Friday 7/11/14 Encouragement 4

Dear Father in Heaven:  I love You very much.  Thanks for another day in Your America that I call home, and thanks for our earthly place to protect us while we are here.  Please, dear Lord, be with all those who use this line and watch over them.  Thanks, Lord, for great neighbors.  Dear Lord, I pray today for all those who are going to walk out into Your fields of Harvest this weekend to help bring in the Harvest for You.  Please, Lord, furnish me with a message.  I am so sorry I missed yesterday.   Please, then, Lord, after the message is finished, help me to dispatch it.  In Jesus' wonderful name, I pray.  Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, as I write to you this week about being encouraged, I need to ask that all of you send some prayers my way.  The pain level in my body seems to have gone to a place where I am having real trouble dealing with it.  I have said over the years that I can deal with a lot of pain, for I have had to do just that since a motorcycle accident on Christmas Eve 1990.  However, recently the pain level has climbed to a point where I find myself sitting and crying.  While I don't often seek prayer on my own behalf, I know and understand that prayer really works.  So please, my dear brothers and sisters, please storm heaven asking Jesus to take away just some of my pain so we here at Carry The Light Ministries can keep pushing forward for our Lord Jesus.

Please note this.  GIVING UP is not part of my makeup so that will not happen, and neither is giving up parts of the ministry for so many of the needy count on the ministry to feed them.  Those of you who have stopped by to help know and understand just how many people do come for food.  The encouraging part to me is that while Satan might be having me under attack, I will just turn and spit in his face and tell him to get THE HELL out of my life.  I work for Jesus, not the devil.  Yes, you may send this out to those who you know who will pray, and as always we pray that God's will be done.  Thanks for hearing me today.  Now let me get to the message about being Encouraged, and today I just might be writing it for me.

Friday:  July 11, 2014, Encouraged (Day Four)

Hebrews 12:4 - In our struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons.  "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, 6 Because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son."  7 Endure hardship as discipline, God is treating you as sons.  For what son is not disciplined by his father?  (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, I have said so often on this line that I think most all messages God gives to me to write for Him are pointed in all or part right back at me.  Oftentimes I find myself the one whom I am talking about in the message and also in my Sunday morning sermons.  So when God pointed this scripture right out to me this evening, I did  not take it as God setting me in my place, so to speak, but I am taking it as God encouraging me to just keep driving forward in His name.

I know and I will proclaim this above all else.  I truly love Jesus.  I love Him above all else.  I love Him above my dear wife and our children.  I love Him more than family and friends, and if that time were to come that I would need to pick between Jesus or family, I am going forth with Jesus.  I want you all to know that I am NOT upset with God because I have this pain, or if I was I would not keep pushing forward for Him.  So for those of you who might be in pain and have been waiting for your time to come to be healed, please do not give up on Jesus, or turn and walk away.  One thing I am going to do is take an assessment of my life right now and see what I might be doing that I need to repent of and what I might be doing that God really needs to be punishing me about.  I need to walk up to the mirror and take a good long look into it.  Does anyone want to look in that mirror with me this day?

Philemon 1:4 - I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints.  6 I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.  7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.  (NIV)

Here is a scripture that should give all of us encouragement on this day as we find Paul, while in prison praying for others and asking them to hang in there in their faith in Jesus Christ.  Paul received great encouragement by knowing others are hanging tough in their love of Jesus.  I feel the same way.  If I know that you are praying and you, even though I am sure you have trials of your own, keep loving Jesus and praying for me and others, the encouragement will flow from your being, to God, and right back to me and others.  So I ask you this day to keep on loving Jesus and having faith in Him, and also keep on loving all the saints.  By the way, you become a saint when you invite Jesus into your life and are "Born Again."

I want to give you one more scripture today, maybe two, and I think I might have used it this week already.  Then since it is Vacation Bible School time, I want to close with some Bible School songs from days gone by.

Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.  (NIV)

Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.  (NIV)

I look back at my days of childhood and went to Vacation Bible School at the 29th Street Evangelical United Brethren Church.  This church was located at 29th and Derry Streets in Harrisburg, PA.  Pastor Dr. G. Edgar Hertzler was pastor at the time.  Reverend Hertzler was a good man who we all looked up to at the time.  We really looked up to him as he was about 6'6" tall.  Here are just a couple of those songs that still stick in my mind today.

Jacob's Ladder:

We are climbing Jacob's ladder, we are climbing Jacob's ladder,
we are climbing Jacob's ladder, soldiers of the Cross.

(I do not remember more verses.)

Heads and Shoulders:  To keep us moving we sang this:

Heads and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
Heads and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
(And I forget the rest of the song.)

But the song I remember best of all was this one, and we will close with it.

Jesus Loves Me

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

Now go forth, keeping your faith, sharing your blessings, and encouraging each other.  Above all else, keep your eyes on Jesus.  Love ya.  Please pass on my love and thanks for all who are praying for me.

Pastor Dan