11-30-2014

Good Morning All,

        Deuteronomy 6:12; “be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

     I am tired of turkey.  It’s only been a couple of days but I am tired of turkey and stuffing and stuff.  We tried to send some home with the kids when they went home.  They didn’t take any food but everyone is home so it is calm again.  Thanksgiving is over and, unfortunately, I am glad.

    Doesn’t it seem like we feel like that more and more?  We look forward to a holiday and then we seem to want it over as soon as we can.  Sometimes this is because we try to do too much in a short amount of time and fail to relax and enjoy it.  I ate a month’s worth of turkey in 48 hours.  Sometimes we let the world define our expectations and we miss the truth of what we want.  Sometimes we lose sight of what we are truly celebrating.  Sometimes we just simply forget.

    That was a problem that the Israelites had; they were forgetful.  They forgot about all the wondrous things that God had done for them.  They forgot how God had preserved them and then saved them from slavery in Egypt and brought them out of Egypt by his gracious hand.  Yet soon, they forgot this miracle and only thought of their belly.  First it was no food and then it was food that wasn’t good enough.  They complained because they forgot about God and his gracious gifts to them.  They forgot about God’s blessings on their lives.

   We often do this as well.  We get so used to God’s gifts that we soon take them for granted and may even come to look upon them with a certain amount of disdain.  We forget the Lord, who brought us out of slavery, our slavery to sin, and thus bestowed upon us all the blessings we receive.  We miss the great truth about how God continually blesses us.

    For many of us, these blessings include the abundance of food, the joy of family, the fellowship of friends, the peace of the land.  These are a few blessings that we have but do we remember the Lord or do we assume that we, somehow, deserve everything we have.  For many of us, we have so much that we begin to despise some of the gifts.  We have an abundance of food so we despair about the exact food.  When my grandson got tired of turkey, he told his grandma, “I want sumpyelse.” When asked what he wanted, he didn’t know.  How often do we go to God and want “sumpyelse” and despise his gifts?

    Forget not the Lord.  Don’t ever forget God’s love for you; it is plainly displayed to us in the open and empty tomb of Christ.  Death could not hold him and it cannot hold us.  Don’t ever forget or take for granted this wonderful gift.  It is what we should truly be thankful for.

Father, too often I forget your grace in my life.  Forgive my sin and heal my heart.  Be with those who fail to see this is the one thing to always be thankful for as we have eternal life.  Continue to bless your people with your mercy; keep us safe in your loving arms.  Thank you for your grace.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret        

11-29-2014

Good Morning All,

         1 John 4:18; “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

        He was a cantankerous patient.  He growled at the nurses and the nurses’ aides who tried to help him.  He never said thank you or offered a smile or a kind response.  He seemed to be angry at everything.  One night, when he was particularly grumpy, an older aide asked him why he was so mad at everyone.  He stopped for a moment and while looking at the ceiling began to tell the aide his story.

    He told the aide that he wasn’t angry; he was frightened.  He was afraid of what the doctors would tell him.  He was afraid of losing his independence.  He had never depended on anyone for anything but now; he had no choice.  He was afraid and being afraid made it hard to be thankful, joyful or hopeful.  Fear was driving away his confidence; fear was making his life miserable.

    Fear is the devil’s favorite tool.  When we fear, we tend to become frozen in our vision.  We seem to only focus on how big the challenge ahead of us is and not on God’s grace.  Fear paralyzes us into inaction.  It drives us to emptiness and hollowness.  It deprives us of the confidence in the love that God pours upon us; it weakens our faith.  Fear causes us to deny our thankfulness and our willingness to see past the immediate and miss God’s perfect promise for our life.

    The only way for us to lose our fear is for the perfect love of God to drive it away.  We can never fight fear on our own.  We will never defeat fear on our own.  It is far stronger than we are.  If we are going to defeat fear we will need help; help from God.  His grace is poured out upon us freely because of Jesus and his all atoning sacrifice for us.  Because of Jesus’ victory, we have nothing to fear.   The devil can only taunt us but in the end we know that God and his mercy will prevail in the end.  Nothing can defeat God and his love for us.

    So as we face our fears, we can be confident that God has already defeated them.  We can trust that in Him we have complete victory; in Him we have the promise of our salvation.  When we grab hold of this truth, we can give thanks to God that this challenge or struggle that we face has already be conquered by his mercy.  We can know that each struggle will end in God’s loving arms.  We can rejoice in his grace and peace. 

Father of all mercy, when we stand on our own fear can overtake us.  Use your love to drive out our fear.  Strengthen our faith that we may stand tall and face our fears with the confidence of your love destroys fear.  Be with those who are struggling at this time.  Give them the strength to overcome their fears.  Show them your perfect peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

11-28-2014

Good Morning All,

          Philippians 1:3; “I thank my God every time I remember you.”

           “Give thanks with a grateful heart; give thanks unto the Holy One.”  Hopefully, yesterday you had some time to think about what you are truly thankful for.  While things and possessions tend to be the focus for many, these tend to be fickle and wax and wane throughout our life.  When we measure success or happiness in what we own or what we do, we soon find that these things possess us.  When this happens, we are no longer happy.  True happiness, true contentment is really only found in our relationships with others.

    Hopefully, yesterday found you being thankful for your spouse, for your children and your parents, for brothers and sisters and for a faith based family of believers with whom you can share God’s grace.  This last group is who Paul was referring to when he wrote our verse for today.  Whenever Paul considered the Christians at Philippi, he would smile and thank God for them.  They were people who prayed for Paul and his ministry, who gave him financial support when he needed it, who lived the life that Paul taught them and did so in an earnest yet humble fashion.  They witnessed their faith to those around them and the church grew while Paul was elsewhere.

    Hopefully, you have family and friends that you are truly thankful for but if that somehow seems lacking from your life, take heart.  This phrase that Paul wrote about his brothers and sisters in faith, Jesus says about you.  I thank God every time I remember you.  Every time Jesus prays for you, as he intercedes for you at the heavenly throne, he remembers you and he thanks God that you are one of his redeemed members.  Jesus is thankful for you and not just one day a year but every minute of every day.  His grace for us tells us this is true.

    So if the struggles of today are really weighing you down.  If the health of a loved one or the seemingly coolness from a loved one or even the death of a loved one leaves you feeling empty and as if there is little if anything to be thankful for you can take heart.  Even in your pain and sorrow, even in your longing for healing you are never alone or abandoned.  Even if the pain of events from the past seem to drag you down into fits of despair; you are not alone or abandoned.  Jesus is thankful for you and he desires to accompany you through ever battle, every pain, through every single hardship we face.

    It is not often that we can take comfort in the fact that someone is thankful for us but we can find complete solace in the truth that Jesus is thankful for us.  Through his death and resurrection we have a victory over death and the devil, freely given to us out of his love because he is thankful for us.  We can all be thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ because Christ is first thankful for us.  Trust in his mercy to see you through.

Father in heaven, I thank you for the many who see this message and hear your words of comfort in them.  Give to them the certainty of your grace.  Enrich their spirits with your ever abiding peace.  Keep them in your loving arms and give to them the confidence to know that they are your redeemed and beloved.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

11-27-2014

Good Morning All,

         2 Corinthians 9: 15; “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

       As many of us will spend the day in a tryptophan induced comatose nap, we may even take time out to be thankful.  We look around and think of things to be thankful for; things like health, family, friends, job, house and many things like this.  We tend to focus on the material goods.  Even when we look at our family or our own health, we tend to focus on how it aids us in our own existence.  The American view of Thanksgiving continues to be about stuff; stuff that benefits me and makes my life more comfortable and satisfying.  This is not exactly the biblical view.

     Within the Bible, thanks to God is tied entirely to the worship and praise of God.  We give thanks to God for all that he does for us.  We do this best by praising his name.  We do this best by remembering that, all that we have; is a gift which we do not deserve.  At no point in our life have we ever done anything that would merit even the smallest of God’s blessings. 

    This is what makes what God does for us so incredible.  We have no worthiness or merit.  We really have no great value.  We only receive what we receive because God loves us.  God loves us with the purest form of fatherly love.  This love brings to us life, hope and salvation and while we can point to the many earthly blessings that we receive there is an even greater blessing that we often do not recognize.  God has freed us from the slavery to sin and the devil.  We are no longer just a plaything for the devil’s amusement.  God has brought us into his marvelous kingdom.

    The devil may taunt and tempt but he no longer possesses you as a master owns a slave.  We are no longer a whipping boy for the devil’s amusement.  We are God’s redeemed children, free from the devil’s cruel reign.  For this great gift we should give ceaseless praise and thanks to God for only God could accomplish this for us.  We could never reject the devil on our own.  It is only by God’s amazing love that we are part of God’s holy family and by being part of God’s holy family; we are given the inheritance of heaven.

    The most inexpressible gift from God; being made a child of his holy family, an heir of the eternal kingdom, saved from the devil are what we should give thanks for every day.  This is what the biblical view of thanks really is.  We need to remember that God’s gift for us goes far beyond this earthly life or existence.  God’s gift for us is beyond anything we can measure.

    So as we take time today to give thanks; remember to give thanks for our great gift- the gift of salvation.  This singular and wonderful gift is ours today and forever.  We live entirely in God’s grace.

Father, we give thanks for your inexpressible gift.  We thank you for our salvation and preservation. We praise you for your great love.  Help us to remember your incredible mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret