Saturday 5/30/15 Old Man, Old Story (14)

Dear Father in Heaven: I love You. Thanks for 33 years as of today with Dolores. Thanks for placing her in my life. Thanks for clearing me of my sins. Please, Lord, watch over Vicki as she waits for test results, and Lord, thanks for my great test results from my doctor. All honor and glory goes to You, dear Lord. Please, Lord, keep Your healing hand on Helen and thank You for bringing her through surgery. Thanks for watching over families and friends. Thanks for a great Friday and Saturday. Please help me now with the message and then to get it dispatched. Lord, please help me with the subject You have planted on my mind and to get it right for You. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, what a great two days. Friday morning Dolores and I set out to run some errands. When we came home Grant and Wanda were here working hard on our lawn. Just past noon Pam arrived and we gathered around a table for some homemade meatloaf and to say Happy Birthday to Pam. While together we talked about how we are going to move forward with Carry The Light Ministries. Today, Saturday, is our 33-year wedding anniversary. God has blessed us very well over the years and after a lot of prayers we are once again going to PUSH FULL AHEAD WITH FEEDING THE HUNGRY. With those things said, I want to get to the message, Old Man, Old Story.

Saturday: May 30, 2015, Old Man, Old Story! (Day Fourteen)

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.

Today the story is going to take a twist. However, I will come back to Genesis next week and pick up again on the Creation story. Today something happened and after praying about this over and over, God told me that I must write about this. For my scripture I am going to:

1 Peter 5:1 - To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed. 2 Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be. (NIV)

Dolores and I had decided that this year on our anniversary instead of going out and spending money for a big dinner that we would head to a local church that was having a community dinner. Now while I am not going to mention the name of the church I do want to tell you a few things that happened. First you need to know that we have been at the church for dinners before when they had community dinners and we left a check to help support that outreach.

Today we arrived a tad early as we also decided to take food from Carry The Light's Food Pantry to be given to the needy who came to eat at the community dinner. I noticed as they began to serve that no one blessed the food that was on the table. Their pastor was behind the serving line helping to dish food. Maybe all the helpers got together while preparing the food and prayed over it. I don't know that. I did not get to talk to the pastor as I struggle to walk, and I was served a very tasty chicken and waffle meal. We sat at a table for a tad over an hour watching people come and go and enjoying our meal. But something was missing. The pastor never went around to any table to greet anybody, and again, no one prayed over the food. When I got up to leave I asked one of the men from the church if I could make a suggestion. He said "yes." I suggested that about every half hour someone might tell a short message about Jesus to those who came to eat ... HE LAUGHED IN MY FACE!!!  I was very serious and even cried when I arrived home. All these poor and needy people coming in to eat and not one person was FEEDING THEIR SOUL. The man did tell me he would place a note in "their suggestion box."

I was also asked what to do with the extra food that might be left over, and I told them to give it to the needy. With that they told me that they would see it went to New Hope Ministry which is a GREAT AND WONDERFUL food pantry. However, being we are a food pantry and pulled the food from our shelves, we did suggest that if there was any left over, and I am talking canned goods, etc., that we would pick them up and return them to our inventory. I do know if that does not happen, New Hope Ministry will not waste the food. They work well with us. We have a good relationship with them and want to keep it that way.

At our ministry I know that I have made many mistakes, but one thing I have learned is that when God assigns you a flock to take care of, meaning a pastor, etc,. we are responsible and accountable to our Lord God for the souls of those that God has placed in front of us, and us includes me. This is only the third time in my life where I attended a dinner at a church and and nobody prayed for the food, and all three times it was the same church.

I do invite all the pastors who follow this line to weigh in on this subject with me. I am old in years, but young when it comes to working full-time for Jesus, and I want to get it right. I can attest to this. All people who have received food from Carry The Light Ministries have been prayed over and also asked point blank if they know Jesus as their personal savior.

Dear Father in Heaven, I pray that I covered this message as You expected me to do without hurting feelings of others but getting the message out that the soul must be fed also. Father, my first duty is now and always will be from now on to do what Your will is. Thanks, Father, for trusting me to work for You. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Now pray and go forth and share God's blessings. Love ya.

Pastor Dan