Dear Father in Heaven: I love You very much. What a great day You gave us this day. How blessed we truly are because of You. You look after us in all we do and You help us in our daily struggles. You send help to us when we need it most. Father, THANK YOU, bless You, Lord, I praise You, Lord. Please, Lord, watch over Grant as he travels this evening to practice singing Your music. Be with all of Your ministry team and all those who support the missions You have assigned to us here at Carry The Light Ministries. Lord, I pray for our leaders, our President as he leads this nation. I pray for our Governor Tom Corbett, and I pray You will watch over him. I know he loves You, Lord. Please help him stay in office. He supports life. Please watch over our troops, regardless of where they are stationed, and Lord, please be with our police, and Lord, help the one who shot the Pennsylvania State Troopers to be captured. Dear Father in Heaven, please help me with the message and to get it dispatched. And Lord, I pray for total peace. Come quickly, Lord, come quickly, and until that time, help us to stay on our mission to get Your Word of Salvation out to the masses. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.
Good evening, my dear brothers and sisters. It was indeed a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. I must tell you this short story. A young truly needy lady stopped in today to pick up food. She works hard at a part-time job and she has a dear baby boy. This is the baby I anointed with oil while still in the mother's womb (yes, with permission and others watching). I put a cross with oil on her belly. The baby was the youngest baby in Santa's arms last year at Christmas and was anointed as a baby and dedicated to the Lord. Anyway, today she was in for food and told me that someday she wanted to be able to help others. So it opened the door for me to tell her to trust in God and even out of her little check she gets she needs to give a few dollars away off the top, put it back first for God. Also even take some of the much-needed food she received and give some of it away. I pray she will do this. So I ask that all of you pray for her, and while I cannot post her name, just pray for this "young lady" to dig deeper into God.
Brothers and sisters, I know we are closing the food pantry after the Christmas distribution, but we just need to keep helping a few people who really try to hard and we will find a way to do it. Please keep the missions of Carry The Light Ministries in your prayers. Now on to the message!
Monday: October 27, 2014: Running (Day Two)
1 Corinthians 9:24 - Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one gets the prize. Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the game goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (NIV)
While seeking out scriptures today to continue on with messages on running, God pointed me to 1 Corinthians 9 starting with verse 24. Most all of you know that my favorite sport is automobile racing. Yes, it is a sport and I am a NASCAR fan and Jeff Gordon, car 24, is the one I like to see win. Why 24? Because when I started watching NASCAR, Mr. Gordon would always give God the glory, win or lose. I pray he would still do that, so I pray for him and even write him a letter once in awhile, asking him to go back to being open about his praise for God. However, I do believe he is saved. I did get off the point a tad. Yesterday I watched the race coming from Martinsville, West Virginia, the top prize a really big grandfather clock, plus a lot of money. Number 24 came in second, his teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr., won the race and got the prize.
The Bible tells us that anyone running a race goes into strict training and the race car drivers do just that. They lift weights, work out, and of course need to keep their minds sharp. Their team does the same thing and it is a team sport. Think of how strong one of the pit crew must be to lift one of those tires onto the car, with one hand while running. At the end of the race yesterday, Dale Jr. went to the winner's circle along with his team, and there they celebrated and were presented with that big prize, the grandfather clock. How long does Dale and his crew get to celebrate the victory? About a day, and the clock? Into a trophy room to collect dust. After one race a few years back at another track, the winner received a guitar, a real beauty, and that driver smashed it, that is how he celebrated the victory, he smashed the prize.
We who are saved run a race also, and surely we want to win the prize, but the race we are running is to get into heaven. And our race is also a team effort. I want to bring this out. Yesterday Dale won the race. He could have sort of slowed down a tad and left his teammate win. After all, Jeff is running for the championship, Dale is already out.
1 Corinthians 9:26 - Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (NIV)
We Christians should not be running like a person running these earthly races and beating our bodies up winning things that go away. We beat up our bodies for the Lord. Wow, I really needed this, yes, my body is being beat up, and I still want to push forward for the Lord. PRAISE YOU, JESUS, for keeping this in front of me. If we are truly going to beat up our bodies, and yes, sports players do this in all sports, it makes better sense to me to beat it up for God. But hang on here, I did not beat up my body for Jesus to start, but doing things I liked to do. Now I have come fully to God and find out that the prize that I have won is Salvation, and more than one can win this prize. There is more than one "grandfather clock." All who come to Jesus get the prize, the trophy, and what is that prize? It is Heaven, and to be with Jesus. Think of this, a team won that race in Martinsville, but there was only one grandfather clock. Who gets it? The driver or which member of the team? In our race, and it is a team effort, and when we come to Jesus, each one of us working together we all get to heaven. Yes, it is personal between each of us and Jesus, but we need to help our teammates, we need to reach out and pull them to the feet of Jesus. After all, someone helped us.
I want you to think about this, those sports guys make millions of dollars, and we, we get Jesus, streets of Gold, a Mansion, PLUS everything we have here on earth. Maybe the best way to sum this up is say that those grandfather clocks are built in West Virginia, our gifts, well, they are HEAVENLY! Amen.
Now go forth and share those blessings, sharing the love of God and winning the race that really counts. Love ya. Please pass on my love.
Please pray for Mr. Gordon to go back to openly giving God the glory.
Pastor Dan
Who carries their home with them on their back and seems to never get tired?
A turtle!
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