Mon/Tues 12/16-17/13 The Visit

Dear Father in Heaven.  Please forgive me for not getting a message out on Monday.  I feel like I let You down.  Please forgive me of my sins, and thank You for helping us through Monday and today, dear Lord.  Thanks for the great news about Patsy, Lord.  Thanks for Your healing hand on her.  Please keep on healing her and taking care of Burt also.  Please be with Vicki, for she is again having health issues.  Lord Jesus, please now help me with the message and help me to better myself with the time You are giving me.  Help me also dispatch the message.  Lord, please bless all who use this line.  Lord, be with our president and all of our leaders, and be with our veterans and our troops.  Also, Lord, watch over our families and our flock at The Bridges.  Be with our ministry team and help them also.  Lord, I know I am missing a prayer request or two.  I cannot think of them right now.  Please be with Dolores and help her, and please watch over our so Matthew.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, we have been very, very busy, so please forgive me if I do not get to return your emails each day.  This is our busy, very busy time of the year.  Let me give you an update.  Saturday was distribution day for Carry The Light Ministry Food Pantry.  God was/is so good.  We were expecting snow and prayed that God would hold it off until at least noon when all the folks would have had a chance to pick up their food.  We had a few people call on Friday and tell us they could not come because of the snow.  We told them to come early, and they did.  We had 80 families scheduled to come for food, and 69 of them came, which is a good turn-out as some call for food and then never come.  We had a good turn-out of helpers, and as always, we started out with a big prayer circle.  A group from Tree of Life Church came to pray with folks, along with our ministry partner Wanda who headed up the prayer team for awhile and then shifted gears.  Gospel singers Tim Beitzel and Duane Nicholson also were on the driveway praying with people.  Ministry partner Grant filled in with most all jobs that needed done and was kept busy helping all around.  Dolores and Pam and Sally worked the sign-in table.  It was something to see, and GOD HELD THAT SNOW OFF until we were just about done.  Before the helpers left, they unloaded a new freezer from our trailer and exchanged it for the one that went down last week.  Five families who missed Saturday because of the weather were in today.  This was the biggest food distribution that we had in one day since we started the food pantry, and it went so smoothly, thanks to all who came to help, however, we will give all the glory to our Loving Lord Jesus.  For those with little ones, Santa's House will be open from 2 PM to 6 PM on Friday and from 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturday.  That will be the final day in Santa's House for this year.  I will give you a final update after the start of the new year.  THANKS TO ALL WHO SUPPORT CARRY THE LIGHT MINISTRIES AND THE FOOD PANTRY ... Let me get started on the message.  From now to Christmas I will be working on the Christmas story.  Today, "The Visit."

Luke 1:39 - At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.  41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in  her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  42 In a loud voice she exclaimed:  "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear!"  (NIV)

Last week I talked about Gabriel, Joseph and also Mary.  Today I want to talk to you some more about Mary and also Elizabeth.  After Mary received the word that she was chosen by God to have this special Baby, and she of course told the angel of the Lord that she is a servant of the Lord so she would do it, she hurried off to visit her relative.  She went to the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth and told this GOOD NEWS to Elizabeth.  Now please remember that Elizabeth was with child, and she was to be barren and she was long past the child-bearing time.  The Bible tells us that Elizabeth was in her sixth month.  I want you to note in the scripture above that "when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb."  I really must bring this up at this point.  This baby in the womb is a child, it was "John" whom we came to know as "John The Baptist."  This baby was alive and well and jumped in the womb, and it was in the second trimester of the nine-month term that a mother carries the child.  THE BABY JUMPED IN HER WOMB.  When will people in this country and around the world learn that babies in the womb are children, they are a living being, a human life?  I just cannot believe how many unborn children are MURDERED EACH AND EVERY DAY.  Okay, let me move on.

Do you folks remember how excited you were when you found out you were going to have a child?  I can remember and it has been a long, long time ago when I found out that we were expecting our first child and it was just as exciting with each one.  I can remember giving out cigars back then when the children were born.  (They were a nickel apiece back then for the cheap ones.)  I can only think how excited Zechariah and Elizabeth were when they found out they were going to have a child, however, when they were told they would have a child, Zechariah did not have faith and did not believe God would or could make it happen, so he was punished and was not able to speak until the child was born.  Let me just bring this out.  Our Bible is loaded with things God can do, and still to this day some people do not have faith that He can do things.  God still heals, God still makes those babies in the womb.  Ladies and gentlemen, God made us and did a really good job, and He put us on this earth to carry out things for Him.  When I look around me I just am amazed that God has not shut this world down again, that He has not sent Jesus back for those of us who are saved.  We have a job to do, folks, and at this time of the year that is to be a happy time, we need to be getting the message out of the love of Jesus.  Jesus was sent to us to save us from ourselves, and we better be doing it.  The time is coming, folks, I think it is nearer than we might think.  Today I ask that you pray for our president, and all of our leaders, and not just for their safety but that they come to Jesus.  We need to have a really big come to Jesus party this year.  Maybe that is what a Christmas party should be called.  Some people do not want to call it even a "Christmas Party."  They call it a holiday party.  It is a CHRIST-mas party, brothers and sisters.  I think we should rename it and call it a "COME TO JESUS PARTY."

Jesus has been put out of our schools.  He has been put out of government offices, and brothers and sisters, those non-believers want Him put out of your own family.  We need to start with our families and be sure they are saved, and in some cases, it might even divide your family.  Here is an example of that.  The United Methodist minister who married his son to another man made a choice, and he decided to follow Satan and not Jesus.  If this pastor truly loved Jesus above all else, he would have told his son something like this ... "I love you, son, and I always will, but Jesus comes first in my life, and what you are doing is a sin."  We all know or should know that Jesus loves all of us and we are all sinners, but Jesus does not now, nor did He ever love our sins.  That is why He came to earth, that is why He was born, for He indeed was born to die so we might live.

Now go forth and share your blessings and please spend time in prayer, and please get your Bibles out and read them.  And please know this, I love ya. Please pass on that Love.  Pastor Dan

Again, please pray for our president and all of our leaders to come to Jesus.  And yes, I send copies of any message when I mention our leaders to Washington.  Pray, warriors, pray.