6-29-2025

Good Morning All,

    Matthew 4:17;” From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

   This is one of those verses that causes people to really kind of wrinkle their nose at.  “Repent;” it makes it sound like I am some sort of bad guy; well, you are.  Yet there is more to this verse than most of us read.  Most of us see this as Jesus “the kill joy God” coming into our lives and screwing up the good times we are having.  This is what the devil and our sinful nature wants us to believe.

    Of course, the devil and our sinful nature lie to us every single time.  The truth is, God is trying to get us to see that we are on the wrong path and we need to fix it.  When God created the world, it was perfect.  Man was perfect and all of creation worked in harmony with each other.  Then sin entered the world and brought disharmony and caused man to turn away from God.  So that is where we sit, with our backs turned toward God looking and going away from God and his grace.

    To this life Jesus says repent.  In other words, turn around, come back, don’t go that way, it will only harm you.  Repent, turn from the sin that harms you and come back to my grace; repent.

    We need to understand that the 10 Commandments are a reflection of God’s Will.  This is God telling us how we can live the life that we were designed for before man sinned.  This is how the relationship between you and God along with you and your fellow man are designed to be.  We see that if we believe that God is our God and not some other false god pretending to be that our relationship with our creator is better.  If we see that our dealings with other people should be based on respect, love, and honor, we see that we have a better existence.  God’s law serves to bring us back to this proper existence.  When we sin, we turn from God’s perfect design to the broken sinful one.  When this happens, we need to repent; we need to turn away from our sin and back to God’s grace.

   This is what repentance is really all about.  It is not about God taking away our fun but about returning to the proper, healthy life that we were created for.  To keep returning to sin is to keep returning to the very thing that causes us pain.  God calls us to repent; to turn away from this self-destructive behavior and return to God’s grace and favor.  We can continue to beat our self over the head and claim we like it or we can repent and turn back to God and his path for our life.

Dearest Father, too often we go our own way which causes us pain and suffering.  Too often we miss your call to repentance and only suffer more.  We give you thanks for the mercy to call us and we ask that you strengthen us to hear your call and heed it.  We ask that you be with those who are in the most pain and suffering.  Lead them to hear your call to repentance and to come home.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-28-2025

Good Morning All,

    Psalm 46:10; “Be still, and know that I am God.”

   When I was a kid, the big ticket for party favors was the “Chinese Finger Trap.”  (If you are too young, ask your parents or grandparents.)  You would put the index finger of each hand into the end of this tube and then try to pull them back out.  The secret was that you couldn’t just pull your finger out.  The harder you pull, the tighter the finger trap pulls on your finger.  In order to release yourself from the trap, it requires some counter intuitive thinking and you must apply pressure to keep the finger trap pushed together so it is as loose as possible.

    I remember one time when a classmate was playing with one in class.  The teacher started yelling at him to take it off.  The more the teacher yelled the more stressed the student got and just kept pulling.  Soon he had pulled so hard his fingers started to turn purple.   The teacher had to get a pair of scissors to cut the finger trap off.  It was kind of a learning lesson.  Sometimes, when we pull the hardest, is when we suffer the most.

     That is what our verse is about.  While this is the traditional translation, there is a better one.  “Let go of your concerns!  Then you will know that I am God.”  Another translation is “Stop your struggling!  Know that I am God!” These are better because they more accurately describe what the Psalmist is saying.  By simply being silent, it can imply that by listening to directions then we can proceed.  What we really need to do is to stop fighting and stop worrying.  We cannot fight the devil and his attacks on our own.  If we try, it is like struggling in quicksand; you only get into more trouble.

    When the devil begins to tell us his lies and we try to fight on our own, we will lose.  We need to see that our refuge, the place where we go to be safe, is God and not our own skill.  So, when the devil comes and tells us we are worthless or hopeless or of no value, we need to stop our own futile struggle and turn to God for our strength.  The devil will launch every possible, and some impossible, attack, painful thought, every fear, real or imagined (mostly imagined) anything to fire at you with as much intensity as possible.  When that attack comes, we are just like that student who kept pulling until his fingers were purple.  We can never handle the stress that the devil applies to us. 

    We need to recognize that we need to stop struggling and receive God’s grace and mercy and trust in him to give us the comfort and strength to battle the devil’s attacks.  We will only survive because of God’s grace fighting for us, because we are saved by blood of Jesus.  God has told us he will fight for us; we need to stop fighting, to be silent, and know that the God of love is battling for us.

Dearest Father, all of our efforts are of no value.  Our only hope is in your grace.  Give us the wisdom to trust in you and you alone.  Guide us by your Spirit and guard us as we face the challenges of this life.  Give those who are battling especially hard battles the peace they need to know that they are secure in you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret         

6-27-2025

Good Morning All,

         Romans 10:9: ’because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

    Most adult Americans are, by nature, a cynical bunch.  This usually occurs when after being burned a time or two with buying something that just sounds “too good to be true;” we come to the realization that if it sounds too good to be true it isn’t true at all.  We hear this admonition from every consumer watchdog group that exists.  The Better Business Bureau, the Consumer Protection League, the Consumer Report; take your pick, they all tell the same story.  Do not trust or believe anything that sounds too simple.

    So, the devil, the world and our sinful nature screams at us as loud as they can, “It is too good to be true; don’t buy it!!”  Yet God clearly tell us it is that simple.  If you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died and rose from the dead to pay for your sins, you are saved.  That’s it; that’s all there is to it.  If you believe that Jesus Christ dies for you sins and rose again, you have salvation.  God has promised this!  It is not debatable or of any form of second guessing.  If you believe, you are saved.

    So why do we struggle?  Mostly this goes against everything we are told in the human world.  Have you ever talked to an economist?  Within in five minutes he will tell you, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”  Do you listen to the Better Business Bureau or the Consumer Report?  Do not trust anything that sounds too good. That is the message of the world.  This is part of what Scriptures means when it says the wisdom of the world is folly to God.  It doesn’t make sense to the world but it is God’s desire to do this.  It makes sense to God and in the end, isn’t that who we should worry about?

     God has chosen to save us through the death of Jesus his Son.  God has chosen to give us this salvation.  God has chosen to give us the faith to trust in that salvation.  It is way too easy according to the world but it is God’s plan.  Believe with your heart and you are saved.  If you truly believe this, your life will change.  God will give you a newness because you are a new creation.  You are a redeemed child of God; over everything else, you are God’s child.  That is what the devil wants you to forget; that is what the devil wants to hide and confuse you about.  You are God’s redeemed child because he loves you and he wants you to live with him in heaven.  So, he makes it simple for us; believe in your heart that Jesus died for you and you will be saved.  It doesn’t get any better than that!  Trust in God’s promise and you will be saved.  It is not too good to be true; it simply is true!

Dearest Father, the world tries to confuse us with all of its tricks.  Give us the confidence to trust in your saving grace.  Give us wisdom to cling to the cross of Jesus as the sign of our salvation.  Give us the courage to believe in our heart that Jesus is our Savior.  Keep us in your loving arms and defend us from the lies of the devil.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen,

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

6-26-2025

Good Morning All,

     John 13:34; “I’m giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you.”

    Many years ago, there was a pop song that had the chorus line “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey; love the one you’re with.”  This line pretty much sums up the world’s view of love.  This view is based entirely on the selfish concept of “me, me, only me.”  It gives a much-distorted view of love.  A common view of love is the one that states, “I’ll love you as long as you love me and are nice to me and as long as you make me feel good.”  This way of looking at love also distorted the view of God’s law and covenant.

    During the time that Jesus ministered here on earth, the Pharisees and the Scribes had completely distorted the correct way to read God’s law that was given to Moses.  The Pharisees made the law very condemning and harsh.  They used the law to punish and attack the people.  They used it as a cruel rod of oppression.  They used the law to beat the people into submission and gave them no comfort, no peace, and no hope.

    This was the way religion worked at this time.  It was about rules, really picky rules, and it was about being judged or judging someone else.  This was one of the reasons that Jesus’ message resonated with the common, everyday people at this time and not with the religious elite.  The message of Jesus offered hope.  Instead of condemning, he offered forgiveness.  He told his disciples that faith, true faith is very different from what the Pharisees taught.  True faith was shown with love.  This is what Jesus meant when he called it a “new commandment;” it was new to the way they were used to.  It was new to them but not to Jesus or God.

    This doesn’t mean that we forget the law.  The law serves as a guide to our life.  When we approach someone who is in sin, it is not so much telling them that they are wrong.  It is telling them that what they are doing is hurtful to themselves and hurtful to their relationship with God.  When Jesus told the woman who was caught in adultery to “go and sin no more;” this was as much about the harm she was doing to herself, her family, and all the others involved.  The pain that she felt was pretty much self-inflicted.  This is common today.

    We are often our own worst enemy.  We hold onto hate or grudges; we think that fulfilling selfish desires makes us happy and it never does.  The person who loves money never has enough and worries about it constantly.  The person who loves himself only thinks of himself and is usually lonely most of the time.  The person who expects others to make him happy rarely is because our source of happiness is not outside of us but comes from our inner peace which we have with and from God.  Our only source of true joy is love; the kind of love that is the expression of our faith in Jesus.

    Father of all love, too often we fall short of your glory and on doing so we fail to love as you love us.  Strengthen us with your grace and move us by your mercy to reach out and to show your love to those around us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-25-2025

Good Morning All,

        Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10; “Two people are better than one because together they have a good reward for their hard work.  If one falls, the other can help his friend get up. But how tragic it is for the one who is all alone when he falls. There is no one to help him get up.”

     Do you remember the song by Bill Withers called “Lean on Me?”  It came out in the early 19070’s.  It was a song that spoke of a person who needs someone to lean on; someone to help you with the burdens of life.  This was one of many songs of that style.  Simon and Garfunkel had “Bridge over Troubled Waters”, the Hollies sang “He ain’t heavy, he’s, my Brother.”  All singing the same thought; we need other people.

     When God created man in His image, man was designed to do three things.  First, man was to live in God’s Presence and worship and praise God and to be God’s helper here on earth.  Second, man was to take care of God’s creation.  The third thing man was designed to do was to be a companion with his fellow man. 

     Of course, sin destroyed all of these.  Man, no longer lived in God’s Presence rather man sought out his own selfish desires and destroyed whatever stood in his way whether it was another man or part of creation.  It is no accident that the next story after Adam and Eve sin that we read about Cain killing Abel.  Sin destroyed man’s relationship with man as well.

      Yet Jesus came to the world to restore it and to reconcile it back to God. We, as redeemed children of God, are restored to God’s kingdom and reign; just not completely.  We live in the time of “now but not yet.” We are now fully children of God; just not yet fully glorified.  Until that time, we are here, waiting for the full restoration, we are to bring the Gospel of Jesus- the total forgiveness of sins- to the whole world.

    One of the most effective ways of doing this is by helping other people.  Jesus frees us from the shackles of sin so we are free to begin to live our life the way God intended us to live.  We try and sometimes we fail but God’s grace gives us the power to get up and try again and again.  So, we struggle on in life but we know that with God’s grace our struggle is a little easier if we face it with our family and friends at our side.  They are there to be God’s voice of comfort and re-assurance, they are God’s hands to hold us tight and they are God’s shoulders for us to cry on.  Sometimes we cry and sometimes we are the shoulders but we go through it together.  We are God’s redeemed children; we are the Church, the body of Christ called to do his work here on earth and given the grace to face each day.  In the end, we have heaven; but until that day we have God’s promise and we have each other.  So go ahead and lean on your brother or sister because tomorrow they will lean on you.   Through both, we receive our strength from Christ.

Dearest Lord Jesus, as we go through this life in a sinful world, we ask that you give us the strength to allow our brothers and sisters to lean on us as they receive the blessing of your comfort and peace.  Be with all our brothers and sisters who face incredible struggles in their lives and give them the certainty of their salvation and the comfort and love of their fellow Christians.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret        

6-24-2025

Good Morning All,

    Romans 8:26; “At the same time the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we don’t know how to pray for what we need. But the Spirit intercedes along with our groans that cannot be expressed in words.”

    Whenever you go to a gathering of Christians, do you ever marvel at how some people can seem to just stand up and pray for a longtime and seem to know what to say?  Their prayers just seem to flow with an endless sense of clarity and proper language.  Do you ever think, “I wish I could pray like that?”  You are most likely in the vast majority, like I am, where our prayers have more “umms” and “urrs” and really long awkward pauses.  Most of us struggle with prayer and not just public prayer but with our own private prayer as well.

     I don’t know how many times I have had someone tell me that they don’t know how to pray.  I kind of blame that on the Church.  We have many prayers which have been crafted and honed over many months or years to say what is “proper.”  Most of us don’t have months to think of a prayer.  If you get a phone call that someone you love has had an auto accident, you need a prayer right now.  So, we struggle with our daily prayer life because we don’t know what or how to pray.  Unfortunately, the devil loves to whisper in your ear that you can’t really pray so why try?

    Yet God has given us a way to deal with our struggling prayers.  First, he invites us to pray, at all times and in all ways.  He gives us the Lord’s Prayer to use as an example or just to use as it is.  Finally, and most importantly we have Jesus praying for us (John17:20) and we have the Holy Spirit praying for us.  These three things alone should give us confidence to pray and yet we still struggle.

    So, in order for us to have an easier time of praying, here are some ideas.  First, practice, practice, practice!!  We need to have a solid and continual prayer life.  Luther suggested that we set aside three times a day to pray.  He suggested when you get up when you have lunch and when you go to bed.  The important part here is that you get in the habit of praying and not just waiting until you are in a stressful situation. 

     If you feel the need to, try reading some of the prayers that have been written by others.  Remember this is for you not God to be comfortable with your prayers.  God is already comfortable with your prayers; he knows your needs long before you pray them.  He calls us to pray in order that he might give us healing and comfort.  He uses our prayers to give us relief from our pains.  He uses our prayers to help us celebrate our joys.  There is an old hymn that encourages us to “speak oft with the Lord.”  This is good advice.  Prayer is God’s gift to us; use it often.

Dearest Father, we don’t come to you in prayer as often as we should and for this, we ask for your forgiveness.  Give us the wisdom to seek you out in our prayers so that we may receive your tender mercy.  Be with those who are in pain now and have nowhere to turn.  Use us to be your hands and your voice.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-23-2025

Good Morning All,

    Revelations 21:5; “The one sitting on the throne said, “I am making everything new.” He said, “Write this: ‘These words are faithful and true.”

    Who doesn’t like new stuff?  I know that we all make a big deal about the old comfy chair or the old comfy shoes or shirt.  I know we all have a favorite pair of jeans that should have been tossed years ago; but really, we like things new.  We like the smell of new things.  We like the feel of new things.  We like the idea that no one else has possessed or touched it.  We almost always are a little saddened when the first scratch, dent or tear shows up.

    Even when it comes to experiences in life, we tend to enjoy new things.  The first time you drive a car, the first time you ride on an airplane, the first time you meet someone or your first child or grandchild.  When it is all new, everything is exciting and awesome.

     We even view newness as a fresh start.  When a student starts a new year, sometimes we like to view it as a new start, a clean slate from last year’s struggles.  Perhaps a new job or moving to a new community will let us leave the failures of the last job or home and we want to wash the bad away and get a clean, new start.  The trouble with that is we usually bring our old struggles with us.  Whatever caused problems for us before are probably still with us.

    Yet this is where with God it is different.  God actually makes us new.  It isn’t just a wash job and a little paint; it is all new.  Through the atoning blood of Jesus, you are made new.  We really do get a clean slate.  Even when it is something that the world may condemn you forever for.  Perhaps you are a woman who had an abortion; perhaps you are a father who abused your children; perhaps you are a child who stole from your parents; maybe you struggle with drugs and alcohol or other addictions; maybe you think that whatever is in your past will follow you and keep you down; but it won’t.  In Jesus, you are a new creation.  God is making everything new all we have to do is to trust this to be true.  We only have to have the God given desire to believe.

    The devil will lie to you and tell you that you just can’t do it; but the empty cross and the open tomb tell us we can because Jesus did it for us.  Jesus made us new and so we are.  He continues to make us new each day with the washing away of our sins daily. So that we can be new people who live in His gracious and loving kingdom. The struggles of the past may rear their ugly heads; some inner demons die hard; but they do die. Yet we know for certain that these words are true and faithful for God is making everything new giving us life eternal in his Name.

Dear Father, you make us new each day by washing away our sins.  Give us the joy to celebrate this and the peace to take comfort in this great message.  Help us to live the life which you have laid out for us.  Give us courage to speak your truth in a world which speaks only lies.  Strengthen us as your voice; allow us to boldly call you Lord of our lives.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret