Dear Father in Heaven: I love You very much. Thanks for going to the cross to save me from myself. Please forgive me for causing You so much pain. Please, Lord, be with our President and our veterans, plus our current military and all of our police and firefighters and all others who lay their lives on the line for us each day. Lord, I pray today for peace, worldwide peace, Lord. Father, until You send Jesus back, help us to keep working to get people to be saved. Oh, how I love You, Jesus, and I do want to get the good news out about You. Please keep Your blessings flowing on the missions of Carry The Light Ministries and help us in all we do that we do it for You and in telling people the good news about Jesus. Now, please, Lord, help me with the daily message and to then get it dispatched. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.
Dearest brothers and sisters: Memorial Day weekend is upon us already. Any of you remember what the holiday was named before it was named Memorial Day? Also, I think we should start using the real name for that holiday that happens on July 4th. Yes, it is Independence Day. We need to call the holidays what they really are named. Anyway, I want to get to the message. This Old Man has been having a good time writing about those Old Stories. I also want to try hard to get back to daily writing. Trust me, when you do not see me writing, it is because my pain level has been to a point my thinking is going south. I covet your prayers and being put on prayer lists. One of these mornings I just know, I just have faith I will wake up, here on earth and be pain-free because God will take care of it. Someone please shout AMEN. Now let me get to the message, Old Man, Old Story! And please remember that yesterday was Salvation Wednesday, but you can work just as hard for Jesus on Thursday.
Salvation Wednesday/Thursday: May 20-21, 2015: Old Man, Old Story! (Day Ten)
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.
2 Corinthians 9:6 - Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (NIV)
One day back when the streets were still dirt, my parents sent me out the door to go to Sunday School. Two dimes I was given, one for the collection plate and one to spend on myself. On the way to Sunday School, I dropped one of the dimes and it rolled down a storm sewer. I said, wow, there went God's dime right down the drain. While I should have given the remaining dime to God, that would not have been according to the Bible. As stated in our scripture, "God loves a cheerful giver." While that story did NOT happen to me, it is just one of those Old Stories that get passed on down the line. I do want to talk to you about that verse in the Bible that talks about being a "cheerful giver." At first when you start giving to God, and everyone needs to get started sometime, most get somewhat of a start either due to the fact they had good parents that taught them right or they would put some money in the plate at Christmas or Easter or the only time they would go to church. When the plate would pass by you really hated to give up more than a dollar, yet you would think nothing of spending dollars here or there for other things or junk. I have heard many times in my life and even years and years ago I said the same thing. "Until I get done paying the bills there is no money left to give to the church." Well, first of all we need to learn this, "You are not giving money to the church, you are giving the money to God through your church." The money is for the work of our Lord that your church is to be carrying out. But the biggest thing I learned when it came to giving to God is that if I would give to God first and gave to Him in faith, I could not out-give our dear Lord. Seems I could write a check out for God first and when I was done paying the bills there was some money left over. That, brothers and sisters, made me happy, and I became a "cheerful giver" and that of course is spelled out in our scripture of today.
Now I want you to look at another scripture with me. All throughout scripture we are told to not put God to the test except for when it comes to our giving. Let us look at Malachi 3:8.
Malachi 3:8 - Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'" "In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse, the whole nation of you, because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this" says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it." (NIV)
Again if we learn to give in faith to support God's work, He indeed will replace it with even more and more. Yes, go ahead and test Him, but be sure you do it in faith. Now you need to learn this also. You will become a cheerful giver for when you find your way to support the work of God and that work of God is to get the news about Jesus, Salvation, and His grace and mercy out to the masses. We have found out that the feeling you get all over when you help the needy makes you cheerful, it makes you feel really good all over. You do need to learn this, of course. When you give, you should try and be sure that you are supporting what you think you are supporting. If you are giving to a church, you need to find out what that church is supporting and if it is something that you would support on your own if you could. As an example, I want to point out that some churches support gay marriages and our good Lord does not approve of this. Some churches also say abortion is okay, that is up to the woman. So if you are a member of a church you need to find out where your dollars go and what they support. In other words, read the Word of The Lord, your Bible, and do what God wants done. Also, it is not always dollars that you can use to support the Lord, you can be working for Him by using the talents He furnished to you. Now this also could be used as a part of the "Golden Rule." Give unto God as you would like Him to give unto you. Amen.
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 pray and then go forth and spread the good news and share your blessings. Love ya. And please pass on my love to others.
Pastor Dan
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