Friday 4/12/13 Pick A Side 3

Dear Father in Heaven, thank You so much for another good day.  Thanks for the rain this morning, and thanks for watching over all on this line and those who use it.  Thanks for watching over those on our prayer list and thanks for looking after our family and our ministry team and their families.  And dear Lord, thanks for watching over Marvin, and please keep Your healing hand upon him.  Dear Lord, thanks for trusting we in Carry The Light Ministries and those who support the Ministries to work for You.  Please help me now with the message.  In Jesus' name I give praise and send my prayers.  Amen.

Brothers and sisters, we had a nice rain here at the Southern Location of the North Pole.  Please keep praying for those we have been praying for and please keep our son Matthew in your prayers.  Matthew is still in the hospital and has been there since early November 2012.  Please keep praying for Curtis and also his parents.  Be with my friend Grant.  Also please keep praying for Marvin.  Vicki also needs prayers.  I have mentioned this before, and I want to be sure all of you are aware of this.  One of the ministries of Carry The Light is the food pantry.  Just so all of you know, if YOU NEED FOOD HELP, we will be here for you.  Just call at 717 691 8200.  We take no support from our government so we can not just feed the body, but we can also feed the soul.

Do any of you belong to the Gideons or know of anyone who does?  Carry The Light Ministries needs Bibles (new or gently used) to give to those coming for food that do not have Bibles.  The Gideons Bible is a very good Bible.  Okay, time to get to the message, Pick A Side.

Salvation Friday, 4/12/13: Pick A Side Day 3.

I keep thinking of Sterling's saying, "you win some and you lose some and the rest come out even," and the title of the messages this week which I called "Pick A Side."  When I look back to my days of pickup baseball at the "Luce Street" playground I think of how we picked sides.  Two guys, most often the best of those at the field, would pick the sides.  They would do this thing with a bat to see who was going to get first pick.  One thing for sure, no one could be on both sides, and in this case your side was picked for you.  I know I was not a good ball player, for I was most often picked last, or next to last.  As other kids would show up, one would go to one side and one to the other side.  Now how did this remind me of my message "Pick A Side"?  On the ball team you really could not pick the team you wanted on, you were picked in turn by those team captains.  I guess I should have been upset for neither team really wanted me.  But I loved to play.

Now let's talk about Heave and Hell.  Jesus, the leader of, and Satan heads up Hell.  Well, folks, it is different for me, for now, both want me.  Yes, for sure, my dear Jesus wants me to come to Him and get into Heaven.  The proof on that is Jesus died on the cross to give me a chance to give up my sinful ways and come to Him.  And we all know that Satan is wanting us all the time.  So we have a choice to make here, we must go to one side or the other, for if we just hang out in the middle we will got o Satan's side.

All of us for sure have done enough to get to Satan's side for we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  We are all sinners.  I gave those scriptures yesterday, but just let me remind you of them.

Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.  (NIV)

Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  (NIV)

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (NIV)

Now, let's get ready for Heaven.  And it is great to be really wanted by Jesus, and when I think that He died for me, I find that to be Amazing Grace.

While there are a lot of scriptures pointing us to Salvation through Jesus and lining us up to go to Heaven, here are but three of them.

John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him."  (NIV)

John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."  (NIV)

Acts 16:31 - They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.  (NIV)

Romans 10:9 - That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  (NIV)

Okay, time to pick, to pick a side.  Well, I sure hope and pray that you have done that a long time ago, and for sure if you have been on this line with me, I pray you have picked the Heaven side.  If you have been reading my messages for years and I have not got that to you yet, then I am failing in my work for Jesus.

Before we go to prayer to ask God to forgive us and to set us free of our sins, I want you to hear this again.  To be forgiven by our Lord Jesus, we must forgive those who have sinned against us (Lord's Prayer).

Also, if you say you love Jesus and yet you hate someone, then according to the Bible, you are a liar.  Read 1 John 4:7/21.  Okay, are you ready to confess your sins this day and either invite Jesus into your heart if you are a first-timer, of if you are a BORN AGAIN, then will you just renew and clean up those sins?  Remember, please, this is an "I" prayer, not a "we" prayer.  I can only lead you.

Dear Father in Heaven, please, Lord, clean me of my sins, I confess that I am a sinner and only can be saved by the blood of my dear Jesus.  Please, Father, I do believe that Jesus died for me on the cross and that He was risen from the dead.  I also want to work for You, Jesus, as our Bible tells us to.  Save me, Lord, in Jesus' name.  Amen.

Go forth now, and serve Jesus, walk in His light, and share those blessings.  Love ya.  Pass it on.

Pastor Dan