Good Evening, dear brothers and sisters. What a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole, just beautiful. We started out the day with our ministry team and Martin-Martin going to the Bridges for a sing-along, after which we came back to our food pantry where we had a wonderful brunch set up for us by Wanda. This gives us a great time to sit and break bread together as we plan things for Carry The Light Ministries. Today we move forward with the same scripture today plus adding in some. Please keep praying for Ray Orner Sr. Also pray for our dear friend Tom Sansoni as he relocates to a different state for work. Tom is a great worker for God and knows that when one door get closed, God will always open another, we just need to trust and obey. (Someone should write a song called that!)
Working Together (Day Two)
Romans 12:4 - Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, letl him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (NIV)
Yesterday I talked to you about how our body depends on the different parts to function. Today I would like to look at an average church, if there is such a thing, and how some of the gifts lent to those people in the churches get used or not used sometimes. Let's start out by looking at the scripture above and that part about "leadership." We need good people in all churches willing to take leadership roles, but they must remember who the "real leader" really is. Every so often in a church you hear of "power struggles" and maybe you have differences of opinion between the pastor and the church council. Sometimes they forget that the church really belongs to God, and when that is forgotten the earthly church will just become a big building. I have talked a lot lately about how we have put God out of government buildings, out of school buildings, and sadly we have also run Him out of church buildings. How could that really happen? Years ago Dolores and I attended a really big church and a lot of people would come to me and ask, "Do you go to Pastor (name withheld) church?" and I would say no, I go to (and I would tell them the church.) I have been to churches where I was on the church council and they did not even start the meetings with any devotions. I don't know how others feel but with all the new churches starting up, I think it would be nice if when they set up the structure that every one of their bylaws or whatever you call the things they set up would be backed by scripture. Sort of like our government should be looking at all laws they pass to see if they muster up to the constitution. Years ago I asked one of the council folks who was going to be the representative at the annual conference if he was a "Christian first or a United Methodist first." His answer to me was he was a United Methodist first. So then I asked what if something comes up you need to vote for how do you pick to vote? He said he always voted for what the conference wanted. If we take a deep look into some of the church structures, you can see that the leadership position has been taken away from God. I am thinking that God would not lead a church where the pastors offer to marry a man to another man or a woman to another woman, yet some churches are doing just that. At least one major denomination says it is okay for a woman to abort a child. God gave, or lent, us great gifts and like the body, if the body of a church would just put Jesus in that main leadership position and then follow His word as written in the Bible, things would go much better. Just think about the church you attend and how the government body of the church works. Is God really in charge, does the pastor who needs to be in a leadership position under God work with the council or is there always some sort of fight going on? I want you to think about the gifts each person in your church has as we get together and think even about the gifts our small ministry team has and how we can best work them together under God.
Again we all have different gifts furnished to us by God according to His will and our faith. If a person has the gift to prophesy then let him do just that according to his faith. If a person has the gift to serve, and let me point out here many people have more than one gift from God - if a person has the gift to serve, what might that person serve, and do others in the church structure hold them back? Maybe you have a person in the church that has a great office job, maybe they might be a doctor or lawyer but the gift of serving they want to do at church is cleaning the restrooms or mopping the floor. Maybe taking out the trash, etc. Maybe they just want to serve the Lord by mowing the grass or shoveling the snow. Some folks that have more than one gift might want to serve by teaching and they are great teachers. Some might be really good with the little children, while others like teaching the adults. The Bible tells us if they have the gift of teaching, then let them teach. Here is a great gift, and one that not many have. The gift of encouraging. The Bible tells us to let them encourage. This gift, along with that one of serving, teamed up together might put that person at the prisons or hospitals. Gift of encouragement could also be used at your local retirement homes. If you talk to activity directors you might find out that you do not need to be a great singer or piano player to help folks, but maybe you are just a good reader and could even help read the daily newspaper to people whose eyesight no longer lets them read well. There are just so many things that one can do with the gifts we have from God. Let's look at this gift from the Bible.
Romans 12:8 - If (the gift) it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. (NIV)
Let me tell you about one couple we have on this line. They are great friends of ours, they are great friends of Carry The Light Ministries, yet we have never met them in person. These folks, who are retired, have saved their dollars and helped us purchase turkeys and food for the food pantry. They give from the heart all the time. Due to health reasons they have a hard time getting out, but that does not stop them from using their gift of service with the gift of contributing to the needs of others. I do not want to mention their names, so we will just give God all the honor and glory for them. Thanks, folks, you know who you are and we appreciate you very much.
This last gift that I want to talk about today that some have been given by God is the gift of mercy. While I think all have the gift to serve, this gift of mercy we should all have and use also. After all, one of the greatest gifts given to us by our Lord Jesus was and is the gift of mercy for us. And following in the footsteps of God we should all pass on that same mercy to others. As you lay down your head to sleep these days I want you to think about what gifts God laid upon you and how you will use them. Some who serve in churches have been given the gift to be able to make good "chicken pot pie." Tomorrow I am going to talk about the one best gift given to all of us, and I want to talk to you about how you use it. Anyone know what that one gift is that stands ahead of all the rest? Come on, let me hear from you. What is that gift?
Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for all the gifts You have given us, and please, dear Lord, help us to always use them to work for You. Help us in our daily walk with and for You so that we are walking in Your light. Forgive us this day of our sins and help us forgive others so we truly can be forgiven for we know that according to Your word, we are forgiven only as we forgive others. Thanks again for this line, and thanks for supplying our needs each day. In the name of Jesus, I pray this day. Amen.
Now go forth and serve, and if you cannot do anything else, here is one thing you an do to serve. You can share your blessings with others. Some people spend too much time dwelling on themselves and forget that we are truly blessed and we need to pass those blessings forward. And yes, you can just share that Love of God by telling the others the good, good news of Jesus.
Love ya, Pastor Dan.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
Monday 1/7/13 Working Together
Good Evening, my dear brothers and sisters. As we start this first full week in our new year, God has pointed out to me how much we Christians can get done if we would just work together on things. I want to think about this as we move forward with the message this week. Today please pray for Ray Orner Sr. who has had a stroke. Please keep praying for our son Matthew Lehman. Matthew remains in the Holy Spirit Hospital. One thing we should try to do each day as we pray is always give honor and glory to God for the things He has done, including forgiving each of us of our sins when we ask in faith. You will also notice a change in the structure of the messages. Starting with an opening to you, folks, then scripture, then the body of the message, then prayer, and closing.
Romans 12:4 - Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (NIV)
Let me start with our bodies. We have bodies made of many parts. As you and I both know, when all the parts are working and pulling together, we feel pretty good. But when one part or another starts slowing down, or could for today let me call it slacking off, then the rest of the parts must pick up the load to carry it. When some parts start to slack off, in some cases the other parts pick up the load without much trouble, but there are other parts in our body that when they slack off, then we get into trouble in a hurry, because the rest of the parts in our body have trouble carrying the load. When more than one part starts to slack off, the harder it is to get the rest of our body to carry the load.
Today Dolores and I went to two different doctors, one was our podiatrist, yes, the foot doctor, if you please. Have you ever noticed that when your feet are hurting you can hurt all over? Once you get those feet fixed up, and we call that happy feet, then you feel a lot better. While I am going to address you as Christians, we also see this same type of thing in our own country. Brothers and sisters, dare I say that we have more people riding in the cart than pulling it. While we have many people that because of parts of their bodies shutting down that we NEED TO TAKE CARE OF, for that is what God wants us to do, we have many people riding in the cart that indeed are able-bodied folks who could be out pulling or pushing the cart, which would take the load off the rest of those who are pulling and pushing. God has given each of us different gifts, and again I am not talking the gifts the Bible talks about right now. Rush Limbaugh tells is like this, "talent on loan from GOD!" In our country it takes many leaders, and we see that leaders is listed in our Bible in Romans 12:8. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently! Leaders are not just in Washington, DC, but all around this country. We have leaders in government, in private business, in religion, in our churches, in all we do, we have leaders. None might be more important than the leaders that lead our sanitation departments. Now let me put it to you this way, all leaders need to work together under God. In other words, we need to let God lead in all we do, and we need to do it according to His will and not ours. Each day we need, regardless of what part, or what earthly gift has been given to us, we need to, and you can quote me on this, "we need to check in with the Leader." "We need to check in with the one and only man who is in charge, our Lord Jesus."
But as you all know who have been working wherever you work, most workers think they can do the leader's job better than the leader. Am I correct so far? People think they can just bypass the boss, so to speak, and go out on their own. Folks, when your leader is the same leader as I have, our Lord Jesus, that just does not work. And here is my proof on that statement. We have thrown our leader, Jesus Christ, out of Washington, DC, and I ask you this day, how is that working out? We have thrown our leader, Jesus Christ, out of our State Houses and our local governments, so let me ask you this. How is that working out? We have tossed our leader Jesus Christ out of our public schools, and let me ask all of you this. How is that working out? In our area today, a brand new school was opened. It has some stained glass windows, it has a really big cross on the roof, and they have invited our Lord Jesus in. Yes, it is the New Bishop McDevitt High School, a school that once was called Catholic High School in Harrisburg. Now they have invited inour leader (I am not Catholic but I have the same leader). Watch this new school grow because they will let Jesus lead. Brothers and sisters, regardless what you do or did for a living, if we looked at our leader, Jesus Christ, and started the day each day with Him, the day went better. Think about it, it may not be perfect, but it went better. So each morning, maybe we should look at it as a business meeting and start out talking to our leader about what we might do for Him that day and about His helping us to get it done. Brothers and sisters, when we think we are better than the leader, then we get into trouble. If you on your job think you are better than the boss, and a lot of people do, you better watch out, you might be out on the streets saying, I could have done it better. That leader still had their paycheck, what happened to yours?
Now let me get back to our bodies again, and when one or more of the parts of our bodies stops working. Let's say that we twisted our leg or ankle, and we try and get the same job done. Yesterday if you were watching the Washington Redskins play some football you saw the quarterback get hurt, and regardless of how much he pushed to play, without his one leg working properly, the rest of his tired body could not pick up the slack. When your foot hurts, it is hard to walk. When you lose the power in one of your hands, you miss that, and the other must pick up the slack. When your brain gets a fever, it makes it very hard for the rest of your body to work, and folks, if that "waste system" shuts down, it can get really rough. Maybe that is why we need to take good care of those "sanitation workers" for when the trash or rubbish gathers at the street's edge, things go downhill fast. Tomorrow using the same scriptures and adding some more we are going to look at those gifts that God has given or lent to us. And do you know this, if we listen to God's will for us when it comes to gifts, we might find that over the years those gifts change. I want you to think about that. I also want you to think about what gift or gifts you might have had on the work force and how it fit in working with others. Remember, we do not all have the same gifts. We have a young lady on this line that in their family they have a very, very, very large dairy farm. On that farm they have many workers, and those workers each have jobs that need done. When one workers slacks off, others must cover for them. But those workers on the farm are just the start of getting the milk to us. How many others do you think get their hands on that milk before you set it out for Santa? (I just had to put that in.) Think about it. I was a leader in school transportation at Central Dauphin School District, a middle-level leader, so to speak. I reported to a gentleman named Guy Green who was the business manager, and he reported to someone else and so it went. But let me tell you that the toughest job that I had to cover was the school bus driver, for they had a talent that really was needed. It would have been easier to replace me as a leader than a really good bus driver who really cared about the children they transported. Where were you in the chain that God has set up? And do you really let our real leader lead? Even if you are now retired from drawing a paycheck, you should never retire from working for our real leader, Jesus Christ. Tomorrow we look at those gifts and we see how they fit into our daily living for our leader. We do all agree that Jesus Christ is our leader, right? Anyone who does not think that, well, I need to have a one-on-one with you.
Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for the many gifts and the many, many talents that have been lent to me and to all of us over the years. Thanks for all You do, and Lord, as we look at each day, we want to walk it with You, we want to work it for and with You, we want to carry out Your commands that You have laid out for us. Please today, place Your healing hand on Ray Orner, and please place Your healing hand on Matthew also. Thanks for this line, and thanks for watching over it, all glory and honor to You this day. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Now brothers and sisters, please count all those blessings, and brothers and sisters, as we look at our gifts this week, you will find there are not many people in this land of ours that Jesus trusted to us that cannot do something. You will see! One of those things all of us can do is, and yes, I am going to say it, we can all share our blessings that God gave to us.
Love ya, Pastor Dan.
Romans 12:4 - Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (NIV)
Let me start with our bodies. We have bodies made of many parts. As you and I both know, when all the parts are working and pulling together, we feel pretty good. But when one part or another starts slowing down, or could for today let me call it slacking off, then the rest of the parts must pick up the load to carry it. When some parts start to slack off, in some cases the other parts pick up the load without much trouble, but there are other parts in our body that when they slack off, then we get into trouble in a hurry, because the rest of the parts in our body have trouble carrying the load. When more than one part starts to slack off, the harder it is to get the rest of our body to carry the load.
Today Dolores and I went to two different doctors, one was our podiatrist, yes, the foot doctor, if you please. Have you ever noticed that when your feet are hurting you can hurt all over? Once you get those feet fixed up, and we call that happy feet, then you feel a lot better. While I am going to address you as Christians, we also see this same type of thing in our own country. Brothers and sisters, dare I say that we have more people riding in the cart than pulling it. While we have many people that because of parts of their bodies shutting down that we NEED TO TAKE CARE OF, for that is what God wants us to do, we have many people riding in the cart that indeed are able-bodied folks who could be out pulling or pushing the cart, which would take the load off the rest of those who are pulling and pushing. God has given each of us different gifts, and again I am not talking the gifts the Bible talks about right now. Rush Limbaugh tells is like this, "talent on loan from GOD!" In our country it takes many leaders, and we see that leaders is listed in our Bible in Romans 12:8. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently! Leaders are not just in Washington, DC, but all around this country. We have leaders in government, in private business, in religion, in our churches, in all we do, we have leaders. None might be more important than the leaders that lead our sanitation departments. Now let me put it to you this way, all leaders need to work together under God. In other words, we need to let God lead in all we do, and we need to do it according to His will and not ours. Each day we need, regardless of what part, or what earthly gift has been given to us, we need to, and you can quote me on this, "we need to check in with the Leader." "We need to check in with the one and only man who is in charge, our Lord Jesus."
But as you all know who have been working wherever you work, most workers think they can do the leader's job better than the leader. Am I correct so far? People think they can just bypass the boss, so to speak, and go out on their own. Folks, when your leader is the same leader as I have, our Lord Jesus, that just does not work. And here is my proof on that statement. We have thrown our leader, Jesus Christ, out of Washington, DC, and I ask you this day, how is that working out? We have thrown our leader, Jesus Christ, out of our State Houses and our local governments, so let me ask you this. How is that working out? We have tossed our leader Jesus Christ out of our public schools, and let me ask all of you this. How is that working out? In our area today, a brand new school was opened. It has some stained glass windows, it has a really big cross on the roof, and they have invited our Lord Jesus in. Yes, it is the New Bishop McDevitt High School, a school that once was called Catholic High School in Harrisburg. Now they have invited inour leader (I am not Catholic but I have the same leader). Watch this new school grow because they will let Jesus lead. Brothers and sisters, regardless what you do or did for a living, if we looked at our leader, Jesus Christ, and started the day each day with Him, the day went better. Think about it, it may not be perfect, but it went better. So each morning, maybe we should look at it as a business meeting and start out talking to our leader about what we might do for Him that day and about His helping us to get it done. Brothers and sisters, when we think we are better than the leader, then we get into trouble. If you on your job think you are better than the boss, and a lot of people do, you better watch out, you might be out on the streets saying, I could have done it better. That leader still had their paycheck, what happened to yours?
Now let me get back to our bodies again, and when one or more of the parts of our bodies stops working. Let's say that we twisted our leg or ankle, and we try and get the same job done. Yesterday if you were watching the Washington Redskins play some football you saw the quarterback get hurt, and regardless of how much he pushed to play, without his one leg working properly, the rest of his tired body could not pick up the slack. When your foot hurts, it is hard to walk. When you lose the power in one of your hands, you miss that, and the other must pick up the slack. When your brain gets a fever, it makes it very hard for the rest of your body to work, and folks, if that "waste system" shuts down, it can get really rough. Maybe that is why we need to take good care of those "sanitation workers" for when the trash or rubbish gathers at the street's edge, things go downhill fast. Tomorrow using the same scriptures and adding some more we are going to look at those gifts that God has given or lent to us. And do you know this, if we listen to God's will for us when it comes to gifts, we might find that over the years those gifts change. I want you to think about that. I also want you to think about what gift or gifts you might have had on the work force and how it fit in working with others. Remember, we do not all have the same gifts. We have a young lady on this line that in their family they have a very, very, very large dairy farm. On that farm they have many workers, and those workers each have jobs that need done. When one workers slacks off, others must cover for them. But those workers on the farm are just the start of getting the milk to us. How many others do you think get their hands on that milk before you set it out for Santa? (I just had to put that in.) Think about it. I was a leader in school transportation at Central Dauphin School District, a middle-level leader, so to speak. I reported to a gentleman named Guy Green who was the business manager, and he reported to someone else and so it went. But let me tell you that the toughest job that I had to cover was the school bus driver, for they had a talent that really was needed. It would have been easier to replace me as a leader than a really good bus driver who really cared about the children they transported. Where were you in the chain that God has set up? And do you really let our real leader lead? Even if you are now retired from drawing a paycheck, you should never retire from working for our real leader, Jesus Christ. Tomorrow we look at those gifts and we see how they fit into our daily living for our leader. We do all agree that Jesus Christ is our leader, right? Anyone who does not think that, well, I need to have a one-on-one with you.
Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for the many gifts and the many, many talents that have been lent to me and to all of us over the years. Thanks for all You do, and Lord, as we look at each day, we want to walk it with You, we want to work it for and with You, we want to carry out Your commands that You have laid out for us. Please today, place Your healing hand on Ray Orner, and please place Your healing hand on Matthew also. Thanks for this line, and thanks for watching over it, all glory and honor to You this day. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Now brothers and sisters, please count all those blessings, and brothers and sisters, as we look at our gifts this week, you will find there are not many people in this land of ours that Jesus trusted to us that cannot do something. You will see! One of those things all of us can do is, and yes, I am going to say it, we can all share our blessings that God gave to us.
Love ya, Pastor Dan.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Thur/Fri 1/3-4/13 New Beginnings
Good morning, my dear brothers and sisters. I pray all is going well for you this first week of January in the year of our Lord 2013. As you know, I have been working on renewing and now new beginnings for this new year. Today I am requesting prayers for our veterans, our military, our police, and all others who work so hard to keep us safe and free. Please keep praying for our President, and please pray for his soul. I must say I do not understand him at all. He flew that big jet all the way back to Washington, DC, from Hawaii, made a few nasty statements at the White House, and then flew back to Hawaii to finish out his vacation without even signing the new bill. An automatic signing machine did it for him.
Anyway, I pray all of you are doing okay and are enjoying this colder weather. I would like to just say this, "COME ON SPRING." I would think some of you would add amen to that statement. Let me get to the message ...
New Beginnings: 1/3-4/2013.
Romans 12:1 - Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the RENEWING of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, even though these letters of the Apostle Paul were written many, many, many years ago, they still, like the rest of the word of God hold true for us today. Here we are being told that we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God. This does not men we are to sacrifice ourselves to God, as in laying your life on the altar. God is opening this up to me telling me that we are to confess our sins over to Him and then we make sacrifices to Him by trying our best to live without sin. Brothers and sisters, some days this requires us to sacrifice a lot. Think of it, and I am sure you will agree that there are many things you might want to do or others might want you to do with them that as a Christian you just cannot do. You might have made some of those kinds of sacrifices just this past week as often there are parties between Christmas and New Year's Day that we just needed to turn down. When I take a look at my tired old body and see the way it looks, I am glad I can cover it up with clothes and know that God is not looking at the way my body looks from the outside, but from the inside. He wants us, folks, to be holy and pleasing to Him, in other words, I think He wants us to live without sin. I think if we show respect for our Lord Jesus and put Him above all else, that is what He wants us to do. Live holy and pleasing to Him. I think if we live so that others "see Jesus in us" that would be what He wants most of all. This would be our spiritual way to worship Him.
One of the commandments is to "Honor our Father and Mother." My dear late Mamma would tell me that the best way to honor her is to live by the commandments of God and live to please Him and that would please her and honor her the most, for that is the way she taught me to live. One of the great commandments is to "Love the Lord your God." We need to get out of the way the world lives and read more in our Bibles and live the best we can by the rules and commandments that are good today. We need to live according to His will for us. Now how do each of us know His will for us? They would be different, you know. We do not all have the same God-given gifts and/or God-given talents. But trust me when I tell you that God has given to us different gifts. One gift that He has given all of us is the gift to love others, but so many people do not use that gift at all or they think the word love means sex. We also need to know, and it is in this scripture, that God's will for us is Good, Pleasing, and Perfect.
So how about it, brothers and sisters, will you pray with me today, asking God to point out to each of us what His will for us is, and listen to His answer and then come clean to God and accept that will and work with it so that we will become holy and pleasing to Him?
Dear Father in Heaven, please forgive us of our sins as we start this day and this year out new. Please, Lord, show us, tell us Your will for us, help us to know and understand it so we might live holy and pleasing to You. So that we can walk in Your footsteps and in Your light, so that we can be pleasing and holy to You and so that others might see this in us. Help us to not become part of this world, but to tell others in this world about You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Now go forth loving each other and living to be holy and pleasing to God, and I am sure that sharing your blessings is part of being pleasing to God, so please share those blessings and love others even if they do not love you. And know that I love ya.
Pastor Dan.
Anyway, I pray all of you are doing okay and are enjoying this colder weather. I would like to just say this, "COME ON SPRING." I would think some of you would add amen to that statement. Let me get to the message ...
New Beginnings: 1/3-4/2013.
Romans 12:1 - Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the RENEWING of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, even though these letters of the Apostle Paul were written many, many, many years ago, they still, like the rest of the word of God hold true for us today. Here we are being told that we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God. This does not men we are to sacrifice ourselves to God, as in laying your life on the altar. God is opening this up to me telling me that we are to confess our sins over to Him and then we make sacrifices to Him by trying our best to live without sin. Brothers and sisters, some days this requires us to sacrifice a lot. Think of it, and I am sure you will agree that there are many things you might want to do or others might want you to do with them that as a Christian you just cannot do. You might have made some of those kinds of sacrifices just this past week as often there are parties between Christmas and New Year's Day that we just needed to turn down. When I take a look at my tired old body and see the way it looks, I am glad I can cover it up with clothes and know that God is not looking at the way my body looks from the outside, but from the inside. He wants us, folks, to be holy and pleasing to Him, in other words, I think He wants us to live without sin. I think if we show respect for our Lord Jesus and put Him above all else, that is what He wants us to do. Live holy and pleasing to Him. I think if we live so that others "see Jesus in us" that would be what He wants most of all. This would be our spiritual way to worship Him.
One of the commandments is to "Honor our Father and Mother." My dear late Mamma would tell me that the best way to honor her is to live by the commandments of God and live to please Him and that would please her and honor her the most, for that is the way she taught me to live. One of the great commandments is to "Love the Lord your God." We need to get out of the way the world lives and read more in our Bibles and live the best we can by the rules and commandments that are good today. We need to live according to His will for us. Now how do each of us know His will for us? They would be different, you know. We do not all have the same God-given gifts and/or God-given talents. But trust me when I tell you that God has given to us different gifts. One gift that He has given all of us is the gift to love others, but so many people do not use that gift at all or they think the word love means sex. We also need to know, and it is in this scripture, that God's will for us is Good, Pleasing, and Perfect.
So how about it, brothers and sisters, will you pray with me today, asking God to point out to each of us what His will for us is, and listen to His answer and then come clean to God and accept that will and work with it so that we will become holy and pleasing to Him?
Dear Father in Heaven, please forgive us of our sins as we start this day and this year out new. Please, Lord, show us, tell us Your will for us, help us to know and understand it so we might live holy and pleasing to You. So that we can walk in Your footsteps and in Your light, so that we can be pleasing and holy to You and so that others might see this in us. Help us to not become part of this world, but to tell others in this world about You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Now go forth loving each other and living to be holy and pleasing to God, and I am sure that sharing your blessings is part of being pleasing to God, so please share those blessings and love others even if they do not love you. And know that I love ya.
Pastor Dan.
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