Tues/Wed 10/15-16/13 Listen 2

Dear Father in Heaven:  I love You and I appreciate You very, very much.  Thanks for sending Your one and only Son to die to clear me of my sins.  Please forgive me this day.  Thanks for watching over our family and for watching over all of our friends and I pray You will take care of their families also.  Lord Jesus, thanks for all You do for us.  Lord Jesus, today is Salvation Day on our line, and first we ask to be saved, and then we ask that You help us all to follow Your command and go to the fields of harvest and lead them to Your feet.  Help us, Lord, and help me today to get the message out and that my words are from You.  The, Lord, help me dispatch it so that it gets where it is to be going.  Bless the words with Your love and grace as only You can bless them.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

Hello, brothers and sisters.  I am truly sorry about yesterday, and I still do not know where it went.  Starting with the early morning chores and then off to a doctors appointment, home to pack food for families, and then off for a nap.  Well, like the Santa story, it seemed to be a "long winter's nap."  Anyway, I need to get right to the message.

But first, let me ask you, are you listening today?  Listening for God to speak to you?  Let me get to the message.

Tuesday/Wednesday "Salvation Wednesday," 10/15-16/2013, Listen (Day Two).

James 1:19 - My dear brothers, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.  21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you.  22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror  24 and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does.  (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, I have told all of you so often that I believe that God gives me messages to write to all of you that point right back at me.  I truly feel that when I pray and talk to our Lord God, I need to do a much better job of listening for God to get back to me.  In other words, I need to be putting into practice what I preach.  Today is Salvation Wednesday and the day we pray first for our own Salvation and then if we know we are saved and only two know this, Our Lord Jesus and also ourselves.  As you know, Salvation is a personal relationship between Jesus and each of us.  Jesus will intercede for us to get us into heaven, but we cannot intercede for anyone.  And while we can and should be working each day to take the good news to all others so they may become saved, only Jesus can really save us.

Our scripture for today coming from James tells us that we need to be quick to listen and slow to speak and become angry.  Let me ask you this, have you ever "shot off your mouth" and became angry about something before you have listened to all the facts?  The Bible tells us that "our anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires."  Now, folks, the Bible tells us that we should not merely listen to the word but we should put it into practice.  Listening to the word means also when we read it, for when we do read, we listen to ourselves as we read.  We need to listen to the word and then we need to work hard to put into practice what God tells each of us to do.

We need also to put listening into our daily lives, not just in our Christian walk.  Let's start by our reviewing some things we need to do each day.  The first thing some of us listen to the first thing in the morning is the alarm clock going off.  If we would not listen to it, why set it?  And if we do not listen to it, more than likely the day will get off to a bad start.  Then, of course, when we go and get into our cars and head out to work or school or an appointment we need to be listening and NOT TO THE CELL PHONE and/or the texting thingy.  We should obey the laws, we should obey the laws and listen to what they mean and abide by them.  At work, we need to listen to what the boss tells us and at school what the teachers tell us.  And if we are sick and go to the doctor, we need to listen to their advice and abide by it.

So once again we see how God's word, how God'sword works into our daily living.  Once again, if we follow the advice in the Bible we will be much better off.  Even non-believers, those who do not believe in Christ at all, follow His word.  Think about that and see if you can think of just how many times in a day you are following the word that is in the Bible just to live a normal day in the life of your family.  It just might surprise you.

Dear Father in Heaven, please  help us to read Your word, and listen to Your word, and put Your word into our daily living.  In Jesus' name, I pray.  Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings, and keep on listening to The Word and applying it to your daily walk.

I love ya.  Pass that on, please.  Pastor Dan