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         

7-17-2026

Good Morning!

    John 16:33; “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

        Maybe you have played a word association game where someone would say a word and then you would respond with the first word that comes to you.  For example, if someone says “dog” you might answer “cat.”  It gets interesting when you use a word with many choices like “black;” you might answer “white” or “blue” or “cat” or “jack.”  The way you answer gives a clue to your thinking process.   If you want to make it more of a game, try and think of what is the opposite of the word given.  So, if the word is “light” you might try “dark” or “heavy.”

    We kind of need to play a word association game to understand our verse.  We see Jesus telling his disciples two different ideas.  First, we have “peace” but we also have “tribulation;” how can we have both?   How can you have peace and tribulation? It would seem that these are opposites.  Yet they are not complete opposites as we can look at peace and see something a little different.  “Peace” or “shalom” is not the opposite of war or fighting or battling.  “Peace” here is more about being secure, or at rest or whole.  Peace does not define our life in this world rather peace defines the condition of our relationship with God.

    Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, our broken relationship with God has been made whole; it is completed by the payment that Jesus made for our sins.  With this payment being made, our account is settled and our future is secure.  We have the knowledge that our eternal salvation is all set.  God’s grace and mercy allow us to see that we are all set.  We have no worries about tomorrow; we can rest assured that we are God’s redeemed children; loved by the Father.

    So, no matter what the world tries to throw at us, we can have peace with and from God.  The pain of life that can occur does not and cannot take us from God’s loving hand.  We are in his eternal embrace.  Nothing can pull us from God’s love so we have peace.  We are complete in God’s grace, secure in our salvation and because of this we can rest knowing that the God of all creation is the God of love who loves us dearly.  We are safe in his arms.

    So as the world, still broken by sin, will have tribulations, pains that sin will always cause; these can spill over into our life.  We are still part of creation; we are still impacted by the sin of the world but it does not control us.  It does not have to keep us in terror.  We have salvation; we have God’s Spirit to remind us of his wonderful love and grace.  We can have peace, total peace with God and because we have peace with God; we can peace within our own heart knowing that, as forgiven children of the heavenly Father, our hope is secured.  Shalom to you in the name of Jesus.

Father, you give us peace that the world can never give.  Keep us strong and content in the peace that passes our understanding.  Father, we know that many suffer from a lack of peace.  The devil and the world confuse them and lead them astray.  Bring them home and lead them to know your peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

7-16-2026

Good Morning!

    2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

       I remember watching reruns of “Married with Children.”  I actually thought a lot of it was funny.  It satirized American life to the point of incredible exaggeration.  If you watched closely, you probably have known someone who matches one or more of the characters portrayed.  I must admit that I laughed the hardest at poor Al Bundy.  Looking at his present life and at his future life, he was so discouraged by those two prospects that he lived in the glory of his past. 

     Al “I scored four touchdowns in one game for Polk High” Bundy lives in the past glory of his high school days.  He often reminisces about his past greatness; at times, he relives them in an attempt to either prove he had potential or to correct some past errors.  He is always living in the past because he sees it as superior to his life either today or tomorrow.  To him, yesterday is far better than today.

    Do we live like that?  Do we look at the past and think that it is superior?  It rarely is.  We usually look at the past through “sentimental” tinted glasses.  We want the past to be better because it is what we create it to be.  We can make our past as pretty as we want.  Unfortunately, we sometimes miss the truth about what was missing in our life and continue to miss out on God’s blessings. 

   Sometimes we look at the past and think we have to live there because we can’t see any way out of it.  This can be the most painful of all.  Sometimes we look at our past and think that there is no way that anyone, God included, can love a person like that.  Perhaps you were alcohol or drug dependent and thus were completely non-dependable.  Perhaps you treated someone cruelly and now continue to punish yourself for past failures.  Sometimes we think the past is all we deserve.

    The wonderful thing is that God does not want you to live in the past.  He wants you to live in his present grace and, eventually, in his glory.  In order to accomplish this, God made you a new creation, cleansed with the blood of Jesus.  Our slate is clean because of what Christ has done for us.  We live in his grace heading toward his glory; it is full steam ahead and we need not look back.  If you feel that you are being pulled back, look at what it is, repent of the sin, try to make amends if possible and then let it go.  God has forgiven this sin and looks at the new you and not the old you.  You should do the same.

Gracious God, you have made me new so that I may live before you in perfection.  By being new, I can stand in your holy presence and live in your merciful kingdom.  Help those who are stuck in the past.  Bring them to the knowledge of your wonderful forgiveness.  Heal their pain and keep them safe from all the devil’s attacks.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-15-2026

Good Morning!

      Psalm 25: 14; “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”

       Most of us relish “being in the know.”  We like to have some of the inside information from and about the people who make decisions.  We like to sit and listen to the president of a corporation, or the superintendent of a school, or the head football coach or someone who makes the choices that impact things that are important to us.  We like to listen to what they think should be and how they plan on making their ideas work and then apply them.  We like to listen to the intrigue; we like to listen to how they are preparing for any events which may have an impact on their plans.  We get to listen to what the planned results are after the process is completed.  We like it when someone takes us into their confidence.  We like to feel important.

    We are important.  We are important to God and to his plans.  He includes those of us who fear him, have faith in his promises, trust in his Word and seek after him in his plans.  We are invited to listen to the plans for mankind.  He shows us what the results of the covenant will be.  God includes us because it is part of our calling into his kingdom of heaven.  God shares with us how the kingdom is to spread, what it means and where it is to occur.

    God includes us so that can know what we are to do.  We are to execute the plans that God has to move forward the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus gave us the example to follow.  He showed us and he told us how to do this.  He showed us to be a people, to be his people.  He showed us to be a compassionate people.  He showed us how to care for all of his creation.

    We are to feed the hungry, especially those who hunger to hear the words of forgiveness and the words of hope which God gives to us.  We are to give something to drink to those who thirst, especially those who thirst after righteousness.  We are to meet the physical needs of those around us.  We are to especially meet their spiritual needs.  God’s design is to bring all people to salvation, to living in his kingdom under his loving reign.

    Jesus began this process of reclaiming all to the kingdom when he came to earth to bring healing to all the broken and suffering.  He continued this through his death and resurrection and then passed on the task to his church, to his disciples, to you and to me.  It is a task of great importance.  It is also a task of great joy.  It is a task that gives us satisfaction.  It is a task that God has given to us that we might celebrate with him in the spreading of his kingdom, in the healing of those who are suffering.

    So, take God’s merciful kingdom and share with all you meet.  Share his love, spread his healing, and tell of his wondrous salvation.  God has revealed to us his plan; now let’s make it work.

Gracious Father, you have given us the task of calling the lost home.  Guide us by your Spirit to bring about the change that you desire.  Be with those who are suffering because of the pain of sin in this world.  Send your healing, use us to spread your wonderful kingdom.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret