3-28-2026

Good Morning!

               Mark 1:35; “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”

        Jesus sought out a desolate place.  Have you ever sought out a desolate place?  I would be willing to guess that some of you, when your children were much younger and all you heard was, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!” you sought out a desolate place.  Just some place with a little quiet where I can collect my thoughts and my wits. There may be times when you sought a desolate place because you were tired and you needed a rest and you wanted to make sure you were alone for just a couple of minutes.

    Scriptures often speak of Jesus seeking out a desolate place, especially the book of Mark.  Mark’s account of Jesus’ ministry here on earth is one of a whirlwind of activity.  People are always trying to touch Jesus or get his attention or get him to touch them or have dinner with them.  As we read Mark’s Gospel, you can almost get the sense of Jesus always being tired and near exhaustion.  So, we often find Jesus seeking out a desolate place to be alone and to pray.

    It is many times, like our verse, early in morning.  Jesus sets a pattern that is one that we should consider following.  First, he seeks a desolate place, a place of solitude and quiet.  He does this so that he can truly concentrate on what he is doing, praying to God.  Prayer requires a focus on who God is and on who we are.  Too often in our lives we pray quickly and without thinking.  We have an attitude of “let’s get it over with so I can get to the important things.”  Yet the important thing is to start the day off right.

    Jesus shows us by his example the need for and the value of prayer.  He uses prayer to help re-energize his spirit.  He uses prayer to help refresh his soul.  Prayer helps to relieve some of the stress and confusion in our lives.  It connects us back to what is important in our life- our relationship to God.  Prayer helps us to find that footing so that we can regain our balance in life.

    Having a specific and, perhaps, a special place to pray can help you to stay focused on your prayers.  Having that special place that is quiet and peaceful can help to offer the solace that we need and desire.  Setting aside a time and a place to pray, especially first thing in the morning, can help to give us peace and to strengthen our faith by remembering that God, our Father, is listening to our cries and to our fears.  God hears our tears and wipes them away with his Spirit of comfort and hope.

    So, find your solitude, your desolate place and pray, every morning take the time to pray.  Speak to God from your heart and listen for his answer.

Father of grace, you lead me to quiet times and places that I may pray to you in peace.  Help me to focus on your Words as they speak to me and to listen to your grace.  Keep me safe and secure in the certainty of your wonderful mercy.  Show me the wonder of your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, we pray.  Amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-27-2026

Good Morning!

        Romans 8:1; “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

  I used to watch the old Perry Mason shows but since we switched our television situation, I lost him. I think it was planned by my wife but that is a different devotion. Yet I always wondered why the prosecuting attorney didn’t just give up every time he saw Perry Mason on the other side.  Just save yourself the grief and give up, you are going to lose Mr. Burger.  Perry Mason’s clients face no condemnation in their trials.

   We have no condemnation of our sins before God.  He has placed them all upon the back of Jesus.  Through our Baptism, those sins remain in the tomb, left there as we became new creations.  So, we have God’s promise to a wonderful life, so why is it so often that we don’t feel wonderful?  Why do we feel sad or lost or guilty so often?  We have no condemnation so why do we struggle so?

     We struggle, not with condemnation, but with self-condemnation.  It hisses in our ears and weighs on our shoulder.  It pulls us down with its insidious attacks.  You are unworthy.  You are not as good as they think you are.  You are a poor husband (or wife).  You are a poor son (or daughter).  You are a bad parent.  Those are just for starters.  Our own guilt drives us and self-condemnation drives our guilt.  We have no condemnation from God but we often fail to accept it.  We let the devil whisper to us that we are unworthy and self-condemnation begins.  It often ends with a poor night’s sleep, gloomy outlooks, sadness and an empty hole in our heart and soul.  The devil is very good at this.

    He launches these negative and destructive thoughts and feelings in order to make us weak and to separate us from God.  Just like the hyena tries to separate the weaker gazelle from the herd, the devil seeks his prey.  He is very good at this as it is his only real weapon against us.  Guilt and doubt are all he has to attack you with.  So how do we face this attack and fight back?

    First and foremost, we do not fight him alone.  If we do, we will lose.  We need to make sure that we are “in the herd,” that we are close to God.  This is why God gave us his Spirit to keep us close.  He gives us the tools to fight the devil by staying close to our Heavenly Father.  He gives us his Word to hear his words of forgiveness.  He gives us his body and blood in the bread and the wine so that we can taste and savor his forgiveness.  He gives us prayer to speak to him with our worries and fears.  He gives us his Spirit to comfort us and he gives us our fellow redeemed brothers and sister to give us consolation.

   When we stay close to God, by using the tools he gives us, it is more difficult for the devil to win.  He will still attack and we will still have bouts of self-condemnation but these bouts do not have to control our lives.  God’s grace will pull us through; we need to trust this.

Gracious Lord, when I forget your love, remind me that because of the cross and because you are my Savior, I am not condemned. Help me keep my eyes and thoughts on you. And to accept Your Word as truth so my confidence stays strong in you. In Jesus' precious name, amen.      

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-26-2026

Good Morning!

         Genesis 3:9; “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

    When you were a child, did you ever play games like “Marco Polo” or “Hide and Seek”?

They are fun little games for children especially if you have a handful and different ages.  Marco Polo is a game that works well in a swimming pool if you have a bunch of swimmers.  This helps to limit how far the players can get away from the player who is doing the hunting or seeking.  Kid games often involve looking for or seeking after someone or something.

    This is partly true because we spend a lot of time looking or seeking for someone or something.  Most look for a spouse, look for a job, look for a better price for what we sell, looking for a better price for what we buy; we spend a lot of time looking.  We also spend a lot of time looking for happiness, success, enjoyment, maybe even peace and quiet.  One of the problems is that we often look for these in the wrong places.  We look for them in other people, in ourselves, in poor relationships, in drugs and alcohol, in phony man-made ideas and notions.

     The thing is that as we look in all the wrong places and as we do this, we turn our back to God.  We go looking in the wrong places, we find the wrong answers and we go from seeking to not finding.   Once we have been burned a time or two, we find ourselves confused and we stop looking.  We have the blindfold on, we see nothing.  There is no hope left for us as we are completely lost, hiding from God perhaps without even knowing it.  We are lost but we are being sought out.

    God seeks us out all the time.  He uses the preaching of his Gospel to call out to you, “Where are you?”  He reaches for us with his Spirit renewing in our hearts and in our souls the cry of “Come home.”  He constantly calls us back to him to be renewed and restored.  Even as we continue to stumble and sin; he picks us up and calls for us to “come back home.”  His call is one of forgiveness and one of hope.

    The devil and the world will try to lead us away; to get us to hide from God, to turn from him.  At times we will succumb, at times the trials of this life will beat us down but God continues to call to us “Where are you?”  “I come to bring you hope, I come to bring you life.”  “I come to bring you peace and comfort.”  He calls us continually, renewing his desire to return us to his home. 

     God calls to us to come home and be safe, to come home and live in his gracious kingdom.  His call to us through the Gospel is one of redemption, one of reconciliation.  It is this call that gives us the certainty of our salvation.

Gracious Father, we spend much of our time trying to hide from you.  We spend our time running from you.  Yet you continually call us back by your grace.  Give us the confidence to trust in your promise of hope.  Call loudly to those who are especially hurting and may not see your gracious hand in their life.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

3-25-2026

Good Morning!

          Psalm 145:18; “The Lord is near to everyone who prays to him, to every faithful person who prays to him.”

    I remember watching Sesame Street with my sons many years ago.  I used to like the part where the two monsters taught the concept of near and far.  There was some catchy music and the monsters would show up near to the camera or far from the camera.  Sometimes the monster would be right in front of the camera saying “near” fairly loudly then soon he would be far away from the camera and you would barely hear “far.” 

    They learned the concept of near and far.  The problem with learning this concept is that as soon we understand near and far; many things seem to be far.  We seem to be far from our friends or far from being done or far from getting enough rest or far from being satisfied.  It seems like near is more about nearly lost, nearly broke, nearly empty or near exhaustion.  All too often, this is how we feel.  When we feel this way, it gives the devil a platform.  He stands near to us and whispers in our ear how far away God is.  In our sinful state, we listen.  In our time of being lost or wandering, we feel that God is far, far away.  We still see him as God but he is the great God who is far above the world far away from us.

    This is because our sinful nature doesn’t want to see God as being near; our sinful nature does not desire to have a loving relationship with God.  It only seeks to hold God in contempt.  As we do this we move far from God or so we think.

    But God is always near to us.  He is always calling to us.  He always wants to be in a loving relationship with us.  Even when we look at our world, at our life and we think God is far away; we may even be angry or hurt that God doesn’t care but he does, always has always will.  So how do we stop feeling so far from God?  How do we fix it?

    God gives us the tools to deal with this life.  One of the tools is prayer.  Prayer is a great gift of God to us.  It is half of that “holy conversation” that God engages in with us.  It is our part of the conversation.  God speaks to us through his Word and we speak back through prayer.  This conversation, this relationship is built up for us by God’s grace.  Prayer is never a “what” it is always a “who.”  Prayer is about talking with God and staying in close contact with Him.  The amazing thing is not that God gets nearer to us but that we recognize his presence in our lives and we rely on that nearness to give us hope to give us strength.  Our continuance in our prayer life, connected with our listening to God speak to us through His Word will keep us near to God and we will experience his love, his mercy, and his grace.  He is always near and with prayer; we will realize it.

Father of all mercies, your mercies are new to us each day and roll over us like a river.  Keep us aware of your nearness and the love which you have for us.  Guard us by your Spirit.  We especially ask that you send your Spirit with your Word to those who feel that you are so far away.  Comfort them with the assurance that you are near.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-24-2026

Good Morning!

          Galatians 3:11; “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

     One of my favorite movie series is the “Indiana Jones” series.  I really liked “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”  In it, Indiana and his father are trying to find the Holy Grail.  When he finally comes to the cave that it was secreted in, he has three tasks to accomplish in order to recover the grail.  The first is about being penitent before God, the second is knowing the name of God.  The final task was to take a “step of faith” which appears to be an attempt to cross a distance of many feet, too far to jump.  As he looks down, he sees nothing but the depth of the abyss.  He must get to the room with the grail or else his father will die.  In a scene with some pretty good acting, you can see the anguish of fear and doubt on his face as he takes that step of faith.  As he steps out, he lands on a bridge that looks like the abyss below.  The pathway was there but he didn’t see it at first; he had to walk by faith to cross the abyss to the grail.

    That last task, the step of faith, really applies to us in real life as well.  We stand at the edge of the abyss and God invites us to come to him; in order to do so, we must take a step of faith.  And it is a step of faith.  Almost everything we learn in this world will tell us that to take that step is a mistake.  “If you can’t see it, you can’t believe it;” this is what the world will tell you.  So, we live a life alone.  You cannot see love, or trust, or compassion or any other emotion that we experience. 

    So, we don’t love, not really anyway, we manipulate and use others to accomplish our own goals and dreams.  We don’t trust because we know everyone is like us, willing to lie and cheat to get what we want.  We have no compassion unless we can get something out of it in the end.  This life is filled with sadness, hopelessness, and shame.

    Yet God still loves us and sent his Son to die for us.  He did this to show us that the path we can’t see really is there.  He did this to provide that path. He does this so we have somewhere to go when the pain and sadness of this life is just too much to bear.  God gives us the path and we walk it by faith.  He gives us the desire to believe that the path is the right one.  He gives us the faith to see what true love, true trust and true compassion are. 

     There will be many times when we will have to walk in that faith.  There will be troubles but we can rest assured that we will live by faith, trusting in God’s grace to pull us through.  It is his love that keeps us going and gives us hope.  We take that step but we know that the bridge is there and God goes with us every step of the way.

Gracious Lord, all we have is faith.  This is what gets us through and moves us forward.  Be with us as we walk through this life on the path that you give us.  Be with those who are especially struggling with life today.  Give them the certainty of your grace and bring them through their trials, strengthening their faith as they go. Protect our servicemen and women. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

3-23-2026

Good Morning!

      Romans 5:8; “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

     Love is probably the most sought-after condition in the world.  There have probably been more songs, more books, more movies about love than any other single topic.  There is undying love, unrequited love, supposedly eternal love, unselfish love and also greedy love, self-centered love because after all; “all you need is love!”  So, we want love.

    The problem is that we don’t really know true love in this world.  We may speak of love in many contexts but most people only love when they are loved in return.  We seem to have this idea of reciprocity.  I will love you if you will love me.  It seems to get ingrained in us when we are children.  If a group of other children exclude us, we are given the advice that “if they don’t like you then don’t like them.”  They’ll learn how much they are missing someday.”  Early on this kernel of reciprocity begins to work in us.  Even as we get older, we define our friends as the ones we can count on when we truly need something or someone.  We call out to those who can help.  We need to get something from them.

    Yet almost everyone has a point where they cannot or will not love someone else.  The spouse who is unfaithful or the friend who always takes and never gives.  There is the one who says something unkind about you behind your back or even the child who engages in a completely reprehensible act can cause people to stop loving.  I know many will claim that they will hate the act but love the person.  I hope we never have to find out if that is possible but it does seem very, very difficult.

     That is why God’s love is so amazing and almost completely incomprehensible.  I understand loving someone who loves me but God loved us when we were his complete enemies.  We were in a state of total hatred toward God; yet he sent his Son to die for us.  Can you ever comprehend sending your son to willingly die for someone who hates you?  The sheer magnitude of this is overwhelming.  That is what God does for us, His love completely overwhelms us.  It inundates us; it overpowers us; it covers us with a grandeur beyond compare but above all God’s love saves us from our own wretched self.

    This truth of God’s love carries us even when we don’t know it or feel even when we feel abandoned, God’s love sustains us.  At the hour of our greatest weakness, His amazing love will always sustain us.  His grace will float us above all the pain of our trials.  He truly loves us; he shows us this by the fact that his incredible love for us goes back beyond our understanding.  While we were sinners; he died for us.

Wondrous God, the depth of your love is beyond us.  We flourish in it; we relish the taste of your mercy.  Guard us as we travel the path that you have laid out for us.  As the path seems hard and arduous give us that true peace that we have from you through your love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace

Pastor Bret

3-22-2026

Good Morning!

       Ephesians 2:8-9; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

  “Anfechtung.”  No, you don’t respond “Bless you.”  This is a German word that describes much of Martin Luther’s life.  It doesn’t have a real good English translation.  Some tries include “tribulations,” “temptations,” “trials,” “afflictions;” but these don’t do a lot of justice to the word.  When used to describe Luther, many are surprised that it includes the whole concept of self-doubt or self-unworthiness.

    Most people who think of Luther, the monk who made the pope blink, would have nerves of steel.  Yet Luther was a man of trials, tribulations, self-doubt, “anfechtung.”  This is what really propelled the Reformation.  Luther just didn’t believe that all the prayers he said, the good works he did, the Scripture reading he did, the alms he gave to the poor; none of this was enough to satisfy God’s judgment against sin.  So Luther spent much of his early life in “anfechtung”  It wasn’t until the Spirit moved him as he read verses like the one we use today, and others like it, that Luther finally grasped what the Bible really told him; you aren’t ever good enough, we are only saved because God is a God of love.

    Often times, maybe most times, we are plagued by this self-doubt, this “anfechtung.”  There are many times I have sat with someone who expresses this self-doubt.  They look at their life and think that they aren’t good enough for what they have so God will surely look to extract some form of punishment.  “My life is so good right now I am afraid of what will happen tomorrow.”  We think that God’s blessings are dependent upon our behavior or action.

     If things are going bad, we work harder at being good.  We read the Bible more; we try and impress God maybe by going to church more or putting more in the collection plate.  We see our situation as God punishing us so we try to get on God’s “good side.”  Or we look at our life and see how God has blessed us and we think “when will it all come to an end?”  “When will my bad deeds catch up to me?”  “Anfechtung” is at work.

    In many ways Luther never got past these self-doubts, even at his death.  But one of Luther’s greatest offerings to us was this simple view “We are all beggars before God.”  All we have is from God.  We can take comfort in this because when “anfechtung” kicks in, we know all depends upon God.  Our actions do not influence our salvation; God took care of it through Jesus and then gave it to us, out of love, through the faith that he gives us.  So, we cling, by faith, to God’s promise.  We will still experience this self-doubt but we can and should always cling to the God who loves us so much that he died for us to pay the cost.  So, as you live your life, know that bad times are just that; bad times: the result of a sinful world.  So next time you “anfechtung” remember by grace you are saved.  This is what our hope rests upon.

Gracious Father, your love even overcomes my self-doubts.  When I think I am unworthy, I know that you sustain me with your mercy.  Give me the faith to hold onto you and your grace.  Please be with those who are feeling great amounts of self-doubt and guide them with your love back to the certainty of hope in you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret