Tuesday 11/12/13 A Time!

Our Father Who Art in Heaven.  Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and The glory forever.  Amen.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

Welcome, brothers and sisters to 11-12-13.  Yes, that is the date.  We had a great day today, and I am working hard to get the message out in your hands this day.  Please pray today for Dan Stoner and his family, and for Burt and Patsy.  Please pray for Vicki and her family, and keep praying please for our Matthew.  Others who need prayers, gospel singer Buck Rambo, Linda Miller, Leslie, and for Craig to find a job.  Please, brothers and sisters, keep giving glory to God each day when you get up for all He does for all of you.  And pray that God will please bless America.  Let me get started on this new message that God is giving me now.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013, A Time, Day One!

Ecclesiastes 3:1 - There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under Heaven.  2 A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot.  (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, about two, maybe three weeks ago when Dolores and I were doing our Bible study in the morning, and we did our prayers, I asked our dear Lord to please help me with my reading and understanding.  I think I have told you that I have never read a complete book in my life, except some of the books of the Bible.  I asked God to point a book out to me and for Him to help me to read it and understand it.  His answer came right back, read another book of the Bible, and I could hear Him plain as day say, read Ecclesiastes.  Most often the messages God has given me came from the New Testament and most often the Gospels.  So today He has directed me to start working on a message out of Ecclesiastes.  So here I go and I can only think of it this way.  In Ecclesiastes 3:1, there is a time for everything, and so the time has come for me to read the book He pointed me to.  There is a time for everything, and brothers and sisters, we need to take the time when God gives us an assignment to do.  Verse one also tells us there is a season for every activity under Heaven.  However, brothers and sisters, there are some things under heaven that for we Christians are strictly OUT OF SEASON.  God points out to us that the time for everything under heaven should be what is in His plans and will for us.  So how do we find out about His plan and the activity He has for us to do?  We talk to Him about it, we pray about it, and we ask for instructions.  And brothers and sisters, think nothing of it, if indeed He changes His plans on you.

Next Friday (11/22/13) at the Glenvale Church of God, Dave, Duane, and Neil will be singing their final concert in Perry County singing under the name of the Couriers.  Unless of course, God reworks the activity.  If I know these men, and I think I do, they have no intention of FULLY RETIRING FROM ACTIVITIES UNDER HEAVEN.  While it might be their intentions now to not sing again in Perry County, God might change their minds.  In other words, they are going to be just adjusting their activities for our Lord.  Again, I will use these guys as an example and I have not asked them if it was okay to mention them, but when I look at Ecclesiastes 3:1, there is a time for everything, and I am sure they have prayed and prayed about this, and maybe after all these years God has pointed them in another direction.  But I am sure whatever direction it is, it will be centered around and for our Lord Jesus.  I personally am excited about seeing what direction God will send them next.

Ecclesiates 3:2 - A time to be born and a time to die.  Yes, as we think about it, we might think about our own life.  Well, while we know the time we were born, we do not know when it will be our time to die.  EXCEPT I KNOW THIS.  Since there was a time I was "Born Again," I do not worry about that time to die, for indeed the Bible tells us that if we are "Born Again" we will live forever.  As you think about this verse, Ecclesiastes 3:2, remember that God is in charge of all of this timing.  Listen to these words from

Psalm 31:14 - But I trust in You, O Lord; I say, "You are my God," 15 My times are in Your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me.  (NIV)

If you really think about it, our lives, from start to finish, are running on God's timing for us.  Now let's take a look at that second part of Ecclesiastes 3:2.  A time to plant and a time to uproot.  Now please do not think about this as being about your garden or about the local farmer, yes, there is a time to plant your garden, and a time to uproot it, and that is the fall harvest, and when in the fall, the farmers plow after the harvest and turn the ground over.  Think about this.  For this example I want to go to another dear friend of mine, and again I did not talk to him about this first.  This gentleman, Thomas Sansoni, I met years ago when Carry The Light Ministries was just getting started and we were helping the late Pastor Karen Layman with the church services at the Silver Spring Flea Market and dirt track racing.  Tom has been a dear friend, and I even had the honor, under God, to marry him and his late wife Kathleen.  Tom loves the Lord with all his heart, and over the years, his job, which he prayed for, has uprooted him several times.  Tom and his bride would pack up and go and plant their feet at another location, find a place to live, find a church, and get involved again with not just the new job, but with a new body of believers and back doing the Lord's work.  While one does not need to be moved around from town to town or state to state, we just never know when we follow God's plan for us where it will take us.

Sometimes God will plant us down and uproot us and we did not even understand it was God, but when we stop and think about our past, well, we think, that had to be the Lord.  Brothers and sisters, I am reminded of this scripture from the book of Matthew.

Matthew 4:18 - As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.  They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."  At once they left their nets and followed Him.  (NIV)

Can you see what I am saying here?  Even back when Jesus walked the earth, people were planted one way (fishermen) when they were uprooted and replanted (fishers of men).

So I ask this day, brothers and sisters, have you been planted and uprooted, and uprooted and planted?  And if Jesus would call on you today, would you follow Him?  Would you be uprooted for Jesus and follow His lead?

Dear Father in Heaven, help us to follow You in all we do, and now, Lord, plant our feet where You want them to be planted, and when You are ready for us to move on or make a change, help us to understand and be willing to be uprooted.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings.  Love ya.  Pass that love on.  Pastor Dan