7-24-2026

Good Morning!

               1Timothy 2:1; “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.”

      I remember visiting with one of the area school superintendents a few years back and offering my empathy to him for one of the toughest tasks that he has; deciding whether to cancel school because of the weather, start school late because of the weather or just go as scheduled.  This is one of the “no-win” situations.  Someone will always think the decision you made was wrong.  Of course, some of this “wisdom” gets offered after the fact.  They may see that the forecast was wrong and that, later in the afternoon, the decision to call off school, made at 6:00 am, was premature.  I would not want that job.

   I started to think of other jobs that I am not sure I would want.  I remember a local fire chief who said how much he hated accident calls at 8:00 am.  “It is highly possible to be a school kid driving to school and that I will know them.”  He didn’t like those prospects and I don’t know that I would either.  I thought of the young nurses’ aides who work long and thankless hours in our nursing homes and hospitals; I don’t know if I could do that job.  I thought of someone who answers suicide prevention hotlines and the pressure on them to have the right answer at the spur of a moment.

    There are a lot of jobs out there that I don’t think I could handle.  There are some very stressful jobs; jobs that require decisions that can, and often do, impact hundreds to thousands to millions of people.  I don’t think I would enjoy that job.  There are jobs that are very dangerous but very necessary for the general safety of society; we need them but I am thankful I don’t have to do them.  That is what I was thinking when I opened my bible and found this verse.

   “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.” When you think of those jobs and tasks that need to be done but that you just don’t think you could ever do them; pray for those individuals who do them.  Pray for those people to whom God has given the vocations that you and I would not like to do.  Some are dangerous, some are stressful, some are emotional draining and taxing but all are jobs that I am thankful that I do not have to perform.  I am thankful that God enables someone to do these tasks and we should all pray for them.  We should pray that God will send his Spirit to help them withstand the stress and the strain that these jobs can exert on someone’s life, relationships, health, and general wellbeing. 

   I remember was wag saying that he prays for our elected leaders; twice as hard for those he didn’t vote for.  Perhaps, when we see a job or task being performed that we are thankful we aren’t performing; we should say an extra prayer of thanks for the ones who do.

Father, thank you for all those people who do the tasks that I cannot.  Keep them safe, keep them strong under the stress, keep them in your loving arms as they serve as your hands in this world.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-23-2026

Good Morning!

     Psalm 9:2; “I will give you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart.   I will tell about all the miracles you have done.”

 

                                   “I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
                                      To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.”

 

     This is the chorus from an old and familiar hymn.  The hymn is based on a two-part poem by Katherine Hankey.  The first part of the poem has the author asking for “the story” because of the sadness and the pain that she feels.  In the longer second part the entire story of the Bible is unfolded; from Adam and Eve all the way through our eternal life in with Jesus.  The poem was written while the author was recovering from an illness. 

     The hymn “I love to tell the Story” is a favorite of many.  Yet it leaves open the question, do we?  Do we love to tell the story?  Do we truly enjoy sharing the story of God’s love with those around us?  Many do but many don’t as well.  Yet the telling of the story is one of our great tasks, and joys, in this life.  Scripture tells us that “faith comes by hearing;” if we are going to hear someone has to tell.  This is the way that God has chosen for his wonderful message of hope and salvation to be spread from one to another.  He wants you to tell someone; just like someone told you.  That is how your faith began.

   Someone told you the story of Jesus and his wonderful love for you.  This story unfolds throughout the entire Bible as God reveals himself to us.  This story is about how God’s mercy unfolds in your life and how God is restoring you and bringing you healing in this broken and sinful world.  These are the miracles that you can share with others.  These are your stories so tell them.  They may not seem as incredible or dramatic as some but God works in your life in many ways usually subtle and quietly.

    Yet the amazing and loving events of your life, the events which we give thanks to God for; these events show us his grace poured out upon us.  We give thanks for those people in our life who love us and care for us.  We give thanks for the guarantee of salvation and the hope and peace which that gives us.  We give thanks for our redemption and return to God’s family.  There are many things to give thanks to God for.

    Yet an important part of thanks is telling others.  Telling others of God’s mercy in our lives; this is part of giving thanks; the expressing of God’s incredible grace which abounds in our life.  I love to tell the story of Jesus and his love.

    Father of all mercy and grace; stir up in us the desire to tell others of your love.  Stir up in us the love of telling those around us of your mercy and grace.  Send your Spirit to move those who hear us to come to faith in you.  This we ask in the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

7-22-2026

Good Morning!

      Genesis 3:8; “In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking around in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden.”

       In our travels, my wife and I like to visit gardens, garden centers, nature places, anywhere with plants and beautiful flora. One such place is Como Park in St. Paul, MN.  It has a really exquisite conservatory.  It has some very beautiful plants and flowers and a very unique Japanese garden.  There are places along the path of the Japanese garden and within the actual conservatory and on the grounds surrounding the conservatory where a person can sit down on benches and just sit and take in the beauty of the surrounding.  It can be very quiet and peaceful.

    In our verse, we can easily imagine the beauty and the quietness of the garden as God walked in the cool of the evening.  It is safe to assume that Adam and Eve were quiet as they tried to hide from God.  Yet despite the fact that they were hiding, God was looking for them.  God was calling to Adam and Eve.  In the quietness, God sought out his lost children calling to them to come back home.  He was noisy, trying to get them to respond.

   Many years later, we see a different garden.  It is late at night and it is quiet.  Some of the people there are sound asleep.  Others are searching for someone so they are moving through as quietly as they can.  Off, all by himself, Jesus is praying.  He prays to God but God is quiet.  Jesus is beginning to face the wrath of God by himself.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, God was silent.  His wrath left him silent.

    All for you and me, Jesus prayed in a garden when God was silent.  God was silent because all was decided.  A bill was due; a price to be paid.  The wrath of God was poured out upon Jesus.  It started in the garden and continued on the cross.  God’s silence, pouring his holy wrath on Jesus, means God is seeking us all the time.  God is not silent about you and me.

    God calls out to you and to me continually through his Word.  Because of God’s silence in the Garden of Gethsemane, God is not silent to us.  He calls us with his love and grace and desires.  He heals us as he restores us.  His grace gives us hope.  He gives us hope so that we can go to the garden and sit in peace knowing that our salvation is sure, our future proven and our present provided for.  God walks in the garden of life with you to keep you safe.  This can be the source of your great comfort and hope.  We can trust in God’s promise to give us the victory over the devil and all his lies and attacks.  God gives us peace in the garden.

Father of all mercy, you bring me hope and peace.  You call to me that I might hear your joyous Word of comfort and grace.  Keep us safe in your loving arms.  Be with those who feel that you are silent to them.  Bring them the peace of your loving mercy.  Heal their pain and bring them into your gracious kingdom.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

7-21-2026

 Good Morning!

             Isaiah 40:3 “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

        Many years ago, when our oldest grandson was about 2 and a half; he stayed with us one winter’s day. There were fairly large snow piles pushed up in the back of the church in the trees.  So, we put on boots, snow pants, hat, coat, and mittens and out the door we went.  We would walk along and every so often he told me, “Watch out, granpa, it’s slippy.”  We worked our way over to the hills but the snow was a little deeper there.  Soon as we were walking, he would stop, “help granpa, help me, I’n stuck.” The snow wasn’t even to the top of his shoes but he was stuck.

    After about the fourth time, Grandma decided that grandpa was supposed to plow a path so he wouldn’t get stuck.  So, I shuffled to make paths so he wouldn’t get stuck.  For the most part, it worked.  He followed the paths and we went about our play.  There were only a couple of times when he veered off the path and was stuck.  As long as he stayed on the path that I prepared for him, everything went fine.

    Our life is a lot like that.  In our verse, this is a phrase that relates to what was called “the king’s highway.”  These were superhighways.  They were wide and flat designed for speedy travel. They were designed to allow the king and his army to travel anywhere in the kingdom speedily.  Usually, if a commoner was on the road when the king was coming, he was either driven off or killed.  This was for the king and his emissaries.  Yet the people often took the chance because the travel was so much easier.

    This verse is quoted in the New Testament as a prophecy about John the Baptizer.  It is that but this phrase has more meaning to it as well.  When the path is made straight, when a highway for our God is made; we can rest assured that God makes it.  God made the road straight so that he could come easily to us.  The death of Jesus paid for the debt of our sin.  It cleansed us to stand before God.  We can stand in his holy presence we can travel on his highway.

