Dear Father in Heaven: I love You very much. Father, I confess to You this day that this has been a very hard week here at our earthly home. Still, Lord, I know we are so blessed, so please forgive me when I complain. Please watch over our flock at The Bridges and see they have someone to carry on Your work from the Bible. Please, Lord, watch over the part of our family that yesterday left for a farm. Please, Lord, as we go through these changes in life and our work for You, remind me that I need to just come nearer and nearer to You. Lord, be with our military this day and watch over them. From the commander-in-chief to the grunt who carries out the battle plans, be with them and protect them. Thanks for watching over our family and our ministry team, dear Lord, and thanks for watching over us. Lord, if it is Your will, please help me with this rare Sunday Morning message, and help me to get back into the groove of writing for You each day. Remind me, dear Lord, that we are not going to stop working for You, just shifting gears a tad. Thanks for standing by this old sinner and forgiving me. Now, Lord, help me get to work for You and then help the message go out to the masses. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, all of you by now know we are changing things in our lives, mostly because of some health issues that involve a lot of pain. This has been a very hard week. Last Sunday we pastored our last service at The Bridges. It was hard, very hard. Yesterday after handing out food to folks who have come here month after month for food, i saw this truck pull up our driveway pulling a small horse trailer. I knew what it was here for. With the help of our dear friends Grant and Wanda, we had located a good home for our "goat family." Each morning for years and years we would hear our "kids" calling for us. Each morning for years I would go out and throw them some hay and sit beside the pen and pet their cute noses. Now they are gone, to a farm home in Perry County, to live out their lives on a "goat farm." I cried a lot this week. Yes, I shed tears, big ones, and I wear pink shirts. This morning after another sleepless night I came out thinking the only way to get over these changes is to come nearer and nearer to God and go to scriptures that bring some comfort. The place in the Bible that our Father took me is:
Sunday: September 7, 2014: The Shepherd
Psalm 23:1 - The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul, He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, I have written on the 23rd Psalm before, and I have preached on it a few times in our twelve and a half years at The Bridges. There are six verses in this lovely Psalm so I am going to try and cover one verse each day this week. I also want to try and get the message out in the mornings. So let me get started.
Psalm 23, verse one: The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. (KJV)
When I look back over my life, and I am talking all the way back to as far as I can remember, I was never in want of things. God surely has provided my needs over the years, and yes, a lot of my wants also. Listen to these words from Isaiah.
Isaiah 58:11 - The Lord will guide you always: He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. (NIV)
Look at this, and again I tell you that as I write the messages most often they are for me along with you. Today for sure is one of those days. Making these changes to Carry The Light Ministries and to Dolores and my personal life, we did a lot of praying. We prayed together and we each prayed about what we needed to do. We also knew and know that quitting is not an option here at our home. The 23rd Psalm is used a lot at funeral services. I have heard many pastors use this scripture to comfort those who are suffering life without the person who is, well, in the casket.
From the Words, The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, to The Lord will guide you always and so many other scriptures in the Bible, I know in times of our troubles, our Lord Jesus is not going to "Run From Us." When I look back in my life, I mean way back, back at a time when the Dead Sea was still sick, I had a caring mother and father, yes, my mamma loved everyone and you could see Jesus on her face and see it in her walk. Dad loved Jesus also, but he was not as outspoken as mamma. Mamma laid the groundwork for me. She taught me about Jesus and His love for me, and then one day she was just gone. Back in those days, my mamma was really my shepherd, along with help from daddy, and they looked to Jesus as The Shepherd or their Shepherd. Yes, I was so blessed, so very blessed. We did not have a lot of money, no TV for a long time in our house. Mamma read the Bible a lot, for that was the way she was raised. When my mamma died after a long time in the hospital following a car accident where I was driving and we were hit by a drunk driver, I lost my earthly shepherd. Daddy could not fill that void. But as the Bible tells us and points it out this day, the Lord will guide you always. And He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land. Wow, I think I need to send that verse to Hillary Clinton who was just talking about global warming. Here Isaiah talks about global warming, or so to speak.
So at a very early age I found out that the Lord will guide you always, if we just really do this one thing. Open up our hearts and let Him in to do it. No one can guide someone who does not want to be guided. An example of that is when my mamma was called home, I did a walk-about from the Lord. I thought I could handle things without God,I thought I could do it alone, alone meaning with earthly friends but without being tight with the Lord. So now at my age, I am seeing more and more the need to come nearer and nearer to God. To remind myself of the term I used, I am not going to stop working for God, just shifting gears, and for sure God is not going to stop loving me. He will be there for me as He always has been. He has walked the high spots with me and carried me in those low spots. He will not stop loving me, and today I want to be sure and tell you HE WILL NOT STOP LOVING YOU EITHER. If you let Him, He will walk each step with you, and He will supply your needs and a lot of your wants.
Now please go forth and share those blessings He has laid upon you, and just remember when you share them in faith, He will reward you with even more. It sure is exciting to see what is around the next corner. Love ya. And please pass on my love to others.
Pastor Dan
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