4-23-2026

Good Morning!

       Jonah 2: 1-2; “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.   He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.  From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help and you listened to my cry.”

       Have you ever been there?  Have you ever been in the belly of the fish?  Have you ever felt so cut off that there seemed to be no hope?  I can honestly say that I have never been there.  I have never felt that much pain.  I remember talking to a young man who was there.  It was quite a revealing conversation.

    He was a young man who was very exuberant in his faith.  He expressed it freely with you.  As we discussed his enthusiasm, he was very quick to tell you that it wasn’t always this way.  There was a time when he used drugs and alcohol frequently.  There were very few nights when he was sober.  He seldom had a job for more than a week.  He had been arrested a few times and spent the night in jail more than once.  He often slept in the park.  He had stolen money from his family and used people to get what he wanted.  He hadn’t been married but was father to two children by women he hardly knew.  He only chased the next fix or the next drink.  One day it caught up to him.  He had been arrested, again, for possession of narcotics.  This time, no one bailed him out.  So, he sat in the jail cell waiting for his trial.

    About a week into his wait, his brother came into the cell and looked at him and asked him, “Have you finally sunk low enough?  Have you been in the belly of the fish long enough?”  The young man said that what was really strange to him was that he understood his brother’s question; he didn’t know why but he did.  He looked at his brother and told him, “Yes, I have been here long enough.”  They prayed together and the young man began the long journey back.  His long dormant faith was bringing him back.  He is mostly reconciled with his family and is working on a relationship with his children.  That is hard because the mothers are still into the drug and alcohol and he can’t be around that yet; it is still too enticing.

   Maybe you have been there or maybe you are there.  Maybe you have hit as far down as you can.  It may be drugs, it may be promiscuity, it may be abandonment of family or faith; it may be a lot of things but right now you are in the belly of the fish.  Call out to God and he will answer you.  Cry to the Lord in your pain or your sorrow and he will answer you.  It might take a while to get out of the fish.  There may be some healing to accomplish with those whom you have hurt but God is with you and he will heal you by his grace.  He will first reconcile you back to himself through Jesus.  Then, slowly and with a lot of help, he will reconcile you to the world around you. 

    It can be a tough row to hoe but God will help you through.  Know that whatever has been done; God will forgive you and will bring you home to be with him.  God wants you out of the belly of the fish; hear his call to salvation.

Father, we pray for those who are suffering in the belly of the fish.  Whatever their pain, Father we ask that you bring them comfort and to know the hope that we have in the cross.  Lead those who can help to reach out to them.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

4-22-2026

Good Morning!

      Romans 12:15; “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”

     Once, one of the confirmands asked about preaching and were there times when it was difficult. I told them about the weekend where I had a wedding, a Sunday morning service and then a funeral on Sunday afternoon.  We literally went from rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn.  It was a short turn-around time.  While many people would look at this weekend and ask how can you possibly swing from one emotion to the other so quickly?  Were you sad at the wedding or were you too happy for the funeral?  I am not real sure what that question really means but I think the answer is “no;” I wasn’t too happy or too sad.  However, I did see something that I hadn’t really thought of before.  Weddings and funerals are a lot alike.

     Now I am sure you are thinking; “I’ve been to weddings and I’ve been to funerals, about all they have in common is the church.”  Yet there is a far deeper truth involved.  Both weddings and funerals show us examples of what faith is.  We see times when we go forth trusting in God’s grace to get us through.

     As you counsel and the marry two people, you can’t help but think of the marriage statistics and wonder and worry but especially pray for this newlywed couple.  They seem to be in love; they seem to give the right answers and the right attitude.  Yet in the end, we only have God’s grace to rely on.  We trust and pray that the newly married couple will always look to Christ for guidance and direction.  We pray that God will sustain them through whatever comes their way.  In the end, a wedding is joining two people together, trusting that God, in his grace and mercy, will protect them from all harm and danger.

    In a funeral, we see God’s grace in action on the other end.  In a funeral, we plead to God to give us strength to see the victory that is ours in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We trust in God and his promise that our salvation is guaranteed and that our loved one is now resting in the loving arms of our Savior and that in this knowledge we take comfort because we know that we will see, touch, love and rejoice with our loved ones again. 

    In both these events, and in all our other life events, we only truly have God’s grace to sustain us.  We are creatures of God that rely solely on his mercy for all that we have.  We are his redeemed and beloved children to whom he has promised to pour out his grace upon us and we take comfort and we can have joy knowing that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is dwelling in us and giving us peace.  All of our life events are connected because our entire existence is a loving mercy from God.

Father of all goodness and mercy, we look to you in our joy and in our sorrow for you alone are the holy One.  In your mercy you give to us as we need and you bring us the wonders of your love.  You protect us from the evils of the devil and you give to us the hope of life, perfect life with you.  Keep us strong in our faith; keep us strong in living the life that you give us.  Guard as we go.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-21-2026

Good Morning!

              James 4:8; “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

      I remember watching a documentary on the History Channel about WW 2.  It was about the Japanese occupation of China.  The Chinese were not powerful enough to fight the Japanese Imperial Army head on.  It could not attack the Japanese Army posts directly so the Chinese would cause small disturbances that the Japanese would send a small detachment of troops to investigate.  When the troops were separated from the main unit, the Chinese would then attack the smaller groups.  It was the only way the Chinese could really fight the Japanese in many places throughout China.  While this tactic did not kill many soldiers, it did cause the Japanese to send much larger sized units of soldiers to patrol and to investigate problems.  This hampered the Japanese war effort in China and bogged the Japanese down.

    In many ways, this is the devil’s strategy with us.  As long as we are near to God, as long as we are surrounded by the saints and by God’s grace, the devil cannot touch us.  Yet the devil entices us to go out on our own, away from the safety of God’s loving protection.  The devil wants to lead us astray so that we are easier targets for him to attack.  The devil can never attack God and if he attacks those who are clinging to God he fails as well.  Yet if he can get you separated from God, then he can succeed.

    The devil might do this by leading us to believe that we are “above” sin.  The devil might try to convince us that whatever we do can be justified because of who we are.  The devil loves to play this game with preachers.  This is the cause of so many of the downfalls of prominent or famous preachers; they thought they were too great and too important to sin and whatever action they were doing; whether stealing money or someone else’s wife, they were “allowed” because of who they were.

    Sometimes the devil uses the trick of leading us to think that we aren’t really that far from God so we are safe.  If we go just a few steps away from the base, we are still safe, right?  Then maybe just a couple steps more.  We are “only seeing what is out there;” how can we get in trouble?  Yet that is exactly what we get, in trouble.  So, we need to stay close to God.  We need to stay in his Word and we need to stay in our prayers.  We need to listen to his call to repentance, to turn from our sin and to stay close to Him.  We are to stay focused and single-minded, remembering to trust in his Word for all our needs.

Father of all mercy, you are the only true source of our salvation.  Defend us by your Spirit and keep us safe from all the devil’s attacks.  We ask that you especially defend those who are straying from your loving protection.  Bring them back safely to your gracious kingdom.  Bring healing to those who are broken by the weight of sin.  Bring them to the knowledge of your true and loving grace.  We pray for peace in our land and in our world. Please keep all our servicemen and women safe. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-20-2026

Good Morning!

     Matthew 18:21; “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

   Have you ever seen the movie “Men in Black”?  The original came out in 1997.  It starred Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.  They are two special agents of a secret government agency that polices extraterrestrial aliens in the United States.  It is a science fiction adventure comedy and like any good science fiction movie; it has some neat gadgets.  The one I like is a device that looks like a big ballpoint pen.  It is a memory eraser and when it flashes, the memory of those who see the flash is erased.  The agents have special sunglasses that they put on in order to avoid being “zapped.” I wish I had a gizmo like that.  It would come in handy sometimes.

    It might help us to address one of the toughest things for us to do; to truly forgive our brother.  You hear it often, “I’ll forgive but I’ll never forget.”  Or it might take the form of “everyone gets another chance but not a third.”  There are other variations but they all leave the impression    that forgiveness is not complete.  This might take many forms.  It might be withholding trust, expecting failure, or even putting distance between you and the other person.  This distance might be physical or emotional.

