Thursday, September 3, 2009

Thursday: Forgiving Others

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters, and it is family day on the line. Please take time to pray for families today, and pray for these families... Saylor Family, Vicki's family, Mayeski Family, Lehman family, Pam's family, Glenda & Wanda and their families, Waybright family, those who reside and/or work at the Bridges and their families. Pray for LeaAnne as she interviews for a job today, and for Mark to have a door opened to him for a job, and all families who use this line.

Forgiving Others: How many times should you forgive a person who sins against you? Here is my answer to that. You will not find it worded like this in the Bible... How many times should you forgive a person who sins against you? How many times do you want Jesus to forgive you? Oh, did I say that? Yes I did.

Luke 17: 3b - "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." (NIV)

Several things come to my mind on these scriptures. First is that word REPENT, for if you notice in this scripture, and these, folks, are the words of Jesus, and I love the words of Jesus, we are to forgive our brothers (sisters) if they repent. Now this works both ways, when we go to our brothers and sisters who we have wronged (sinned against) we need to repent. Bottom line on this is if we or our brothers and sisters, if you and I want forgiven we need to repent. Next let's look at how many times we should forgive, notice Jesus used the number seven times and it was in a DAY. Now using those numbers let us do some math. Oops, I need to hunt the adding machine. Ok, and remember, this is based on if they say they repent. And remember you and I have promised to repent how many times in our life so far? And we keep sinning. We are to forgive our brothers and sisters 7 times a day, 49 times a week 2,548 times a year, and let's say we live 75 years... that would be 191,100 times. Now how many brothers and sisters do you have? WAIT A MINUTE, it might be family day on the line, but Jesus is talking about our brothers and sisters, and we, and please understand this, we are all children of God, meaning we are all brothers and sisters. So we are talking about your family, your friends, strangers, and get this, even those in Washington DC. Oh yes, we need to do it, IF, if they would come to us and say I repent. Now I know that lowers the numbers. Why am I bringing all of this up? It is about forgiveness. Yesterday I told you a lot about my background and a whole lot of people over the years including, but not limited to, my children forgave me. Brothers and sisters, if you have sinned against another, repent of it, and if you can, ask them to forgive you. If someone asks you to forgive them, ask them have you repented... and forgive them... and get on your knees and ask God to forgive you, I mean GET DOWN, brothers and sisters, GET DOWN on those knees. If you have an Altar with a rail in your church, know that the rail is there for you to use to push yourself back up. The edge of the bed works well also... or get on your knees in bed put your face in the pillow and pray, but once in a while, GET DOWN... It is time to repent, Jesus works so hard to forgive us, and in fact He gave His life for it once, it is time we stop driving nails into Him and repent and really try and keep it that way. AMEN.

Dear Father, once again I come asking for forgiveness and asking You to help us repent, sometimes I think You are telling me to write these messages so that I get the point, and Lord, I am getting it better each time I write about it. Bless families today, all we have listed and also Your family, Lord, the family of God. I pray today for peace Lord, and I fully understand that total peace is asking for Your return. Come on back, Jesus, and till that time may we ready ourselves and help bring in the others... In the name of Jesus I pray... Amen.

Brothers and sisters, if I have offended you in the past, forgive me, but if you were offended because I have offered up the truth according to the Bible you need to work that one out with the Lord. Now go and share those blessings. Oh, did you mail that can of food or drop it off? Some did, and I need to say THANK YOU. love ya, dan.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Wednesday: Lost Things 3

"There once was a man who had two sons."

Salvation Wednesday, Salvation Wednesday... Oh how I love Salvation Wednesday.
Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Do you remember the days of the mid-week prayer meetings, the Wednesday evening church services? My dear mamma would go to those services regardless of how tired she was. I want you to pray about something for me. We have been praying about expanding our work for Jesus at The Bridges and maybe a mid week prayer meeting just might be what we need. We would be competing against Bingo. Jesus Bingo, and what you would win....Salvation. Wow... Pray today for the lost and that Jesus uses we who are saved to get the message to the lost. Pray for John who had toes amputated yesterday. Ongoing prayers, Oliver Ogden who is still going through testing. For Don Saylor and his family, For Anna Troutman, and for jobs for Mark and LeaAnne. Prayers for Vicki and her family.

Lost Things 3: Luke 15: 11- Jesus continued: "There was a man with two sons. 12 The Younger one said to his father, 'father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them.'" (NIV)

Please take time to read the complete story of the Lost Son. You will find it in your Bible in
Luke 15: 11 through 31. It is a great story and I am going to talk now about it, but please check your Bible. In fact you should be checking your Bible on all things I write and all things you hear your pastors preaching about. Just so you know and I have told you this many times, I believe all of the Bible, each and every part and the parts I love the best is when Jesus is quoted.

I want to give you an example of a prodigal son, a person who I know well. It seems this son was raised as one of two sons and was also the youngest of the two. As a boy he was raised by parents who believed in Jesus and taught him and his brother about Jesus. In his younger days this lad was in Sunday school and also many times in church, and learned about Jesus, also went to two weeks of vacation Bible school in the summer. Then as the boy turned into a young teenager he was still taught all of those Christian values and still went to Sunday School and Church and often went with his mother to those Wednesday night prayer meetings. When the boy was 14 years old he got a car and truck and was working for his older brother at a service station, and the job was to open the station on Sunday mornings. Sunday School and church stopped. Still, the young man was at home with his Christian parents. Then the day came when the lad turned 16 and he got to drive that car and truck... a few years later and just out of high school by a few years the man married his love and she was also a Christian girl, raised by parents who took her to church and Sunday school. As their family grew the now full grown man worked on Sundays, and thanks to his wife, the children were taken to Sunday School and church. But this man started to walk from God, not real bad, not doing things that would put one in jail, but just was not living for the Lord. The family fell apart and the man left, leaving a mother with four kids. The man went for what he thought then were greener pastures, you know the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. While the man never walked away from the obligation of the family when it came to dollars and seeing the kids on weekends, he was not there for them at their tender age. The man got married again and that marriage which he thought would go better was really bad, and then when that lady took off, the man was at the bottom. Now owning a business with his children working for him, this man was to the point of having a gun to his head, thinking about this over and over and talking to the only one that would listen... He turned to God, first asking Him to come and get him. Then confessing his sins and starting back to church. He came back to God, friends helped and helped... God put a wonderful Christian lady in his life and things starting coming together and they got married. With both parents gone the man only had one Father now, and his Father opened wide His arms and welcomed him back. Over the years this man has told that first wife and her family how sorry he was that he left and did not try and work things out. The reasons for the past are not important to this story, the important thing is that you are seeing how THE "Father" welcomes home a lost son or daughter. The man now works for God with the Help of his Christian wife who has stood beside him for over 27 years. The man has had support from men like Tim, Duane, Neil, Doug, Larry and many, many more. He has had a lot of support from a few ladies also like Pamela, Joanne, Leslie and Betsy who with her husband sat with this man, ladies who were just there, family friends and there are so many more that came on later, Like Tom Sansoni and his wife, Joanne's husband Dave was with him. The man's children all love him dearly and have long ago forgiven him. The first wife has also forgiven him and so has her family. The man came to Christ when he was at the bottom, came back, not from the "pig pen", but from crying and crying to God, with the gun loaded and laying on the desk, came back from the dirt of sin. This man was not out of money, what he was out of was Jesus, he walked away from much more than a family; he walked away from God. Now he is back, still a sinner but now saved by grace of God, and singing for God and preaching the word, and has forgiven his second wife for leaving him for another man.

Folks, as I write this story of the lost son tears are running down my face, tears of some sadness, but just tears of thinking about his life and how good people have been and how wonderful and great our Lord Jesus is. You see the child, the youth, the young man, and now the old man that I know so well I see each day. He is the one who looks back at me when I stand in front of the mirror. Some of MY past still haunts me as some people from the past will throw it in my face, but others, those who really know Jesus also have forgiven me and more important GOD TOOK ME BACK...

If the story of the lost son fits you, be you a son or daughter, and you have not fully come back, let's do it now. Will you come back today, love of God will lift you from the pits of whatever your past was or still is. Will you come back today? God's arms are open wide, open wide to receive you, His loving arms will carry you through the tough times of life. And if you are at the bottom remember this, the only way to go is up, and please, please let God be the one to go up to. Please pray this with me, please, I can't pray you into the arms of God; you must do it yourself, you really must. You must do it in faith. Will you pray with me now? God is waiting for us, I am going to renew today, those who love God might just do the same. One more thing, you might need to either change the life of some of your friends or get away from them for a while and pack yourself around those who love the Lord. When you are weak, you need Christian support. Those people I named were those who supported me on the way back, they are not friends from my past.

Dear Father in Heaven, as you know I was lost, really lost, I walked away from You and You took me back. Now, Father, I want to lead a prayer for those who might not be saved, hear our prayers and cries, Lord, and also those who just want to renew. Thanks, Father, for hearing us out, I pray Your will is done. Now Father, our prayer of confession... Dear Father, forgive me of my sins, for I know I am a sinner and want saved by Your Grace. Take me Lord, take me back. I believe in Jesus, I believe in the virgin birth and death of Jesus on the cross, and I believe it was all done for me and others who come to You. I believe that Jesus was risen from the dead and is going to judge me for my sins. Forgive us this day... In Jesus name, Amen.

In closing, my dear friends, please know that God forgives all of us who ask, and today and I do not ask this often, in fact I don't know if I ever asked you to forward anything I wrote in the past... You are always welcome to forward things I write, but today I ask, please if you feel in your heart my story will help others, please share it with them. And please share your blessings also. Thanks for being on this line. I love you all dearly... love ya, dan.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Tuesday: Lost Things 2

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them."

Gppf ,ptmomh ,u frst ntpyjrtd smf dodyrtd. Oh gosh, fingers on the wrong keys... let me start that again... Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. That’s better! It is Tuesday and wow, it is September, and it was 48 degrees in our back yard this morning and it feels good. The sun is bright this morning and The Son is watching over us. Can it get any better than that? It is schools day on the line and we need to be praying for our schools. Also today we need to be praying for those facing those wild fires in California and also those in that same state facing the big bad storm heading in. Just normal things or the wrath of God? Think about it! Ongoing prayers: Anna Troutman who had a bad fall, Don Saylor and his family, Mark and LeaAnne for jobs. Also for Leslie's daughters and for Vicki and her family.

Lost Things? Luke 15 4 - "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'" (NIV)

Have you ever lost a pet? As you know, Dolores and I have taken in senior dogs and most with some handicaps. We have blind ones, ones that do not hear, some limp, others have other problems. We also take inventory before we leave the house we make sure that all our in from outside (we have a fenced yard) and we put one in a very large pen as he is still in the puppy stage and was abused. Every now and then we cannot find one, a blind one will get behind something and can't find their way out, or get locked in the closet. It is near panic till we find them and all things go through your mind. Did one slip out through our outside door when we came in? That happened once years ago and now we have a double gate thing. But our hearts race and race till we find that dog. Once in a while one gets a "hanger" you know some dirt in their fur and they hide. Panic time... and when we find them, we rejoice, we are yelling out THANK YOU JESUS.

The other week I had two chickens escape when I was feeding them, now they did not get lost, but till I got them back in my arms I was tired and rejoicing. (Getting to old to be a chicken chaser.)

Luke 15: 7 - "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (NIV)

Folks, our Lord Jesus used very, very good examples when He spoke in Parables, He made it much better for us to understand... I have a couple of statements on this. First one! Are you one who is lost or one of the ninety-nine that were safe? Are you the one who is out there running loose and needing brought back or are you like the shepherd who is out looking for that lost sheep?


First, I pray that you are not the one who is lost, but that is who we need to be looking for...

Next, we should not just be like the ninety-nine who are safe, or in our case "saved", we need to be a shepherd working for The Shepherd, The Good Shepherd. We need to be seeking out the lost, hunting for them. I pray that I always will look for my lost pets but that I will also put more time in looking for lost souls and not just in our own family. Yes, when we have a family member that goes astray we hunt for them also, but we go out working for the Lord as commanded by Him.

Mark 16: 15 - "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (NIV)

Those the words of Jesus, let me put it in Lehman's language, Pastor Dan Lehman's language, get off of the couch, turn the TV off, and go and spread the good news, go LOOKING FOR THE LOST. Remember this, you can do it, you really can, there is not one good excuse for you not doing it unless you are too sick to get up, and then you can be praying for the lost and praying for those looking for the lost. Some way we all need to be involved in this mission for the Lord... Do not put it off.

Hey, if you are lost or think you are lost, please please call me for help 717 691 8200 or use my cell phone number 717 991 0754 and I will pray for you and talk to you. I want the herd to have all one hundred head safe. I want to see the day when there is no lost for the lost will burn.

Dear Father in Heaven, we want to be safe in Your arms and also be a shepherd working for You and bringing in the lost souls. We understand that You are The Savior and not us, and we also understand that we are Your workers, Your helpers, Your followers, Your disciples of this day and we really do want to work with You and for You... Help us. Lord, be with those that go in our schools and all those drivers who sit in the driver seats of those buses, keep them safe and Lord, be in the schools with those folks and on board the buses. Even if they do not ask You in, I am asking today Lord. Be with all those families, heal Anna, Don and his family, with Vicki and her family, and with Leslie and her daughters and family. Oh, and Lord, the others who are escaping my mind right now... Lord I ask all of these things in the name of Jesus. So be it.

So be it? Yes, that is what AMEN means. Hey time for me to go, how about sharing some blessings today? Here is something for you to do... I want to try this. Go to your pantry, get a can of something out, and mail it to our food bank, if you live in the area drop it off, if we are not home set it at the garage door. Just one can will be a start to sharing your blessings, and it will give our mail carrier some work (she is great). Mail them to Carry The Light Ministries, "Food Pantry", 16 Dewalt Dr. Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050. love ya, dan.