10-27-2026

Good Morning!

   Psalm 51:10; “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

      It is the little things in life; how often do we say this or think this?  Oh, the little things that mean so much.  I think for most of us this is very true.  A hot cup of coffee on a cold day can go a long way to a content heart.  The gentle voice of your spouse as you sit and listen to some music.  Listening to your children or grandchildren as they are sleeping.  Watching them read a book or playing a game.  The quiet times with friends can make life enjoyable and truly fun.  The little things in life are wonderful.

     Yet sometimes, it is the little things in life that cause us the most pain and problems.  The problem is that we all have those little sins in our life.  They are just little ones, nothing major.  Just small, nagging little sins.  Most of us have not really committed what we would consider “big sins.”  We have never murdered someone; we have never actually committed adultery.  We have never stolen anything of any real value but we have those nagging little sins.

     Sometimes, we don’t even think of them as sins.  We call them “peccadilloes;” or “character flaws; or “idiosyncrasies” but we never call them sins.  We have never committed murder but there are some people who we would like to move away, or some such problems beset them.  We make cruel and snide remarks but it is “just what I was told.”  We love the “good and juicy” gossip.  We still claim that we have no other gods before God but sometimes God just doesn’t fit into our busy schedule.  We have never committed adultery but a little looking and fantasizing is “natural” isn’t it?  And so, we let off a little steam when we are with our friends and complain about our spouse to them, we all need a release don’t we?

     Those little sins are so hard to let go of, aren’t they?  We like to hold them because we think they give us power and we think they don’t really matter in the greater scheme of things.  We may rationalize all of our actions, all of our little ways but the bottom line is that they are still sins.  They are sins and sins are what separate us from God.  Sin is what breaks our relationship with God.  Sin is what pollutes us and makes us unworthy of being in God’s presence.

    That is why David wrote this verse so many years ago.  As he looked at his life, he saw where he was at.  God had revealed to him the pain he was causing, to himself, to others and to how his relationship with God was broken.  David had lied, committed adultery and murder.  The pain and the agony of it came home to roost for him and he suffered for it.  Just like we suffer when we hold onto sin, whether it is sin that we are afraid to admit to or sin that we think is minor and harmless; sin destroys our relationship with God.

    Only God can restore and renew us.  He does this through the saving atonement of Jesus.  He does this through his love.  He uses the baptismal grace that he gives us for the daily washing of our sins away.  A clean heart, every day.  A right spirit, every day.  God’s gift to us because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.

Father, in you we have forgiveness because of Jesus.  Make us clean and right.  Give us your Spirit to guard us and protect us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

10-26-2026

Good Morning!

       Psalm 35:22; “You have seen, O Lord; be not silent!  O Lord, be not far from me!”

     I had run into an old friend that I hadn’t seen in years.  We were only able to chat for a minute or two.  It was fun to see him again after all these years.  We had the quick, “where are you?” “How is your family?”  “Have you seen…?” and then we were done.  It was that quick.  I told him to call next time he was in town and maybe we could get together again.  I felt really good after the encounter.  I remembered some of the fun we used to have back when we were younger.  I looked forward to his call.  Two years later, he still hasn’t called.

    After a while, I began to wonder.  Why hasn’t he called?  Did he lose my number?  It is in the phone book.  Has he not been back again?  He said he was back about every 6-8 months or so.  Did something happen to him?  I probably would have heard something.  Then that deep insecurity sinks in and I wonder, maybe he just doesn’t want to talk to me.  Perhaps he was just being polite and trying to get out of a conversation that he didn’t want to have.  Maybe he was just letting me down easy thinking that “go away” was a little too harsh.  I don’t know, one way or another.  He has been silent and I just wait for him to call me.

    This is one of those times when silence is a disappointment.  I survive; I hadn’t seen him for over 25 years.  There are times when silence can be painful.  When we wait for the lab results to a medical test, silence can be painful as we wonder what was going on.  Waiting for the doctor to come out and tell you how the surgery for your loved one went as we wait in silence in a painful loneliness.  Probably the toughest silence is when we think God is silent.

    I remember listening to a young couple who were struggling with trying to start a family.  It wasn’t working the natural way.  It was sad because they would have been great parents.  There had just been a story about an abandoned child that had died from neglect and the pain in their face was obvious.  Why was God silent?

    Sadly, we can never answer “why?” for God.  We can never explain God and his ways.  All we truly have is the blood-soaked empty cross and the open tomb.  Those speak volumes to us.  They speak of God’s immeasurable love for us and our eternal life with him.  They speak of his love for us.  They speak of his compassion and mercy for us.  Some things we do not hear because we are not listening to what God is saying, we are listening for what we want to hear but sometimes that is not what God has to say.  So, we need to look past our wants and look to God’s promise and hear his mercy for us.  It can be very difficult but here we see that in our weakness God’s strength, his wonderful words of forgiveness and reconciliation, carry us through.

Father of wonder, often we feel you are silent when we are not listening to your words of grace.  Give us the strength to listen closely to your word.  Be with those who feel you are silent today.  Let them hear your words of mercy and your words of grace.  Be with them and strengthen them.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s peace,

Pastor Bret    

10-25-2026

Good Morning!

         Romans 5:2; “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

    One of my past times is to watch movies.  I like most kinds but I really enjoy comedies, westerns, pirate movies, movies about knights, action movies, and space movies.  If you can combine two or three of these, I really like them.  One of my favorites is a movie called “Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail.”  It is a very absurd comedy that makes fun of the knights of the Roundtable who are searching for the Holy Grail.  It spoofs the entire genre of knight movies.  One part that always made me chuckle was when the knights come to a bridge that they need to cross and a troll stops them and demands that they answer three questions or they get thrown into the abyss.  The scene ends with the troll being asked to clarify a question, he can’t so he gets thrown into the abyss, so the troupe passes on by.

    There is always a scene in movies like this where in order to have access to a bridge or a room our hero needs to know the access code.  It might be a test of courage or bravery.  It might take skill and cunning.  It might take possessing a key or some other device but there is usually a major part of the movie that turns on having a way to access an important place.  Without this access our hero will fail and either the pretty girl will die or the kingdom will fail; one of those dramatic events will occur.  So having access is crucial.

    Our faith life is just like that.  Sin caused us to have an “access denied” sign flash in front of us.  We could no longer have access to God because we lacked the access code or the key for entrance.  We were no longer perfect; we were sinful being whose sin had cause us to lose the key to God.  We lost it to the point that we could never get access again.

    So, God showed his grace to us by having Jesus pay the price for our sin.  By doing so and by giving us the desire (faith) to trust that promise we now have access to God’s grace.  It is here that we rejoice in hope (certainty) of the glory of God.  God sent Jesus to give you back the access that our sinned took away.  God did this out of love for you.  God continues to do this for us every minute of every day.

    So now we have total access to God.  We can come to him at any time and in any state of trouble or fear.  We can come in any time of joy or celebration.  God invites us to use this free access at all times.  God invites us to use prayer to access him.  He invites us to worship him to hear his Words of forgiveness and acceptance.  God has given you access; use it continually.

Father of all mercy, through your grace we are given access to your love continually.  Give us the wisdom to use this gift often.  Give us the strength to trust in your free access to guide us through life’s struggles.  Be with those who seem to have lost their access to you.  Give them the faith to again access you and your grace.  All this we ask in Jesus’ precious name, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

10-24-2026

Good Morning!

       1 Peter 3:18; “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,”

    It was a birthday present. It wasn’t supposed to be that difficult. Yet, it happened. It is a very simple phrase; yet it can strike fear in the hearts of parents everywhere. We try and watch for it but sometimes it just slips by us.  When the little ones open the package, that phrase is there as big as life; some assembly required!  That is a phrase to make most shudder.  First, the instructions are always in six different languages; none are English.  I am never sure if it is a flap or a slot.  Sometimes I don’t have enough parts; usually I have parts left over.  In fact, I have a whole drawer full of “essential” parts some are almost forty years old.

    It is when you try to “quick fix” it.  This is where you “sort of” put it together so the kids can play with it.  The problem is that once assembled; slot “A” doesn’t always pull back from flap “B.”  Sometimes it sticks together even if it is wrong.

    Because of sin we are in the situation of “some assembly required.”  Because of sin, we are broken and we need to be re-assembled.  If we try it on our own, we will either come up short pieces or have pieces left that we don’t know what to do with them.  Either way, we still don’t “work” right.  We are still broken and non-operational.  We are still dead before God.

