6-13-2025

Good Morning All,

    Mark 9:50b; “and be at peace with one another.”

      The world claims it desires peace.  Yet how does the world define peace?  We see a drone strike over here and then we see a “surgical” air strike over there. We threaten, we bully, we build bigger armies and weapons, all in the name of peace. Most of the time, peace is the absence of violence.  Unfortunately, this usually means getting ready for the next battle to occur.  This is true of nations, of neighbors, even of families.  Too often we see peace as what I get when you lose.  We seek peace but it is often a fleeting thing and hard to have. The peace that man often seeks, only occurs at the oppression of someone else. In the world’s eye, peace has winners and losers.

    Some of this is because of all the outside pressure that the world applies to us.  The pressure that the world exerts with all the force it has often causes us to crack.  The stress can be great, and peace is hard to find.  So, if we want peace, we need to see how God desires peace for us.

    Peace is one of God’s greatest gifts for us.  Peace allows us to rest.  Peace allows us to be part of God’s designed rhythm of rest and work.  This is part of the reason that God made the Sabbath; it gives us a chance to rest and to find some peace.  Peace gives us the sense of comfort in his arms.

    Another part of peace is the need to forgive and to receive forgiveness.  Where there is no forgiveness, there is no peace.  This simple truth speaks a lot to us.  If you are unwilling to forgive, you will have no peace because you are not at peace with each other.  If you have no peace with someone, your friend or your spouse or a family member, seek to reconcile with them.  Seek out each other and pray for peace and ask each other for forgiveness and when you speak forgiveness; mean it; truly mean and desire to have peace with each other.

     Perhaps the hardest place to find peace is with our self.  This can be the hardest to find because we know how our heart and our sinful nature knows our fears.  Our sinful nature will attack our sense of peace; using fear, worry and painful memories.  Our peace is attacked by the devil and our sinful nature by questioning our health, our wealth, our hopes, and dreams, even drawing on painful experiences from years gone by.  The devil spares no effort in seeking to keep you from peace.

    Yet God wants you to be at peace.  He gives us peace which will give us the comfort to face today.  We have the certainty of our eternal salvation, and we have the promise of comfort for today’s problems.  God comes to us with his grace and mercy, using His Word to remind us of his promises, his sacraments to renew and refresh us and our brothers and sisters in Christ to be his hands, arms, shoulders and voice of flesh and blood love and compassion.  God wants us to be at peace with Him and with each other so we can live the life He desires us to have.

Gracious Father, we give you thanks for peace.  We give you thanks for the rest that we receive from your peace.  Give us the power and wisdom to seek peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we may live as you desire.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-12-2025

Good Morning All,

    Matthew 6:26; “Look at the birds. They don’t plant, harvest, or gather the harvest into barns. Yet, your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?”

    Why do we do it to ourselves?  Why do we worry about everything?  It is either too wet or too dry.  When we are at work, we worry about being behind in our work or else we worry that there is not enough work, and we may get laid off.  We worry about everything.  I used to be fascinated by the young men who played baseball for me.  It seemed some were more comfortable striking out than getting a hit.  If they got a hit; everyone expected them to do it again and they were worried that they wouldn’t.  Some preachers worry about when they get a complement on a sermon that now the next one has to be better!

   I have listened to people who worry about something bad going to happen because they have enjoyed such blessings lately.  It is almost that we feel that every good blessing earns a little punishment; why do we do that?  Why do we punish ourselves and for absolutely nothing? Mark Twain once commented, “I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

    This is what Jesus is addressing in this verse.  Look at the birds; seriously take a look at them.  They have absolutely no worries.  They fly around, eat and chirp.  They don’t worry about the boss or the banker or the government.  They have no worries.  Yet they have no worries because they don’t know any different; what about us?  We do know better, shouldn’t we worry?

    Jesus addresses this in the second half of the verse.  Aren’t you worth more than a bird?  Of course you are!  If God takes care of the birds; how much more will he gladly take care of you!  We have no need to worry; God will provide for our needs.  Worry is the tool of the devil.  The devil uses it to inflict pain and discomfort on us.  Think about what happens when we worry; we don’t sleep right, we don’t eat right, we get crabby and short with others, we fail to act, and we can often begin to question God.  Once we do this, the devil smiles.

   When worry hits you, stop, drop, and pray!  Ask God to help you and to remove your worry about something.  This will help in all these areas.  Prayer will drive the devil away and we will begin to see a little more clearly what God wants for us.  We will see that it is not others causing us problems, but it is our own lack of faith.  We lose sight of God’s grace and mercy. 

We begin to look inward for our answers instead of looking to God as the source of all our needs.  You are worth more than any bird; God sent his Son to die for you in order to redeem you.  He did this because he loves you and values you deeply.

Dear Jesus, you have saved us because you love us.  Give us the courage to trust you to take care of all of our needs.  Guide us by your tender Spirit that we may trust in your bountiful mercy to supply us. Help those who are struggling with life at this time. Give them hope and lead us to be your hands in that process.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-11-2025

Good Morning All,

    2 Corinthians 1:20; “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”

     I think, for many of us, the most exciting word is “yes”!  This word is so full of potential and so full of promise.  It offers new horizons and perhaps, even new hopes and dreams. Think back to your dating years.  You would agonize over calling; what if they say no?  Do you remember the relief and excitement when they said, “Yes, I would love to go.”  Do you remember later when the marriage proposal was there, would I get asked, would they accept?  The thrill of hearing “yes” sent you into ecstasy. 

    When you applied for your job or tried to rent or buy some land, being told “yes” gave you a lift and a joy.  Maybe even more to the point, remember when you looked at the doctor questioning and he said, “Yes, she will be fine in a couple of days.”  You breathed a sigh of relief, and the world suddenly looked brighter.  We love being told “yes.”

    When I was in high school, one of my favorite Christian songs was called “And God said YES.”  It spoke of God saying ‘yes,’ with a cosmic roar to his people whom he had redeemed and saved from the reign of sin. God has always wanted to tell us ‘yes.’ That is why he created us, so that He would have someone to pour his blessings on. This is what our verse today tells us; God says “yes” to you and to me.

    You and I were nothing more that lost people with no hope, no future and with nothing to offer anyone else.  We were floundering in the mire of sin and despair. We had nothing to look forward to, our days were numbered with hopelessness, emptiness and wrought with pain. Yet in the depth of our despair, God saw us.  He sent His Son Jesus to pay the price that we owe.  In doing so, he picked us up, cleaned us off, fed us, gave us new clothes, held us tightly in his arms and said “YES.”  “Yes, I will keep this one as my dear child.”  There is no better way for you and me to hear the word “YES.”

   Yes, you are redeemed.  Yes, you are saved.  Yes, you are valued by the Father as a dearly loved child of God.  Yes, He means this.  Yes, he has forgiven all of your sins, even the really, really bad ones.  Yes, He wants you to take comfort and to have hope because God looked at you and said “YES.”  We have all the comfort and hope we can ever need.  God, through Jesus, says “YES” to us every day.  His love, his grace and his mercy say “Yes” to us each day.  No matter how often the world tells you “no;” God’s love is always “YES!!” God’s love for you is that you may have eternal life in his perfect and holy kingdom and that forever he may say to you, “YES!!”

Dear Father, through Jesus, you tell me “yes.”  I am loved and treasured by you, and I receive your wonderful grace and mercy.  You sustain and give me hope. You lift me up whenever I am down.  Help me to share this wonderful news with those around us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-10-2025

Good Morning All,

    Luke 7:1; “After had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.”

    We all have heard the comment.  It has become a code phrase for all the excitement is over.  Maybe you have even said it; I must confess; I have.  “Elvis has left the building.”  The amazing thing is that in the mid to late 1960’s, that phrase actually meant something.  When Elvis Presley would perform at a concert, thousands of fans, mostly women, would wait anxiously wait for Elvis to reappear for an encore or a chance to meet him in the hall.  Many would wait for hours, believing the rumors that he was going to come out and sign autographs.  Finally, the concert sponsors would have to come on stage and announce to the crowd that “Elvis has left the building.”  Then and only then, often hours after the end of the performance, would people slowly go home.

    In our verse, we see a different event.  Rather than leaving after the exit of a person; we hear of Jesus’ entrance.  Jesus entered Capernaum, a fishing village where Jesus began his preaching.    Jesus entered Jerusalem to meet the Jewish leaders and, ultimately, defeat the devil.  Jesus entered many other villages but most importantly, Jesus entered people’s lives.  He entered the lives of the blind and the lame.  He entered the lives of the possessed and the lost.  Jesus entered the lives of the people who knew nothing but despair and hopelessness and changed their lives. He changed their lives by his words, his touch, his healing, and his restoration. He gave them hope; he forgave their sins.

    Jesus enters your life as well.  Jesus enters our gritty, painful lives and gives us hope.  We may have parents who don’t understand.  We may have spouses who don’t care.  We may have bosses that demand more than they should.  We may fight health problems that destroy our body and rake us without mercy.  The world takes these struggles and beats us over the head, telling us that “hope has left your life.”  Jesus enters your life.  He enters your life with his incredible love and picks you up and tells the devil and the world that “this one is mine; leave them alone!” He enters our lives so that we, who are people of promise, may also be people of hope. People who know and trust the Word of the Creator God who enters our pain, our shame, and our brokenness to give us life, true eternal life.

    We will still have to experience these events; a sinful, broken world sees to it.  But we live in hope.  We live in God’s precious grace.  We live in his comfort, and we live in his mercy.  Jesus enters your life to make you a redeemed child of God.  We live a life that knows that it is not the world and its pain that defines us but rather, it is a loving God who has chosen us to be his children who defines who we are. We live in his grace waiting for his glory to complete us.

Dearest Father, by your mercy, Jesus has entered our lives to give us hope.  Lead us to have confidence in your wonderful love. Guide us by your Spirit to comfort our brothers and sisters who are in desperate need. Send all your children peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-9-2025

Good Morning All,

    1 Samuel 16:7; “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

   We have all been told “don’t judge a book by its cover.”  Yet how many of us do?  When the women were given the right to vote for the 1920 election, the Republicans nominated Warren G. Harding.  One of the primary reasons was because he was handsome and thought to be able to swoon the woman vote.  He did win but I am not sure how much this fact matters.  Yet we often are drawn to the handsome and/or beautiful people.  We even joke about it.  I often tell people that I have a face for radio.  Yet all too often, we go on appearances in our decision making.

    We see this in every facet of our life.  Have you ever eaten a meal in a restaurant that even remotely looked like the picture?  How many times do you buy fresh fruit only to get home and find that the rotten ones are hidden in the back or bottom of the package?  When a person sells a house, one of the first things to do is paint it so it looks good.  Painting can cover lots of ills like water stains or mildew issues.  So, if you don’t look a little deeper, you might get the short end of the deal.

    The same is true of religion.  As Jesus walked the earth, the Pharisees and Sadducees were viewed as extremely pious.  Yet Jesus called them “whitewashed tombs” pretty on the outside but full of filth on the inside.  Jesus did not then, nor does he now; look at the outside.  Jesus always looks at the heart.  He looks at the heart that has faith; the heart that trusts in God’s promises.  Jesus heals that heart.  He restores it with his love and grace.  It doesn’t matter if you look like the most handsome movie star or if you have a face built for radio, Jesus looks at your heart.  He comforts the downtrodden and he heals the broken hearted.

    So, as we go out today and the world makes sure to show us that we are not as pretty as the world thinks we should be; know that you are beautiful.  You are beautiful because Christ has saved you.  You are gorgeous because you are a redeemed child of God; loved and cherished by Him.  Know that God’s inner beauty is shining out through you.  Know that as you share his love and the message of his Gospel; you are the most beautiful person in the world.  This is not from an outward view or a casual view but from a look at the depth of your heart into the very bottom of your soul.  God sees you as a forgiven heir to his kingdom.  You are beautiful to God and his people.

    Dearest Father, by your mercy we are brought into your everlasting kingdom.  You see beauty where the world sees ugliness.  We give you thanks for your great loving kindness.  Give us the courage to acknowledge the beauty of our fellow believers.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.   

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-8-2025

Good Morning All,

          Romans 1:16; ^“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”

     It is amazing to me how fragile our world really is.  Think about what happens when the electricity goes out for a while.  Most of us cannot prepare food, heat or cool our houses and, as darkness settles in, we cannot see, even in our own houses.  If the power outage lasts very long, the area can actually begin to shut down as businesses cannot conduct business and sometimes traffic controls do not work. 

   This is one of the interesting facts about our faith.  Christianity is not about “finding serenity” or “finding myself” or “connecting to the cosmos;” our faith is about power.  Our faith is about being connected to the power.  This is what Paul is telling us in this verse and elsewhere in his epistles.  Paul doesn’t call the gospel “good advice,” “a nice path to follow,” or even “a viable lifestyle;” Paul calls the gospel “power.”  It is the power that God uses to save us.  It is this powerful statement, Christ died for your sins, and you receive it by faith; that connects us to God.  It is God’s power given to us. It is God taking you and then reshaping you into the creature that you were meant to be. It is God’s power to bring you back into his holy family and kingdom.

    Our faith is about power.  It is about the power of God to forgive us.  It is about the power that God gives to us to forgive others.  It is about the power that God gives us to change our lives.  It is about the power that God gives us to reach out to others and change their lives.  Never doubt for one moment that when the Gospel of Jesus is spoken to a heart that will receive this message in faith; lives are changed.  The Word of God in the hearts of men (and women) changes lives.  The Gospel of Jesus is the power to change lives and to do so in a most dramatic fashion.  It is the redemptive power to restore us to the body of believers. It is God cleansing us of the sin and filth that we dwell in and makes us perfect in His presence.

   Our lives are never the same when we hear the Gospel of Christ.  We either receive it and live a life of faith or we fight it and try to keep pushing God out of our life.  Either way, your life is different; changed forever.  The Gospel is the power to change your life; receive it as God’s mercy to bring you into his kingdom as his redeemed child. Without Christ, we have no peace in this life, no comfort in death, and no hope for eternal life. Yet the Gospel is the power to have all these and much more because it is freely given to us out of his great love and mercy for us. We are his children, and we are given the power of life to live in His glorious salvation. Don’t be ashamed; be joyful!

 Almighty God of power and might, you give us the power to change by your Holy Gospel.  Use us as the agents of change in this world bringing your message of hope and forgiveness.  Bring your power to change lives to those who suffer the most and are desperate for your mercy.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,               

Pastor Bret

6-7-2025

Good Morning All,

        Jeremiah 31:34b; “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

    Have you ever been told, or said, “I’ll forgive you, but I will never forget it!”  Or perhaps the phrase “You’ll have to earn my forgiveness!”  These are two very common phrases; phrases that the world will tell you are good plans to follow.  After all, if someone hurt you, you should remember it, so it won’t happen again.  Secondly, everyone who has ever studied Economics knows that “there is no such thing as a free lunch;” everything comes at a cost and forgiveness isn’t much different.

   We hear this often when a person feels betrayed, whether by a spouse, a friend, or a co-worker.  We feel the pain and it cuts like a knife, and we want our pound of flesh for our revenge.  We often want the other person to “feel our pain.”  Yet as we see in our verse this is not the way that God forgives us.

    Scripture gives us the definition of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is just that: given.  It cannot be earned for that is either a fine or punishment of some type or a wage that is paid for a job done.  Forgiveness can never be bought or sold it can only be given.  So, if we say to someone, “you need to earn my forgiveness;” we aren’t really forgiving them.  We are simply extracting a payment from them.  It is sad that many see forgiveness this way because they miss the huge benefit of forgiveness and that is the healing of a breach between two people.  That is why God forgives us.  He does it to heal the breach that we caused with our sin.  We could never pay that debt, so God forgave it because of Jesus.

    The other thing is that the world tells you to never forget.  Forgiveness comes from the heart, and it is only true forgiveness if we let it go.  By remembering the breach, it remains in place.  If the “sinner” is not really forgiven or if the “sinned against” does not really forgive, there is not a healing that takes place.  The interesting thing about forgiveness is that it heals the “forgiver” as much as it does the “forgiven.”  When we cling to past pains or past injustices, it keeps festering in our heart, and we never heal.  We need to let it go; let God take the pain from us and let the healing take place.  I have often listened to people who felt wronged so many years ago and now they look and sound sad and, often times, more hurt than the original wrong caused.  There is bitterness in their voice that never seems to leave, and they seldom look happy. 

    This is part of the reason God tells us to forgive as He does.  It is the joyful reaction to our forgiveness by God, and it is also a healthy cleansing of our heart that allows us to truly love one another.

    Dear Father, teach me to forgive as you forgive.  Give me the strength and wisdom to do your will.  Rebuild our relationships so that we may live in peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray.  Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret