Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for all You do for all of us. Lord, forgive us when we slip and fall, and please, Lord, help us to stand again, and again walk in Your light. Please, Lord, guide us through this coming week, watching over Your children as they travel, work, search for work, vacation, and please, Lord, keep Your children safe world-wide. Again I pray for peace in the streets of the United States and other countries world-wide. Now, Lord, s I seek out a message for this week, I need Your help as always as I just cannot do this on my own. Send me a message each day as You so faithfully have. Help me write it and then help me dispatch it. All glory and honor to You this and everyday, in the name of Jesus I pray and give thanks. Amen.
Good Morning, dear brothers and sisters. It is a beautiful evening here at the Southern Location of the North Pole, as I started the message on Sunday evening. The safety tip is being relocated to a P.S., after the closing. I have no new prayer requests in so far this week, so let me just get started on the message. Please pray for me as I write messages each day. I sure would appreciate it.
July 22, 2013, The Thorn (Day One).
2 Corinthians 12:7 - To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, have you ever said or just thought, well there it is, another thorn in my side, another big old thorn? Now I am not talking about a thorn-like thing stuck in you from, say, a locust tree you were cleaning up in the yard. When I look back to my childhood (altogether now, back when the streets were still dirt) and it happened between first and third grades because it happened on my way home from Melrose School on Derry Street in Harrisburg, PA. Running and playing along the way with my buddy "Billy" when I fell and right on a "thorn" which lodged just below my right knee cap. I can remember how it hurt, and my parents wanted to pull it out, but I would not let them. I left it there until they started to tell me that that leg would not grow, and one leg would be shorter than the other. So I left them "dig" it out and then they cleaned it out, and my leg healed. Well, since then I have had a lot of "thorns" in me, a lot of them, but not the splinter type. So as we start the message, let's take a look at the scriptures.
The Bible tells us that Paul is the author of Corinthians, so it is Paul telling about his thorn. While we make the statement about someone being a thorn in our side, and I had a thorn in my knee, Paul just talks about a "thorn in his flesh." Paul refers to the thorn as a messenger of Satan and it was sent to torment him. Paul also said it was given to him to keep him from becoming conceited.
Have you ever had things going so well that you were bragging about it, really telling it and NOT giving the glory over to God for it? I mean I know people who have dislocated their shoulder trying to pat themselves on the back, and you know I was a braggart years ago and did not give glory to God for all things. Now dislocated their shoulder is just my figure of speech for someone who boasted about each and everything they did. Brothers and sisters, thee are times when God does set us down and even puts a stop to what we are doing and the reason might be the sins we are doing. There are other times when Satan comes after us and God will let him get to us. I want you to think about some things today as I get ready to close for today. Have you carried pain and prayed for God to take it away? We know that God does heal, and of course it is in His time and according to His will for us. How do we know He heals? It is in the Bible, and I can tell you that I have had that healing already.
The Bible tells us in Corinthians 12:8, Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
That again is Paul pleading with God. So after these prayers for his thorn to be taken away, what happened? What really happened? Well, how about coming back tomorrow to see what our Lord Jesus told him and why?
Now, my dear brothers and sisters, please go forth sharing your blessings, and if you have a thorn in your flesh, hurting in your body, look over your life to see why and join me tomorrow for some answers to why this might be going on. Share those blessings now, and remember the Safety Tip comes after this. Love ya. Pass it on.
Pastor Dan. (Happy Birthday, Noah)
Pastor Dan's Safety Tip: You need a safe following distance, but you also need to be aware of the vehicles that are around you and behind you. So please put down the toys when you drive and watch your driving. Set the mirrors before you pull out of your parking spot. And ladies, the center mirror is not a mirror for putting on makeup. Remember, accidents just do not happen, they are caused. That is right,they are caused. That's it, be blessed, and again, I love you ... Pastor Dan
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