7-14-2026

Good Morning!

               Romans 15:13; “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

     It is the best of inventions and it is the worst of inventions.  I am talking about cell phones.  At times I cannot live without it.  It is always with me so the members of the church can get hold of me.  I don’t have to arrive home from a visit to the hospital to find out someone is heading back.  If winter is making a very gruff appearance, I know I can be in contact if I need some assistance along the way.  It is a very useful tool.  The problem is it always seems to have a low battery and about to lose power.  I need to take care or it might not work for me when I need it.

    In a number of ways our spiritual life is the same.  Notice how the Apostle Paul writes in our verse.  The God of hope fills you with joy and peace so that you may abound in hope.  The God of hope wants you to abound in hope.  We are fully charged and when we are fully charged, we abound in hope.  We can abound in hope because we are filled with joy and peace.  We are fully charged with God’s joy and peace.  We have his Spirit that allows us to abound in hope.  No matter what is going on in our life, no matter what the world throws at us; our hope can never be destroyed.

    Yet that hope, that certainty of God’s eternal grace and favor being actively given to us is something that we can and should hold onto.  This can aid us when a loved one is battling for existence and is somewhere between life and death while we can only watch and wonder; we can have hope.  We can have hope because we know that God is forever on our side and his grace will see us, and our loved one through.  This hope can aid us when relationships end and the pain seems beyond endurance; this hope can guide us to the one relationship that will never be ended by God and that is his redemptive love for us.  We have that hope and when life makes everything difficult and painful, hope will see us through.

   However, that hope needs to have a full charge and that charge is given to us by God when we listen to his words of comfort, promise, and hope.  We hear those words when we read his Scriptures and cling to those words of hope.  God also charges that hope by listening to our cries using them to bring us to the complete awareness that our only hope is in him and his mercy.  Nothing else will work.

   So, hope abides but it needs to be fully charged; charged by the hearing of God’s mercy and coming before his throne of grace with our cries of pain, of sorrow or of joy.  Keep the charge full; read God’s Word and study it often; pray often and the fully charged hope will see you through.

Gracious Father, you give us hope and fill us with peace and joy.  You give us the courage to face this world and all the demons that fill it knowing that in you we have total victory.  Keep us fully charged that we might forever know the certainty of your love and promise of life eternal that we may live forever as people of hope.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

7-13-2026

Good Morning!

     Job 19:25-26; “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.   And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”

     Confidence: that is what the “little engine that could” had; it had confidence.  As it climbed the mountain, its confidence grew until it knew that it could climb the mountain.  Confidence: that is what Babe Ruth had.  In Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe Ruth pointed out to centerfield and then hit the next pitch over the centerfield wall.  Confidence: that is what Michael Jordan had as he played professional basketball.  Many times, while shooting a foul shot, he would say to the opponent who fouled him, “watch this.”  He would close his eyes and, usually, make the free throw without looking.  Confidence is an amazing thing.

    When many people think of Job, they describe him as being patient, perhaps you have heard or even used the phrase “the patience of Job” to describe dealing with a tough or a perplexing problem.  Yet patience does not exist by itself; it needs a stronger counterpart to make patience work.  In order for patience to work you must have faith.  It is only by faith that we can have patience.  Faith gives us the strength and the courage to face the battles that we face.  Even if these battles seem insurmountable, we can be patient because we have faith that, in the end, we will succeed.  We will be victorious.

     It was faith that gave Job the courage to be patient.  It was faith that let him see past the horrific events of his life and to see his Savior.  Job had complete confidence that he would see his Redeemer, standing on the earth and the Job would see him in Job’s only flesh.  Job knew that his Redeemer would live and that he, Job, would live to see it, even after he was long dead.  So, no matter what happened, Job had faith that God would give to Job the victory; so, Job was patient because Job was confident.

    We can have the same confidence that Job had.  That confidence can give us patience because we know, in time, that our Redeemer (Jesus) will stand on the earth and we will see him in our flesh no matter how long it takes.  This simple fact is what gives us all of our hope, all of our confidence, all of our patience and all of our peace.  We know that Jesus lives.  The grave could not hold him; death could not defeat him.  So now the victory is ours.  No matter the pain, no matter the battle, no matter the sorrow, the victory is ours and we know that Jesus lives and because he lives, we will live also.  Confidence: it is what you and I should have when facing this life.  Confidence: that we will overcome whatever obstacles there are and move forward to eternal life with Jesus.

Father in heaven, give us the confidence to rely only on your grace and mercy for the needs of this life.  Help us to hold onto your loving arms that we might be strengthened.  Be with those who are feeling the full weight of life’s many struggles.  Send them your Spirit of comfort and peace that they may say, “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  In the precious name of Jesus, our living redeemer, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-12-2026

Good Morning!

     Matthew 22: 37-39; “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

     In 1976, a new group on the scene called “Boston” released a song entitled “More than a Feeling”.  It was a song about a guy who let his one true love get away.  There are old songs that remind him that this love for the long-lost love is more than just a feeling but rather a deep-seated response to the world around him.

    While it is a popular rock song from the 1970’s, it expresses an opinion about love that is contrary to the world’s view.  The world will tell you that you have to feel in love.  The world tells you if you feel it then you are in love but if you don’t feel it then you are not in love.  According to this thought, you could be in and out of love a dozen times a day.  The world tells you that love is what you feel and if you don’t feel it then, whatever.  This is not how Scriptures explains love.  In Scriptures, love is “more than a feeling!”

    Love is more than a feeling; love is an action.  In the world, love is more of an adjective, describing you as a person.  In Scriptures, love is a verb; love is an action.  Love is a definitive action that we do.  We must act in order to love.   Love is more than a feeling; it is an action.  Love is more than a feeling; it is motion or movement that makes itself known by doing something for another person.

   We see love in its purest form when see how God loves us.  God’s love for us is seen in Jesus dying for us.  The Apostle Paul tells us that “while we were yet sinners; Christ died for us.”  In other words, while we still hated God, he was dying for us to being us back into his family and to give us hope.  We see it when we look and see how Jesus went out and actively sought out the sick, the lame and the hurting.  We see true love in everything that God does for us.

    For us to love is to show action.  To say that we love God is to praise him, to thank him and to follow his will.  This type of love is more than a feeling; it is also a change in our lives that the world will see.  True love is seen by its actions; it is more than a feeling.

    Part of this love is seen in our response to others.  How we act toward and how we treat others will show as well.  It is not enough to “have good thoughts;” true love acts on behalf of another.  True love is an action that benefits the other person and not you.  True love makes the life of the other person better.  True love is what you do not what you feel.  It is deeper than a feeling; it is more than a feeling; it is an event for someone you know.

God of love, in you we see true love in action.  Move us by your Spirit to love as you have loved us.  Move us to act, to show your love though our actions to others.  Move us by your Spirit to make the lives of those around us to be easier, happier and more fulfilling.  Cause us to reach out to those who are especially in need of your love.  Act through our hands.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-11-2026

 Good Morning!

     Exodus 15: 26; “saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

    I remember watching a movie a few years back where the hero of the movie was a young man who couldn’t stand to be in sunlight.  He always wore clothes that covered his entire body.  He would wear long sleeves, a hat, gloves, and a scarf all in an attempt to keep the sunlight from hitting his skin.  He would get blistered burns wherever the sunlight would hit.  Because of this he was something of a recluse, shy and a little timid.

    What he possessed was the ability to heal living creatures, birds, animals, and people.  For the most part, he kept this talent hidden until one day he met a girl and fell in love.  Eventually, she falls ill and he must withstand the sunlight in order to get to her and heal her.  He suffers burns over his face and hands and arms and in the end; he dies from his wounds.  He died saving his girlfriend from death.  It was a sad movie.

    The ability to heal would be a remarkable gift.  If one could remove pain or suffering just by touching another person, you could do a lot of good for many, many people.  That is why our verse can be such a comforting verse for us.  God is our healer and he uses the name of Yahweh (LORD) here to show us that he does indeed get his hands dirty in our lives healing us from the spiritual devastation that sin causes.

    The people would have been used to shamans and other false healers who would have let the sick person down time after time.  For them to have a real healer who would cure them gave them great joy and comfort.  God was their comfort and. in a very real sense; he healed them of what they suffered from.

   We, too, have this great joy and comfort in our life.  God is our healer.  He heals us emotionally, spiritually, within a relationship and often times in a physical sense as well.  God heals us so that we may be whole.  We can have confidence that God will hear us and send us his Spirit of hope and compassion.  We can trust that God, who did not spare his Son, will give to us healing. God will make us whole, make us part of the kingdom of heaven restoring us, healing us, and making us whole again.   God is our healer and we can have faith that, through his grace we are being made perfect and whole.

Father of mercy, in your arms we have healing.  Send your Spirit upon your children that they may know the completeness of your mercy.  Be with those who are broken and are suffering.  Give them the certainty of your incredible grace and heal their hearts to know the love that you give them.  Heal their spirits that they may know peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.     

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-10-2026

Good Morning!

     Numbers 13:30; “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

      Our verse is part of an amazing story.  12 spies from the Israelites crossed over the Jordan to study their soon to be opponents.  These spies checked out the cities, the land, and the people of Canaan; the land that God had promised them.  The spies saw it.  They saw fertile land, bountiful vineyards, large cities, and people that they described as giants.  They returned and gave their report to Moses and the Children of Israel. 

    Ten of the spies went on and on about how they could never conquer this land or these people.  “We will die by the sword.”  They looked and saw the giants and knew they could never succeed.  There were two, however, who took a different view.  Two men, named Caleb and Joshua, told a different tale.

    Caleb and Joshua both said they should conquer the land.  They spoke of the fertile land; the bounty of the land was amazing; they spoke of the cities and the people who inhabited the land.  They saw the people as giants but they focused, not on the size of the task but on the size of God. 

   How do you face challenges?  Do you look at the size of the “giants” or do you look at the size of God?  It is easy to be overwhelmed by the size of the “giants” in our life.  Health issues look huge, financial strains can look humongous, cracks in a relationship can look gigantic.  The size of the troubles can be immense.  There is no denying it, even Caleb and Joshua in our story didn’t deny the size of the “giants” in Canaan.  We can look at the size of the struggles that this life will throw at us and realize that they are big; definitely bigger than we can handle on our own.  That is what the other ten spies did.  They looked at the size of the “giants” and could see no way for them to win against these great cities, armies of these “giants.”

    But Caleb and Joshua didn’t look at the size of the giants; they looked at the size of God and the promise that he had made to them.  Caleb and Joshua had faith that God was bigger than the giants that they were to face and trusted God to deliver them.  They knew that God was faithful to his promises; they had witnessed this throughout their entire life.  They trusted God and we should as well.

    God is faithful to his promises and he has promised to love you, to redeem you, to protect you from all harm that the devil will throw at you and he has promised to be with you every step of the way.  God is with us, giving us comfort and hope until we are reunited with him in his glorious kingdom.

Father, give me the strength to know that you have destroyed my giants.  Keep me safe in your holy kingdom.  Hold me in your arms.  Be with those who are facing their own giants at this time.  Send your Spirit of comfort and hope that they may be calmed by your grace and they may know your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

7-9-2026

Good Morning!

     Colossians 3:16; “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

      Mom and dad are trying; grandma and grandpa are trying to help; aunts and uncles are trying to help as well.  Everyone tries to teach their children and grandchildren manners.  We work on “please” and “thank you.”  They are pretty good; there are only a few lapses here and there. Yet, for their age, they do pretty well.  Of course, the “mine” and “get me this” and the “I want” come through loud and clear but the “please” and the “thank you” will get there.  It is kind of funny how we have to teach, re-teach, and then reinforce manners and civility while selfishness and rudeness come so naturally.

     Yet learn and relearn them, throughout much of our life.  When we take the high school kids out somewhere, we remind them of their manners.  Most of them, most of the time, do just fine.  Most of us, most of the time, do just fine.  Yet if we would only practice it more, we might find our lives more content.  If we were to strengthen our thankfulness, we would feel the warmth of God in our heart.  Yet even as adults, we need to practice.

    One thing to try is to keep a journal of people you are thankful for.  It might be a neighbor, your spouse, a friend, or co-worker.  It might be the person at the grocery store who helps you find the things you need.  At the end of each day, try and list everyone who you are thankful for.  List each person who did something for you, said something kind to you, or made your day easier. 

    Send one letter a week to someone who you truly are thankful for.  It might be a nurse or nurse’s aide who helped you in the hospital.  It might be the kid down the street who helps keep your yard clean.  It might be the person who gave you a ride last week.  Yet each week select one person to thank in a special way.  It can help you see what you have to be thankful for.

    A third way is to be sure and include the names of the people who you are thankful for in your daily prayers.  By speaking these names to God, we are bringing them to mind and we are offering their names up to God.  We continue to list, to remember and to give thanks to God for the people and the actions in our life.  Give thanks to God for the people that he places into your life who make your life easier, more enjoyable or who bring contentment to your life.  When we pay attention to the many people and things that we have to be thankful for will be joy to our heart and contentment to our souls.

Father of all mercy; guide us by your Spirit to be thankful for the many blessings that you bestow upon us.  Lead us to tell those around us that we are thankful for them.  Let us never forget those whom you use to bless our lives.  Give us contented souls and thankful hearts.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

7-8-2026

Good Morning!

     Acts 2:42; “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

       It is always interesting when you discuss church membership with some people.  When asked what church they belong to; some can’t tell you the name of the minister at the church, they aren’t sure what times services are, some aren’t sure of the denomination or what it meant.  When asked if they are Christian; it is not uncommon for the answer to be, “No, I am Catholic” or “No, I am Presbyterian” or “No, I am (fill in the blank).”  Unfortunately, many people do not know what it means to belong to a church or what that means.

    So, what does it mean to belong to the church?  Probably first and foremost, the church is relational.  It should be a place where, the relationship that you have with God and with one another is strengthened, healed, restored, enhanced, rejuvenated, invigorated, made perfect.  That is what the early church was engaged in; it was engaged in relationship building.  Notice what the members of the early church did: Bible Study, time with other believers, time with other believers in worship, interceding for each other.

    They studied the Bible, the teaching of the Apostles.  They did this, not to be a champion on “Jeopardy” but in order to hear what God was telling them and to see what God was revealing about himself to them.  They hungered to hear God’s Words of mercy and grace.  Through those wonderful words, he drew them closer, strengthened their faith, and built them up.

    Because God is rebuilding this relationship with you, he desires that we rebuild our relationships with each other as well.  We do this through the fellowship that is discussed.  This can be a meal together (first potluck?) or time around a table with a cup of coffee.  The important thing is that it is about listening to each other and truly hearing about the events in each other’s life and having true compassion for each other. 

    It is about joining together, as this compassionate fellowship and sharing together in God’s gift to us in his body and blood in the bread and the wine that we, as a group, may be strengthened in faith and in fellowship with each other.  Then they joined in prayer, corporately and individually, always praying for each other.  Lifting the concerns and needs of each other up to God and sharing in the rejoicing of God’s mercy.

    This is what the church should be like.  If this is missing from your life then you may want to prayerfully review your relationship with your fellow believers.  God gives you the church to strengthened and comforted in this life.  It is yours for the using.

Gracious Father, you give us the church so that we may be strengthened.  Help us to see and to use this wonderful gift.  Help those who feel they are alone and without hope.  Bring them to those whom you have called that they may be blessed through the true church.  Keep your church safe from the attacks of the devil.  Heal its wounds and strengthened it that it may be your true light in this world.  In the precious name of Jesus, our head, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret