3-31-2018

Good Morning All,

          Psalm 107: 1, 4-6; “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!  Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.  Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.”   (I would encourage you to read the entire Psalm.)

    Have you ever watched movies or even documentaries about people who wander the desert?  There is always a sense of doom and being lost.  There is very little hope.  You wonder what they think or feel.  In the news this past week, there was an article about how it appears that the colonists at Jamestown may have resorted to cannibalism to survive.  How far gone are you when you think cannibalism is the right choice?  How desperate are you?

    I would imagine that at that point; there would be complete despondency.  It could be your child or spouse or parent that you eat in order to survive.  You would feel completely lost and totally on your own. 

    There were times when the Israelites felt like this, especially when they were being marched to Babylon and while they lived in captivity in Babylon.  They wandered about as a people without a land, as a people without a city, as a people without a God.  Then, when they were at the total bottom, God rescued them and brought them home.  He gathered the faithful remnant and brought them home.  God delivered them from their sorrow.  God delivered them from their pain.  He delivered them from their distress.  He led them to their city where they no longer hungered or thirst.  He made them safe and he tended to their needs.  The people cried out to the Lord; he heard and answered by delivering them from their distress.

    The LORD does this for us.  Remember this is the name for God when he gets his hands dirty in our lives; when he reaches out to us and brings us into his precious care.  We wander through the wasteland of sin.  We have no hope, no future; nothing to bring us relief.  Our sinful condition leaves us to cannibalize those around us.  We use and abuse them to our own selfish wants and desires.  If they are weaker; we push them down.  If they are bigger; we gang up.  If they have something we want; we take it.  All our actions are geared to one level and that is to me, for me; I don’t care about you.   Our life is pain because we are both the victims as well as the victimizers.       

    God brings us out of this.  Through our redemption through the cross of Calvary, we are led out of the wasteland.  We are led back to the land flowing with milk and honey.  We are given the spiritual food we need to support this body and life.  We have a city to defend us and to call our home.  It starts as the Church but ends as heaven.  So we can cry out to the LORD for he will deliver us just as he always has.

Dearest Father, we cry to you and you hear us. You lead us from the wasteland of sin into your marvelous light.  Guide us and guard us.  Lead us in faith to you.  Use us to be your hands and your voice.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-30-2018

 Good Morning All,

      Galatians 6:2; “Help carry each other’s burdens. In this way you will follow Christ’s teachings.”  (GWT)

    One of the saddest things I hear from people is when they ask, “Why would God ever want me; why would he love me?”  The real simple answer is that God loves you dearly; that is his nature.  But why does he want you?  I think the reason may amaze some of you.

    When I went to college, we had to take 3 math or science classes.  One of the classes was Introduction to Math.  Most on campus called it “Bonehead Math”.  It was the most basic math available.  One of the chapters was on using a calculator and what the symbols mean.  This was as elemental as it got.  The amazing thing to me was that some in the class found it difficult but at that time; you only needed a couple of math classes to graduate high school and some took that route.

     The only thing more ironic than the people who took this class was the man who taught the class.  He was a scraggly looking guy that was teaching his first class at Northern; the year before he taught at the Naval Nuclear Propulsion School.  To say that he was brilliant at math would be a grievous understatement.  Yet there was the rub.  He would explain everything as simply and concisely as he possibly could.  Yet it was completely over the heads of many of the students.  He simply could not relate to the people in the desks.  There was no way he could connect with the students.  He did try; he tried as hard as a man could but it just didn’t happen.  Most of the teaching came from student to student not teacher to student.

    This is part of the reason that God wants you.  He loves you deeply; that is why he chose to redeem you.  But then He gives to his Church, you and me, the task of continuing to bring lost people to Christ and to help carry the burdens.  Yet who does this the best?  It is Christians who have experienced the pain of life.  We have discussed this at a couple of Bible Studies that we have at church.  I do my best; I listen, I study and I do my utmost diligence but unless a person experiences life; it is hard to really be completely compassionate. 

    For example, I have never had a spouse or a child die.  I have never experienced that loss.  I can offer God’s comfort and the comfort of the Church but the person who can best help that grieving person is someone who has felt that loss.  I don’t know the struggles of addiction but I pray with and for those who do.  Yet that burden is shared best by someone who can look into that person’s eye and say, “I know what you are going through.”    This is why God wants you.  You have lived it; you know the burden it causes and you know the comfort that God gave you.  This makes you the best candidate to bear one another’s burdens.  It is not the high and mighty but the lowly and the wounded who can best carry out Christ’s work of bearing with one another.

Dearest Father, you give us life and bring us out of the pit of sinful despair.  Use us, Father to pull others out of the pit as well.  Give us the courage to reach out and the willingness to share your love with those in need of it most.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret        

3-29-2018

Good Morning All,

           Ephesians 2:22; “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” 

    One of the mysteries of literature is that some of the greatest stories ever written were written by men while they were in prison.  Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn did the bulk of their writing while in prison.  Even John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.  Then there is Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.  Some of the most powerful messages ever given, some of the most important classics were written while in prison.

    Some of the greatest books of the Bible were written while the writer was in jail.  The apostle Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Philemon, Titus and 1 and 2 Timothy while imprisoned in Rome.  John was basically in prison on the island of Patmos when he wrote The Book of Revelation.  The thing about that that is truly amazing is that some of Paul’s most powerful words of hope are written while he was imprisoned.  This adds a wondrous effect when we read some of Paul’s writing of the joy that he feels as he suffers for Christ.  Remember, he did really suffer; prison wasn’t some country club it was dark, dank, and filthy with poor food, poor water and poorer sanitation.  Yet he rejoiced, not at the situation he was currently in, but in the certainty that he was redeemed. 

    All that hope and joy written while you are in prison; the later ones as he knew his execution was approaching.  Yet all he had was joy and peace knowing that God was taking care of him.  We should experience that same comfort and joy.  For just as Paul was sure of God’s love; sure of his salvation and sure of God’s comfort and companionship has he faced his struggle and ordeal.

    We too face ordeals and struggles.  Yet we can be confident that God is truly with us and that he will never abandon us.  God has built you into his body, into his Church.  You are not only part of it; you are an integral part of it.  God uses you to build his church and you are built together, with the Spirit, and with other Christians.  This is a point that we sometimes miss.  A building is strong because all the parts are integrally connected to each other.  Each part of the building gets strength from the support of the rest of the building. 

   This is one way that God uses his Church here on earth.  It is a haven and a refuge for his children.  He built that church with the blood of his Son and builds up to give us a place where we can gather together to battle the trials and tribulations that exist.  It was belonging to this Church that gave Paul his strength and courage.  He was built into the Church, together with all believers.  While he struggled, the believers prayed for him, comforted him as best they could with the Word of God which they shared with him.  It is the same for us.  We may never be in a literal prison but the devil will try to convince you that you are and should be in one.  It is only by clinging to the promise that God has made to you and makes to you every day that we can withstand what the devil throws.  Trust in God’s Word to you for you are built into his dwelling by the Spirit.

Dearest Father, you encompass us with your mercy and you do not forget us.  We are always in your arms under your tender care.  Give us the courage to be built together that we may all stand firm against the devil and his arrows.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret