Tuesday 7/16/2013 Love 2

Dear Father in Heaven, thank You for another wonderful day, thanks for opening the door for me to pray at a football camp last evening, and Lord, thanks for those who will bring in food for the food drive.  Please, Lord, protect Your people from the heat.  Lord, I pray again for peace, peace between all Your children, all of us, Lord.  Please, Lord, stop the riots or whatever they are called this day.  Lord, please teach us all to love one another as Your word tells us.  Lord, please help me with the message today and then please dispatch it for me.  And Lord, please help me, Lord, to walk daily with You.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Pastor Dan's Safety Tip:  One way to have your car overheat is by having a "fan" belt beak on the road.  Now I know a lot of cars have electric fans now, but that belt still needs checked.  To do this, BE SURE THE CAR IS NOT RUNNING.  Open the hood, locate the belt or belts, turn them over and look for cracks.  Unless you know something about cars, this is a good one for your local mechanics to do for you.

Coming on Friday, Communion!  We have not done online communion for awhile.  It of course is open to all, so come to the message with your bread (The Body) and your juice (The Blood of Jesus).

Dear brothers and sisters.  I had a great time last night at the Red/Cedar Patriots Football camp.  I opened the camp with prayer and then we kicked off the food drive.  I asked Dr. Cox who heads up the football camp for some dollars from his pocket, he had a five dollar bill and handed it to me.  I held it up and told the folks that "Doc" just kicked off the food drive by paying for 10 boxes of mac and cheese.  They gave him a good cheer, and we gave the glory to God.  Pray that a lot of food comes in.  It is always great to get to pray in a big group.  And it is also great to see men and women who care enough to bring their children to camp, and it is also good to see parents and kids of different races being together and having fun as they have camp.  Let me get to the message about Love.

Tuesday July 16, 2013, Love, Day Two.

Matthew 5:43 - "You have head that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  44 But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven.  He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?  Do not even pagans do that?  48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  (NIV)

Let's start by singing Jesus Loves the Little Children.

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world."  Yes, do it again.

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world."  One more time.

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world."

Brothers and sisters, I have today's scripture in bold, but I felt it necessary to repeat yesterday's scripture so that this message ties together.  I started writing on this, this week as I felt called by God and really prayed about it, to write about "Love" because of what is going on not just in the United States but around the world.  If you have been watching the news, you know here in the United States we have a lot of issues going on right now.  Protests where people are burning American flags which has nothing to do with the events between races, it seems it is a time to burn our flag again.  Only in America can you burn your country's flag, because it is called "free speech" and it is so sad because so many men and women of our military have fought and many have left parts on the battlefields and so many more have given their lives.

Then we have these civil things going on across our land where men and women are protesting because of the trial in Florida, and some are turning ugly.  Store fronts are being burned, interstate traffic stopped in one area and cars jumped on.  Now I know emotions are high, but help me here, I do not understand all of this, and before I turn to the Bible I just want to put this question in front of all of you.  I mentioned above about our men and women of our military fighting so we can have freedom of speech, but freedom of speech does not mean destroying things belonging to others.

But get this, brothers and sisters.  Those men and women over the years who fought together for this country were and still are men and women of all colors, yes, we have been in many wars, even since I was born, and arm in arm these men and women, black men and white men, and yes, even those of red and yellow, and the blends of colors have fought together, and women, black women, white women and women of other colors and blends of colors have been together in the military.  And now when we even have a president who is referred to as "a black president."  President Obama is indeed mixed, he is, folks, from a black father and a white mother.  These things just should not be going on.  We have just a few pastors who are calling for civil disobedience, and as I see it causing some of the problems, while I am sure there are many, many more, thousands upon thousands of pastors of all races, all colors, calling for peace.  I for one, and for those who have never seen me, I am an "old white guy" who looks like Santa, who is calling for peace.  This is so wrong what is going on these days.  So very wrong.  When we pray to our Father through Jesus for total peace, we are asking Jesus to come back.  And I asked this again today, how long will God our Father put up with this?

We have murders across this land daily, daily in our cities, we have abortion, the MURDER of babies, and they are all colors and races being killed by abortion doctors, and these children of God stand no chance of life.  Babies of all colors being murdered by doctors of all colors, and if I were to bet, and I do not, I would say most of those doctors who murder are of the white race.  Let me look at the scripture today, let me bring it forward for you.

Matthew 5:43 - "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  44 But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven.  He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?  Do not even pagans do that?  48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (NIV)

Jesus is telling us to Love everyone, even our enemy.  Well, I have no enemies that I know of, so I try my best to love everyone, I really do, for that is what we must do if we are going to walk with Jesus.  Jesus tells us in verse 46 that loving only those who love us is really easy, and what reward will that earn us?  And yes, Jesus is talking rewards in heaven.  He talks about the tax collectors loving each other, and back then of course tax collectors were referred to as the "sinners."  Of course we all know we are all sinners!  If we greet only our brothers, and of course that means sisters also, what are you doing more than others, Jesus is asking.  Now let me put this right at you.  We are all children of God, each and every one of us, even non-believers, all brothers and sisters, so we should love all people today.  I can't understand why people just do not try their best to get along.  Let me see, it might even start in families, for even in families people fight and we hear about it all the time, a man shoots his wife or a wife shoots her husband, brothers are killing off brothers, and in the United States of America, and I hate to even bring it up, but our black youth and young adults are killing each other.  Why are not the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson protesting that?  Bill Cosby is doing it, he is tired of it, he is bringing out the facts.  Our Lord Jesus loves us all, but I am sure He hates what is going on, I am sure of it.  Let's face it, God was not a "happy camper" back in the days of Noah, and He shut the place down, took it all out and according to the Bible it will happen again.  Well, do you think for one minute that God is a "happy camper" right now?  Do you think Jesus is proud of us?  I mean, we are all sinners and when we come to Christ He forgives us of the sins, but some people who confess God are involved in this stuff going on and again not just in America.  Look all over the world, fighting, killing, protesting in the streets.  Some are protesting because the governments are not giving out enough money.  That is going on here in America.  Do you know, and this is a fact, there are not more people receiving benefits from our government than are working to earn them and that is not counting the people who have earned the retirement.  To put in my words, "there are more people now in the cart than are pulling and/or pushing it."  (My quote, folks.)

Matthew 5:48 - "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Now we know we are sinners, but the Bible tells us to be perfect and that is Jesus telling us that.  So each day all people should be doing what Jesus asks, but we can see that is not happening.  However, we who claim, and I said WE WHO CLAIM to be Christians need to follow Jesus for that is what being a Christian means.  So now I ask you this, do you walk in the Light of Jesus?  Do you do your bet to walk in His footsteps?  Ask yourself that today, go ahead, ask yourself.  It is between you and Jesus, talk to Him.  Let's pray.

Father, forgive us of our sins and help us this day to walk each day with You.  If we have slipped, help us up and put us back on track.  Lord Jesus, we need You, and America needs You, in fact the whole world needs You.  Come back, Jesus, and bring peace.  In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Now, brothers and sisters, please go and share your blessings and know that I love ya, and yes, pass it on.  Pastor Dan.  Now let's go out singing ...

He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands.

He's got the tiny, tiny baby in His hands,
He's got the tiny, tiny baby in His hands,
He's got the tiny, tiny baby in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands.

He's got you and me, sister, in His hands,
He's got you and me, brother, in His hands,
He's got you and me, sister, in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands.

He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands.

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world."  Yes, do it again.

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world."  One more time.

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world."