    That is why God sent Jesus to die for us.  He makes us right.  He assembles us properly and puts our brokenness aright.  Jesus picks up the broken pieces and heals us.  He does this out of love.  We can go forward as a new piece, a new creation.  All the assembly is complete. 

    The devil will try to disassemble us.  He will try and take us apart and pull us from God and his grace.  The devil will try to make you feel empty, like you are missing some pieces of your life.  He will want you to feel separated from God and his family.  At other times, the devil will want you to feel like there are pieces left over, that your life is so complicated and overwhelming.  He wants you to drown in the mess of confusion and pain.

    Yet we don’t have to struggle with these fears.  God has made us whole and complete.  He has taken the brokenness that our sinful life was and recreated it to the newness of life that He desires for us.  It is this newness, the required assembly that gives us hope.  We are saved through His grace.  We are put together by his mercy.  We may face some battles but we don’t have to fall apart; we don’t have to let the devil disassemble us.  God and his mercy will hold us together.

Father of all goodness, we give you thanks that you have made us new and made us whole. Give us the certainty of the knowledge of your love.  Give us the strength to withstand the devil’s assaults.  We especially pray for those who are being attacked at this time.  Give them the constancy of your Spirit that they may withstand and prevail.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

10-23-2026

Good Morning!

     Psalm 18:6; “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help.  From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.”

      When I was in college, I had a couple of classes with an instructor whose methods and manners were very different from my thoughts of what they should be.  He could have just walked of the local commune.  He had hair that looked like it hadn’t (or couldn’t) been combed in a few weeks.  He shaved once a week whether he wanted to or not.  We had an 8:00 am class; it wasn’t unusual for him to be 10-15 minutes late; most of the students didn’t wait.  A few of us did because we had the next class across the hall.  He would come in late, make excuses and then begin his lecture.  I really struggled with the way he presented himself.  The man he replaced was a clean-shaven suit and tie kind of guy.

    For about three weeks, I told anyone who listened what I thought about this guy.  I told them how poor an instructor he was.  I told them how his preparation was weak and his classroom etiquette was a little under par.  While griping to a classmate, he asked me if I ever listened to the guy teach?  “Why?” I asked.  Because the guy is a genius, and he was.  He was one of the top men in his field in the upper Midwest.  So, the problem that I had with him were the results of my assumptions and presumptions.  When I let the man teach, he was amazing.

    How often do we do that?  How often do we place so many structures and restrictions on our relationships that they often go bad before we even try?  Sometimes we go to great lengths to complain about them to others.  Sometimes when we have stress in any of our relationships, we complain to anyone who will listen except to the one who can matter the most.  We need to take our distress to God.

    We often don’t think of going to God with our disappointments or our anger.  We think that this is a form of sin so we won’t do it.  We go to God with platitudes and half-baked verbiage that we hear in church.  But God doesn’t want flowery language or “church words;” God wants us to have an honest and open, prayerful conversation with him.  God already knows our thoughts, fears, desires, and worries.  Even if we don’t express it, God knows our heart.  The thing is that by expressing it, we will know our heart.  Had I really listened to my comments about my instructor, I would have heard the distance in the relationship was mine. 

    God will hear your cries, even your cries of distress and anger.  He will use his Spirit to help you if you are faithful in your prayers.  A huge part of faithfulness is total honesty on your part when praying to God.  Anything less will void your cry.  It will come off as sinful selfishness.  Yet God does desire to have a relationship with you and for you to have relationships with your fellow man.  Trust God to help you build them.

Gracious Father, too often we hold onto our distress out of fear and sadness.  In doing so we hold onto the pain of our sin.  Give us the strength to bring our cries to you.  Be with those who are in deep pain and distress.  Lead them by your Spirit to call upon your Name.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret        

10-22-2026

Good Morning!

     1 Corinthians 13:12; “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

    Have you ever gone through a funhouse with the mirrors?  The ones that have the curved mirrors that distort the way things look.  They are also usually smeared and the lighting is bad so it can be hard to see clearly in them.  We can usually only get vague or hazy images.  We can never really tell exactly what we are looking at.  It is a dim reflection of what we see.

