First things first

I try to not get to preachy in my blogs, but it's a fire burning in me.  In my daily devotions and Saturday readings, I came across a thought that was a great reminder to me and I would like to share it with you today.  "FIRST THINGS FIRST" 

Give the first moments of the day to the Lord. When you begin your day with God you allow Him to set the tone for the rest of the day. Someone has wisely stated, “If you don’t allow God to set the tone for your day, someone else will do it for you.”

Give the first day of the week to God. Sunday should be a time of worship and devotion to God and His house. Make it a priority to attend church and see if it doesn’t change the rest of your week.

Give your first fruits of your financial gain or receiving. It might determine how you are blessed again.  One preacher said you get to give, to get again to give again.  And only you can break that cycle when you become to greedy or lack of faith.

But what a great direction or path for your life.  Seek ye first Him. Give Him the first place.  Give Him first place in your faith, family and finances, also your time, talent and treasures.  :-)

It is easier said than done, but if you commit to Him, He will help you, He will lead you and guide you. I had not thought about this for a long time and now in my early mid 50s I want to focus on these things for me and my family.  Pray for us !!

But first and as always, you must be saved, you must be born again, accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Call on Him while He is near. Jesus is just a pray away.  Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house !!

GOD BLESS YOU FRIEND,

RevDanSam

He wants the whole house

 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Eph 5:18
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Gal 5;16

I was wanting to hear from God this week as  He leads me to write my blog post.  And wow !! Did He speak to me today.  A preacher friend of mine has a daily devotional that talked about D.L Moody, a famous preacher from yester-year and this is where God spoke to heart and mind.

When you get saved, you get ALL of the Holy Spirit.  And as you yield to Him, He fills you. It very similar to getting a new house.  The whole house is yours. And as you go into the house, you open doors to all the rooms and you fill the house.  But what happens in so many believers life is even though we have all of Him, He does not have all of us. There are many of us who keep the door close to rooms and we do not want to fill it.  We say yes to many rooms in the house but we have other rooms He cannot fill.  But as we grow in grace and knowledge of Him, we allow Him to go in and fill many more rooms.  We say YES to Him in our Intellect, emotions and will, then He fills.  And beware, he will not fill nor use a dirty vessel / cup, but that's another blog some day.  :-)

As you yield, He fills and He wants all of you, where you can serve, speak and shout.  All of which needs to be through the power of the Holy Spirit.  It will change your life.

But first friend you must be saved, be born again.  Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

God Bless you,

RevDanSam

(I may add more tonight)

The Ride

THE RIDE

Many years ago, I was a Bi-vocational Pastor, meaning I had a regular secular job, to pay the bills, and I was Pastor of a small Baptist church.  (I could handle it better then, I was younger, in my early thirties) but I was a field service engineer working on computers traveling in my car to my service my customers.  One particular day, I was going to Blairsville Georgia from my home.  I had gone there several times and I took my familiar route, Ga. Hwy. 20 to 575 which turned into 515 to Blairsville.  Well, I got on the four lane road as I went my usual way and I decided I would pray for all the bi-vocational pastors that I knew, for I knew it very hard on a man with a family to have a regular job and pastor a church.  And men’s names and faces started coming  to my mind. One was a truck driver, another was a carpenter, another was a factory worker and others came to mind.  I was driving, but praying and calling their names out to the Lord.  Then, . .  the Spirit of the Lord filled that car.  A 1989 green Altima, became holy ground.  I was crying tears and calling on God.  The windows fogged up and I became very emotional in a happy way while driving up those mountains and hills on that road.  When I calmed down a little I did what any preacher might do, I called my wife, I wanted to share the experience with her.  Well, she was at her office at her school working away and people coming in and out.  I called her on the phone and I said, “Glory to God, He’s filled I car and I am shouting and crying!!”  I guess it was one of those, you had to be there moments,  but she said quietly, “well that’s good honey, just don’t wreck the car !!”

I would go that way many times, but I never had that same experience again.  I tried to pray and quote bible scriptures to myself, but it was never again like that day of the ride, when God through the spirit came into that car with me.

I think back on it and perhaps those preachers needed my prayers that day, maybe I was doing the right thing at the right time  and God smiled on me through the presence  of the Holy Spirit.  I will never forget it!! There was a trueness and holiness that I felt and I was glad that I was there with Him.

But dear friend, to get that close to Him you must first be saved, born again.  You must first accept Jesus into your heart .  Proverbs 3:5 says trust in Him will ALL your heart and do not lean on your understanding.  For with the heart man believes and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Brethren, please pray us.

RevDanSam

5000th blog views

  ⁸ But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8

Go ye into ALL the World Mark 16:15, As my Father sent me so I send you John 20:21

This is my meaning, motive and mission.  It was taught / burned into my heart and mind in the 1980's as a bible college preacher boy. Both of my childhood pastors where mission minded and preachers of the gospel.  As my bible college professor (Dr. Henry) said many years ago, Boys, we want to fan the fires of evangelism in your heart !!    And he did, being a great evangelist / pastor himself and bible college teacher.  Also a great prayer warrior !! He was a praying man.  He prayed for my brother and me, the Samples boys Pastoring churches.  And missionaries, pastors and workers around the world. (there is a secret and power in prayer)

I am truly thankful for your time and views of this blog.  I want to continue as long as I can.  I ask for your prayers.  There's more stories and happenings from the 20 years prior to the year 2000 and well now, 14 years after the year 2000. 

In the Eighties, I used radio to promote the gospel of Christ, and I still get people saying that they heard me, especially family and friends.  In the 90's I used a sound system and tapes, from my pulpit from the church.  In the 2000s I use the Internet, world wide web (WWW) and google. 

I try to give you what God speaks to me, pray that I will listen and be hearers of the word.  Usually an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. ( sound familiar, parable??) Oh well. What Jesus Did.

Of course, I pray and support missions, those who promote the gospel of Christ around the world !!

God bless you friend, let's keep going for the honor and glory of God !!

²³ being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. ²⁴ For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: ²⁵ but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 1 Peter 1:23-25

RevDanSam

Don't forget the root

Isaiah 11:1

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

 

Romans 15:12

And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust

 

Of course, Jesse was David's Father and Jesus is of lineage of David, Jesus has throne rights to rule and regin from Jerusalem. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.(ESV)

 

The other day, actually a couple of weekends ago, we needed to work in the back yard where weeds had grown up on a curve bank that was very steep.  Because of the roughness of the work and keeping my balance, I had put it off for a long time.  So I got the boy, the lad, to help me.  I used that gas weed eater and he used the electric one.  Last year, I cut the same bank and cut down a small tree with my bow saw.  But I did not pull up the root.  And I came to that spot this year and noticed very many stems or shoots coming out of the old stump.  Then God started to speak to my heart and mind.  I said to my son, well last year I cut down the tree, now this year there are many stems/shoots growing out of it.  Nature teaches us about the Lord.  Jesus died on mount Calvary but many stems continued after his death growing from his roots.  His grandmother was near by and heard us talking and she said yes, those stems are us.  It's great to have a Christan family to help teach the young ones !! 

 

Well,  the present application is here, truly we have grown out of the root of Jesus after he was cut down on Calvary 's hill, but the prophetical lesson is here too.  From the root of Jesse shall come one who reign from the throne and that will be Jesus. Nature teaches us and the bible tells.  Perhaps the nature tells us that the bible is true.  Although, I have to say, "thy word is truth O Lord !!

 

It was great to share that moment with my son.  Although, he being high functioning autistic, I am often amazed what he does remember. I say, to God be the Glory !!

 

But Dear friend, Jesus has been cut out of many peoples lives today.  He lives in us who believe. So I invite you to believe Jesus today.

Sirs, what must I do to be saved? ³¹ And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. ³² And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. Acts 16:3-32

 

The song says"only trust him, only trust him, only trust him now"

 

God Bless you,

RevDanSam

 

 

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Psalm 33:12 KJV

"I am proud to be an American where at least I know I am free, thankful for all men the fought to give that right for me, and I will stand up and still defend her today, GOD-BLESS- THE- U-S-A !!"

Southern by birth, Christian by the Grace of God !!

My heart is humbled and very happy today.  I am glad I'm saved and born again!! The song said "I'm saved and I know that I am, I'm so glad I know that I am"

The phrase "GOD BLESS AMERICA! is a prayer from the past, for the present and the future.  It's a prayer from the past, our godly fore fathers  realizes they needed God.  In his grace, guidance and guard.  The Lord was the God of our fathers and they knew that they needed the Him in their life, labors and liberty.  It was a prayer in the past prayed by our Godly fathers.

Not only is a phrase that was used in the past, but it's a prayer that's very revelent for the present. For today's world.  We need God!!  We need to recognized God in his power, purity and performance.  The bible verse in psalms 33:12 Blessed, usually means happy is the one, in this case, happy is the nation whose God is the Lord. God bless America is a prayer for the present that we need today !!

Then, it's prayer for the future.  We need to plan to keep God in our lives.  In the future to come, we will need God's Blessing In our lives, labors and liberties.  He who created the world and life, we need Him. He's our hope, help and happiness.  I love the Lord now deep in my heart!!

But dear friend, another prayer in the bible says "Our Father, which is in heaven"  First, you must be saved, born again, accept God's son, Jesus, as your personal Lord and savior.  God in the flesh, in human form is Jesus.  Acts 4:12

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved

For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Call on Him today on this Independence day and find dependence on Him!!

God Bless you friend,
RevDanSam