Friday 4/8/16 Halfway Houses

Dear Father in Heaven: Praise You, Lord God, for all things this day. Praise You for the food, clothes, water, and the air we breathe each day. Lord, each day You supply our basic needs and so much more and so often we just do not give You praise and honor for it. Today, Lord, I want to praise You and lift You and give You thanks for forgiving my sins and the sins of all who just come to You and ask. Please help me with the message and please also help me to get it dispatched. And Dear Father, thank You for the Bibles that just now arrived at our garage while I was starting this writing. Please help us to get them into the hands of others so they too might enjoy these picture Bibles for Your children. Please also place Your healing hands upon Bob Murphy and heal those burns. In Jesus' Name, I give thanks and also place my prayers. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, a very light dusting of snow this morning. Could be more tomorrow. No problem, GOD is still in control. Please pray for Bob Murphy who has some bad burns. Bob was trying to throw out hot grease and the wind caught it and blew it back on him. Here is a tip, maybe it will help someone. Put hot grease in a can and let it set up. Then put it in the trash. Okay, let me get to the message.

Friday: April 8, 2016: Halfway Houses

Dear brothers and sisters, I want to talk to you today about some halfway houses, and don't get me wrong here, these places are really needed. I just want to name a few that I can think of offhand and some of you really don't think of as a Halfway House.

Hospitals: You go to the hospital to have a major surgery like a knee replacement. Oftentimes you are sent from the hospital where the surgery was done to a rehab hospital where you are worked on before you are sent to your house of residence here on earth. It could also be for numbers of different problems. For this message, I will call the rehab hospital a Halfway House.

Hospitals: Hospitals that work with those who have addictions of one type or another, and after a period of time in that hospital, maybe to just have the person get clean of the addiction, they are sent to a Halfway House to live while trying to work on getting back to work.

Prisons: There are times when some prisoners, depending on the crime of course, are sent to live in a Halfway House. These men and/or women might finish out their sentence there as they try and get back into society and get  job and be a productive person.

Now I could go on and labor on the point, but I think you get it. The people in all of these Halfway Houses do need our constant prayers.

Today I want to be sure you know that there is NO HALFWAY HOUSE between our home here on earth and our home in heaven. We do have a choice. We can choose Heaven or Hell and that is it!!! Here is one scripture that supports this.

1 Corinthians 1:50-58 New International Version (NIV)

50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed -- 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

56  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Here is another scripture that supports this view.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 New International Version (NIV)

Believers Who Have Died

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. 15 According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Dear brothers and sisters, as you can plainly see in the scriptures, we also must be a "Believer" and brothers and sisters, not part-time believer but a full-time believer. Indeed, if you are not a full-time believer, then you must be a fool-time believer. Does that mean that after we are "Born Again" we are never going to sin? No, we will mess up from time to time but we must repent.

One day I had a person ask me this question. Are you one of those "Born Again" Christians? They followed that up with, I am a Christian, but not one of those "Born Again" types. You know what I said to him, right? If you ain't "Born Again" you ain't a Christian. Someone should shout AMEN. There is NO Halfway House between our earthly tent and heaven. Express up or Express down, PERIOD!!!

Right now all those trying trying to get elected to the office of president are saying they are Christians. Please, fellow believers, pray for this election, all of the elections, for God's will to be done. Please pray.

Now please go forth serving and loving Jesus and singing this old tune. Love ya.

Pastor Dan

O COME, LET US ADORE HIM (Traditional)

O come, let us adore Him; O come, let us adore Him;
O come, let us adore Him, Christ The Lord.

We'll praise His name forever; We'll praise His name forever;
We'll praise His name forever, Christ The Lord.

We'll give Him all the glory; We'll give Him all the glory;
We'll give Him all the glory, Christ The Lord.

For He alone is worthy; For He alone is worthy;
For He alone is worthy, Christ The Lord.

(Repeat over and over again)