    We can always go before God and we can do it quickly.  We can always call upon his name; at a moment’s notice, we can go to God.  If unplanned or unexpected events suddenly appear, we can, and should, always call upon his name.  We should always look to God for our comfort, our hope, our restoration; he is the source of our healing.  He gives us the love and the mercy that we need but do not deserve because often times we get stuck by going off the path.

    God provides us the path but we often go awry.  Yet even when our own foolishness and sin cause us all sorts of pain and sorrow, God pulls us back onto his path, he gets us unstuck.  We don’t have to stay stuck in sin and pain.  God puts us on his path; we have to trust him that it is the best path.

Father of all grace, you build the highway that goes straight to you.  Lead us with your holy and loving arms to stay on your road.  Be with those who have strayed and are stuck.  Bring them back to your gracious family.  Place them safely on your road of salvation.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,                 

Pastor 

7-20-2026

Good Morning!

      Matthew 27:21; “The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.”

      Our verse occurs during Jesus’ trial before Pilate.  Pilate wanted to release Jesus but was a coward.  He tried a back door approach by trying to stack the deck.  He would free one prisoner at the feast of Passover.  He gave the people the choice between Jesus, a seemingly harmless itinerant rabbi from Galilee, and Barabbas, a murderous thief and anarchist.  It should have been obvious but the crowd chose Barabbas.

     There are numerous theories as to why the crowd chose Barabbas.  Some think the crowd was paid off by the Scribes and the Pharisees.  Some think the devil possessed the crowd.  Some think the crowd didn’t know any different.  I am no great theologian but I think the crowd chose Barabbas because they wanted to.  Barabbas was a pain in the side of the Romans; he was the bad guy who only brought mayhem.  He would cause a riot where Roman property was destroyed.  The people wanted to cause problems for the Romans so they picked Barabbas.

     So, do you pick Barabbas?  Do we seek to be part of the problem?  Do we seek to avenge even the smallest of slights?  Maybe we don’t do it intentionally but we still do it.  We want to get even, balance the scales, get square or whatever we call it.  Do we tend to gravitate toward what the world calls “making it fair”?  It can feel so right but it causes so much pain.

    The world will always pick Barabbas; our sinful nature tells us to pick Barabbas.  Picking Barabbas is the way of greed, selfishness, of an inward curved view of life.  It is part of the view of life that thinks by tearing others down we can build ourselves up.  It is the view that leads to others’ pain and to our own destruction. 

    It is the view that sin causes.  Sin chooses Barabbas.  Yet we know that this painful way of life is not the only way.  Christ came, rejected by the world, rejected by sinful man in order to redeem sinful man.  Jesus came so you would have a choice.  The lost, the condemned and the unbeliever have no choice; that person always chooses Barabbas and always suffers the consequences of that decision.  We, as God’s children have a choice.  God gives us the ability to choose Jesus.  He comes to us in his Word and his Spirit moves us to desire Jesus.  His Spirit gives us the desire to look outward.  His Spirit gives to us the desire to love rather than hurt; to give rather than take; to have compassion rather than selfishness. 

    God, because of Jesus and by his Spirit, gives you the ability to choose Jesus and reject Barabbas.  This should always be our hope.  There will be days when we fail but God picks us up and stands us up again so we can choose Jesus.  Because of Jesus we can live; so live.  Trust in his grace to always guard our ways.

Father of all mercy, move us by your Spirit to choose Jesus as the one we want to live as.  Help us to bring the healing that the world needs.  Stir in our hearts the desire to do your will.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-19-2026

Good Morning!

      Psalm 28:2; “Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.”

     I have been asked numerous times the basic question, “why pray?”  The logic of the person asking the question goes something like this.  Since God is unchangeable, since he knows the future and what is best and since his will is always followed then “why pray?”  On the face of it, this may seem like a logical question to some and it may seem like faithless fatalism to others.  It is probably somewhere in the middle.

    Why do we pray?  Our first and foremost reason should be because God tells us to.  This is not because God has some need that we must fill; rather God tells us to pray because it is beneficial for us.  It does us good to pray.  When you and I pray, we are the main beneficiaries of the prayer.  We benefit by expressing to God our fears, our dreams, our desires, and all of our thoughts.  God gives us the gift of prayer that we might be comforted, that we might be strengthened and that we may come to know his peace.

   So, does praying make a difference? Definitely!  Does it change God’s mind?  No one can ever know.  We know that God is a God that is unchanging but we also know that he is a God whose love for us is the greatest love ever to exist.  God’s love is far beyond our comprehension.  So, can God be moved by the pleas of his people?  We cannot say that He can’t or won’t.  God is God and his ways are above our ways so in the end it is all about faith.

   Since God’s love for us is beyond our understanding; his actions for us are going to be the best for us.  So, he invites us to pray so that we will know that he is there for us; that he is near to us.  He invites us to come to him the same way that a small child comes to his father with love and a longing; with a trust that, what is asked will be given.  So, we pray with that same boldness.  God answers prayer: he has promised us this.  His answers may take a form or shape that we are aware of but God will answer your prayers.

   God will use your prayers to shape you and to form you into the disciple that he wants you to be a follower who is completely dependent upon Him and one who relies solely on God’s goodness and mercy.  This means that we turn to prayer first and not last.  It means that we should always be in a state of prayer where we lift up to God those things that are upon our heart, trusting in God’s grace to provide for us.

   Does God answer our prayers? Yes.  Do our prayers change God? We don’t know.  Do our prayers change us? God uses them to do so.  Should we pray? Absolutely!  We will be strengthened and encouraged because we do.

Father of grace, you hear us and give us comfort through prayer.  As you hear us cry out, your love is poured down.  Be with those who doubt or are unsure of your active mercy in their life.  Guard them with your loving arms.  Give them the certainty of your love for them.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-18-2026

Good Morning!

      Hebrews 13:6; “So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

       The part of paradise where I live, South Dakota, was homesteaded and settled after the Civil War, primarily in the 1870’s and into the 1880’s.  The land was given to the person who settled on the land provided that he lived on the land.  Since some of the earliest settlers were miles and miles from any city, it was common for them to live on the farm in the summertime.  Then as winter came, they would load up the grain that they produced and go back to the nearest city, sell the grain, live and work in the city until spring when they would head back to their farm.  They would do this until the railroad was close enough that they would have a place to market their grain and cattle with greater ease.

    One of the problems with this practice was that sometimes squatters would move in.  A squatter is someone who moves in or lives in a property that they do not legally own or rent.  Many times, the squatters would move as soon as the original owner arrived having thought the homestead was abandoned.  Sometimes it took a little “forceful persuasion” to get the squatters to leave.  Yet the lawful owner was always in his rights to take full possession of his property and to have the squatters evicted.

    Sometimes you and I have “squatters” in our lives as well.  As God’s redeemed children, God has given us peace, comfort, and hope.  Yet sometimes the “squatters” move in, fear, despair and the unquietness or restlessness of Spirit.  These squatters are never invited and are always unwelcome.  They usually arrive when some other pain or sadness occurs.  Sometimes this pain or sadness causes us to stumble a little, our faith may be shaken and the “squatters” see this as an opportunity to move in. 

    The thing to know about these “squatters” is that they have no right to invade your space.  We do not have to let them stay.  They are not supposed to live in our life.  Jesus has dismissed them from our life and replaced them with his love, his hope, his peace.  Those painful squatters claim the right to our life but those claims are false.  God gives us the power to evict them; we do not have to let them stay.

   They may show up but they don’t have to stay.  We need to see them for what they are; they are the devil’s attempt to drive us from God’s love and mercy.  They are an attempt by the devil to separate you from God.  The devil can’t pull you away but he can entice you away and that enticement can be either by making you think you are too big for God or by making you think you are too little for God.  Yet we know that both these ideas are false and God’s love for us is the true owner of our life.  Trust in his faithfulness.

Gracious God, you are our true owner.  Keep us safe from the squatters that the devil sends to disrupt and to destroy our lives.  Keep us in the certainty of the hope that you pour out upon us.  Guide us by your Spirit.  Be with those who are battling with the devil’s squatters.  Evict them from their life so that they may know your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret