Soldiers of the Cross

Soldiers of the Cross

2 Timothy 2

 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.² And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
³ Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.⁴ No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

 With the Memorial Day holiday here, I do want to remember the ones who served and died for our country. And I am thankful and Praise the Lord for them.  On a personal note, my Father served in WWII and Korea and my wife's Dad served in Korea too. As that's where God called Him to preach. He made a promised to God there and kept his promise to God when He came back to the states.

In the bible, The Apostle Paul taught and gave many examples of being a good soldier for God. There's the armor of God in book or letter to the Ephesians as well as what He wrote to Timothy in the Second book or letter.

As I remember two of my heroes, my pastor and bible college professor, on this Memorial Day of those soldiers of the Cross.  It is very interesting that they were also great Prayer Warriors too. My pastor, who was my Dad in law, would take me over to the church often on a Saturday night and we would pray. Looking back I did not realize what a special time it was then, and I really miss Him.

My Bible college Professor was a great prayer warrior, as he would fast & pray as well as pray around the world for missionaries.  But he was a pastor and evangelist.  As preacher boys, we would listen to his preaching stories and conversions. It lighted a fire in my soul to evangelize. Especially as he talked about his radio program. It was a daily program on a 50,000 watt station in Birmingham Alabama. The story that he told was He was a pastor of the church on visitation visiting the community and on a hot summer day with sweat running down from his hat, He asked God."How can I reach them ALL ??" and God showed him to a radio program and he did,  Later he would write sermon books from those soul winning radio programs. 

So I want to remember two of my "Soldiesr of the Cross" heroes. Dr. JB Jordan & Dr. RC Henry .

But dear friend, as you read this blog today, are you saved?? Have you been born again?? Have ever asked Jesus to come into your heart?? If not, you may today !! For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved for with the heart man believes and with mouth confession is made. Marvel not, that you must be born again. 

God Bless you,
Rev. Daniel Samples

Mr. Missionary

Mr. Missionary

In my old home church many years ago, we had a 3 & 4 year old boy & girls Sunday school class (small group now) ;-)  And it was in a class room right next to the nursery in the basement of our red brick church. It was very typical in the south in the day. The sanctuary was on the main floor and a basement of Sunday rooms with the Pastor's office at the end of the hallway near the exit door.  (warms my heart just thinking of it) :-)

Well, one of the weekly object lessons was teaching the children to give and support  world missions and the missionary.  So our children's Sunday school teacher created a hat (usually a ball cap) and put missions on it and whoever wore it was Mr. Missionary.

She, the Sunday school teacher would always pick a young preacher boy to be Mr. Missionary, as there was many in my home church.  My Pastor, always had many Preacher boys in his many churches that he Pastor. We're talking about 20-25+ preacher boys, at the height of the ministry in our home church. (interestingly, where are they now??, Hmm, a future blog??) But many where Sunday school teachers, many where Bus Captains in the Bus ministry, where local radio preachers and many preached at the Nursing Home for the elderly. (Hmm, no brag, But I tried to do it all) :-D  but it was a great time . . .

So she would get a preacher boy to come by and be Mr. Missionary and the little children learn to give their pennies, Nichols and dimes to missions and the Missionary. What a great valuable lesson for life.

But the real story, we were all young preacher boys, some going to Bible college and some working a secular job to support their families. And then God started calling each one of us to a specific ministry. And do you know, that God actually called one of those preacher boy to missions and he became a missionary in Germany. It is truly amazing how God works !!  To be a character lesson for children and then actually become Mr Missionary.

God bless you friend, God can use you for service, BUT first ye must be born again, you must be saved. God calls you unto salvation first, then to service. For whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord, shall be saved !! For with the heart man believes and with mouth confession is made. Please call on Him today.

God loves you,
RevDanSam
Rev. Daniel Samples
revdansam@Gmail.com

(ps. yes I was invited to be Mr. Missionary too, PTL !!)  ;-D

Selling points of salvation

The Selling points of  His Salvation



It has been said that if your selling points of salvation is Heaven or Hell, you have missed the best and most important part of the gospel - Jesus Christ.

Although those H&H, are important points of salvation, for we do have  Heaven to gain and Hell to flee.  But more specifically, Through the Lord Jesus Christ we have Heaven to gain and Hell to flee.  The dying thief rejoice to hear the good Lord say, while He was on the cross in agony, "today you should be with me in paradise". And I say Amen and praise-the-Lord for that statement.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

 Our Salvation has always been By grace through faith and not of work unless you would boast about it.
Grace meaning unmerited  favor and unconditional love of the Father.

Eph 2;8-9
⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Using heaven or hell as selling points for salvation has been used before and rightly so, for eternity is to long to be wrong. But really, our salvation is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  For a home may have an air conditioner and heater, but you have to get the home first. And so it is, you must receive Christ First.

Dear friend, for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 

Romans 10:9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved


God Bless you,
Rev. Daniel Samples
revdansam@gmail.com

Thy lovingkindness is better

Psalm 63

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

² To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
³ Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
⁴ Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

I have to says thank to my Pastor for reminding me of this Psalm, particularly 63:3 (he knows the book)

Well, Let me explain.  As many of you know, my son and I ride to work together. And we have prayer time. He usually leads us in a word of prayer.  As a father, I want to "train up a child" and I let him lead the way.  We pray and then quote a bible verse. Well, today he rode the bus and it was just me, . . . and GOD. 

I thought, well, I will just quote the Lord's prayer, yes the Lord's prayer and that will be my prayer time. WRONG, my spirit and soul said no. But it's the bible and God's word, no, just pray.  So there, alone, in the F150 pickup, (holy ground for me, sometimes)  I put a CD in the radio, my nephews, made a gospel CD many years ago, and it has many great choir song selections. 

So as I was yielding to God to pray and to call on His name, I yield and He filled. My throat got choke and tears (of joy) came to my I eyes, I was nodding my head and singing as loud as I could unto the Lord.  I did not care who saw me, as I lifted, well, one hand to the Lord as I drove to work.  It was really a great time and feeling.  Truly, I had to say as in  Psalms 63:3 thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 

And, of course, as soon as I could, I shared it with my Pastor, (as we should NOT text & drive) and He rejoiced with me and reminded me of this verse.

But friend, the joy of the Lord is our salvation.  You must be saved, you must be born again. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved !! see in the bible Roman 10:9-10

Enjoying the loving kindness of the Lord is truly better than life. PTL I love the Lord.

God bless you and have a great day, just a great day,

Rev. Daniel Samples
revdansam@gmail.com

Missing my Russian Friends

Please pray our Russian and Ukraine friends. I have not seen a page view from them in a while and I am very concerned.  At one time they were one of my biggest audience for page views from that part of the world.  I hope that I did not lose some on my last blog Wars & rumors of wars.   Although Russia is a big part of prophesy and  it's how I have learned and interrupted the prophesy in the bible. I did not mean for any ill will, but just to wake us / awake all to turn your life to Christ. 

So please pray for them and I will too. Then I will look forward to seeing the page views again in the near future.

Although I am a computer hobbyist, I wonder if that part of the world is blocked off during war time. I really don't know, but just wondering.  Can they actually block Google and the world wide web ??  I hope not as some need biblical encouragement and some need to send prayer request. I pray "God help"

Please pray and let's see what happens.

God Bless you,

Rev. Daniel Samples
(revdansam@gmail.com)

7000th page view

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, let the earth hear our voice, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. Oh, come the Father through Jesus His son and give the glory, great things He has done!!

Well, we reached another mile stone for the Blog, 7000th blog page view and over a dozen countries besides the USA.  I am so thankful for this accomplishment.  I realize that I have a following and I was to be faithful to the task.

In my early beginnings in the ministry, I did radio work at the local AM station.  Promoting the gospel of Christ verbally and by radio signal.  In our small town, I did not get much respond at the time of the broadcast. Of course, there was family and church members but that was about all that I heard from.  Then as I went out in the community and surrounding areas,  If I meant then at a store or church, many would say they listening in.  It was so many that I was convince many were listening but they just did not call or write.  One of my friends actually recorded my radio programs and used it as a devotional time with their friends.

Well, many heard and actually years later many let me know that they are listening. So in light that and other things, I will assign May as letter month and will open the comments for communication between us. I would like to know you were saved or if the blog has help you spiritually.

 I hope to hear from you. If we agree with things, that's great, if we disagree, we just agree to disagree.

But also, we want to press toward the next mark, 8000. I hope we reach it soon and I hope many will be saved and helped / encouraged in the Lord.  Please pray for us, as we need the prayers of the saints. And let us know.

God Bless you ALL,

Rev Daniel Samples
revdansam@gmail.com

Wars and rumours of wars

Matthew 24:6

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

There's a Southern Gospel song, "Jesus is coming soon" that song was sung by some popular quartet groups during the 70s & 80s.  But here's one line from that song. "Troublesome times are here, filling men's   heart with fear, the freedom we now hold dear is now at sake, so humble your hearts to God, he will save you from all harm, seek the pilgrims trod, His glory to share, Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon, many will meet their doom, all the saints will rise, the righteous will meet in the sky, going where no one dies, Heaven bound."  ( I know, maybe it's not exactly)  But perhaps we should heed this song and call. 

Russia has been known as the in the bible, King of the North, "the Bear" in prophesy and He was a waken to invade the Ukraine. May be they should or may  they shouldn't, it has been said they were apart of the mother land, now they are not, and now the Russians want them to be ???  They are flexing their muscles and hey, they maybe rebuilt and reorganized, but when that old world power is on the move, it will get the attention from many.

I know this will trouble many people, but what did Jesus say ??  "See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass."  I am not a pie-in-the-sky preacher, but it does & should make us think !! First of all to get our self in order and to get our home in order. 

The Apostle Paul told Titus in Titus 1:5 to set on order the things that are wanting, those things that remain and unfinished. So first, you must be saved, born again. In your life, you must call on the name of the Lord. And then get your home in order. Joshua said in Josh 1:8 as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Maybe it's time to call on Him for salvation and go to church with your family. :-)

God Bless you,

RevDanSam

In a word of prayer

The other day as my son and I had morning prayer time in the F150 pickup truck, he really surprised me. Since we pray daily, there's some things that are repeated on a daily basis. But this day he added an extra line for his parents. Well, we were going off for the weekend for my wife's birthday and my son wanted to pray for our safe trip and have a good time.  So, he included it in his morning prayer to God.  I was certainly surprised that he had prayed did this and he did it without any coaching.  :-)

The bible says Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. We have definitely taught the value of prayer as it was a blessing to hear our son call us (his parents) out in a word of prayer. :-)

Perhaps this could be your ministry.  The bible says in the book of James that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. My prayer mentor, (Dr. RC Henry)   prayed around the world. Actually for missionaries and many other things. But He prayed and we need to pray too.  The disciples (the twelve) saw our Lord Jesus pray and have prayer time.  It moved them so much that they said "Lord teach us to pray" and He did.  :-)

It would be Dr. Luke, who would give us this insight, see Luke 11:1

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Matthew the recorder keeper, John the Beloved and Missionary John-MARK did not make a reference to this particular event, although Matthew 6 is a great chapter on prayer. John wrote about Jesus' prayer before the cross and Mark was more interested in telling us about Jesus' busy activities. :-)

It's a Divine Service that you can and may do. You don't have to be a ordained, but you do need to be saved, born again, born from above. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit, marvel not, do not wonder, that you must be born again.

For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved !!

 God bless you friend, go to the Lord in a word of prayer. :-)

RevDanSam