Wednesday 10/15/14 Follow The Leader 2

Dear Father in Heaven:  I love You very much.  Please forgive me of my sins.  Thanks, dear Lord, for watching over our families and our flock online and our flock at The Bridges.  Lord, thanks for bringing Art and Elaine home safely.  Praise You for that, Lord.  Bless the doctor who is leaving his practice to work in missions.  Father, I pray for all those who struggle at work each day and I pray that You have Your hand on every workplace across this land of ours.  Lord, help those who do not have jobs to find them, and help those folks who will not go to work to get up and get going.  Lord, Your word tells us that if we will not work, we should not eat.  Lord, help us teach people that as we hand them food.  Lord, please protect those in the path of the hurricane.  Lord, please be with Your servant "Richard" and take care of him and his family.  Lord, it is Salvation Wednesday on our line.  Please, Lord, help us to seek out the lost and guide them to Your feet to be saved.  Now, Lord, if You would please help me with the message and then help me get it dispatched, I would appreciate it.  In The Name of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.

Salvation Wednesday, brothers and sisters, and the day we work harder to bring in the lost to be saved.  We really need to get the word out, brothers and sisters.  As you watch the events in the news, you can read about these things also in your Bible.  Please pray today for all those in line of the storms that are coming.  There is a category four hurricane heading for the Bahamas.  Did you see the school bus on the news?  The driver was DUI on drugs.  Praise God, no accident and no one hurt.  They also confirmed what I had said the other day.  Very, very safe transportation.  Twenty times safer than riding in the car with their parents.  Please pray today for God's servant Richard "Dick" Warden.  Dick was and still is president of my senior class, 1959, "John Harris High School," Harrisburg, PA.  Let me get to the message, Follow The Leader.  (Yes, I took Tuesday off.)

Salvation Wednesday, October 15, 2014:  Follow The Leader (Day Two)

Numbers 32:10 - The Lord's anger was aroused that day and He swore this oath:  11 Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 12 not one except ----------- (NIV)

Some people think because we have an "all loving God" that He never gets upset or angry.  I wanted to bring this out today as it indeed shows that God did get angry and even said that because some had not followed wholeheartedly they would not make it to the "promised land."  Now there were some exceptions, and you can pick up your Bible and keep reading from Numbers 32.  My point today is to show you that we need to really get serious about following our dear Lord Jesus.

I mentioned that we have a lot of leaders, and we do.  Think about all the leaders you have had in your life.  Your parents, maybe a scout leader.  I had my very first boss, who gave me a paper route, he was our leader in news delivery.  Not one of us have had just one or two leaders.  Think about it, take a good look at it.  How many of you have had leaders who at one time or another failed you?  If my kids, now grown, would be honest, they would tell you that I failed them.  Oh yes, and they forgave me years ago.  I also managed school buses, and yes, I made mistakes as the leader of the fleet.  I am telling you that we have all had leaders who failed us, and as leaders, we for sure, sometime in our lives, failed as a leader.  So we must make some judgment calls along the way.  No, I am not judging others as to getting into heaven, but we do need to make some judgments about who we follow, who we tell our children and others to follow.  Even when you sit in our church you must make some judgments, for you must decide if your pastor is teaching and preaching from the Bible or is he or she just blowing smoke?  You know, talking about things not in the Bible.  Example?  Sure.  If your pastor is approving gay marriage, it is time to pack up and find another church.  Look, you must love everyone, but you must hate the sins of those.  Look, I even hate my own sins, and I surely love myself.  (We are told that in the Bible.)  You have heard me say often everyone needs a GOOD CHURCH, but the real bottom line is to check it out on your own.  Even with that said, we must follow the real leader, the one who never sins.

Now let me just talk about this wholeheartedly thing.  It fits in so many places.  Let's start with raising children.  It should be done wholeheartedly, but what does that mean?  Do it right.  Work hard at it.  Then what about at your job?  Any job worth doing is worth doing right.  Oh, they don't pay you enough?  And you say, if they give you a raise you will work harder?  How about working wholeheartedly for the boss and then asking for the raise?  In whatever yo do, do it to the best of your ability and work hard at it.  But don't follow the leader if they are leading you wrong.  Okay, time for me to go for today, so why not work getting people to the real leader who never fails?  Tomorrow we are going to look again as we "Follow The Leader."  How are we called?  To what level are we called?

Now go forth and share your blessings.  Love ya.  Please pass on my love.

Pastor Dan

What's purple and fixes pipes and toilets?   A plum-er!