Dear Father in Heaven, I love You. Thank You for the message You just gave me for Tuesday, and now, Lord, please bless me with another message for this our Salvation Wednesday, and please, Lord, guide us to the unsaved so we may tell them the Good News about Jesus. OI pray for our president today that he is saved and knows You. Help me also dispatch this message. In Jesus' wonderful Name, I pray. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, in my message on Tuesday I asked for prayers for my little friend Luke and his two goats. Luke is the son of Jason and Nichole who help us here at Carry The Light Ministries. Luke purchased a pygmy female goat, with a two-week old kid at her side. He did this with his Christmas money. People could learn a great message from parents who let their children have animals and also make them take care of them. Last summer this family including "little" Luke came and cleaned out our goat pens and this little one helped. At one time years and years ago we had a small farm, and each Saturday morning after a good breakfast, we cleaned out the barn and pig pens and the kids helped.
Okay, folks, it is Salvation Wednesday and a really great day to pray for those who are unsaved and to pray for God to use we who are saved to get the Good News of Jesus Christ to the unsaved. Remember to repent and say worthy words. Now let me get right to the message, Repent.
Salvation Wednesday: February 26, 2014, Repent (Day Three).
Luke 15:3 - Then Jesus told them this parable. 4 "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who REPENTS than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (NIV)
Just one long scripture on this Salvation Wednesday. I love this story and those who know me from my day is at Central Dauphin Transportation might remember the picture of Jesus holding the lost sheep on His shoulders that was on my wall. Yes, a picture of Jesus hung on my wall at my office in transportation from 1984 until I left in 1993. I pictured myself as that lost sheep and the Lord looking for me, and I came to Him and He saved me. This scripture also supports what we do on Salvation Wednesday and what we should be doing daily. We who are saved need to be looking for those who are still lost.
I could use Dolores and myself as another example of this verse. We have many animals, and we have rescued dogs and we also have indoor cats. We over the years have done "bed checks" on the dogs and cats. We have a fenced-in yard with a dog door but even with that, we want to be sure those indoor animals are truly indoors. When we leave to go away even for an hour or two we find all the animals and make sure they are in the house. When we had as many as sixteen rescue dogs at one time it would take awhile. We now have nine after our dear Martha Mary passed away and we still account for all of them to be inside. At night when we close up the door where the dog door is we take "inventory." We have a really dark colored cat who will hide in the house. We do a role call sometimes. Is Morgan (21 years old and blind) in his bed? Where is Missy, the dark cat? We ask each other. I have Martin, Jr. Where is Mike? Anyway, I could go on and on about this, and if one is missing and we find them, we call out PRAISE THE LORD. I found him, he is under the chair or I found her, she was hiding in my closet.
This is how those in Heaven rejoice when a person who is lost, living without Jesus, comes to Jesus and we need to be searching them out. And I want you to remember this, not all those sitting in church are saved, sometimes the lost are right under our nose and the only way we know for sure if they are saved is to ASK THEM. Even with that we might not be sure. Some pastors are not saved, and while I am not to judge, I do ask this. How can a pastor like the one who was defrocked be saved when they are preaching and teaching a message that is so wrong? How can they preach that gay marriage is okay with God when it is so wrong according to the Bible? Folks, let me tell you here that God loves everyone, He also loves those who are saved and not saved, and I am sure cries when one is lost, or passed away before they came to Him. God hates sin and so should we. WE also need to love all of our brothers and sisters regardless of their sin, but we need to HATE the sin.
Please remember that we are all sinners, but we need to REPENT of those sins. We have all heard the saying they are preaching to the choir. Brothers and sisters, sometimes the choir needs preached to. We who do pastor would love to think that all who come before us are saved, but the fact is some of them might be seeking the Lord, so those who are saved in churches need to be setting good examples. If a person comes to a church, one who is seeking God, and in that church there is "in-fighting," might the one seeking say "if this is being a Christian, I don't want to be like them?"
Also, others watch how Christians live. Are we only a Christian on Sunday morning for an hour or two? Do we walk our talk? Listen, I know it is hard not to mess up, but when we really repent, if we really repent, we must really work at walking with Jesus and not just saying we do. Daily I pray for God to forgive me of my sins, for there are times we sin and might not give it a thought. Now you all know I tell it like it is, and how often, guys, are we talking in the food store, or someplace else, maybe even in church, when a good-looking lady walks by and we think to ourselves, "nice butt" or "nice legs" or "nice chest" (yes, I cleaned up the word chest), and ladies, you might be the same, you look at a man and say wow, "nice butt" or "nice arms" or maybe you are the one who wears that diving neckline and it is attracting those wandering eyes. Yes, there are times we sin without thinking about it, and we all get caught up in those little sins, but a sin is a sin is a sin, brothers and sisters.
REPENT AND BE SAVED.
Now go forth and share your blessings. Love ya, and please pass on that love.
Pastor Dan
P.S. I got my scooter fixed with used parts.
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