1-31-2016

Good Morning All!!   

         Luke 10:18; “And he (Jesus) said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”.

      Satan falling like lightning from heaven; what an image that creates.  In fact that is something that I would like to see.  Here lies one of our biggest challenges; we want to filter everything in our lives through our human reason, logic and senses.  We want to bring God and all his power and majesty, His mercy and blessings down to our level.  We want it to make sense to me.

     God, in His love and mercy, brings us up to His level.  We may not see this happen with our human eyes but we can see it with our eyes of faith.  This is what Paul was talking about in Ephesians when he spoke of “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened” (Eph. 1:18).  But we are weak and sinful so we keep slipping back to the old level.  Yet God keeps pulling us up with His Word and with His sacraments.  God’s grace pulls us up and it drives the devil insane!!  God loves you and when Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins; then rose again to seal the deal; Satan lost.  He no longer has the control he once had.  We experience God’s miracle every day.  Every time God forgives our sins, Satan falls like lightning and through faith; we see it.  We see it in the bread and the wine; we see in the water connected to the Word.  With every single Baptism, we see Satan fall from the sky.  With each penitent sinner, who clings to the cross of Christ as his only hope; we see Satan fall from the sky. 

   We see by faith, we live by faith.  Faith leads us to trust in God’s promise to us. Faith leads us to rely on our Savior’s active mercy that redeems us and keeps us in the fold.  When Satan appears to us in the lies and deceptions of this world; he shines bright and looms large when we take him on by ourselves but he falls like lightning with one little word-“Jesus.”  When we speak Jesus by faith, when we seek Jesus by faith, when we cling to his mercy by faith we see Satan fall from the sky.

    So cling to the cross.  Hold tight to God’s incredible and undeniable love for you; freely given to you out of love beyond estimation.  With each penitent heart, with each baptized soul, with each Eucharistic meal to nourish our spirit and renew our faith; we see Satan fall from the sky.  Thanks be to God for this gift.

     Gracious Father, by the waters of Baptism You claim us as Your children and give to us the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and you free us from Satan and his bondage.  Lead me to see You with the opened eyes of faith that we may see Satan fall and walk closer to You.  Feed me and nourish me that I may ever know your peace.  Be with those who are struggling with sin.  Give them strength and comfort.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

1-30-2016

 Good Morning All!!   

        Hebrews 4:16; “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

   I remember a discussion with a mother of a teen-aged girl.  The girl was a “free spirit” or maybe a “wild child” or something along that line of thinking.  She tested her parents greatly.  Once her mother joked that the other two didn’t give me any gray hair but this one has me pulling it out.  Yet in a quiet conversation the mother meekly asked, “Will she make it to heaven?”  “She seems so out of control; I gave my mom fits but not like this; I worry about her a lot.  The other two will make it but I worry about her.”

   A mom who worries; not exactly a unique experience.  Even dads worry; about their family, their income, their college choices, their friends; parents worry about their children.  Then sometimes, these folks get to be part of the “Oreo” generation.  These are the people who are now the caregivers for their children or grandchildren and their parents.  They worry about multi-generations with different problems, different expectations but worry and concern flows freely in their lives and in their thoughts.  Worry can cause stress which can wield its ugly head in our behavior and attitude toward those around us.  People in this situation often feel the weight of the world crushing them down.  They see little light and not much hope.

   Our verse addresses this.  We are a people of hope.  We have hope because of God and what he has done.  Our hope does not depend on our own merits or value.  Our true hope rests entirely on God, his promises, his love, and his actions.  Christ is our merit; he is the one who has completed what the Law requires.  He is the one who has satisfied the need.  Because of what Jesus has done, his death and resurrection, the throne room of God is open.  You and I can go to the very throne of God and seek his mercy; seek the assurance that everything is safely in God’s loving arms.  We can and should always find our comfort in the truth that God’s love has overcome the world and its troubles and pain.

   So God calls us to come to Him and to bring all of our fears and worries to him and he will give us the strength to trust in his wonderful promises. We can have comfort in the certainty of the hope we have.  We have access to God at any time we need or what.  We can come to him seeking his grace to bring healing to our souls and peace to our heart in any sorrow, need or fear.  God hears our cry and gives us peace.

Gracious Father, because of Jesus we have the certainty of comfort in you.  We know the peace that you give us.  We can come to you and seek your grace knowing that you will freely give us your love and grace.  Even before we ask you are sending your Spirit to comfort us and to sustain us through all of our struggles.  Be with those who are especially in need of your mercy.  Heal them and give them the certainty of your love.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

1-29-2016

        Good Morning All!!   

        Acts 15:11; “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

    A few years ago, George Strait sang a song entitled “A Father’s Love.”  It relays the trials of raising a son form the father’s perspective.  It offers, what I think, is all too common of a thought later in the song.  He sings:

Last night I dreamed I’d died and stood outside those pearly gates
When suddenly I realized there must be some mistake
If they know half the stuff I done they’ll never let me in
Then somewhere from the other side I heard these words again

The chorus tells of a father’s love is a love without end.  This is such a true statement of our faith yet we often miss it.

    In one of our Bible studies at our church, we are looking at Martin Luther.  The one thing about Martin Luther that always fascinates me is that Martin Luther was convinced he was not good enough to go to heaven.  He tormented himself day and night agonizing over his sins.  He agonized partly because the Church at this time taught that any unrepented sin would keep you out of heaven.  So Luther agonized not only over the things that he had done but he also everything that he failed to do.  Luther knew that sinning was doing wrong but also failing to do what was right.  So to lie about your brother is a sin but it is also a sin to fail to give your brother a dollar if he needs it.  Yet what if giving him a dollar wasn’t enough, maybe it should have been $5.00.

   Many people feel completely unworthy of getting into heaven.  They look at what they have done and maybe even the good things they failed to do and had the same sinking feeling of our song “if they know half the stuff I done they’ll never let me in.”  This feeling is actually accurate; if you look at all you have done; you will never get into heaven.  Luther recognized that the Law says “Do this”, and it never gets done.

   Yet the Scriptures reveal to us a whole greater truth.  We are not saved by what we do.  We do not get into heaven because of what we do; we enter into heaven and into the wondrous loving presence of God because of God’s love, his grace that is poured out upon us.  Grace says, “Believe in this” and everything is already done.  We will never complete the Law; yet by God’s grace we are brought into God’s holy family and we receive all the benefits that all the heirs receive.  We receive eternal life, we receive the comfort of his love and mercy and the peace of mind that we have in the hope of God’s grace. 

Father, nothing I do will earn me heaven; I rely only on your grace.  Keep me in your loving arms.  Keep me aware of the love that you pour out upon us.  Guard us as we go.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

1-28-2016

Good Morning All!!   

      1 Corinthians 13:7; “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

    Many youngsters, at one time or another, think of running away.  When they are younger, it is to run away from punishment.  When they get a little older, it may be to resolve issues with parents or school.  Maybe they think that the rules are too strict or that they are deserving of more trust and freedom.  As they get older, it can be more and more serious.  It can be the stress of classes.  It can be the stresses of friendships or lack of friends.  It might be the strain between friends who have and friends who are.

    Running away is often our answer in life.  Sometimes it is our answer to life.  We think we get away from the problems.  Somehow, the problems won’t find us; the problems will just disappear.  Yet, as the old saying goes, you can run but you cannot hide.

    Adam and Eve tried to run.  They tried to run from God and to hide their sin.  When God “found” them; they tried to run from the responsibility of what they had done. The really sad thing is that by running away from God, they were running away from their only hope.

    When a child is little and runs away, a parent has two choices; to wait them out or to go looking for them.  As children get older, we usually have to go looking for them.  As parents, we never stop loving them; we never give up.  There may be times when our children do things which we can almost not bear but we still love them.  We may not approve of what they said or did but we still love them.  A child can never truly run away from the love of a parent.  The child may think so but the parent never does.  The parent will always be looking for the child trying to get them back.  Parents never really give up on their children.  The love of the parent endures.

    God is our heavenly father; he will never stop looking for you.  He will never stop loving you.  God’s love endures all things.  He wants to keep us in the family and he wants us to be happy.  It is kind of strange that we often spend all of our time complicating the Bible.  It is really simple.  God wants to deliver us from evil; to save us from the wretched power of the devil.  He wants us to live as a community of people who serve him and love him.  He wants us to be a community of people who communicate with him and he wants us to have the good life.  All this, out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy; all this out of love, God loves us.  Instead of running away; run to him.  God desires our love and our faithfulness.  He desires this more than our obedience.  God’s love endures and he wants ours in return.

Father of love, we glorify your name for all the blessings which you give to us.  We are especially thankful for the gift of redemption for the gift of your love.  Move us to share this love with those around us and to bring all the runners home.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

1-27-2016

  Good Morning All!!   

      Exodus 22:17b; “And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.”

     One of the hardest parts to being a parent is when your children are very young, too young to speak and communicate, and they are sick or hurt.  They cry and cry but you just can’t figure out how to console them.  Are they hungry?  Are they over tired?  Do they have a stomachache?  It is painful to watch this as a parent; you want to fix the problem but you don’t know how to fix it.

    As children grow and become adults, they still experience pain.  Some of it is physical, some emotional.  One of the hardest parts of being that parent or a friend to someone like that is that you can see their pain; you know it is there but if they don’t express it or can’t express it; you feel just like that infant’s parent.  You want to fix the problem but you don’t know what is wrong.  Are they having health issues?  Are the under stress at work?  Do they feel unloved by their friends?  Has their spouse hurt them in some way?  How do we fix it?

    One of the greatest evils which have befallen the world is pain.  Not physical pain as much as emotional and spiritual pain.  We see it everywhere.  Just look at any bookstore or on Amazon and you see a myriad of self-help books on everything from dieting to surviving a divorce to surviving the loss of a child.  Now you may be able to read how to lose weight and actually have it work but I don’t know about reading how to cope with the death of a child.  Yet this points to a huge problem for us; too many people think that everything we deal with has to be internal.  We show little emotion and we express it even less.  The British use the phrase “stiff upper lip” and for many in this country this is true as well.

     This is part of the reason that we have trouble understanding the tradition of sackcloth and using ashes and wailing in public like we read about in the Bible.  This is such a public outpouring that we see it almost as unfit and improper.  Yet they are expressing their pain to all around.  Now I am not advocating that you do this but at least express your fear or pain to someone.  It can be a neighbor or a friend.  It can be your pastor or a counselor but above all cry out to the Lord.

    God has made a great promise to us his people.  The first and foremost is the promise of redemption from sin.  Yet the next is of great value as well.  He has promised to be our God, our “hands on” God.  He has promised to listen to our cries and to answer them.  He will listen but we must cry.  This can be an actual physical cry or it can be an emotional cry from the heart but God will hear and answer you.  It may not be the answer we think we want at that time but God’s will is always best for us.  So cry out to God; He will hear you and answer because he has compassion.  His love for you knows no bounds.

Dear Father, we often suffer in silence when you tell us to pray and to call upon you.  Give us the wisdom to see you as our loving Father, as our “hands on God”.  Help us to see your tender mercy when we need it most.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen        

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret