Dear Father in Heaven: I love You. Please forgive me of my sins. Thanks for a beautiful day, and thanks for all the bread we received for the food pantry. Lord, thanks for watching over us this day. And Lord, thank You so much for watching over my dear Aunt Romaine. Please, dear Lord, watch over Dolores, Patsy, Burt, Sharon, Bob, Eleanor, and all those in our flock at The Bridges and all those on this line. Be with Beverly and heal her. Be with Nancy and heal her leukemia. Please keep your healing hand on those mentioned in the message today. And Lord, thank You so much for sparing Bobbie in Florida. Lord, please help me now with a message, and then please help me to dispatch it. Lord, we pray Matthew comes back to You. In Jesus' Name I give thanks, and pray. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters. Our dear friend Barbara (Bobbie) who lives in the Panhandle of Florida received 26.8 inches of rain at her home. She told me that the night sky was bright white from lightning. Praise the Lord, she is fine. Please pray for all those who were displaced during these storms and pray for the families of those who lost loved ones. I want to get to the message right now. It is a special one.
Thursday: May 1, 2014, Good Guys (Day Three)
Mark 12:29 - "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.' 30 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, we have been working on the story of the Good Samaritan which ties right into the Two Greatest Commandments. I want you to read the following that was sent to me in response to one of our prayer requests for God to heal Nancy of leukemia. This is word for word her email to me:
"I receive your wonderful emails because of a dear friend in Mechanicsburg. I live in Philly. I was just reading today's message and I read about Nancy having leukemia. My husband was diagnosed with it in 2009 but did not experience symptoms for about 10 months. Then he hit the proverbial "wall" and his leukemia progressed rather quickly. He ended up having to have a bone marrow transplant in 2010; his life saving marrow came from an unknown donor in Dallas, Texas. He is also born again. Praise God! Four years later, my husband is still doing well.
I'm sharing this with you because sometimes you feel alone fighting this terrible disease. If Nancy would like to communicate with us, please feel free to give her my email address. My husband had his transplant done at Temple Jeanes. We recommend the facility highly. We consider them friends, not just doctors. Audrey."
Okay, I am back. We talked yesterday about loving your neighbor and who is your neighbor. Today I ask the question, how can one help a neighbor, and brothers and sisters, there are many ways, many ways to be that "Good Guy" that I have been talking about. Here we see a man needing a bone marrow transplant and the way I understand it a match is hard to find, and it is also painful for a donor. Now we find a man, a family man, who finds he has leukemia and needs the transplant. The donor was found in Texas, and I have seen a picture of the man who made the donation and his family. He is a young man with a wife and three very small children. Neither knew each other before the donation, but they did have one major thing in common. Both loved/loves Jesus and are Born Again Christians. For the young man who made the donation, he did it for the Love of Jesus and I would think that even if the receiver was not born again, the donor would still have helped them. When one shows this kind of love they are indeed a Good Samaritan, and they indeed just followed both of the two greatest commandments.
Not all of us can donate a body part, but we have heard of stories where one person will give up a kidney to another. You could show your love and be a Good Guy and donate blood. I had donated three gallons of blood until I was told I had cancer (now healed by God), and my long-time singing partner and ministry partner, Pamela Bower, had donated over ten gallons before she found out she had breast cancer (now healed by God). Brothers and sisters, when we cross the street as the Samaritan, did we help someone? Sometimes the street is wide, as Pennsylvania to Texas, sometimes the street is even wider. Do not walk past someone as the priest did in the parable that Jesus was using. Help others the best you can. Tomorrow I am going to make a list of how one might be that Good Guy. But let me tell you this, if you are giving to help a food pantry, please do not donate out-of-date food. I will talk to you about that tomorrow.
Now go forth and share your blessings. Love ya. Pass on that love, please.
Pastor Dan
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