5-4-2026

Good Morning!

      John 3:17; “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

     One time, when my youngest son was just a toddler, his mother took him shopping with his grandmother to Kmart.  As they came out of the store, with him and all the purchases in the shopping cart, the cart began to tip as one of the wheels fell off of the sidewalk.  He screamed, his mom screamed, his grandmother screamed.  As the cart tipped, everyone tried to catch him.  His mom tried.  His grandmother tried but it was to no avail.  The cart tipped and he crashed into the pavement and scraped his nose up.  He cried, his mom cried, his grandmother cried.  It must have been quite the event.

    I don’t know if anyone else tried to catch him; I wasn’t there but I would assume that if someone was there, they would have tried.  Most people will try and catch someone if they are falling.  This tends to be a standard reaction, especially for parents and grandparents.  If you ever have attended a high school sporting event where one of the participants gets injured, it never takes long to figure out who the parents and grandparents are.  It is a common response; very few people, if any, take any delight in the pain of their loved ones.  Most, if not all, will try anything to help ease the pain.

    When I visit someone who is in the hospital, it seems that the spouse or the parent is more upset than the patient is.  We hate to see our loved ones suffer.  Most of us would do anything, including trading places with them, in order to alleviate the pain.  We would take it all away of we could. 

    This is a similar response that God has towards us.  God’s response to us is out of love, out of the purest fatherly love.  God saw the pain and the suffering and had compassion on us as a loving parent would.  To quote Luther, “but God beheld our wretched state.”  God saw our hopelessness and did what any loving parent would: he took our place.  He took from us the cost of that pain, of that sin.  He lifted up Jesus on the cross so that we would be lifted up out of our desperate state.

    This is why God sent Jesus to die in our place.  His love for us is beyond that of what a parent feels for their child.  His is the perfect love that moved him to send his only son to die in your place.  He replaced you with Jesus so that you may have life and have it abundantly.  He sent Jesus, not to judge or condemn but to take your place so that all the pain and sadness could be replaced, replaced with hope.  This is why Jesus came to walk on the earth; he came to bring healing.  Whatever your condition; Jesus came to restore us to life.

Father of all good, you give us life.  Because of your great love we have life; because of your mercy we have hope.  Defend us through the trials of this life so that we may always see your love.  Be with those who are lost and unsure of your mercy.  Give them hope.  Bring them safely home.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-3-2026

Good Morning!

      1 Thessalonians 4:16; “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

    Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”  That is a pretty good guess to me.  I heard someone once thought it would be Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  One thought it would be Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.  One thought about John Williams’ “Theme for Star Wars.”  I think I like the “Fanfare for the Common Man.”  We were discussing what the trumpet of God would play that would announce Christ’s return.  The Lord will descend, a cry of command, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet and then, then we have the resurrection.  We have the final, wonderful, victorious resurrection.

   We, as Christians, should never fear Christ’s return.  It signals the ultimate victory for us as believers in Christ and his promise.  It will mark a time of great joy.  It will mark a time of joy that has never been seen here on this earth.  We will be victorious and we will be transformed.  Those who are still alive when Christ returns, and there will be a last generation.  You and I may be part of that last generation or we may not; but we will be part of the resurrection and what a wonderful, joyous time it will be.  I cannot wait to see and to hug and to laugh with all my family and friends who have already gone on to rest in the Lord.  All those people, many of whom the ravages of death weighed heavily upon, will be there, whole, and healthy.  All will be perfect.  All will be grand.

    It is when I think about the resurrection that I think of the parents who had to bury a child in their life.  I think of the pain they felt.  Then I remember Paul’s words, “I do not consider the present suffering to compare to the future glory.”  The pain they feel will not begin to compare to the joy and the incredible reunion that will occur.  It will be fantastic.  It is what we should look forward to, what we should long for and pray for.  It will be the end of the devil’s nightmarish reign on earth.  It will be the end of the destruction of creation.  It will be the restoration of everything to the state of perfection and completeness.  It will be amazing.

   So, we wait.  We wait for Christ to return but as we wait, we long for, we dream of, we hope for the day when Christ shall return, with the cry, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet, the wonderful, glorious trumpet.  It will sound and we will win.  Christ will return.  Pray for it, long for it, hope for it but above all know that when it comes, there will be joy beyond all measure for us as God’s dear children.  Celebrate that Christ will return and restore creation and us as well to all perfection and joy.

Father of all wonder, we hope in you.  We long for Christ’s return.  Help us to hold onto the certainty of your love, your mercy, and your promise that victory is ours.  Guide those who are lost or confused to come to see that all hope rests in you and that all victory will come from your glorious hand.  We wait; we wait for the sound of the trumpet.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen and returning Lord and Savior, we pray.  amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-2-2026

Good Morning!

          Revelation 3:20; “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

       There is an old preacher’s joke that goes something like this.  A preacher was trying to visit one of his members.  He stood at the door and knocked and knocked but nobody answered.  So, he took out his pen and paper and wrote on the paper “Rev. 3:20” and left it on the door, thinking it was a clever way to get a member to read the Bible.  On Sunday, a note addressed to the preacher was found in the collection plate.  Below his writing of “Rev. 3:20” was a lady’s handwriting with the verse “Gen. 3:10.”  With his curiosity raised he quickly opened his Bible and read, “I heard your voice but I was afraid because I was naked so I hid.”  Sometimes it happens.

    Have you ever avoided answering the door to your home because you didn’t want the person to know that you were home?  Perhaps it was a salesman or a neighbor that you just didn’t want to deal with today.  Sometimes, pressures lead us to avoid answering the door because we fear a bill collector.  Sometimes in anger we avoid answering the door because we aren’t ready to speak to them just yet.  How long have you left the door unanswered?  For some it is years upon years.

    That is what happens when you refuse to forgive your brother or sister.  Oh, you may allow them a physical presence; you may even be “civil” towards them; but if you refuse to forgive then you have effectively shut the door on any true relationship.  You have decided not to answer them.  If it is a plea of repentance or a plea for mercy as long as you shut the door, you have locked that person out of your life.

    You are also locking Jesus out of your life.  When we refuse to forgive, we are blocking God’s forgiveness to us.  We are closing the door on our relationship with Jesus as well.  Jesus came to fix broken people.  He came to fix broken hearts, broken spirits, and broken relationships.  All the healing requires forgiveness.  All the healing requires open doors and when the doors are open; reconciliation can occur.

    The greatness of Christ’s reconciliation for us is that he continually knocks at the door of our heart wanting to be allowed in.  He wants to enter your heart and dwell in you with the peace of his fellowship.  He wants us to live content with the certainty of our salvation.  He wants us to take this God given reconciliation and then go out and heal our brokenness in the relationships that we have with our family, friends, neighbors and other brothers and sisters in Christ.  Jesus is standing at the door and knocking.  We should also stand at the door of those who we have hurt or hurt us so that we may be reconciled to them because of Christ’s great love for us.

Father, too often we let pride and ego destroy our relationships with those whom you have placed in our lives.  Forgive us and lead us to open the door to the healing that is needed in this world.  Guide us by your Spirit to be healers in this world.  In the precious name of Jesus our Lord, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

5-1-2026

Good Morning!

           Jeremiah 29:11; “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

   In 1915, a man by the name of Ernst Shackleton was going to attempt to be the first man to lead a party across the Antarctic continent via the pole.  It was about 1800 miles.  No one had attempted this because of the distance.  In order to accomplish this, the plan was to have a second group start from the opposite side and leave supplies for the expedition to use as it came across.  Shackleton figured they could carry enough supplies to go about 1200 miles.  The second group would head toward the pole and leave supplies until it went about 600 miles.  The theory was to meet the supplies as they needed them.  This was a bold adventure without a GPS and only a magnetic compass that they would have to trust.  Unfortunately, bad weather for both parties kept the journey from being attempted.

    It was a good plan to have the supplies ready for the expedition when it arrived.  They could pick up the needed supplies and continue on their planned journey to the opposite side.  If it hadn’t been for some really bad storms, it would have worked.  Everything was laid out just in time and just in the right place that they would need it.

    God does the same thing for us.  He lays out ahead of us the supplies that we need.  That can really be comforting for us as we think about our life.  As the struggles go ahead of us, God has laid out what we will need to go forth.  We can see how God does this as we look at creation.  God created everything we needed to support this body and life and he did this first.  The food, the shelter, the alignment of day and night was all in place before God created man.  All our needs were planned for.  Even the sending of Jesus as our Savior was planned out before the foundation of the world.

    We can truly find comfort in this.  As we face the struggles of life, as we face challenges that make us shake with fear, God has already placed the supplies that we need in place.  These supplies can include people, words of comfort and hope, his Spirit, and the fellowship of Communion, all of which are in place to give you the comfort and the consolation that you will need as we go through the battles of life. 

   So if you are facing some real challenges in your life; they could be health issues for you or a loved one, they could be end of life struggles, they could be financial upheaval, they could be relationship meltdowns, they could be any or all of these; we can face them with the certainty that God has laid the supplies in place for you.  So, while we may not always see how the path will go; we can rest assured that God knows the way and provides for us as we go.

Father of grace, you provide all that we need to support this body and life.  This is a great comfort for us. Help us to hold fast to this promise.  Help us to see your mercy active in our lives.  Be with those who are truly struggling at this time of their life.  Give them the assurance that you are there with them and that you have their needs provided for.  Help them to have peace in this journey.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

4-30-2026

Good Morning!

      2 Corinthians 3:5; “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.”

    Are you one of those people who question their ability once and a while?  Many do, in some areas of life.  Very, very few people are completely comfortable in all aspects of life and those that claim they are comfortable are usually kidding themselves.  We all have areas of our life that we are very self-conscious of.  I am not a dancer.  I would rather stand up in front of a huge crowd and give a 5-to-10-minute spur of the moment speech on any topic that someone chose rather than dance in public.  I feel awkward, clumsy, and totally unskilled.  It seems that the whole crowd of people is watching me and critiquing my very limited ability.  I know that this is an illogical thought but it is what I have.  Chances are you have something in your life that you feel that way about.

    One of the standing jokes that they tell at the seminary is that, as an ordained pastor, you need to be ready to get invited to a lot of dinners.  Most people would rather feed you than to pray before a meal.  This actually seems to be truer than it isn’t.  This is one area where some feel uncomfortable; they feel incompetent.  Most feel very uncomfortable speaking in public; add on a profession of faith and it can get tough in a hurry.

    One of the most freeing messages that I was taught was that “God does not call the qualified; he qualifies the called.”  God doesn’t call you to be a child of God because of your skills or abilities; he gives you the power, through his Spirit, to use those skills to give glory to God and to aid your neighbor.      

    The thing to remember is that we are God’s hands or arms or feet in this world.  Martin Luther calls this “the masks of God.”  It looks like you but it is God’s Spirit at work.  Basically, we just need to let it work.  We need to not stand in the way.  If we feel the urge or desire to help someone, we should allow it to occur.  Don’t suppress it for it is probably God’s Spirit at work.

    When the time comes to speak or act, trust God’s Spirit to be there with you and for you.  Trust him to lead you through it.  He has promised to always be with you; he has promised to never forsake you.  So, we can take comfort in the fact that God does not deliver us from the devil only to throw us to the world.  He stands with us and comforts us.  So, as we look at our faith, we know that it is entirely because of God and his mercy.  God has given it to us and has promised to sustain us by his grace.  Trust in him to give you the courage to go forward.

Father of all peace and goodness, you give us the things that are needed and necessary in our life.  Give us the courage to trust them to carry us through life’s journey.  Give us the wisdom to share your love with those around us.  Give us a willing heart to aid our brothers and sisters who are in need of comfort or peace.  Give us a willing heart to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked.  Lead us in your love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

4-29-2026

Good Morning!

        Romans 12:12; “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

        A few years ago, there was a mix up in my health insurance and it needed my attention.  So, I called the toll-free number and was told that my call was important to them but that all available representatives were currently assisting other callers so would I please hold onto the line.  I heard that four times before I got a real person.  I told him this call was in response to a letter that I had received.  He asked me to hold while he found that letter.  A few minutes later he came back on and couldn’t find the letter so we started over.  I had to fill out an entire new form for him.  I told him what had happened.  He told me that he hadn’t heard of that so he needed to ask someone else and could I hold.

    My beautiful blushing bride got me a fresh cup of coffee as I sighed and sat down on my chair.  Then this very polite man came back on the line on said this is what we are going to do.  So, he began the process again.  I gave him my name, my address, my birth date, my social security number and then we agreed to the wording of the brief reason for the correspondence.  He then began this conversation; “Ok, Mr. Bierman, we are almost done all I have to do is send this and…NO, NO, NO, NO, Oh NO, please no.”  There were a few moments of silence and then he came back on the line and said, “I hit delete instead of send and lost all our data, WE have to start over again.”  I sighed; again, my patience in tribulation was being tested.

    I can do the first part; I can rejoice in hope.  I have that down but patient in tribulation; that one I struggle with.  And struggle I do, partly, because I am supposed to be the calming voice; partly because I need to learn patience.  Yet this is most difficult and not just for me for many that I minister to.  Often times, as we set in a hospital room, the phrase, “if they would only give me some explanation as to why this is happening, I could live with it.  It is not knowing that is hard.” 

    Even though it is hard, we don’t need to see the entire route of the journey that we travel.  Knowing may actually make the journey more difficult as we may travel it with sadness.  We know that God is leading us down the path.  He is providing for the needs that we will have as we go.  He places the people that we need to be there and, above all, we have his Word to give us the comforting words of hope and salvation that he gives us.  He gives us his Spirit to guide and protect us.  God promises us that the tribulation will not overtake us.  He is always there with us.

    Faith is trusting that God will never leave us.  Faith is knowing that God will see us through the trials of this life and give us victory in the end.  Faith is being patient in this life while we are waiting for Christ to return.  Faith is saying, “I trust God to care for me.”    

Gracious Father, help me to be patient.  Give me the ability to remain calm and faithful in the face of this world.  Send me your Spirit of peace so that I may live in peace.  Give me the strength to be patient in the face of tribulation.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-28-2026

Good Morning!

       Psalm 116: 1-2; “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.  Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.”

       “Hello? is anybody out there?” This was a tag line from a “Twilight Zone.”  Like many of the episodes, it was predicated on a nuclear attack between the United States and the Soviet Union.  In this episode, Burgess Meredith was a man who hated people.  He never wanted to interact with people; his only passion was his books.  He loved books.  He was in his basement when he heard the civil defense sirens.  After the explosion, he waited a few weeks and then went out to look at the city.  As he wandered, he found that he was all alone; there was no sign of life anywhere.  He wandered until he found what he wanted to find; he found the library and he found most of the building and the books were intact.  He was ecstatic; he had all those books and no one to bother him.  As he sat down, he stumbled.  His glasses fell off and broke.  He could no longer read.  So, he set off, with a book in his hand, looking for someone to help him read his book. 

     Most of us never seek this kind of solitude.  There may be times when we seek a little alone time but we rarely want to be completely alone.  This is especially true when we are hurting or lost.  At times like that we usually look for someone to hear us and more importantly to listen to us.

    It is one of the devil’s greatest ploys.  He puffs us up when something seems to be going well.  He tells us that it is all because of our talent, our skill, and just the fact that we just deserve some good luck.  He tells us that we accomplished this on our own without any help from anyone.  He tells us we are self-made.  He tells us that we are invincible.  Then he leaves and we are left to strut on our own.  All is fine until trouble strikes.  Maybe it is an illness, maybe it is a job-related setback, or it may be a health issue; something happens and then we find that we are alone.

    We try to fix the problem on our own but it only gets worse.  We call out for help but the devil, who puffed us up, is long gone and laughing at our pain.  People, some we may have pushed away, are too far away to hear us.  We are left alone, lost and crying for help.  The pain and the sorrow become too great for us to bear.  The suffering weighs us down like a stone.  Soon we are completely defeated; all alone and suffering immensely.

    Yet God hears our cries and he rescues us from the suffering.  He listens to us and knows our pain.  He knows our fears and our deepest concerns.  He comes to us with his Spirit of comfort and he comes to us with his words of comfort and hope.  He brings into our lives the people whom he has to speak to us and to comfort us and to ease our pain.  God is always listening, inclining his ear to hear each whispered word; to hear each hushed sigh of pain.  God is always listening and offering us hope through his love and through his promise of salvation.  It is ours to hold.

Father, you hear us as we cry.  Give us the certainty that you listen and give us the peace that we so desperately need.  Cradle us in your loving arms.  In Jesus name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret