Wednesday 5/15/13 Christians' Responsibilities

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another beautiful day, and Father, thanks for taking good care of Dolores this day with her eye surgery.  Thanks to You, all is well and all honor and glory to you, dear Father.  Thanks again for all You do for us.  Lord, we are back to Wednesday being what we call Salvation Wednesday on this line, so please, dear Lord, clean up all of us who are Born Again, and please supply us with the tools we need to get into the fields of Harvest and bring i the lost for You.  Dear Lord, please be with the Kessler family and Lord, please help me tomorrow as I honor the family request to pastor the memorial service for their loved one, Ruth.  Thanks for watching over this line and now, Lord, please help me with the message of today.  I pray I do it right for You and that some folks take time to read it.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Praise Report, Praise Report. Dolores had her cataract surgery on her right eye this morning and the doctor said all went well.  Tomorrow morning she goes to his office for a check-up.  Two weeks from today, the left eye gets the same surgery.  It is a beautiful afternoon here at the Southern Location of the North Pole after a nice noon-time shower.  Brothers and sisters, remember, we have gone back to our mid-week salvation day.  Back to Salvation Wednesday, and why?  I just feel we need reminded each week, at mid-week, that our number one job working for Jesus is to bring in the lost so they can be saved.  I am counting on pastors working Salvation Messages into their sermons on Sundays.  Please pray for baby boy Sebastian, who arrived a month early.  For those who were here helping at our Easter Food Distribution, this would be the baby I anointed with oil before he was born.  Please pray for his mother also; she is very young and she is single.  They need our prayers, brothers and sisters.  Okay, now it is time to get back to my message on Christians' Responsibilities.

Wednesday 5/15/13 - Christians' Responsibilities, Day Three.

Romans 12:9 - Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  14 Share with God's people who are in need.  Practice hospitality.  (NIV)

Once again I want to look deeper into our responsibilities as Christians.  I do believe that there are Christians who think that you just ask Jesus to come into your heart and that is it.  Salvation is free, but it was/is not cheap as Jesus gave His life for our Salvation.  And while I am not judging, there are people who are called Christians who might act like it just one or two hours per week and the rest of the week live on the fence or the "other side", meaning the side of evil.  I also notice that a lot of times the news will refer to some folks as Christians, when that person might not be living that life.  In other words, in some circles people become a Christian by default.  To be a real, a really true Christian, you must be a follower of Jesus.  There are some rules for us being a Christian, and while we cannot work our way into heaven, the Bible is also very clear that our faith without works is dead.  So as "Born Again, Washed in The Blood, Followers of Jesus" we do have some, well more than some, we have a lot of responsibilities.  I have written about some of them for the past two days.  Here are a few more ... Again I am going to Romans 12.

Of all the gifts that God has given unto us, Love is the greatest gift of all.  Romans 12:9 tells us "Love must be sincere."  Love must be sincere.  Brothers and sisters, Love is spelled L O V E, not S E X.  And folks, those terms are often confused, mixed up. Many a young male has said to his young girlfriend, "prove your love to me."  Now how would I know that?  Well, back when the streets were dirt, I was a young male.  The Bible tells us that we are to hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Now I must tell you and it will come out in a day or two, we are to "hate what is evil."  It does not say we are to hate the person who commits the evil.  In other words, we are to "love the sinner, but hate the sin."  I hope that makes it clear.  Now you know how much I hate abortion, well, folks, the doctor who murdered those babies in Philly will spend the rest of his years in jail.  While I hate what he has done, it would be easy for me to hate him, but our Lord tells us we cannot do that.

Being a real Christian, a real follower of Jesus is not always easy.  However, it is always rewarding, and I am having much more fun now than I ever did before I fell deeply in love with Jesus.

Romans 12:10 - Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.

We are to love one another in brotherly love and brotherly means also sisterly.  And we are to honor one another, and folks, we are to honor our brother or sister above ourselves.  I am secure in the Lord and therefore I have no problem putting my arms around another person, male or female, and telling them I love them.  Hugging a person of the same sex and telling them you love them does not make you gay.  What it means is you love the Lord and you are just following Jesus as instructed to do in the Bible.  The Bible tells us we are to be excited about being a Christian, we are to be joyful in our hope and our walk with the Lord.  The Bible also tells us to be patient in affliction.  So folks, if you are one who is complaining all the time because you have some problems with your health, write this again.  Be Patient in Affliction, and remember just how much Jesus did for us on the cross and how much He is still doing today for each of us.  The Bible tells us to be faithful in prayer.  And while that does not mean we need to be praying 24/7 or standing on street corners praying, we are to be faithful.  There was a time when I would tell someone "I will pray for you" and then walk away to pray for them later, if indeed I wold remember to do it.  Now when I talk about praying for someone, I will take their hand and pray for them right on the spot, and I am not ashamed to do that, be it in the food store, on the parking lot, in a hospital, wherever.  I think that is just one way you can be faithful in prayer.  There are more, of course.

Also from Romans 12:  Share with God's people who are in need.  Practice hospitality.  Now I know this man who closes his message each day by saying Share your blessings.  And each one of us has blessings they can share, even the poorest of the poor.  For one thing, we all have is God's Love and we can always share that.  Oh, that's right, we are commanded to do that one.  Also, remember people have different needs. Not all need food, or clothes, tomorrow we will talk about some who might have some different needs.

Okay, enough for today ...

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for the message, and please protect the computer from being sick ... In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Now go forth and share those blessings.  Tomorrow more on Christians' Responsibilities.  Love ya.  Pass it on.

Pastor Dan