Monday 7/11/16 Red!

Dear Father in Heaven: I love You!!! Please forgive me of my sins and please help me this day with the message and to get it dispatched. Please, dear Father, help our country. Heal the outrage that is going on around the world. Please, Lord, protect our police and first responders, and Lord, please help me to understand all of this, for I really don't understand it. So many people hurt and angry at each other. Please, Lord, teach us all to love one another. In Jesus' Name, I ask and pray. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, I am sure all of you are aware of things going on in our country and it seems like it is daily anymore. Whatever caused the start of the current problems reminds me of last summer. If all people would turn to God, maybe, just maybe this nation will start to heal. God is the great healer. Please let me get right to this message and I pray I don't offend anyone.

Monday: July 11, 2016: Red!

Today I pray you will have your Bibles handy. Please read from Genesis, Chapter 2, the account of Adam and Eve. Next, please read from Mark, Chapter 15:23/41, and this would be the Death of Jesus on the Cross.

John 19:28 - Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30 When He had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. (NIV)

The first thing I want to say is that I do trust our police and I also have faith in our justice and court system. When an incident happens like down in Baton Rouge, you do not see the complete picture, and before the court system has had a chance, the police in this case two police officers, look like they just shot a black man for no real reason. The next day or two another black man was shot by a police officer. Then some pot stirrers show up and really get people going. Riots get started, highways are blocked by out-of-control people and so it goes, over and over again.

Over and over again we have seen people from different races, not just black and white, but all other races when they get cut, shot, and blood runs out all that blood is RED, which by the way was the color of BLOOD THAT JESUS SHED ON THE CROSS FOR ALL OF US.

Now I ask all of you to go back to Adam and Eve, and I want to put it to you this way. If you are a Christian, and I am one, and you believe in everything in the Bible, you need to know this. If they did a DNA test on our blood back that far we would find out we are all related. Think about that, folks, really think about it. I do not know or understand why people want to kill each other for any reason. So what is wrong? That is in the Bible also. Satan and his evil people get hold of some people and call on them to hate others. Look at Jesus, He loved and still loves all people, still He was hated and hated until He was put to death on the Cross. One side might not understand what the other side has gone through. I do know that everything that is going on is in the Bible. There will be "wars and rumors of war." And brothers and sisters, all these things going on in the United States are indeed wars. Not like WW1 or WW2 and the others. And as Christians we need to know there is a religion out there that wants to kill Jews and Christians. There are also others who want to kill Jews and white people. People are calling out "Black lives Matter." While that is very true, I want to put it this way. All lives Matter, all of them for we indeed are all God's children. You do believe that, right? It is in the Bible.

I want to walk you back a few years in my life, in fact a lot of years. I was once a part-time Penbrook Police Officer. It was not too long after some of those riot years in Harrisburg, PA. We still had riot gear in the police car. I don't know if back then a black person was afraid of police stopping them, I just never gave it a thought. One weekend I was working daylight and a car went through the traffic signal where Herr St. comes together with Walnut St. That intersection is confusing now, and back then it was really confusing and busy because it was before Interstate 81 was completed and a lot of trucks followed Route 22 which runs through Penbrook. Anyway, a car ran the red traffic signal coming off of Herr St. and I was sitting right thee. I pulled up behind the car, put on the red lights, and gave the siren a light tap. The driver stopped right away. I called in my stop, got out of the car, put on my big hat and walked up to the car to find an elderly black man driving with his wife beside him.

I asked him for his driver's license and owner's card (no insurance check back then.) He got them out for me as I talked to him about what he did. I said did you know you went through a red traffic signal? He said no. I took his info back to the car and got out my traffic citations. Do I write this elderly man up or give him a written warning? I looked at his information and noticed he was not from the area and more than likely did not know the roads. Then I noticed it was his 80th birthday. A citation or even a recorded written warning might have cost him his driver's license. So I got out a piece of paper, wrote Happy Birthday on it, folded it and placed his cards in the middle. I went back to the car, and this very nice and polite man said, I am sorry to have caused you trouble today, and with that I wished him a Happy Birthday and gave him his cards back. That story is true, brothers and sisters.

People today could learn something from that stop, and I know things are different today. All people need to know this. If you want to be respected, you need to earn it.

That man of color earned my respect that day, and I bet you a coffee I earned his and he told others what happened.

Please take time today to be kind to people, regardless of who they are. And be like Jesus and love everyone, even if they hate you.

What to do if you are stopped by the police. That's in the Bible also. Go to Titus.

Titus 3:1 - Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate and to show true humility toward all men. (NIV)

Please note: Authorities includes POLICE OFFICERS.

Now go forth and share the love of Jesus. Love ya.

Pastor Dan