8-25-2026

Good Morning!

     Galatians 2:20; “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

        I always remember the line about how “there is no such thing as bad press.”  This usually pertains to entertainers and to the idea that as long as your name is in front of the people, as long as they think about you, then you are still famous.  The public may hear that you were picked up for drunk driving but at least you are still in the public eye.  This is especially true for the not so famous anymore who grasp for past glory.  “No such thing as bad press.”

     You and I may scoff and snicker at that but to a certain extent we are the same way.  We like people to think that we are important.  We like for people to seek us out and “need” us.  We may even harken back to previous experiences to remind people that we are important.  This is partly why people refer back to “scoring the winning point in a crucial game in high school” when they are 40 or 50 years old.  It is why people refer back to a time when they were on a board or served on some committee a few years back; we want people to think we are important and that we matter and that our opinion matters as well.

    We may even shape our relationships around the idea that we are important.  We may attempt to control relationships in this fashion.  When someone threatens to “leave” a friendship or other relationship unless their “needs” are met; they are saying to the world, “I am the important one here.”  These relationships are often toxic and seldom last very long; for when we take the attitude that any relationship is about “me first;” that relationship will suffer greatly.

    Here we need to see that a truly successful relationship has both parties “crucifying” the old selfish self and being reborn, through Baptism, as the new creation that is in Christ.  We see our relationships as Christ does and that is to look to love, to comfort, to aid others more than self.  We live, not to feed the selfish nature, but to be in Christ holy presence and to be Christ to the world; to be his hands and arms, to be his voice and his ear, to be his shoulder and arms.  We are to be the personification of Christ to the world.  We are to place Jesus first in all of our doings, in all of our actions, in all of our relationships.

    So, as we go forward, let us remember that we have crucified the “old me;” we have drowned the me that demands to be first and God has given birth to the new me which is filled with the desire to serve Christ and him alone.  It is not “me first” but “Jesus first.”  

Father of love and mercy, in you we have hope.  Lead me to see that the old me is crucified and that the new me is in Christ’s image and in his Spirit.  Lead me to love and not demand.  Lead me to love and not require others to serve me.  Lead me to be your servant by serving the needs of others.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-24-2026

 Good Morning!

     Deuteronomy 31:8; “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

   One of the worst experiences for us as humans is to feel all alone.  Many of our popular songs in some way or form lament about being alone.  It might be a country song or an old rock song, a folk song, or a new modern song.  We worry about being alone.  For many, this is a great fear and anxiety; they fear ending up alone.  I know that numerous times I have spoken to older couples and each party wants to be the first to die.  It is not that they seek death but they would rather die than live alone.  It is difficult for us to live alone.

    We, as humans, are really social and gregarious creatures.  We seek companionship and fellowship.  It is how we were created.  God made man and then made woman so that they would have companionship together.  They would love together and, together, this bond would be the basic bond or building block for our society and civilization.  The need for this bond is what drives men and women to seek companionship, to be inclusive in our gatherings, and to look after those around us.  We seek companionship, love, acceptance, being valued and treasured.  These are all part of what it means to be human; to be the creatures that God created us to be.

     It is also one of our weaknesses that the devil and our sinful nature attempt to attack and exploit.  It usually occurs in tandem with another stressful or painful event in our life.  We may have lost a spouse and suddenly we feel completely alone.  We may have lost a job or some other form of income and we are no longer able to be in our group of friends and now we are on the outside looking in and we feel alone.  We may have health issues which separate from the life we had and now we feel alone.  We feel we are facing the illness alone; we are facing a change in our life alone; we are facing each day without that person who has always been there and now we are alone.

    The devil takes stressful events, whispers in our ear, feeds our doubts and our uncertainties and with a practiced voice and meter begins to try and separate you from God.  He tries to lead you away from God’s family.  He fills your head with lies and your heart with anxiety.  He tells you that you are all alone and you fear and anxieties mount.  The lie is false; you are not alone God is with you but the anxiety and the fear are real; you feel the pain.

    So, keep your eyes focused on God; he will not abandon you.  He will comfort you and he will use those around you to do so.  Seek them out; they will not abandon you.  God’s Spirit will move them to you.  Experience God’s grace; know that his love for you knows no bounds.  He will never abandon you or leave you alone.  When that fear or anxiety strikes, turn it over to God and he will restore you.

Father of all goodness; keep me in your loving arms.  Hold me tightly to your chest so that I may never know the pain of loneliness.  And when the devil lies to me, give me the reassurance of your loving grace.  Send to me you Spirit to keep me comforted. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

8-23-2026

Good Morning!

     Galatians 4:5; “to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

      I remember watching a movie a few years back that was about the gangsters of the 1930’s.   It had these three men rob a bank.  Over the next few years, they ran and ran but everywhere they went; pretty soon a policeman from the town that had the bank that they robbed would show up and they would have to run again and again.  Eventually, at the end of the movie, there was the big shoot out scene and one of the brothers is killed and the other two are wounded but arrested.  As they are hauled away in the police car a narrator voice that sounded like a cross between Broderick Crawford and William Conrad said, “You can’t outrun the long arm of the law.”

    That phrase, “the long arm of the law” is really very old.  It goes back into the 1500’s and originally referred to the king’s ability to collect his taxes.  There was no place to hide from the long arm (or hands) of the king.  It later changed to the law in the United States.  It simply refers to the idea that you cannot get away with anything.  The law will always be after you and you will never have any peace.  You can run all you want but eventually you will get caught.

    This saying refers to using fear to accomplish its goal. The goal of this saying is to maintain order and to keep the law.  It uses fear and guilt to keep you obeying the law.  We are afraid of the punishment so we behave as desired.  In many ways, we can see the law of God the same way.  It has long arms as well.

     We may think that there are times or places where we can live away from God’s law but there truly isn’t.   Late at night, when no one is watching or even when we are completely alone in our thoughts, whenever and wherever sins creep or leap into our life the long arm of the law will be there.  It will be there to point out our faults and our sin.   It will be there as the weight for us to carry as we soon see our weaknesses and the distance between who we are and who we should be. 

     The wonder of God’s Gospel is that it has even longer arms than the law.  God’s Gospel message of forgiveness because of Jesus reaches for us no matter how great a depth or distance away from God that we feel we are; God’s love reaches us with his merciful words of forgiveness.  No matter how guilty we feel because of the law; God’s grace reaches farther and wraps us in his loving embrace to comfort and to forgive you and to bring you home.

Father of all love and mercy, when I feel beaten down by the law and my guilt and pain are great, you are there to give me the comfort of your love given to me through Jesus.  Lead me to see that your love changes my heart and my life.  Help me to change into the person that you desire me to be.  Help me to see that life in harmony with you rather than opposed to you brings peace and contentment to my life.  Open my eyes, dear Father.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

8-22-2026

Good Morning!

              Ecclesiastes 12:13; “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.^”   

         So, what are we supposed to do?  This is a question that gets asked often.  Sometimes it is asked when a group of people get together to help a neighbor who is sick.  They gather together to do a needed task; it might be a group of farmers to plant or harvest; it might be a group who gathers to paint a house or fix windows.  It is just a group of people who gather together to help someone else out.  Sometimes these events are spontaneously planned.   Everyone shows up at an agreed upon time and date.  Everyone looks around and then ask, “What are we supposed to do?”  Eventually, things get worked out and the action gets done.

    So, what do I do?  We may ask that in regard to our faith as well.  One day, we suddenly hear God’s Word.  We can hear his words of forgiveness as the exact thing we need to hear.  We may even feel as though a weight has been lifted from our shoulders.  Our sinful desire has been replaced with the desire of God’s Spirit.  Now what do we do?  Some think they have this long list of actions to perform.  Some think that payment is required.  Some think they are now required to behave a certain way or talk a certain way or change into someone they are not.  They think that “thees” and “thous” are the new norm. 

     The truth for many of us is that our life may not seem that much different.  We will have the same job, the same friends, the same family.  We will still owe on our credit cards and house payments.  On the outside, it may not seem like much change but on the inside we change.  We may still do much of the same things in life but we have a different motive and a different purpose.  Our desire is to love God and to live that love and to show that love.  Our newfound purpose is simple; fear God and keep his commandments. 

    We fear God by respecting Him and giving him and his name honor.  We do this by keeping his name holy, separate from the lowly uses.  We do not cheapen it with a carelessness in the specialness of his name but rather we cherish it for what it is, the name of the One who brings us hope, healing, comfort, and peace.  We keep his commandments by doing his will which is to show love and compassion on those around us; by showing this love and compassion to those who are hurting and in need.  We do this because of his great love for us; we do it as a form of thank you to God.  That is all we really do; we say thank you to God for all he does for us.  We show our thanks by how we live and how we deal with others.

Father, your love for us is beyond our measure or understanding.  Help me to show my thanks for your precious gift of salvation.  Help me to experience the joy of your healing and to share that great joy with those that you have placed on my journey that I may share your love with them.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

8-21-2026

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.”

          The righteous shall live by faith; we hear that throughout the world in some way, shape or form.  We are told by many people, “just have faith.”  Maybe you have heard, “keep the faith.”  We hear all the time that faith has sustained me.  Maybe you have even heard the phrase, “you got to believe.”   We hear that a lot when a basketball team or a football team is way behind in the game and then they come up and win the ball game.  Many times, we can hear someone yell in the background, “you got to believe.”   But did you ever stop to think what that phrase really means?

    Unfortunately, in our world today, not many people really do know what this phrase means.  To many, it means just believing; it doesn’t really have any purpose.  It means that you just have to believe in something.  It might be luck that you believe in; it might be the way a cat walks down the road.  Many people do not think that it makes what you believe in as long as you believe in something.  This type of thought puts all of the power of faith in the believer’s hands or head.  It places the result on the skill, competence, endurance or will of the person who has the faith.  It places the object of the faith in the wrong direction.

    Faith, true faith, places its trust in something or someone outside of the person with faith.  You may have faith in your parents, your spouse, your boss or even in your pastor.  You may place your faith here but, down the road, at some time those people will fail you and let you down.  So will any earthly or human being, plan, or construct.  Just like the hymn says, “when every earthly prop gives way” and it will.  If we place our faith in the wrong thing or person, our faith will fail because the one in whom we placed our faith has failed.

    This is why our only true hope is God.  He is the only one who has never failed to keep his promises.  God alone has shown that when we have faith in him, when we embrace his love, mercy, and promise, we will never fall short.  We will never fall short because God will never fall short.  Our faith depends entirely on God and his grace.  It is not our power or might or will but it is the loving mercy of God our holy Father.  God alone is our hope and salvation; in him and only him will our faith rest assured.

Father of all hope, in you we place our trust and our hope.  In you we never fail for your Word is true.  Keep us safe in your wonder care.  Defend us from the attacks of the devil so that we may lead a peaceful and content life.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret              

8-20-2026

Good Morning!

     Gen. 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

    There are a handful of verses from the Bible that most people, who any biblical knowledge at all, can quote from memory.  This is one of those verses.  Yet it is one of the most ignored verses in the Bible.  In the first verse of the entire Bible, we see what our relationship with God should be.  God is the creator and we are the created; we are the creatures that fit into the creation.  Yet most people are truly offended if you tell them this.  Try and tell someone who is commenting on how great mankind is and how we can do anything if we just put our mind to it.  Tell them that we are creatures in God’s creation but in this simple verse, 10 words long, that is exactly what we declare.

    Now it is true that God created humans with a special purpose, to care for creation and to serve God, and given something that the animals do not have, a living soul, God created us to be the “image-bearers” for him here on earth.  Humans were supposed to tend the creation, to have dominion over it, and to be in worshipful fellowship with God.  But man couldn’t live with this.  Remember what the serpent told Eve, “you will be like God” so Eve ate and Adam did too.  Sin entered the world because Adam and Eve were not happy being the creature; they wanted to be like the creator.  All sin reflects back to this verse.  The First Commandment springs from this verse.  Why should we have no other gods before Him?  Because He is the Creator God who made everything out of nothing.  All sin is a sin against the First Commandment. 

    In the Book of Revelations, there is a description of the Throne of God.  As you and I go through life, our struggle with the devil is who is sitting on that throne?  Do I see God on that throne or do I place myself on that throne?  Do I see God as the Sovereign God who rules over all He has created, or do I have a “different” theory.  In essence, we are rejecting our own human creaturely status and have lost everything.

    God, in His mercy, sent Jesus to die to reconcile us back to Him.  God continually calls us back to Himself, out of love, to return to our true nature to be the “image-bearer” in this world.  Since sin is still prevalent, God calls His Church to be partners or helpers in this reconciliation process.  He empowers us through the Holy Spirit to again be the “image-bearer” for Him in this broken world.  We continually fall short but God continues to call.  This cycle or rhythm is what some call worship.  God calls us and pronounces us forgiven; we rejoice in His forgiveness and go forth only to fall short again.  We repeat this cycle until the Lord returns.  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” He is the creator and we are the creature.  It really is that simple. 

O Holy Creator God, we, your poor creatures, continually fail to serve You as we should.  We ask for Your mercy.  We celebrate because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice; we know we are forgiven.  Lead us, empower us, and give us the will to serve as your “image-bearer” to a world of pain and suffering.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-19-2026

Good Morning!

     John 10:29; “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

     One of the most famous sermons ever given in American history was given by a man by the name of Jonathan Edwards.  In 1741, during one of the Great Awakening revivals, he gave a sermon entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  The general theme was that God was as angry at the living wicked as He was at those who were in torment in hell.  At any time, God could allow Satan to take anyone who deserved to go to hell and God was holding them in his hands and he is angry.  The unrepentant were on a slippery slope held up only by the arbitrary, sovereign nature of God; they were sinners in the hands of an angry God.

    Yikes!!  The reaction was one of great fear.  Many cried and cried out “what shall I do to be saved?”  There is not a lot of hope or comfort there.  This sermon pretty much defines fire and brimstone preaching.  The theory was to scare the worshiper into straightening up.  I don’t know if it worked or not, I would kind of doubt it.

     God’s actions in the Bible do not show an angry God.  God wants all to be saved and cries for the lost.  The fact that God sent his son, his only son to die, all alone, on a cross so that you and I might have eternal life doesn’t look like an angry God.  That looks like a God that really loves you.  This is why John, in his epistles, stresses God’s love.  This is what it means when we say this is how we know God loves us for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  This is what pure love looks like.  God didn’t wait for us to show any remorse or any type of reconciliation we were and are incapable of doing this.  We don’t meet God halfway.  God comes all the way to where you are and lifts you up, washes you off, feeds you and clothes you and gives you the promise of eternal life.  This is the hope that we have.  We look to and forward to what God is doing.  He is molding us into the disciples that he wants us to be and leading us down the journey that he has laid out for us.  All the while God holds us in his hands.  There are times when we feel like we are in the hands of an angry God but in truth, an angry God would just let us fall, all alone and never give us hope of getting back up.  Yet time after time, we sin and God picks us up and cleans us off and gently takes our hand and leads us on our path.  God holds us in his hands with all the love that we will ever need and guards us with His mercy and grace.  So, we are not sinners in the hands of an angry God.  We are sainted sinners held gently yet firmly in the hands of our heavenly Father protected from all the devil will throw at us.  Rest secure in God’s grace. 

Eternal and loving God, by your grace we are kept safe.  We pray for all of our brothers and sisters who do not feel the security which you give us.  Wrap them with your Spirit of comfort and peace and give them the true sense of your love for hem in their lives.  All this we ask in Jesus’ precious name, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret