Saturday 2/21/15 Working (1)

Dear Father in Heaven: I love You very much. Please forgive me of my sins and help me daily to be nearer to You and to follow You even better than the day before. Please, dear Lord, watch over all those who are  having severe weather and please keep them safe. Thanks for our warm home, and please protect it and protect all of us who will be going out to clear streets and parking lots. Be with all those who must work out in the weather and keep them safe. Protect your critters that live outdoors. Please watch over our nation, and be with all those who work  hard to protect her. Be with our president and all of our military units regardless of where they serve. I praise You, Lord, that You are in control. Please  help us to take one day at a time. Help me with the message and to get it dispatched. Lord, thank You for the call from Pastor Phil. It helped me so much. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, it is cold here at the Southern Location of the North Pole, and it is snowing again. Please send prayers to our Lord for those who are so much worse off than we are, and yes, you can pray for us also. I want to get started with the next series that should tie into our last series. I do want everyone to know that I am still going to end each day with that prayer of salvation. Never know when someone is ready to give it all up for Jesus. For me, I like to renew each day, so each day I confess my sins to the Lord. Please cover me with prayers as I am out plowing tonight.

Saturday: February 21, 2015: Working (Day One)

Ephesians 2:8 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (NIV)

Everyday people get up and go to work, school, or someplace, good loving people who help many others. They live a great life, they really are good people. They have not been involved in rime. Some even go to church, and they work around the church, they cook in the kitchen, they stay and wash dishes, they clean the church, and they do great things like that at their church. They are doing all this work expecting to get into  heaven. Of course, regardless of how good you are we all sin. However, they missed one important thing. You cannot work your way into heaven. You just cannot do that. Why? So once people get to heaven no one can boast about how they got in. Our scriptures tell us that to get in we just need to accept this free gift.

What is this free gift? Jesus!! You must accept the gift of God. This free gift of God must be claimed. You see the gift is for everyone. The free gift from God is Salvation and it is Jesus and what He did for us. As you can see in Ephesians 2:8, we are saved by grace through faith and not from ourselves. We cannot EARN Salvation, we just can't. So if we can't earn it, or work for it, what then must we do? We need to believe, really believe in our Lord Jesus. And we need to confess that we believe.

A gift of any type really needs a giver and a receiver. If someone gives you a gift, let's say of something you really do not like ... so after this person who gave you the gift leaves, you just take that gift and throw it into the trash and it goes into the trash. So let's see, God gives us Jesus, who dies on the cross for us, is risen from the dead, and all this to forgive us of our sins, and we never take the free gift, we do not pick it up. What's worse is some people even "trash" the gift of God, they "trash" Him by doing a lot of things against Him.

In the next few days we will be talking about working and working for God. Oh, yes, we will go over that, for we must work for God, but we do need to accept Him. Sounds confusing, but it really is not. So here is my question for today. Have you picked up your free gift yet or are you just leaving it lay? While you do not need to get on your knees to pray and accept Jesus as your Savior, it seems to me when something is being picked up, oftentimes it is on the floor. So why not just get on your knees tonight and ask Jesus to come into your heart through the power of the Holy Spirit? Lots more coming this week on working. Let's pray:

Dear Father in Heaven, please forgive me of my sins and wash me clean. I do believe that You were born of a virgin mother, walked this earth, were killed on the Cross and were risen from the dead. I believe that in my heart and confess it with my mouth. Please save me now, Lord. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings. Jesus loves you, loves you so much He died for you. I love you also. Please share the love of Jesus and mine also.

Love ya, Pastor Dan