8-3-2014

Good Morning All,

          Psalm 146:8; “the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.  The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.”

    His name is Mitch Williams; they called him “The Wild Thing”.  He was a pitcher in major league baseball.  He was well known for throwing the baseball very hard but very wild.  His manager, when he put Mitch into pitch, would cover his face with a towel so he wouldn’t have to watch.  Sometimes the manager would even leave the ball field so he wouldn’t even have to listen to the game as Mitch pitched.  For whatever reason, the manager felt better being blind to his pitcher’s pitching.

    Sometimes in life, it is difficult when we can’t see.  We go through life with a towel over our eyes.  The problem is that the towel only covers the good in our life and we only know and experience the bad.  The devil and the world only want us to know the pain and the sorrow.  They want us to only realize the “agony of defeat”.   They want us to carry the weight of our entire life on our shoulders.  We are burdened and bowed down by past failures, pains and sadness.  We suffer greatly under the towel that the devil has over us because of sin.

    Sin will blind us so that all we know is the pain of failed relationships or financial setbacks or the death of a family member or friend.  Sin will bow us down with the weight of guilt, anger and sadness.  It will attempt to isolate us from those who can help us heal; it attempts to isolate us from God.

    Yet God is stronger than sin.  God has redeemed us from sin.  He has bought us back and removed the towel so that we can see.  We can see the certainty of the hope that he gives us.  He gives to us the ability to trust in his promise of eternal life with him in total perfection.  He removes the guilt and the pain of sin; he removes the weight that bows us down so that we can stand up.  We can stand straight before him because he has given to us the righteousness of Jesus.  Because of Christ, we are righteous before God.

   The events of this life can and often are painful.  Sadness and pain are the two main components in a sinful and broken creation.  Yet events and circumstances do no define who you are.  You are God’s beloved child, cleansed by the blood of Jesus and given the promise of always being that in your Baptism.  This is who you are.  You are not a loser or a failure.  You are a child of God.  You may have health problems or problems in your marriage.  You may have done some things in the past that cause you pain today but they do not define who you are:

God defines who you are and you are his child.  This is the truth that the devil tries to hide from you with his towel but God removes the towel and throws it far away so you can see the brightness of his mercy and feel the warmth of his grace.

Father, you open our eyes to your great mercy.  You lift off the weight of sin in our lives.  Keep us safe from the devil’s towels.  Help us to keep our eyes fixed upon you and your mercy.  Guard us by your grace.  Be with those who are still feeling burdened by sin.  Open their eyes to your grace and truth.  Give them the peace that the world cannot and will not give.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret