6-24-2015

Good Morning All!!

            Psalm 121:1-2: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” 

      Most nights, I stay up late and watch the Western channel.  Most of the good ones are from the late 1930’s until early 1960’s.  The first good guy kisses the horse and rides off into the sunset and the second good guy gets the girl and the bad guys get what they deserve.  It doesn’t matter if it is John Wayne or Glen Ford or Audie Murphy or Lash LaRue (ask your dad or granddad); the basic story was the same in each genre of western movies.  I like the ones that are about the early cavalry riders and the settlement of the west.  One of the biggest impacts on the settling of the west was the introduction of the Sharp’s repeating rifle in the Civil War.  This allowed a mounted soldier to fire multiple shots without reloading.  There are many movies about how the army is trying to stop these repeating rifles from getting into the hands of renegade warriors or banditos or whomever.  At about the ¾ mark of the movie, we always have the good guys pinned down, under fire, in a box canyon, running out of water and ammunition.  One brave soul rides out to get help and just in the nick of time, usually the second good guy is wounded and about to die; you hear the faint sound of a trumpet and then the sound of horses running and then we see a cloud of dust and the cavalry has arrived!!  The bad guys are chased away and all is safe again.

    How many times in your life have you been waiting for the cavalry to arrive?  Most of us have had this experience.  We realize that events are out of our hands and out of our control.  Maybe it was when a loved one was severely ill.  Maybe it was when you looked outside to see it didn’t rain, again.  Maybe your employer is “downsizing” or “going a different direction” both of which means you are no longer working for them.  Then it seems that as one of these happens; other things pile on.  It isn’t raining and your landlord wants more rent.  You lose your job and the car quits running.  You spouse is ill and the insurance isn’t quite as good as promised.  There are times when it seems like we are pinned down, under fire, in a box canyon, running out of water, ammunition and hope.  We look around and where does our help come from?

    Our help comes from the Lord.  It doesn’t come from the cavalry rather it comes from Mt. Calvary.  Jesus supplies us with our needs.  It is at times like these that we best see that our salvation comes from outside of our lives.  It comes from God and is given to us because of his great love and mercy.  We never merit saving; we never deserve the cavalry; we never deserve Calvary but God delivers to us our salvation, our hope.  Situations here on earth and in our lives may change; we may work somewhere else next year.  We may no longer have a living spouse but we always have God’s promise of eternal life and the comfort of His love to surround us.  That is where our help comes from.  The God of grace and mercy provides.

Gracious Father, you save us from the evil of the devil even though we are not worthy of it.  For this we are forever grateful.  Lead us to always look only to you as our source of comfort and hope.  Lead us to lean on you.  Keep us safe and give us that peace that only You can provide and help us to share that peace with those around us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret