Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another great day. Thanks, Father, for taking care of Ruth Kessler, and thanks for giving her total healing. Please be with her family as they take time to celebrate and also grieve in the home-going of this loved one. Please, Lord, watch over Barbara, two of them, Lord, and please heal Dick Mowery and watch over his family. Be with Patsy and Burt Emig and watch over them. Lord, take good care of the Saylor family. And Lord, be with Sally and Dave, watching over them. Thanks for Your support, Lord, of our Ministry and the food pantry, and Lord, help us to bring in more food and also locate those who really need food to get by. Lord, tomorrow Dolores has surgery on her eye, please be with her and restore her vision so that she can see the music better. Dear Father, have I told you lately that I really love You? Lord, I am sorry if I forget, but I do love You very, very much. Thanks for watching over this line and thanks for watching over me, and now, dear Lord, please bless me with a message to write and protect this machine as I write and send the message. Again, Lord, all praise and honor to You for all things good. I love You. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, please mark the date and time for the Carry The Light Ministries annual picnic. This will be on the first Saturday in July. That would be Saturday, July 6, 2013. Plan to arrive by 11:00 AM to hear some good gospel music and a lot of old hymns. At noon we will break for lunch, and so far old chef Santa has made BBQ and it is really great. Also made is turkey corn soup. Also we will be having beef/lamb veggie soup. Plus hotdogs with or without sauerkraut. There will be things to drink, but n o alcohol. We will also have lots of desserts. After eating, the music comes back on. So who is singing? Well, I could give you a hint,but I am going to hold awhile on this one. Our ministry team will be hee and hopefully all of our families. Also our flock from The Bridges, and those who support the food pantry and other outreaches of Carry The Light Ministries. Last year it was hot, but remember we are along the creek. We also precook things so thee is no smoky grill going. Come and have some fun and eat, and it is all free. And I would love seeing you.
Dear brothers and sisters, when the alarm went off this morning, I decided to throw out the old clock. No real reason other than I wanted to really see, are you ready for this? Are you really sure? Here goes. I decided to throw the clock because I really wanted to watch "time fly." Stop it Dan, stop it. Okay, please, folks, pray for my wife Dolores. Tomorrow she has eye surgery to remove a cataract, also this morning she fell. While she was so blessed not to be hurt, we are not sure why she fell. One minute she was standing, the next minute she had fallen backward and landed on the floor. Also please pray for me on Thursday as I pastor a memorial service for Ruth Kessler. Okay, day two for Christians' Responsibilities.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - Christians' Responsibilities, Day Two.
Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given me I say to every one of you; Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach. 8 If it is encouraging, let him encourage, if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently, if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (NIV)
Yes, Christians' Responsibilities, and brothers and sisters, we have a lot of them. God The Father, when He created the heavens and the earth, He did it with us in/on His mind. Think about it, He gave us air and water and trees with fruit and plants that you can eat from and also some where you eat the roots. I mean before He ever made man, He put everything in place that we would ever need. He also trusted us to work it properly for Him. So He put man on earth, making us from dirt. (This is the reason all men have "ring around the collar".) Then God took a rib from man and made a woman, and God sure did make them pretty! And all the men on the line said, "Thank You, Father, Thank You." In fact, one day a man was walking in the woods and talking to God. I went like this. God, may I ask You some questions? Yes, my son, God answered. You made everything,right? Yes, my son! You made woman, right, Father? Yes, son, you know that. Well, Lord, why did You make them smell so good? Well, son, I did that so you would love them. Okay, Father, why did You make them so shapely? Son, I did that so you would love them. Okay, Father, just a couple more. Why did you make them so pretty, so very pretty? I did that also so that yo would love them. Okay, God, just one more. Hee, hee, Lord, why did you make them so dumb? Son, I did that so they would love you! Ladies, you are pretty and you smell good and you are shapely, and for sure you ARE NOT DUMB. Anyway, I wanted to clear the air on that one.
Okay, back to our responsibilities as Christians. You notice that we people, like animals, we have many parts. I mean, God really made us a work of art, He really did. He could have put us on strings, but He did not do that, He gave us a brain, and that controls what we do. While I confess that we men do not always engage that brain before we start doing things, He did give us one. In fact before we start doing things we should be praying about it. Then He gave us many parts and to get things done and done right, we need to be working all of our God-given parts. And we need to be thankful for all those parts and thank God daily for them. We also need to thank God for our military, our police, and others who have given parts of their bodies in battle just for helping others. But let me talk about the brain and how we need to be using it as we look at many things. I want to just talk a few more minutes today about how we need to be using them in our responsibilities as Christians. Let us look at the Church of Jesus Christ, and I am talking about Jesus here and not a building with a name over the door. In any Church that claims to be a Christian Church, they need to get together with their members and take a good deep look into what might be going on at the church, and now I am talking about the building that we call a church. And with that let's look at just some of the gifts that God has given us. Just some of those we covered today.
Leadership: If you have been given the gift of leadership from God, you need to according to the Bible govern diligently. While in a lot of churches the pastor becomes the church leader, and while it would be nice to think that is good, it is not always good. Let's face it, not all pastors are good business leaders, and churches do need to have those type of leaders. So in a church the leadership might be spread to more than one person. Examples, a good adult leader might not be a really good teen leader, and a good teen leader might not be able to handle other adults. Leaders that are good with teaching might be head of the Sunday School. Let's face it, some people do have more than one gift from God. Some pastors make excellent pastors but might not make good preachers or teachers. Think about that one, folks. Pastors' first gift should be someone who is loving and kind and try their very best to help all people. Some preachers and teachers, and again I am talking church here, do a great job of getting the word across while preaching or teaching but might not be the one to sit down to comfort people in tough times. And folks, we have ladies who are great teachers, do not think that in Sunday School or a church setting the only thing they can do is the church socials.
One thing I really want to point out, ABOVE ALL, the gifts that God has lent to us, and yes, I said lent because he might recall those gifts ... We all as Christians need to work those gifts for the good of the Lord. Hear me on this, even if the gift you received from God is fixing cars, then find a way to do it for the Lord. If you make your living fixing cars and trucks, you are in a good spot to help the needy. Not all have talents or gifts to play the piano or the drums, or lead worship services, but those people might be the ones who can do landscaping and make that building look really inviting. I mean God gave us lots of plants that flower and look nice together, but not all can fix them really pretty. Now let me just say it again. Whatever the gifts might be, it does not make a difference, what you need to do is work the gifts for the Lord. With your God furnished gift, you might just be the one who will lead some of the lost to the Lord to be saved. And brothers and sisters, that is the biggest of the Responsibilities of Christians, to lead people to Christ to be saved. Amen!!
One thing for sure, folks, all have been given gifts, and we all need to share those gifts. And remember, the more you give in faith, the more you get back. And you can test the Lord on that one. Share those blessings, brothers and sisters, and love others, and you can for sure pass that on.
Love ya, Pastor Dan
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