Wednesday 4/22/15 Fear!

Dear Father in Heaven: Thanks for another beautiful day. You are wonderful and I love You, and I know You will watch over me tomorrow, and I give You glory for doing that. Thanks for taking care of our families and our friends and all those who use this line. Please keep Your hand upon Art and Elaine and help them. Please be with Glenn and Marie and their family. Lord, strength is needed by those in their family. Be with Dolores tomorrow and keep her strong and with Grant as he watches over and helps me. Lord, please help me with the message and then to get it dispatched. Thanks for all You do, and Lord, on this our Salvation Wednesday, help us to lead others to Your feet to be saved. I love You and I pray in the name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, it was indeed a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. Beautiful with a nice shower at noon. Ministry partner Wanda Crockett's parents are in need of prayer. Please cover Glenn and Marie with prayer for healing. Also, Wanda so that she can get some needed rest. Please remember it is Salvation Wednesday and the day we work extra hard to witness to others. Time to get to the message, Fear!

Salvation Wednesday: April 22, 2015: Fear! (Day One)

Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (NIV)

Job 1:8 - Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." (NIV)

1 John 4:18 - There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, you will recall that often I think God is giving me a message to write to all of us, yes us, you and me. I confess to you folks, and I know God is watching over me, so I am also confessing this to Him. Lately I have had this fear in me, the fear of falling, the fear of Dolores falling, and really a fear of this being put to sleep Thursday to have my dental work done.

I mean I have some of those standard fears like I have always had, a fear of height, and I can get over that, I just do not climb. But this fear is different. The Bible tells us that the real fear we should have is of God, and I do have that reverent fear of Him and His powers.

When I look at the scripture from Proverbs, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." I can only say to this that I am acting like "A Fool" and I need to overcome that and trust more and more in the Lord each day.

In the scripture from Job: "Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.'" I already knew, this is just God pointing it out to me again that it is Satan trying to get me and he is causing this fear. I know deep in my heart that God is in control and He will be in control of what happens on Thursday and each day of my life. I told Dolores just before I started writing that we need to work harder at taking one day at a time. Here I am writing to others and I have this fear myself. So today I am going to try harder to put away the fear, and I am going to pull on you folks who have been with me for years and years to just cover me with prayers not just for this surgery, but with all the moves we are making as Carry The Light Ministries takes on different missions. I will write more about the new missions of Carry The Light in the very near future.

Then I look at this scripture: 1 John 4:18 - "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." I look at this now and I just know God is telling me that my "love for Him" is not perfect. If my love for Jesus was perfect then indeed I would not have fear of these things, I would just have that reverent fear of our Lord Himself.

So what is God pointing out to me and also to those of you who carry this kind of fear? He is pointing out to me that I need to love Him more and more, that I need to move even closer to Him and I need to work even harder at repenting of my sins. I need to pray harder to keep Satan away from me. I need to learn not to have concern over things I have no control and trust more and more in God who has CONTROL OVER ALL THINGS. Do you folks know where I am coming from? I need to work harder to keep that Jesus smile on your faces and while I am doing that, maybe mine is slipping some and I need to work harder on my own Jesus smile. So brothers and sisters, I would appreciate you all praying for me for awhile, cover me with prayer while I am down for a few days and for God to bring me back fresh and with more and more improvement in my love for Him, which I thought was good. I know this, I love Him above all else and I know that He loves me just as I am. However, I am sure He wants me to keep working to get better in my love for Him. Does this make sense to you folks? Let me know.

Dear Father in Heaven, I know I love You, but help me get even better at it and at repenting of my sins. Block Satan from my life, and help me fight him off. Protect me and all others who are really praying this with me. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Now pray and go forth, and try hard to walk with your only fear being of our Lord Himself. Love ya.

Pastor Dan