Dear Father in Heaven: Please pardon me of my sins and let me just lift You in Praise as I start this day. Thanks, Father in Heaven, for Your Son and our Savior Jesus Christ. I want to tell You this day that I love You very, very much. Please be with all those we have been praying for and about over the last few weeks. Please, Dear Father, through the power of The Holy Spirit, anoint us this day to do Your work as Santa, Mrs. Claus, and Elves,and get the message of Your Love for all out to the eyes of those little ones and also their parents as we take on the job of role-playing. Please also spread that anointing of the Holy Spirit over this line and all who use it. Anoint me now to write a message for and about You and to get it dispatched over the air waves and also get it ready to preach tomorrow. Oh, how I love You, and yes, it is because You first loved me and still do. Lord, I confess to all I am indeed just an old sinner saved by grace. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, I pray you all had a great Thanksgiving and a great Black Friday. While thinking of the events of these last few weeks and those last two days, it really got me thinking about gifts. Yes, I am not just a Santa, as I tell all those who come to see me, I am Santa, I am indeed "as real as it gets," and that is my quote, folks. And yes, folks, I do believe in Santa, and while I do not have reindeer, I have goats, but they do not fly. On Thanksgiving, Dolores and I were blessed by being invited out to be with ministry Partner Pamela Bower and her family. We were also invited out by ministry partners Grant and Wanda, and we took a rain check on their family get-together, and the reason, Pam's family asked first. We are just so blessed. During the day we talked about churches, blessings, animals, some football, and of course shopping. Then this morning God just laid it on me to be talking about gifts. So let me get started. Now if you do use "Our Daily Bread" each day, they also were talking about gifts. I will try not to steal any of their words. So let's get going on Gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:12 - The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (NIV)
Let me start by asking all of you what you want for Christmas. Yes, a question as Santa I have asked many times. What would you like for Christmas? Let me tell you what I would like. Yes, like most all folks, I would love to see worldwide peace and to see all of our troops come home from all around the world and that we would just have military bases here in America. In other words, guard our country and all who are in it from within the borders. I would also like to have peace here on our Home Front and no more killing in neighborhoods. But with that said, and also saying I would love to be healthy and all of that, Old Pastor Santa Claus does have one other Christmas wish for what he would like to have. I would love to have a "newer Cadillac Hearse and/or a Cadillac Flower Car." And yes, I still want to drive it, not ride in the back. Our antique hearse gets lots of use in our food pantry, as it is our "bread wagon, so to speak." Oh, and while I talk about gifts, and we talk about bodies of our own, I must tell you that vehicles are also made of many parts to form that "one body." In a way, my old hearse is sort of like me, as some of the old parts are wearing out. Let's look at the Bible now as it does talk about our body, and how God made it.
First of all, men, we were made from "dirt," so if someone comes along and tells you "you are a dirt bag, or a dirt bucket," just say, "right on, brother, or right on, sisters, I am indeed a child of God and I was made of dirt." And guys, if you get accused of having "ring around the collar or potato patches behind your ears, just tell the accusers that God made you that way. Yes, God gathered up dirt, formed us and blew the air of life into us. Now if you are reading this message today then you will be sure to note that God is still forcing that air into your nose so that you can still breathe and we can remain or I can remain in the front seat of my old hearse. But I want you to think about your body for a minute. Let me go back in time and talk about Dolores. I have pictures of her when we first met. She was tell, over five feet six, and she had been a model. She was a beauty of God's work and I am so happy I gave up a rib for her. No, folks, she was and I will tell you, still is a beauty. Now, years later, with a twisted spine, shes goes about four foot nine or maybe four foot ten. Her twisted fingers still play the piano for God. The same is true of our ministry team, as we age our parts are getting worn, we have some added pain here and there, but none of our team gives up for that would be giving up on the Lord so to speak, and He does not give up on us. While God was and still is the great healer and did/does and always will heal some people directly, to others He has given the gift of healing, but we will talk more about those gifts tomorrow. Today let me talk about why we have doctors. Yes, we have doctors, and please do not think it is a lack of faith in God if you go to the doctors when you are "coming down with something." God made those men and women who are doctors for a reason, and some of them have been given the power of healing right from God. Yes, doctors have that power of healing as a gift from God. Now we like to think of healers as people like "Benny Hinn" who just lays hands on the people and they are healed by God through Pastor Benny's hands. Yes, I believe people have that gift from God. But the other doctors have also been given that same gift, only maybe they need to help heal you with the help of God by using some meds or even cutting on your body some. Think about that, please. But please do not say that doctors were put on earth to help people who did or do not have enough faith to be healed by God. That is just not the case. Look for example at Paul, and his faith, but he was not healed directly by God. Also today, and I want you to think about this.
My old hearse needs a part, so I say to myself, "self, go to the parts house or even the used parts place and get the part." And that is what I do. Then, of course, I put that part, new or used, on the old hearse. While it is very hard for a doctor to go out and get a new part for a person, they do have meds that along with the HEALING POWER that was put in all of our bodies by God our Father, can be repaired by our doctor. Now did you see just a few gifts there for people? Let's look at a few. Let's start with man. God gave some men and women, so folks, when I say Man today it is for mankind, okay? God gave man the ability to heal from within. He, God, made us to fight off things that try and attack our bodies and minds, but sometimes it can take a boost from our doctors here on earth. So for starters, let's look at some gifts. Man has the ability to read and understand parts books and those folks can get the parts ready for all those who are gifted to be the mechanic. Others are gifted by God to work on other parts of the car, or even sell it or sell you a new one. Yes, being a car salesperson or one who sells you the insurance for that car, are gifted by God to do those things. And doctors are gifted to work on you, but look also at their staff, who all have been gifted by God to do their jobs. Do you see what I am saying? Oh, and for seeing, just as we think we cannot see the pages anymore, God hooks me up with this beautiful lady who makes these things called glasses that make it so I can see again. And God, thinking well out in advance, put my ears and nose in just the right place so that this gifted person who made my glasses had just the right place to "hang them." Do you see what I am saying about gifts? And then some are blessed with gifts and some of these folks get no respect for what they do. After the doctors offices are closed for the day and the hospital operating rooms are closed for the day, a crew comes in and cleans them. Yes, these folks who clean up after others, these folks who get no respect are gifted also. Think about it, brothers and sisters, the one who cleans the toilet and mops up after us is gifted, and may I say, held in high regard by God and also by me. I love these folks. And brothers and sisters, some of the most loved folks, and I love everyone, but some of them I love the most, hang out on the back of trash and recycle trucks. These are gifted people, gifted by God. Yes, folks, they do jobs that others will not even think about doing. Here in America people would sooner sit at home and play with a toy thing on their big screen TV than use a gift from God. BROTHERS AND SISTERS, BEING LAZY IS NOT A GIFT FROM GOD. It is just a downright lazy thing. Again, being lazy is not a gift from God, so for all those who are able-bodied people, you need to get your lazy backsides out of bed and get a job working to pay your keep, for in God's eyes, a man who will not work should not eat.
Now let me move on talking about how in our body all of the parts should be working together. If all the parts are not working together, sometimes things come to a halt. One time all the body parts got together and they wanted to have one of the parts head things up. The brain said I should be the leader, for after all, I am the brain. But the eyes said, wait a minute, where would you be if you could not see where you were going? So the eyes said they wanted to be the boss. But the legs and feet said, wait, we get you from place to place, we want to be the boss. The heart then said, I pump blood around you all the time, and I want to be the boss. The hands and arms said, without us, how would you put food in your mouth, and they wanted to be the boss, and then the mouth said, hey, I eat the food that keeps you going, I want to be the boss. Every body part wanted to be the boss until after awhile the "backside" said, I want to be the boss. Well, the backside got no respect,and all the other parts laughed. So the backside stopped working, and soon the legs got limp, the arms got tired, the mouth and nose watered, the eyes grew tired and weak and even the heart and brain got a fever. Nothing worked without the backside working, everything stopped. So the backside was made the boss. Now let me put this into some terms you might understand. In a city, if those bottom-of-the-list trash men and women do not show up for work and the trash piles high, the city will close down. One gift and many parts and all must work together to get things done.
Now let's look at God's gifts, so many gifts, and God has assigned gifts to all of us. Let me ask you, what would happen if your custodian would not show up to clean up week after week? Who would keep coming to church if there were no supplies in the restrooms? In a church setting, it is sad that churches need to pay for someone to clean the place, the chores should be divided by the Sunday School classes and all take a share of it. No, because some people will not stick their hand in a toilet if they can pay someone else to do it. Think about it, folks, how long has it been since the pastor of your church cleaned the restrooms after church? I think maybe once a year at least the pastors should be the cleanup person. Maybe when your custodian goes on vacation. I want you all to think about that for a minute or two. Next Monday or maybe even tomorrow afternoon, we will look at some of the gifts from God and which one is the greatest gift. See you soon.
Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for all Your gifts and for this message today. I love You, Jesus. I pray in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
Now go forth sharing your blessings. Love ya. Please pass that love on. Pastor Dan
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