foot and ankle and stopped on his leg. He was screaming in pain and asked me to just get in the van and drive it off of him. I reached in and put it in park and yelled for folks to call 911 and for a mechanic to bring a big jack. In the meantime, two of us took hold of the front bumper and tried to lift the van off of the man. We could not lift the front corner of the van, it was a full-sized van with a big V8. I called out to God in a loud voice, "Lord, please give us the strength to lift this van." And God answered the call, up came the van and another person pulled the man from under the wheel. I then called out again for all to hear, "THANK YOU, JESUS."
So dear brothers and sisters, remember that you are never too old to learn, I pray often that God will open things up to me so I can read and understand. I do great in math and working with figures, but when reading, I can do okay with the newspaper and God sure has made the Bible open up to me, but I still do not read and understand much better than a third or fourth grader. I have never read a complete book, except some comic books. And I confess that I even struggle with the Old Testament of the Bible and cannot pronounce most of the names in the Bible, but I have learned how to call on the name of Jesus. And right now, I want to call upon Him for all of you who might be like me, struggling to read and understand. So you who have those problems, join me in prayer, and others, please, pray for those like me. Thanks.
Dear Father in Heaven, please open my brain to receive more knowledge, both that from the Bible and maybe some god Bible help books. Lord, open the brains of others like me, and Lord, for those who can read well but struggle with numbers, open that to them. I guess, dear Lord, what I am really asking of You this day is to increase our strength by increasing our knowledge and also our wisdom and understanding. Thanking You in advance, dear Lord, I pray in the name of my Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now go forth, and those wanting help with numbers, try counting your blessings and sharing them. For us who need to learn to read better, help us also count our other blessings, for we have many and help us to share them also. Now go forth knowing Jesus loves you and I love ya also (pass it on.)
Pastor Dan.
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