Sunday 11/9/14 What's In a Name?

Dear Father in Heaven:  What a beautiful day You provided for us.  Thanks for all You do for all of us.  I love You, and thanks for loving me, loving us.  Please wash us clean of sins.  Lord, thanks for our church service  here at home today.  Please, Lord, be with President Obama, and I pray first for his soul and for  his salvation if he does not know you one on one.  I pray for his family that they also know You.  Please be with our veterans as we come up on Veterans' Day here in the United States of America.  Thanks for our Nation.  Please protect her, Lord.  I pray for our current military, that You would keep them safe and bring all of them home very soon.  I pray today for worldwide peace and for the return of Jesus.  Until then, help me repent of my sins and keep working hard for You.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Happy Sunday, brothers and sisters.  It was a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole.  A reminder, our food pantry will need help on Saturday, December 6th, as we pick and pack food and then again on Saturday, December 13th, for the big Christmas food distribution.  We are expecting 75 families to come for groceries.  We are picking up a big food order at Mutzabaugh Foods in Perry County on Tuesday, about a $3000.00 order.  As you know, we do not get any food from Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, the big food bank that supplies most of the smaller pantries like Carry The Light Ministries.  I would not sign on with them, as they told me we could not pray with people who come for food.  We do receive some help from New Hope Ministries, and we appreciate that very much.  While New Hope is looking for 5000 turkeys for Thanksgiving, we need 71 more for Christmas.  Look, it is getting late and I need to get to the message, "What's In a Name?"

Sunday, November 9, 2014, What's In a Name? (Day One)

Proverbs 3:3 - Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.  (NIV)

Back when I was but a lad, back when the streets were dirt and the Dead Sea was sick, and growing up in Harrisburg, PA, my dear mother would comfort me or try and comfort me when other kids would call me names, "Four Eyes," Ugly," "Dummy."  When we played pickup sports, I was the kid called last, and others would say "you are stuck with Danny."  My mother would put her arms around me and tell me to tell the other kids "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never harm me."  The truth of the matter is, when people call others names it does hurt them, it really does.  Sometimes I would think a broken bone would be nicer than someone calling me a name.  Name calling could scar someone for life, it really could.

As I look at the scripture above, it tells me this.  If we love God and love others as commanded by our Lord Jesus and we keep that love and faithfulness with us, then we will win a good name in the sight of God and also from man.   I don't know about you, but I really want to have a good name in the sight of the Lord our God.  I really need to try and live up to the name my parents gave me.  "Daniel" or God is my Judge.  When I look back on my younger days, it makes me sick at some of the names I used against others.  And yes, it makes me even sicker at some of the names I called our Lord.  Yes, I cursed and sometimes when others called me names, I called them names back.  Oh, that really helped, didn't it?  I have confessed these sins over to God a long time ago and told a lot of people that I was sorry for the way I treated them.

If you see a "large" person and you refer to them as "fat" they might laugh and smile but deep down it is hurting them.  I know because I was a big person at one time.  Someone once asked me, what should we call someone who is "fat?"  I said, why not call them by their name?  You need to remember that we are all made in the image of God, yes, in the image God we are made.

Over the next few days we are going to be taking a look at What's In a Name and how powerful those names can be.  Is there really power in a name, or would that power be in the person who might carry that name?  That is just one of many questions that we will look into.  Right now my dear wife, the Sargent, just came in and sat down beside me. We are about to go over the message.  God is good, He really is.

Proverbs 18:10 - The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.  (NIV)

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

Pastor Dan