Saturday 9/26/15 Open Line

Dear Father in Heaven: I love You. Thanks for watching over us, and thanks for watching over this prayer line. I ask, dear Lord, that You protect this line as there are people trying to wipe it out. Please, Lord, place Your firewall of protection on this computer. Lord, please be with Glenn Gamber and comfort and heal him. Watch over Marie also. Please continue to watch over Pope Francis and keep him out of harm's way. Dear Father in Heaven, please bless me now with the message and then please help me to get it dispatched. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.

Hi, brothers and sisters. Sorry about not having a message on Friday. I went for some tests to get ready for surgery and when I got home I was, well, just worn out. So I took a nap, made dinner, and then laid across the bed to rest with Martin Martin Jr., Angel, Marvin, and Missy, and we all fell asleep. Glenn Gamber needs our prayers and while you pray for him, please include his family.

Help needed! Dolores and I could use a little help. What we need would take three or four people about an hour or two. We have what was a wooden porch in our back yard and it needs ripped out, sawed up and placed in trash cans. Our cats are getting stuck under it. It is also rotten and if stepped on one could break a bone or two. I have the tools to do the job, but my old body will not get it done. Then it would be nice to have steps made to get out of the house through that door if we had a fire or something.

Let me get to the message, Open Line.

Luke 6:27 - "But I tell you who hear me, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (NIV)

I just love looking back. I can remember in my days of childhood going to my Uncle Lester and Aunt Romaine's with my dad and mamma. Pop and Uncle Lester were brothers, and God bless her heart, my dear Aunt Romaine is still on the green side of the grass and causing people to smile even though she has dementia. As I recall they had one phone in their farm home and it was a wall phone. And like our phone at home it was a party line. If you watch those old reruns of Sheriff Andy you might recall that he picks up the phone and talks to an operator, I believe her name was Sarah. Sarah, get me the diner, or Sarah, please connect me with Barney. Well, we did not need to ask an operator to place a call, but we did need to wait for an open line. Before you would dial you needed to listen to see if someone was talking on the phone. (My brother and I listened in on some neighbors' calls until mamma found out.)

Those lines were called "party lines" and almost everyone had party line phones. We shared our line with three other families, making it a four-party line. I think my Aunt and Uncle's was a six-party line. At one time if we wanted to call the other person on our line with us we had to call 1191 and hang up. When it stopped ringing we would pick up and have that neighbor on the line.

On Friday's one radio talk show host has Open Line Friday and of course his name is Rush Limbaugh. Now if you ever tried to call host Rush Limbaugh you know that most often the line is busy or you get put on hold for hours. Today when we call a business or a government office most often you are put on hold after going through a lot of pushing different buttons. I wonder what it might be like if God ran heaven like our government runs the phone system. Let us try.

1-800 Call God: Dialing. Ring, ring. Hello, you have reached Heaven. Please listen closely as our numbers have changed.

If you are calling to talk to the front gate, press one now.
If you are calling to talk to Angel Gabriel, press two now.
If you are calling to talk to Joseph, press three now.
If you are calling to talk to the Virgin Mary, press four now.
If you are calling to talk to Jesus Christ, press five now.
If you are calling to talk to God The Father, press six now.
To repeat this menu, press seven now.
For all other calls, please press zero now.
Or please call later as lines are busy now.

Well, that is what happens when you call the government or some businesses but that is NOT what happens when you want to call on God The Father. Now we know that Heaven has a party line, a big party line, but the line is never jammed up, the line is never busy, but it does require one thing. To talk to our Father in Heaven, we must place the call through Jesus Christ His Son.

Here is why.

John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

Some people pray directly to God, others pray through the "Blessed Virgin Mary" and would you believe it, some people do not pray at all. When I went to write about Open Line and praying, the first scripture that God pointed out to me was one about praying for those who mistreat you, praying for those who might want to come after you. You know it is easy to pray for those you love, but praying for people who hate you, well, that can be hard to do.

While we had six party lines, some even eight or more on a party line, God has millions on His party line,yet He has that Open Line and it is not just on Fridays. God's line does not shut down for the weekend nor is it just opened from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It is open around the clock and all year round. And while God rested on the seventh day when He created the Heavens and the Earth, He never shuts off the prayer line.

So when you want to call on someone who always has an Open Line, please call on God and do it through Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Dear Father in Heaven. I love that Your line is always open to hear our prayers, and I am so happy that You never tire of hearing from us. So hear our prayers this day as we place them in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Now please go forth and please serve Jesus. Love ya.

Pastor Dan