    Thousands of years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato, once described our life as one where we never really saw the true image.  We only saw a shadow of the image on the wall ahead of us.  It was as if life was occurring behind us and a strong light was casting the shadows on the wall ahead of us.  We saw the movement and the shapes but we didn’t see the true form.  In some ways this is what Paul is telling us in this verse.  In this verse, and in this chapter, he is explaining what true love is like.

    In this chapter of Corinthians, often called the love chapter, Paul is describing true and complete love.  In Greek it is agape.  This is the type of sacrificial love which God displays for us in Jesus.  God loves us so completely that He sent Jesus to die in our place and he did this before we loved him.  God did this for the portion of his creation that he loved so much he wouldn’t destroy them and start over.  He redeemed us, he bought us back from our own sin in order to make us his own again. 

    It is the kind of love which we can never fully grasp or understand in our current form.  We may speak of this kind of love but no human truly has it.  We all have limits to our love.  We may claim to love unconditionally but, in our hearts, we have a limit.  It might be different for different people but it exists.  So, when we talk of this kind of love; this never ending, sacrificial, all-encompassing love; we really cannot understand it.

    Paul is telling us that what we see, that is what we perceive, is just a dimmed reflection in a mirror compared to God’s love for us.  It is so far beyond our comprehension.  We have nothing to compare it to.  We only have God’s mercy showered upon us; declared to us in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.  There is no other kind of love that comes even close to this kind of love.  That is why Paul describes it as he does.  Love is patient, kind, never ends are just a few of the descriptions. 

    We will never fully understand it until we get to heaven.  It will always be upon us but we will only be able to grasp it like a dull mirrored image.  So, we can take heart in a love so great, we cannot even imagine it.  With a love that great, we can know that our salvation is certain and our hope secure.

Gracious God, you are love.  Through you we see true love and yet we cannot comprehend.  As you send your love to us, help us to share some of that love with others.  Direct us to those who are in most desperate need of your love.  Guide us by your Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

10-21-2026

Good Morning!

     Luke 7:15; “And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

    This verse is from one of the more touching stories in the Bible.  It is from the story of the widow from the town of Nain.  She was a widow and she was in the process of burying her only son.  This was not only an emotionally destructive event; it was also an economically destructive event.  It was most likely that any property that her husband had left to her son would now go to the brother of her dead husband.  So, unless he was willing to share, she was out of luck and out in the cold.  So, with the death of her son, she was completely destroyed.  She had no future; she was isolated from everything she had that would support her.  Everything that she counted on was gone.

    As the funeral procession was going out of town, Jesus and his disciples were coming into town.  The two groups met and Jesus had compassion on the widow.  He restored the young man to life and gave him back to the widow.  He gave the man life and he gave the widow hope.  He had compassion and gave life and hope.  There is a lot to draw from this story but for today let’s look at it this way.

    As most of us read the stories of the Bible, we like to figure out who we would be in the story.  I’d like you to be the dead man for a moment.  That is what we are.  We are dead in sin.  We suffer from the torment of sin and we have no future for we are truly dead.  Yet Jesus, through his death and resurrection gives us life.  He gives us salvation.  We now have eternal life and the grace that He gives us to live.

   Yet too often we stop there.  Too often, we think, “I’m saved” and then we turn and walk away.  Yet we should remember that as Jesus gave the man his life back, Jesus also gave him back to his mother.  We should see this as part of our calling as Christians.  Jesus gave the man life and then gave him back to his mother; presumably for him to continue to care for her.  Jesus didn’t just free the man from death; he freed the man from death and then gave him a purpose.  Jesus gives us life but he also gives us a purpose.

   He leaves us in this world for a while, for a purpose.  We are to show, share, and be his love in this world.  He empowers us to be his hands, his arms, his voice in this broken and sin filled world.  He wants us to be active in this world.  We know all the phrases; “Be witnesses;” “love one another;” “the least of these my brethren.” We know that Jesus has given us life but do we remember that he gives us back to the world for a while?  Do we remember we are to be the light in this world?  God gives you the gift of salvation and new life so, remember that you were given back to make a difference as well.

Father of grace, lead us to be your light in this world.  Keep us mindful that we are to be about your business as we wait for our eternal glory.  Use us to reach out to those who are suffering the most.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret