Tuesday 3/4/14 Burdens 1

Dear Heavenly Father:  Thanks for a beautiful day and thanks for hearing our prayers.  Thanks for answering our prayers according to Your will, Lord, which is always better than my will.  Lord, please be with those on our prayer lists, and Lord, please heal my dear friend Dave.  Lord, now if you would be so kind as to grant unto me the message and then please help me get it dispatched.  Oh, and Lord, thanks for being with me in the plow truck yesterday.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, another cold day at the Southern Location of the North Pole, but God is good and soon the flowers will be jumping out of the ground.  It looks like our temperature might get all the way up to freezing today.  Some updates.  Ted is home from the hospital, only because his wife is a nurse.  Dave is not doing well at all.  He just will not eat.  I was in yesterday and anointed  him with oil in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we prayed he would be healed.  He is in God's  hands, as we all are.  So please keep praying for Ted, Dave, Patsy, and Burt, who fell last week, and rejoice in praise that Jim, who lost his job just two weeks ago, found another.  Jobs are out there for those willing (and able) to work.  There are a lot of people "milking the dog" so to speak.  I did miss yesterday; did not sleep the night before, watching for the big snow, which missed, but I still got up early to plow.  Then I went to see Dave in the hospital, and until I got home I was worn out, I took care of the animals, made us supper and went to bed.  God did not give me a message, so I guess he wanted me to rest.  Hey, don't eat too many donuts today on this "Fat Tuesday."  A new subject starting today.  Burdens!!  Let's get started.  Let's March Fourth!!

Tuesday:  March 4, 2014, Burdens.  (Day One)

Psalm 38:3 - Because of Your wrath there is no health in my body, my bones have no soundness because of my sin.  4 My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.  (NIV)

Today I want you to take a look at two scriptures with me.

I know that we always hear we are "to cast our burdens to the Lord" and before the end of the week we will cover that.  We will also see if we can find where it tells us that "God will never give us more than we can carry."  However, today I want to take a look at a couple of scriptures where it looks like the "burdens" are being put on us right from God.  In Psalms 38:3 it talks about the wrath of God being so strong that there is no health in the body, and the bones have no soundness.  But why, because of sin, so while God put this burden on, the Wrath of God is being put on us because of our sins.  It also talks about it overwhelming us and the burden is too heavy to bear.  So while we can see that the wrath of God is causing us this problem, or in this case the heavy burden, it is being caused by our sin.  You can unload this burden right now by praying to have your sins covered.

Ecclesiastes 1:12 - I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.  13 I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven.  What a heavy burden God has laid on me!  (NIV)

Please now put your into the shoes of the Teacher.  Now let's not just look at Sunday School teachers, but also pastors who are teachers and even school teachers from early childhood to schools of higher education.  We need all those I just named, which includes me, and others and all others to gain all the knowledge we can get and teach it to those who are in our charge.  (Charge, those assigned to us by God.)  School teachers also have this same thing.  If we do our job right, the burden does get heavy.  Yes, I can say with all that God has laid on me, there are days the burden is very heavy.  Today is one such day because it was a hard day to get started on the message.  I am sure if you would ask your pastor, and maybe some pastors on the line might respond, that some days the load gets heavy.  You see, we who take these jobs are held accountable to God for what we teach and preach.  School teachers have that same responsibility to get the kids to learn, and trust me, we will be held to account by God.  Sometimes it is a heavy burden.  Anyone else feel this way?  Is the real burden God has laid on your heart hard to carry sometimes?

Dear Father in Heaven, please help us this day to carry our burdens, even those that You have placed on us.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Now brothers and sisters, I am asking you all to pray for our president, who is commander in chief of our military.  Pray for his salvation and then for wisdom for him to handle these events of Russia.  And yes, President Obama is accountable to God in  his job besides being accountable to us Americans.

Now go forth and share your blessings.  Love ya.  Pass on that love, please.

Pastor Dan