Monday 5/11/15 Old Man, Old Story! (5)

Dear Father in Heaven: I love You and I love to tell You that I love You, but more so I want to try my best to repent of my sins and walk each step with You. In other words, dear Lord, I want my actions to speak more than my words. Please help me show my love for You as I ask this day for Your help to repent and live a better life for You. Please, Lord, be with Helen Thomas and help her through surgery. Be also with the family and friends of the police officers who were murdered recently. Please, Lord, be with our military, our police, and all those who are working to keep us safe. Please also help bring peace in the neighborhoods across the United States where it seems like our children, those in their twenties, are just killing each other. Please, Lord, help our black brothers from shooting each other. Lord, You are the One and only One that can put a stop to all of this. Lord, help us to help You get it done. Please help me now with a message and then to get it dispatched. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, what a beautiful Mothers Day and another beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. Almost everyday we hear of another place that is going to open that sells booze. More and more places to purchase booze and the home brews. Is there anyone besides me that thinks maybe if the booze was stopped or put under better control that some of these murders and shootings would stop? Now besides the murders and the police that were killed, one 21-year old in our area is dead because of a drug overdose. With all that said, our police need to be afraid to do their job for fear they do not have the support of their higher-ups as in Baltimore, where the mayor even had the police stand down while a section of the town was burned down. Things are backwards here, folks. There is one common denominator in all of this. There is no Jesus. People have walked away from God. Where are the people who love Jesus? Why are they not coming out from behind the walls of the church? Brothers and sisters, we need Jesus more than ever. Please, brothers and sisters, please pray for our police officers. They have a job to do and they need our support to get it done. Okay, let me get on to the message, Old Man, Old Story.

Monday: May 11, 2015: Old Man, Old Story (Day Five)

I Love to Tell the Story (Catherine Hankey, William G. Fischer)

Chorus:

I love to tell the story! 'Twill be my theme in glory.
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

I love to tell the story! 'Twill be my theme in glory.
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

Mark 1:14 - After John (John the Baptist) was put in prison Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," He said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (NIV)

I want to take you back to when I was a child, yes, back to the days when in Harrisburg PA, some of the streets were still dirt and my mamma was teaching her little Danny boy this. If you can't say something good about someone, then do not say anything at all. I can truthfully say that I never heard my mamma say a bad thing about anyone. There might have been a time or two that she wanted to, but she never did. In the eyes of my mamma, all people were good people, no exceptions. Never would she put someone down. If anyone was walking in the light of Jesus, my mamma was and she tried to teach it to both my brother and me. One time in Sunday School class at the 29th Street United  Brethren Church the teacher asked us, does anyone love someone more than they love Jesus? I raised my hand and I told him that I loved my mamma more than I loved Jesus. His answer, which I will never forget, was to tell  me that it was a different kind of love. That was the wrong answer then and it would still be the wrong answer today. After Sunday School I told my mamma what I had said and she held me in her arms and told me that the love is the same and I should love Jesus even more than I love her. Then she told me about the pain she went through to deliver me, and then she went on to tell me this Old Story, and now this Old Man wants to tell that Old Story.

The old story is about the Good News and the Good News is about our Salvation and how much Jesus loved us as He took a beating for us and was nailed to a cross for us. My mamma's love for me was unconditional, but even more so, my dear Jesus' love for me was/is also unconditional. When I would mess up at home and cross certain lines mamma would punish me, and then she would forgive me. When I sin, my dear Lord will also forgive me, and do I get punished by Him? Yes, sometimes I do, but in the end Jesus will forgive me, He will forgive me. Did I tell you that He will forgive me? He forgave me then and He will forgive me again today. In our scripture today in the Words of Jesus He just wants us to "Repent and believe." And what are we to believe? The GOOD NEWS about our Lord Jesus and how He died for us. Please do not turn your back on Jesus. Rest easy knowing this, HE WILL NEVER TURN HIS BACK ON YOU. Let us sing that chorus again.

I Love to Tell the Story (Catherine Hankey, William G. Fischer)

Chorus:

I love to tell the story! 'Twill be my theme in glory.
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

I love to tell the story! 'Twill be my theme in glory.
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

Now I want to ask all of you, will you come to the cross with me right now?

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
the emblem of suffering and shame.
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best,
for a world of lost sinners was slain.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
'Til my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it someday for a crown.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
its shame and reproach gladly bear.
Then He'll call me someday to my home far away
Where His glory forever I'll share.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
'Til my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it someday for a crown.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
'Til my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it someday for a crown.

Dear Father in Heaven: I come to the cross today and I ask for You to cover my sins with the blood of Jesus. Please save me today, as I love You and believe in You as my savior. I believe the good news about being Born Again. Save me, please, Lord, save me, please. In the Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Now pray and go forth and share your blessings and please share the Old Story about the Good News. Love ya. Please pass on my love.

Pastor Dan