    When we withhold trust, we tend to hold to the past and recall every single instance of pain in our relationship.  We remember how they hurt us in 1999 but we fail to remember the love they showed us at all the other times.  True forgiveness should reestablish and then build trust.  If you find yourself not trusting the other person, you probably haven’t truly forgiven them.

    When we expect failure, it also shows that we are holding onto the past.  When we see a coming event and think, “well, they will hurt me again” we are expecting failure.  We do not see the other person as being capable of not wanting to hurt us.  We think they just don’t care.  We sometimes even make it so that they do fail just to show that we are right.

    The other sign that we aren’t forgiving is to maintain distance from the other person.  We may avoid them in terms of being in the same room as they are or it may be that we are emotionally distant, partly because we don’t trust and we expect them to hurt us again so we stay back.  All of these responses are human but are harmful.  Jesus calls us to a higher level.  His call to forgiveness is to bring about healing.  When we fail to forgive, we keep the painful wound open and an open wound is susceptible to infection, just like our relationships are.

   So, if these sound familiar to you, repent and ask God to help you change so you can help your relationship change. God wants us to have healthy relationships with each other and, for us, it begins with forgiveness.  It started with God forgiving you, now we need to forgive as well.

Father, help me to forgive others, especially those whom I love.  I struggle, Father, so send your Spirit upon me that I may see that forgiveness is healing, that forgiveness is restoration.  Be with those who especially struggle with letting go of past pain.  Help them to step beyond the imagined pain and into your wondrous light of grace and mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

4-19-2026

Good Morning!

             2 Kings 5: 2-3; “Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife.   She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

    She was just a little girl.  She had been captured in a raid launched by the Syrians into Israel.  She was taken away as a captive, a slave, far away from her home, her family and from her native land.  She should have been frightened.  She should have been cowering in the corner in total fear.  Yet she calmly spoke to her owner, the wife of the second most powerful man in Syria and witnessed her faith.  There was a prophet in Samaria who could cure Naaman.  She had no doubt she had total faith.

    It is amazing the number of times I hear people say that they are “just a.”  I am “just a housewife” “I am just a farmer” “I am just s student” “I am just a retired person.”  “I don’t know what to say, I don’t know how to talk.”  “I don’t know how to witness to others.”  We have all sorts of excuses.  “There are professional missionaries to do that; I just pay them and then stay out of their way.”  Yet the bottom line is that we are all missionaries.  In our own way and in our own manner, we are missionaries.

   You may feel that you have no contact.  You do not meet strangers from a foreign land.  You see the same people every day.  You think they go to church, somewhere.  You are pretty sure anyway.  After all you are “just a.”  We don’t know what to say or how to, so we say nothing.  We think we have to be like Peter, who preached before thousands and thousands of people.  We don’t have to be like Peter or Paul; we can be like Andrew who introduced Peter to Jesus or we can be like the little slave girl; simply tell them what we know.

    Maybe all you can do is listen to them.  Maybe all you can do is to direct them to your local pastor.  Maybe all you can do is pray with them.  All of these are valid and valued witnesses.  These are the types of things that a “just a” can do.  You might be surprised how many people you meet in a day need to have these types of witnesses occur for them.  To listen, to pray, to care about me enough to offer direction can mean far more than you will ever know.  Many people go through the day knowing nothing but pain and sadness; they need a word of encouragement, again, something a “just a” can do. 

    Just a slave girl spoke of the true God of Israel with simple confidence.  She didn’t launch into a long theological dissertation; she simply said, with all confidence; that she knew the God who could help.  You know the God who can help.  There are no minor missionaries; there are no minor opportunities to witness.  You matter and your witness matters.  Trust God to help you.

Gracious Father, give us the courage to speak your words of hope and comfort to a lost world.  Help us to be the light of mercy in a dark and cold place.  Build us up and give us the right words at the right time to be your voice.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,                                 

Pastor Bret

4-18-2026

Good Morning!

       Psalm 86:5; “For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.”

       Given that so many people are using their cell phones and other PED’s today, it is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.   “It” is the family calendar.  Ours is always on the refrigerator.  On it we put important events that are up coming.  We put down doctor appointments, accountant appointments, special church events, scheduled babysitting events, or any one of a number of things.  This is to keep us from putting two things on the same night.  We were going to spend one weekend with family celebrating a wedding anniversary until we looked at the calendar and saw that we were already committed to a wedding. 

    One of the time-honored traditions with the family calendar was to take the really important dates, like anniversaries, birthdays, special party days was to circle the date.  Many would take a red marker and circle the date so that everyone would see and remember how important it was.  This one usually had the time written on it as well.  Yet it was circled to mark it as the priority date.  It was what we waited for or knew was important and we didn’t or shouldn’t miss it.

   When something is of major importance, we circle it.  It is having a huge impact on what we are doing or experiencing.  We should do that with our faith life as well.  At the end of the day, think of the worst part of today and think of the best part of today.  In your prayers, give thanks for the best thing of today and ask God to remove, alleviate, correct or in some other manner “fix” the problem.  Take the highs and the lows, circle them, and then speak them to God in prayer.

    This is a good form of family devotional time.  Gather your family together and have each share the low point and the high point of the day.  Then join in prayer together, praising God for the good and asking for help with the bad.  This does two things. First, we remember that, in spite of what we think sometimes, there is always something good in our day and we should give thanks.  Secondly, we need to remember to “give to God” our pain and not hold onto it and focus on it.  Sometimes, the devil wants us to focus on what is sad, bad, or painful in order to cloud our vision of God.  This helps us to look up, call upon God, in both the good and the bad, just as He wants us to. 

   So, try this in your prayers, especially with your family, it can help to draw you to focus on God’s grace both in good times and in tough times.  This can be one way to help build your faith.  By focusing on God’s steadfast love for you, it can make the difficult bearable and the joyous more gratifying.

Gracious Father, we call upon your holy Name that we might be blessed by you.  Draw us closer to you; strengthen our faith so that we may ever praise your name.  Help us to see the wonderful things in our life far out -weigh the sadness.  Lead us to seek your mercy and grace in all things.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

4-17-2026

Good Morning!

              Luke 7:12; “As he (Jesus) drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.”

      I have never experienced a real traffic jam.  I am not saddened by this; being in a traffic jam is not on my “bucket list” but I am fascinated by them.  I cannot ever imagine how they ever get untangled from them.  It looks like one big mess and as the bottleneck occurs, more vehicles come in from the rear and just keep it more bottled up.  It looks like it would be a time of great frustration and anger.  It looks like a mess.

    That is what our verse is about, a traffic jam.  We have two large crowds of people, one a funeral procession heading out the gate of the city.  This procession would have had the mother, the only relative, family and friends, some from the local synagogue, perhaps a few professional mourners.  They would have been heading out to the burial site which was outside the city walls.  It would have been a sad procession.

    On the same road, going through the same gate was a different procession.  This one had Jesus, the disciples, some of the other followers, some from the outlying region who heard Jesus was in the area.  This procession would have been very lively, full of excitement and wonderment.  These two very different processions would have met at the gate of the city and a huge traffic jam would have occurred.  The funeral procession, with its wailers and mourners would be packing through the gate to get out and those following Jesus would be talking and singing trying to get in the gate; what a jam.

    The truly amazing part is that the woman, the mother who had just lost her only son, who would have been completely despondent and lost would have met face to face with Jesus as he led his procession into town.  The hopeless met the source of hope.  The sad and downhearted met the great Comforter.  The broken heart met the great Physician.  Jesus looked at her and had compassion.  He raised the boy back to life and gave him back to his mother.

    When you or I am burdened by the battles of this life, it can feel like we are in a funeral procession marching out of town.  There is so much pain and sadness.  There can seem to be no comfort, nowhere to turn, just no hope.  We are being hustled out because no one wants to deal with us and the devil is leading the procession to the burial site where he plans to leave you among the dead.

     Blessedly, we are met at the gate by Jesus, who stops the devil’s procession.  He stops the veritable stampede to death and gives us life.  Jesus stops our rush to pain and sadness, to an emptiness that cannot be filled.  He fills us with his Spirit so we can trust in his wonderful promise of salvation and we can live in hope.

Father, guide us to the gate where Jesus is.  Guide us so that we may know the compassion of our Savior.  Guide us so that we will always be a person of hope.  Help us to be a comfort to those whom we meet at the gate.  Help us to bring them the good news of your grace and mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret