Dear Father in Heaven: I love You. Please forgive me of my sins. Thanks for a great and wonderful day spent with dear friends. Please, dear Lord, be with families as it seems that the devil is trying his bet to divide them. Please be with all those on our prayer list and answer them according to Your will for us. Lord, I need to add a few more requests which I will list with the others. Please, Lord, help Pastor Larry get the help needed for Vacation Bible School at Glenvale Church of God. Please, Lord, be with President Obama as I pray for his soul and pray that he is saved. Protect him, and please help him get his mind on our country. Please watch over our troops and keep them safe. Father, thanks for answered prayers on traveling mercies, and Lord, we pray that blessings keep flowing. Be with the school class going to Spain. Be also with the following who need Your touch: Vicki, Danelle, Tara, Glenn, Ken, Don, Carman, Grant, Wanda, Dan, Sharon, Eleanor, Bob, another Dan, Leann, Matthew, and so many more, dear Lord, and now, dear Lord, please bless me once again with a message to write and then help me to dispatch it. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, what a great day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. The weather was perfect, and our dear friends Grant and Wanda came and we just had a great day. Grant and I took our ministry trailer and picked up food for the food pantry. Wanda stayed back and weeded our plant beds and trimmed the lawn where my tractor cannot get to. This Friday Grant and Wanda will be married 44 years. Dolores came down to our food pantry with lunch and we sat and just talked about how good God really is.
The following were listed for prayers this morning. Please add to that Don Coffin.
Please pray for Vicki who has a very full plate. Danelle (our daughter) is in need of surgery. Granddaughter Tara is on a school trip to Spain. Please cover these kids from Central Dauphin School District until they arrive home. A mission team from Lighthouse Baptist Church will be leaving on a mission trip to Haiti on Sunday. Please pray for them daily until they arrive home the following Sunday. Pray for Glenn Gamber who has a leaky heart valve. Also pray for Ken McNilis who will be having heart surgery on Monday. Please pray for God to lower the pain level for Dolores and also for me. Pray for our nation. And pray that I will be back writing tonight. And yes, I am back, and that is a prayer answered. So let me get started on this new series.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014, Restoration (Day One)
Psalm 51:10 - Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your Salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, as you all know, I was and still to a point am, a "motor head," a "car nut." My big brother Leonard was one of the best "motor heads" I knew, and in high school he was given the nickname of "Wrench." I wanted to follow in his shoes so badly, but the only nicknames I heard were "Screwdriver" and sometimes "Little Wrench." Over the years when I think about the term "Restoration" of course my thinking would turn to cars and trucks, and later on buses. My brother would restore engines and he was good at it. Later on this week, I will tell you about my brother's best restoration.
I could tell you stories for days about restoring vehicles, but let me just tell you about one. This vehicle restoration came after I was called by the Lord to sing, teach, and later preach, and pastor for our Lord Jesus Christ. After a twister went through the area, I was called by Tom Collins who was and currently is the president of the Museum of Bus Transportation, who told me of one of our members' home was hit and he could use some help packing and moving some things. So I joined with a few others and went to help a man who became a dear friend. His name is Thomas Mozer, and I will just call him Tom. Tom had a 1957 Chevrolet two-door hardtop in that Chevrolet Red and White, you know the kind, and Tom was working on restoring it. Some of the work he did on his own, a very few things I helped him with like taking off a part now and then. I also towed with my car dolly his 1957 Chevy to several shops. Slowly this car started to look brand new. Then the day came when it was done and he was ready to show the car, and what a beaut it was. If I recall it was NOT a body off the frame restoration, but almost all else was repaired, fixed, etc., to make that car look and run like new.
Just as a point of interest, while all this was going on, Tom met Diane and they fell in love and got married. Yes, I was asked to perform the wedding. Dolores played for the service. The rest of this love affair for a 57 Chevrolet and of course his new-found love I might bring out later.
When a vehicle is restored it might be a "full restoration" or a "partial restoration." Most often when a vehicle has a partial restoration, it is on the outside. Then that vehicle would look good from a distance, and sometimes we call those a parade car, or I have called some of mine a 25 MPH restoration, meaning if it passes by fast it will look good.
Now let me talk about people, about how sometimes we can get mixed up about being restored. Let's say we head to a barber shop or a beauty shop and we get a haircut and a clean shave (I am surely not talking about me, folks, but I did stop last week for a haircut and they did not have one in my size.) Anyway, we get ourselves looking really good. We clean up ourselves, we wash and put on clean clothes. When I was a child I would ask my mother, should I wash for long sleeves or short sleeves? I just would clean what people could see, and back then I even had some, well, BO, or body odor. Sort of like washing that car on the outside, not even washing the door jambs, and driving past as the worn engine would blow some smoke. While we will not have an old Chevrolet in Heaven, what about the person who just gets restored on the outside? Will that person be like the parade car and when they get called will they just get passed over and not left in? What else needs restored to get you in heaven? Do you have that part restored, or those part restored?
Oh, and on those show cars, what happens when you might stick on other parts? You just know where I am going on this one. But that is for later on, for I have gone on far enough. Please read the scripture of today and look it over, they are all important as we talk about "Restoration."
Thanks so much, for praying. Now go forth and share your blessings. Love ya. Please pass on that love.
Pastor Dan
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