Wednesday 2/25/15 Talking to God (1)

Dear Father in Heaven: I love You, and I really appreciate You and I really appreciate the beautiful day You sent to us on this our Salvation Wednesday. All honor and glory to You for the great news on the release time program. Please, Lord, please keep blessing Pastor Bob and his flock from Young's Church. Lord, prayers for another one who needs work. Lord, thanks for opening a door for me to witness in the doctor's office today. Lord, please protect Your children around the world, and please help us to get Your Word out to the unsaved. Thanks for blessing the message of our guest writer. Now, Lord, please help me write the message and then to get it dispatched. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Salvation Wednesday again, my dear brothers and sisters. The time to work even harder to get the message out about our Lord Jesus. It indeed was a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. Carry The Light Ministries has many outreaches, and we just received a great report on the one where children are released from public school and transported to a local church for some good Bible Study. Brothers and sisters, we can still get the Word of the Lord to school kids, we just need to keep working harder at it. Over the next few days and it might even take a week, that will be what all God gives me on the subject, but we are going to be talking about praying, or in my words "Talking to God." I am going to start out with the Lord's Prayer and go through that. So for a few days we will be using the same scripture. Yes, I have written about this before, but this will be a fresh look. Ready?

Salvation Wednesday: February 25, 2015: Talking to God (Day One)

Matthew 6:9b - "Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." (KJV)

For those who are new to the line, let me background you on this a tad. Years and years ago I was a lay leader at Hope United Methodist Church, and Pastor Rick Denison was away and I was preaching. When I had the bulletin made up I did not have the words to the Lord's Prayer printed in that bulletin. When we went to pray, I offered the prayer, closing with the Lord's Prayer which was done every Sunday. Well, wouldn't you know it, I forgot where I was and so did everyone else, except for Miss Kim (Kim Murphy) who at that time was the minister of music. She bailed me out and got me back on track. It was then God first planted on my mind that we were not praying this prayer, we were just saying it. So God planted on my mind that I needed to write about it. Fast forward to the other day. I had just finished praying with Dolores and I decided to close with the Lord's Prayer. Guess what, I forgot it again. So it is back to the books. I talked to God about it and He planted on my heart it was time for a refresher course on this wonderful prayer. So we will take a fresh look, not looking back to what I write before. So if you are ready, I am. Let's get started. We are just going to look at a verse or two each day.

Matthew 6:9b - "Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name."

"Our" means us, you and me, and I want you to think about this. Jesus is also included in the word "Our" for indeed the Bible is quoting Jesus.

"Father" - This is our Heavenly Father we are praying or talking to. Again, Our Father in Heaven is also the Father of Jesus. For this I want to reference this scripture:

Matthew 26:39 - Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will." (NIV)

This was Jesus praying or talking to His Father the night before He was put to death on the cross. This occurred at Gethsemane. Now back to the Lord's Prayer.

"Which art in Heaven." This line or phrase is just telling us where Our Father resides. Since we have earthly fathers, and in some religions the pastors are addressed as "Fathers," this brings right to the point who we are praying to or talking to. Yes, we are praying to Our Father in Heaven and not our earthly father or religious leader.

"Hallowed" means "to make or set apart as holy; sanctified and/or consecrated." I am quoting on t his from the American Heritage Dictionary.

"Be Thy Name." Here we are talking about His name being Hallowed, the Name of "Father." Okay, that to me now just describes who we pray to or talk to. Now while Jesus goes right to Our Father, we need to approach our Father in Heaven a tad differently, just a tad. Do you want to offer up an answer how it is different? I will bring it out at the end of this series. Now since we are learning this prayer, I think we should close with it each day. So please pray with me now, and yes, please pray the prayer.

"Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

Now go forth and share your blessings and maybe also this wonderful prayer.  Love ya.

Pastor Dan