Tuesday 9/17/13 Straight 2

Dear Father in Heaven:  Thank You for watching over me, and thanks for all  You do for me each day.  Please help me to keep going on for You each and every day and let me not get discouraged when things start to go wrong.  Please just help me lean on You even more.  Now, Lord, please help me with the message of today.  May it be from You and not from me.  Then please dispatch it for me.  In Jesus' Name I pray.  Amen.

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters.  By now I would think you have heard the news about the shootings in Washington, DC.  Please pray for the families of those who were killed and for all others who were wounded either by the shooter or by the events of the day (emotional stress).  Please keep praying for our leaders, as you can see it is not a safe place.  Also remember to pray for the family of the shooter.  I am sure their lives just got turned upside down.  Please pray for Dan Stoner.  Dan and his family, our missionaries who are going to fly into the into the "back woods" to get the message out.  Dan is back in the states for treatment of cancer.  Pray please that he is healed and his family can find a place to live together near the hospital where he is being treated.  You should receive our annual letter today sometime via email.  I will keep it separate from this message.  Some on our mailing list will receive a hard copy in the mail.  Now let me get to the message.  Oh, my spell check option is gone again.  So please forgive my spelling.  Thanks.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013, Straight (Day Two).

Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths STRAIGHT.  (NIV)

Proverbs 4:10 - Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.  11 I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along STRAIGHT paths.  (NIV)

I ask all of us today, us includes me, do we really give all of our trust to the Lord or do we just put some trust in Him?  Maybe we trust in Him for some things, but, well, when I say get leaning over my car fender to  fix something, trust more in myself as a mechanic than God?  Over the years, maybe you have done this, for I confess I have done it often, we start a project, maybe like me I am doing something on a car and I just cannot get it done, then after trying and trying I stop and ask God to help me.  "Come on, Lord, I need some help here!"  I have called out after a period of time.  While I don't know what God is thinking, I do not know God's mind, but He just might be thinking, "so you tried and failed and now You want me to come and STRAIGHTEN it out for you?"

You see in our first scripture for today that it tells us this:  "Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean NOT on YOUR OWN understanding."  So I ask today, do you?  And do I?  Trust in the Lord with ALL  our heart?  Do we really do that?  Well, I am sorry to say that I mess up on that one.  Now when I sit here and think about it, I say yes, I do trust him 100% of the time, but my actions do not prove that out.  Oh, those confessions of a pastor.  That next verse, Proverbs 3:6, tells us:  "In ALL your ways acknowledge Him."  And do we do that?  Come on, be truthful!  I am hard on you this morning, but I am being hard on myself also.  Listen to me here, if we do these things, trust in the Lord and we acknowledge Him, what happens then?  According to the Bible, it tells us this:  "He will make your paths STRAIGHT."  He will help us, He will help keep us out of trouble, He will keep us, well, walking the line.

Let's look at that next verse.  Wow, look at this.  "Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many."  Gosh, we can make our years many if we accept what Jesus says.  Now we have heard that someplace else.  Let's go find another place.

Exodus 20:14 - Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.  (NIV)

So if we accept what God says, and one of those things is to what?  Yes, honor our father and our mother.  But wait, what if like me, your parents are gone?  How can I still honor them?  Folks, you surely can honor someone after they are gone.  Keep looking at your memories and keep thanking God you had loving parents who like me had Christian parents.  But what if your parents seemed bad when you were being raised, and some were bad, and others not the best.  Are you ready for this?  Forgive them of the bad stuff, as our Father in Heaven forgives us of our bad stuff, and lean on the good things they did.  I had good parents and they loved God, mamma more outspoken about it than Pop.  Oh, my Pop was very patriotic, yes, he was.  For if I stepped out of line, he made my backside red and some blue and I am white.  So you have red, white, and blue, and sometimes I would see the stars.  Folks, I am kidding o that, while I did take on a few well-deserved spankings in my lie, I WAS NOT ABUSED.  Anyway, if we ACCEPT WHAT JESUS SAYS, and we honor our father and mother, we can live longer.  His word also tells us, "I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along STRAIGHT paths."  Again, if we just accept what He says, and I think we need to prayer now and talk to God.

Dear Father in Heaven, please help us to love You more each day and help us to listen to You and to understand You and accept all of what You tell us.  Lord, please be with those on our prayer list.  Lord, be in Washington, DC, and protect our leaders.  And Lord, please heal Dan Stoner so he can get back on the mission trail for You.  And now, Lord, if You will please help me get a tad more sleep, I sure would appreciate it.  Bless my spelling, Lord.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings.  Love ya, Pastor Dan

PS.  Mr. and Mrs. Tomato were out for a walk with all the Tomato family.  Their youngest would keep getting behind, and his dad told him over and over again about it.  So then he went back, and while trying to force him to move stepped on him as he said, "Catch Up."