Monday 7/29/13 Trials & Temptations

Dear Father in Heaven:  Thanks for a great and wonderful weekend.  Thanks for a great Sunday service at The Bridges, and Lord, thanks for the rain You sent our way.  Lord, Your healing hand is needed in the Gardens Section of The Bridges and I give You all honor and glory for being there even ahead of this request.  Lord, be with Eleanor Saylor as she might be needing surgery, and be with Bob Coburn as he also heads for surgery.  Please, Lord, cover his cancer.  Heal him as You did me, dear Lord.  We still are praying for those who were raised up to love You and have drifted.  Please guide them back and protect them as they drift.  Lord, please be with our veterans, our military, our police, firefighters, and all who work to keep us safe and healthy.  Thanks again, Lord, for all that You do.  Now, Lord, please help me with the message of today and then dispatch it for me.  In the name of Jesus I pray.  Amen.

Good Monday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters.  I pray your weekend was as wonderful as ours.   Please pray today for Eleanor Saylor and Bob Coburn, both of whom are heading for surgery.  Please also pray for our veterans, our current military, our police, firefighters, and all who work to keep us safe and healthy. Also pray for our President and for him to come to Jesus.

We are looking for a few able-bodied people to come to our food pantry on a Saturday from about 9 AM to non to help us clean out some things as we need more space.  We would be removing a lot of our stored personal things to give us more shelf space.  Also a crew who might want to bring boots and help clean out the goat pen.  I promise we will have you done by noon, then we will cook some hamburgers and hotdogs.  One other update from our ministry camp.  All of our buses are now gone.  Many were donated and some were sold with our big Eagle going down the road on Friday.  One bus that was sold went to the Netherlands, one bus sold furnished the money for a new ministry food trailer as the old one was rusting out.  Our food pantry is growing, folks, more families coming, and as you know we like to give them a lot of  food in the name of Jesus, to whom we give all honor and glory.  God is good, so very, very good.

Coming tomorrow, HOW SAFE IS YOUR CHURCH BUS?  Now to the message.

James 1:2 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  4  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  (NIV)

Let's first take a look at the word "perseverance."  To have perseverance is to stay the course, and in this case we are talking about staying the course in our faith, our faith in Jesus Christ, our faith in the Written Word we find in our Bibles.  The Bible tells us that we are to consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds.  And while the Bible is talking of many trials, some of those trials might be coming out of courts and courtrooms and the results affect us, even though we have not had a chance to even be involved in the trial or hearing on the subject.  Now you might ask, Pastor Dan, what are you talking about?  Well, folks, some of those trials over the years are when our courts have made decisions to "take Bible reading out of our schools," "take prayer out of our schools."  In other words try and put Jesus out of our schools.  We see it all the time and we must deal with these trials and we need to work around them.  One of the biggest things that have hurt us all is abortion laws, the killing of our children.  Now how do we deal with it, how can we build up perseverance in our faith when these things happen?  Well, here is a start, school will be opening in about four weeks.  When you pass a school in your travels, pull onto the parking lot and pray for the school.  Drive slowly around the school  and pray over it.  Pray for teachers and all others that work there, pray for the kids, and pray that they come to Jesus, pray that kids bring Jesus into the school (do that with your eyes open, please).  Brothers and sisters, we have a lot, a high number, of good Christian teachers, followers of Jesus, teaching in our public schools.  Pray their hands are untied and that they find a way to wear Jesus on their faces and in the way they handle children.  Brothers and sisters, the only way that the non-believers and courts can kick Jesus out of our schools and other places is if we give in.

Our faith will be tested in other ways, and I talked about a lot of them last week when I talked about "The Thorn" and testing of our faith is a good thing, for it builds perseverance.  Brothers and sisters, believe it or not, our faith is tested nearly every day in some way or shape or form.  I want you to think about this, really think about it and pray about it.  Is there anything that might happen where you would give away or give up your faith in Jesus?  Please, folks, dig in, for the Bible tells us in the days ahead we will be really tested.  More on that tomorrow and later this week.  We need to dig in to Jesus and we need to tell others.  We must fight the good fight and in the end, yes, in the end, we will win.

Now go forth and share your blessings.  Love ya.  Pass it on.

Pastor Dan

Pastor Dan's Safety Tip:  How long has it been since you checked your oil?  I just heard of a person who knew his oil was low, and he drove his car anyway and the motor blew.  So for the lack of getting a couple of quarters of oil, a motor is now needed.  BESIDE THAT, when the motor went, it could have gone where it would have caused an accident.  Check under the hood.  If you don't know how, CALL US AND SET AN APPOINTMENT TO BRING YOUR CAR TO CARRY THE LIGHT MINISTRIES WHERE WE WILL CHECK YOUR TIRES, CHECK YOUR OIL AND EVEN ADD THESE THINGS.  YES, A NEW PART OF OUR MINISTRY ... and you are the first to know about it as God just now gave it to me.

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