Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters, it is Monday and the day we pray for our leaders, our military, our police and our firefighters. Please add extra prayers today for the Perdix (PA) Fire Department and those firefighters. Also please keep praying for Skip Shoemaker. I will send you an update on him separate from this. Please pray for people that are having the severe cold weather, including those temps that might not seem cold to us, but folks, 28 in sunny south is cold. (Could this be God showing those people that support global warming that He is in charge?) I think so.
Another note, and I would like to hear from you. I am now working off my new computer, I have been up all night trying to get it to work. I was on the phone last night from 11:00 PM till well after 2:00 AM and it was still not working, I ran updates all night. Now what is not working you might not see, but I cannot get the printers to work off the old computer where I do all my pastor notes for messages. I am 100% sure that God will help me get this worked out or send me someone to help.
The Journey 25: Matthew 4:1 - Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty day and forty nights he was hungry. (NIV)
This week I have asked Jesus to give me messages on these scriptures, so let's get started.
Why in the world would our Lord Jesus be led into the desert to be tempted by Satan? We know right from the start that Jesus could just walk right over top of Satan and indeed would not even need to give this master of evil the time of day, so to speak. I feel this was done to show the human side of Jesus and that regardless of what was thrown at Him, He would be able to handle it without doing one of His miracles. Then to top it off he fasted for days and then He was hungry.
Folks, let me look at this being tempted. How often are we tempted by Satan and how often are we tempted by things that are wrong that maybe Satan does not have his hand on? Do you think sometimes we give this evil leader all too much credit? I think we do! We were all given free will to choose things on our own, we really were, but we really need to include our Lord Jesus in the things we do and that way we will not be tempted, or not be tempted as much, and when we are tempted we will have the power of our Lord Jesus to block the temptations that do come on us. Remember, my dear brothers and sisters, we do have the power of Jesus when we call on Him in faith. He said we could move a mountain if we have that faith and we need that faith many days, in fact most all days, to block those temptations that lead to sin, and as we know, sin will lead to our downfall.
Now Jesus did go to the desert to also fast for that is what He did for forty days. Now if you are like me, I have trouble fasting for an hour!! And when I am told to not eat after midnight because of going for a test at the doctors or going to the hospital, it is hard. What, nothing to eat or drink after midnight? Do you know how many times I had a meal at 11:30 PM? Now I seem to always eat at night, and even more so since that weight loss surgery that I had, but the fact remains I have trouble fasting. Folks. there is power in fasting and going to the Lord in prayer, but I am going to say this and some might get upset. Some people who have medical conditions and need to eat at least something to keep the system in balance need to be aware of that. However. with that said, those people could cut back. One time when I was about 240 pounds years ago. I went three months and ate nothing, I drank diet soda, I drank water and coffee, but ate nothing. I went through a very bad time and just stopped eating. I was down to 165 Pounds when my daughters came to stuff food in my mouth. And I worked those days also, never missed. Now please do not do this, but if you do not have medical conditions and you really want to fast and pray, please by all means do it, be it for a day, or two, or three. Stay in contact with the Lord all the time, pray and pray and pray. Go to your room, close the door, and pray. Fasting is not easy folks, it takes a lot of prayers to get through it, but it is in the Bible as we see today. Maybe we should have a day of praying and fasting on this line. How many of you would join me in that one? One 24 hour period of praying, even if you go to work you could fast and pray. Center on God and not food. I do suggest we drink water during that time, but again I say, be aware of your medical conditions before fasting.
Tomorrow we are going to talk about some of the ways Jesus was tempted. Let's pray!
Dear Father in Heaven, we need You to block temptation from our lives, and Lord, we ask that today, block the evil ones, Satan and his workers, from getting to us. Lord, help us to not center our lives on food and center them on You, for You always provide for us, always. Lord, please bless our president and his family, bless all of our military and all others who work so hard to take care of us. Thanks for prayers answered with Mr. Shoemaker and please keep your hand on him. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
Go forth sharing your blessings. love ya, dan.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
January 8, 2010: Elvis 75
How Great Thou Art, How Great Thou Art!
Hi, brothers and sisters, and yes I am late today, and yes, I am side tripping again today. It is Friday, and the day we pray for all those who are working in the fields of Harvest for our Lord Jesus, and I say this about each week... We all belong on this prayer list because we are all to be working for our Lord Jesus.
Monday I will get back on the journey, I needed to mark a little time for a couple of days. The reason I am late today is I was out plowing snow this morning. I was up at 4 AM, tended the animals, and went out to plow snow. I got back in about 10:30 AM and had some bacon and eggs... The eggs were just out of the chicken, fresh. Good folks, real good.
Today is January 8th, and if Elvis Presley was alive he would be 75 years old today. This man sells more music after passing away than most singers sell when alive. Why would I bring up Elvis anyway? You noticed that I headed up today with How Great Thou Art, well if you have never heard Elvis sing that song you need to get a copy and listen to it. Elvis sang a lot of gospel music and we can only pray that he made it to heaven. I do pray he was saved. Many, many nights after concerts Elvis would sit with his groups and sing gospel music. Backed in his days by gospel groups, some of those guys still singing the gospel today. So folks, on this day, I am going to sit back and listen to some good old gospel music, sung by Elvis Presley. In our gospel programs, we use about 8 of the same back tracks that Elvis made.
For all who think they need to do drugs and/or drink, remember that this man, along with many others, died from an overdose of drugs. Regardless if prescribed by a doctor, you just cannot load your body with trash and expect to live. If you have family or friends into drugs and/or booze or if you over use these things, remember, life is good on this side of the grass. And yes, I know we are looking forward to Heaven, but I am not in a hurry, I am enjoying it here each day.
Dear Father in Heaven, we know it is too late to pray for anyone after they pass on, we just cannot pray anyone into Heaven. So today, Lord, forgive us of our sins, and keep us on the straight and narrow and off junk that harms us. And Lord, please take care of those working in Your fields of Harvest. In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
Go forth and share your blessings folks... sorry about being late. Monday, Good Lord willing, back on schedule with the Journey... love ya, dan.
Hi, brothers and sisters, and yes I am late today, and yes, I am side tripping again today. It is Friday, and the day we pray for all those who are working in the fields of Harvest for our Lord Jesus, and I say this about each week... We all belong on this prayer list because we are all to be working for our Lord Jesus.
Monday I will get back on the journey, I needed to mark a little time for a couple of days. The reason I am late today is I was out plowing snow this morning. I was up at 4 AM, tended the animals, and went out to plow snow. I got back in about 10:30 AM and had some bacon and eggs... The eggs were just out of the chicken, fresh. Good folks, real good.
Today is January 8th, and if Elvis Presley was alive he would be 75 years old today. This man sells more music after passing away than most singers sell when alive. Why would I bring up Elvis anyway? You noticed that I headed up today with How Great Thou Art, well if you have never heard Elvis sing that song you need to get a copy and listen to it. Elvis sang a lot of gospel music and we can only pray that he made it to heaven. I do pray he was saved. Many, many nights after concerts Elvis would sit with his groups and sing gospel music. Backed in his days by gospel groups, some of those guys still singing the gospel today. So folks, on this day, I am going to sit back and listen to some good old gospel music, sung by Elvis Presley. In our gospel programs, we use about 8 of the same back tracks that Elvis made.
For all who think they need to do drugs and/or drink, remember that this man, along with many others, died from an overdose of drugs. Regardless if prescribed by a doctor, you just cannot load your body with trash and expect to live. If you have family or friends into drugs and/or booze or if you over use these things, remember, life is good on this side of the grass. And yes, I know we are looking forward to Heaven, but I am not in a hurry, I am enjoying it here each day.
Dear Father in Heaven, we know it is too late to pray for anyone after they pass on, we just cannot pray anyone into Heaven. So today, Lord, forgive us of our sins, and keep us on the straight and narrow and off junk that harms us. And Lord, please take care of those working in Your fields of Harvest. In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
Go forth and share your blessings folks... sorry about being late. Monday, Good Lord willing, back on schedule with the Journey... love ya, dan.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
January 7, 2010: Side Trip
"Test me on this."
Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is cold, even at the Southern Location of the North Pole it is cold. And no need to move South for it is cold there also. Are we thankful for a warm house today, on this our family day on the line. Yes, folks, family day and the day we pray for families. Again I ask that you pray for the family in the White House and pray first for Salvation and that our President takes things to God before he brings them to us.
Today I want to take a side trip from the journey and bring all of you up to date on Carry The Light Ministries. We have such an outpouring of support from a lot on this line. This is really needed. So bear with me as I go through some past history and bring you up to date...
Malachi 3: 10 - "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me on this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessings that you will not have room enough for it." (NIV)
In 1980 I was Born Again, although I knew Jesus, I really did not "KNOW" Him as having him in my heart.
On May 30, 1982 Dolores and I were married and that November she purchased me my first Santa Suit... I started being Santa that year and from then to 1992 I did Santa on a motorcycle (got cold sometimes). December 24, 1990 (Christmas Eve) I was stopped in traffic and was hit in the rear by a car. This accident caused me to have many back surgeries and changed my way of life. The accident turned out to be a blessing... Although I still have severe back pain, this is when I changed from working for dollars to working for Jesus... and someone said PRAISE THE LORD.
In 1993 Santa moved from motorcycles to a big red pickup and then about 8 years ago we moved to the big antique charter buses. We do not charge to do Santa but we must be able to tell folks about the Lord Jesus and we do try and get donations of food for doing this.
It was in 1993 when Carry The Light Ministries was formed. The ministry started out singing at retirement and nursing homes, something that we still do today. We still try and sing about 50 concerts a year, in the earlier years we did more than that. We wore out our 1993 GMC Van that was purchased new, and last year updated it with a high mileage 2004 Chevrolet Suburban. We do not travel the distances that we once did. Amazing how many retirement and nursing homes there are. We have NEVER charged for any concerts and we do not ask for donations, however, they are not turned away. I would like to give Glory to God for this and thanks to Doug Boyer, Tim Beitzel, Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe and Phil Enloe for getting me started on this gospel mission of singing. It was going to their concerts that got me interested in singing. I would also like to thank Pamela Bower, our Ministry partner, for standing beside me and singing for all these years. There were others in the group and we have appreciated all of them... Dolores is our Piano Player.
I do not remember the date but it was near the beginning of Carry The Light Ministries when I started writing the daily message. God gives them to me fresh daily.
Thirteen years ago when Allenberry Playhouse started their Christmas plays, I was honored to be their first Santa... and to this day Dolores (Mrs. Claus) and I still do this outreach. Again, we are not paid for this program which lasts two months each year. The Heinze family, who owns Allenberry Playhouse, donates food to the ministry (this year 50 hams and 50 turkeys) ... Thus the forming of our food Pantry.
Food Pantry... Oh how it has grown. For many years we dropped the food off at different places each year, most often New Hope Ministries in Mechanicsburg, and a mission in Harrisburg. Five years ago God talked to me about starting our own food pantry to reach out to the hungry. The first two years it was a Christmas thing only. The past three years we are open year round, and last summer we built our basement like a food store. It was a major investment, but thanks be to God we have those bills just about paid off. This past year we furnished food, and I mean a lot of food, to over 100 families, and you just need to know that although our checkbook is flat right now, the shelves are not empty... WE HAVE LEFTOVERS to start this year and just yesterday sisters Wanda and her husband Grant saw to it we got the "day outs" of bread from our local Giant store and later yesterday her sister Glenda came to the house with cases of canned food... Praise God...
About ten years ago I did a home study and got ordained. Since then I have done weddings, funerals and have been blessed to be Pastor at The Bridges of Bent Creek retirement home in Silver Spring Township, Mechanicsburg, Pa. The Sunday before Palm Sunday it will be five full years. Dolores is our minister of music. This again is done without charge or pay... we do not pass an offering plate, although we do set one out for some people who want to give to their storehouse. We also do many hospital visits related to this ministry.
What else does the ministry do? Plow snow, and again at no charge. This does bring in donations for the ministry. I am also one of the Vice Presidents of the Museum of Bus Transportation, and this past year Dolores and I were blessed to be able to donate five of our antique buses to the museum. The museum is a lot of fun and I am also the Chaplain of the Museum, and yes, before our meals together and before and after meetings this museum board calls on the Lord to help us...
Other things done with Ministry dollars... We purchased a deliberator for the township and eight hundred dollars worth of bikes for kids to help our local police with their Cops for Kids project.
We have also been able to gift kids with many, many toys. The day after Christmas I purchased all of the left over stuffed animals at our local Wal Mart and the Giant store.
We also adopt senior (small dogs) that others do not want... right now we have a house full of them. We keep them till they either die in our arms or are in pain where their life must be ended. They are a joy. Right now our oldest is a 20 year old Yorkshire, we also have chickens to have fresh eggs for some of the regulars to our food pantry and we have three pet goats and one rabbit. GOD IS GOOD...
Now I want to thank all of you, and I am not going to attempt to list names or businesses for the fear I might miss one. Each one who has helped should have gotten either an email thank you note or one in the mail. Dolores keeps up with that well. OUR MISSIONS FOR THE LORD COULD NOT BE DONE WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF OTHERS. However, folks, we would like to give all the glory to God. Yes, you folks who help us, we appreciate all of you, but the glory is not yours, or ours, it is God's, and I am sure you all understand that. We have many supporters who have stuffed the truck at the AACA Museum In Hershey Pa. with food. We had food carts in four churches and many, many folks stuffed them with food, and we had two schools on board with us this year. And folks, we had food sorting parties at our house and packing parties and loading parties. One lady, Wanda, laid on her back under the bus loading bag after bag of food, and it was a cold day.
Folks, we are so blessed, and each day I tell you when I close to share your blessings. Once I learned that in life and that you give to God from the top, not the bottom, of your pay, things work out. Dolores and I are both retired on Social Security and I have a retirement income as a former school administrator so you can see if it were not for those blessings we receive in the mail this mission could not go forward. Folks, if you saw our basement right now you would know the meaning of this scripture that I wrote at the top of this letter to you. While our store house still has room, we just rebuilt it this past summer. If it was like the year before there would not have been room. The time might come we need to put in more shelving, or purchase more freezers. We purchased two of them last year.
IF YOU KNOW OF PEOPLE NEEDING HELP WITH FOOD, please let us know, and we will do our very best to help. Our information is at the end of this note.
FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS... THANK YOU JESUS, AND thanks to all of you for reading, for praying for us, for the notes of prayer and notes with a few dollars in to them to notes with fives, tens and checks for more, and for the food being dropped off at our door... and for those helping at the packing parties. WE COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU.
Thanks again. Pastor Daniel W. and Dolores C. Lehman, Pamela S. Bower, and also Martin, Martin, K-9.
Dear Father in Heaven, Thanks for taking care of us, thanks for trusting us to work for You... Thanks for being there for us. Thanks for Jesus... In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
Now go forth and keep sharing your blessings. love ya, dan.
Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg.. Pa. 17050
717 691 8200
717 991 0754
Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is cold, even at the Southern Location of the North Pole it is cold. And no need to move South for it is cold there also. Are we thankful for a warm house today, on this our family day on the line. Yes, folks, family day and the day we pray for families. Again I ask that you pray for the family in the White House and pray first for Salvation and that our President takes things to God before he brings them to us.
Today I want to take a side trip from the journey and bring all of you up to date on Carry The Light Ministries. We have such an outpouring of support from a lot on this line. This is really needed. So bear with me as I go through some past history and bring you up to date...
Malachi 3: 10 - "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me on this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessings that you will not have room enough for it." (NIV)
In 1980 I was Born Again, although I knew Jesus, I really did not "KNOW" Him as having him in my heart.
On May 30, 1982 Dolores and I were married and that November she purchased me my first Santa Suit... I started being Santa that year and from then to 1992 I did Santa on a motorcycle (got cold sometimes). December 24, 1990 (Christmas Eve) I was stopped in traffic and was hit in the rear by a car. This accident caused me to have many back surgeries and changed my way of life. The accident turned out to be a blessing... Although I still have severe back pain, this is when I changed from working for dollars to working for Jesus... and someone said PRAISE THE LORD.
In 1993 Santa moved from motorcycles to a big red pickup and then about 8 years ago we moved to the big antique charter buses. We do not charge to do Santa but we must be able to tell folks about the Lord Jesus and we do try and get donations of food for doing this.
It was in 1993 when Carry The Light Ministries was formed. The ministry started out singing at retirement and nursing homes, something that we still do today. We still try and sing about 50 concerts a year, in the earlier years we did more than that. We wore out our 1993 GMC Van that was purchased new, and last year updated it with a high mileage 2004 Chevrolet Suburban. We do not travel the distances that we once did. Amazing how many retirement and nursing homes there are. We have NEVER charged for any concerts and we do not ask for donations, however, they are not turned away. I would like to give Glory to God for this and thanks to Doug Boyer, Tim Beitzel, Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe and Phil Enloe for getting me started on this gospel mission of singing. It was going to their concerts that got me interested in singing. I would also like to thank Pamela Bower, our Ministry partner, for standing beside me and singing for all these years. There were others in the group and we have appreciated all of them... Dolores is our Piano Player.
I do not remember the date but it was near the beginning of Carry The Light Ministries when I started writing the daily message. God gives them to me fresh daily.
Thirteen years ago when Allenberry Playhouse started their Christmas plays, I was honored to be their first Santa... and to this day Dolores (Mrs. Claus) and I still do this outreach. Again, we are not paid for this program which lasts two months each year. The Heinze family, who owns Allenberry Playhouse, donates food to the ministry (this year 50 hams and 50 turkeys) ... Thus the forming of our food Pantry.
Food Pantry... Oh how it has grown. For many years we dropped the food off at different places each year, most often New Hope Ministries in Mechanicsburg, and a mission in Harrisburg. Five years ago God talked to me about starting our own food pantry to reach out to the hungry. The first two years it was a Christmas thing only. The past three years we are open year round, and last summer we built our basement like a food store. It was a major investment, but thanks be to God we have those bills just about paid off. This past year we furnished food, and I mean a lot of food, to over 100 families, and you just need to know that although our checkbook is flat right now, the shelves are not empty... WE HAVE LEFTOVERS to start this year and just yesterday sisters Wanda and her husband Grant saw to it we got the "day outs" of bread from our local Giant store and later yesterday her sister Glenda came to the house with cases of canned food... Praise God...
About ten years ago I did a home study and got ordained. Since then I have done weddings, funerals and have been blessed to be Pastor at The Bridges of Bent Creek retirement home in Silver Spring Township, Mechanicsburg, Pa. The Sunday before Palm Sunday it will be five full years. Dolores is our minister of music. This again is done without charge or pay... we do not pass an offering plate, although we do set one out for some people who want to give to their storehouse. We also do many hospital visits related to this ministry.
What else does the ministry do? Plow snow, and again at no charge. This does bring in donations for the ministry. I am also one of the Vice Presidents of the Museum of Bus Transportation, and this past year Dolores and I were blessed to be able to donate five of our antique buses to the museum. The museum is a lot of fun and I am also the Chaplain of the Museum, and yes, before our meals together and before and after meetings this museum board calls on the Lord to help us...
Other things done with Ministry dollars... We purchased a deliberator for the township and eight hundred dollars worth of bikes for kids to help our local police with their Cops for Kids project.
We have also been able to gift kids with many, many toys. The day after Christmas I purchased all of the left over stuffed animals at our local Wal Mart and the Giant store.
We also adopt senior (small dogs) that others do not want... right now we have a house full of them. We keep them till they either die in our arms or are in pain where their life must be ended. They are a joy. Right now our oldest is a 20 year old Yorkshire, we also have chickens to have fresh eggs for some of the regulars to our food pantry and we have three pet goats and one rabbit. GOD IS GOOD...
Now I want to thank all of you, and I am not going to attempt to list names or businesses for the fear I might miss one. Each one who has helped should have gotten either an email thank you note or one in the mail. Dolores keeps up with that well. OUR MISSIONS FOR THE LORD COULD NOT BE DONE WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF OTHERS. However, folks, we would like to give all the glory to God. Yes, you folks who help us, we appreciate all of you, but the glory is not yours, or ours, it is God's, and I am sure you all understand that. We have many supporters who have stuffed the truck at the AACA Museum In Hershey Pa. with food. We had food carts in four churches and many, many folks stuffed them with food, and we had two schools on board with us this year. And folks, we had food sorting parties at our house and packing parties and loading parties. One lady, Wanda, laid on her back under the bus loading bag after bag of food, and it was a cold day.
Folks, we are so blessed, and each day I tell you when I close to share your blessings. Once I learned that in life and that you give to God from the top, not the bottom, of your pay, things work out. Dolores and I are both retired on Social Security and I have a retirement income as a former school administrator so you can see if it were not for those blessings we receive in the mail this mission could not go forward. Folks, if you saw our basement right now you would know the meaning of this scripture that I wrote at the top of this letter to you. While our store house still has room, we just rebuilt it this past summer. If it was like the year before there would not have been room. The time might come we need to put in more shelving, or purchase more freezers. We purchased two of them last year.
IF YOU KNOW OF PEOPLE NEEDING HELP WITH FOOD, please let us know, and we will do our very best to help. Our information is at the end of this note.
FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS... THANK YOU JESUS, AND thanks to all of you for reading, for praying for us, for the notes of prayer and notes with a few dollars in to them to notes with fives, tens and checks for more, and for the food being dropped off at our door... and for those helping at the packing parties. WE COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU.
Thanks again. Pastor Daniel W. and Dolores C. Lehman, Pamela S. Bower, and also Martin, Martin, K-9.
Dear Father in Heaven, Thanks for taking care of us, thanks for trusting us to work for You... Thanks for being there for us. Thanks for Jesus... In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
Now go forth and keep sharing your blessings. love ya, dan.
Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg.. Pa. 17050
717 691 8200
717 991 0754
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