Dear Father in Heaven: I love You, Lord. Thanks for cleaning me of my sins, dear Lord. I appreciate it, and I know that I am unworthy of it. Thanks for watching over family and friends and all those who use this line. Thanks for answering prayers according to Your will, dear Lord. Please help us this day as we go to gather food for the food pantry. Please help us with that harvest today and help us this Salvation Wednesday to help You with the harvest in Your fields, and now, dear Lord, please help me with the message and then help me to dispatch it. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Brothers and sisters, I am sorry that I have not written for a couple of days. Thanks to those who have been checking on me. Today is Wednesday, and that means it is Salvation Wednesday on this line, a day we work even harder for our Lord to bring in the lost to be saved. I need to get right to the road map and get going on this message today.
Salvation Wednesday: July 23, 2014, The Old Road Map (Day One)
Exodus 25:8 - Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. (NIV)
A "Sanctuary" is described as a sacred place, most often in a church building. It should be a place where it is sacred and is kept that way. I can remember as a young lad in our very young Sunday school class being taken into the church "sanctuary" by our pastor and told what it was and told in no uncertain terms that it was not a place to carry on and run around. Again at the beginning of Vacation Bible School we were told the same thing. Still years ago when I was a teacher at Vacation Bible School, I had to tell the children who came that the sanctuary was a very holy place and not a playground, a place in the church where people can go and sit down, even before church starts and call on the Holy Spirit to come in and come over them. It was a place of quiet worship where we could come and get nearer to Jesus.
Today I see in new churches that a sanctuary is more like a "playhouse" with all the theater type lights and even the smoke machines that put off all the effects. If our disciples of old would walk into a church of today, what might they think? Maybe they would think they would need a "playbill" and not that Sunday bulletin that we have handed to us. Maybe they would think they had the wrong road map out and instead of going into the sanctuary of a church they were in a karaoke bar or coffee house. I can recall the time when we would go into the church sanctuary with mamma and pop and sit down and just behave. And if I did not do just that, little Danny by would get his hide tanned a tad when I got home. I sometimes wonder if we are not near the point in some church "sanctuaries" that the line is crossed and it is no longer a sanctuary.
I think it is a darn shame when we must furnish entertainment to get people in church. While coffee was often served in Sunday School, it seems now we must have been coffee house places called "Starbucks." I wonder what road map people are using to find that church of their choice today. I mean today when you walk into some churches you see not just one or two drum sets on stage, you see three or more. There are a couple of pianos and a big organ, and maybe even a keyboard or two. Now I know the Bible tells us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, but have we gone beyond that point?
I can remember going into the church "sanctuary" and singing "Lord, prepare me to be a Sanctuary," and to me what that meant was that I was to become a sanctuary, a really nice peaceful place for Jesus to come and stay. This week, or what is left of it, I want to look at sanctuaries and see if we can find a road map that will lead us to a good one.
That's it for today. Now go forth and share your blessings. Love ya. Please share my love with others.
Pastor Dan
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