6-30-2018

Good Morning All,

       Isaiah 26:4; “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

     It happened when one of my sons was in junior high.  He was having trouble with a math problem.  It was one of those story problems and they are usually more problem than story.  The correct answer was in the back of the book; all he had to do was show how to get the answer using the information given.  It was a struggle.

     We worked on it for a couple of hours.  We just couldn’t make all the numbers work.  Since we had the answer; we just started to try different random combinations of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing to try and get the answer.  We were never even close.  We got the rest of them but this one truly had us stumped.  We knew his grade would be fine as we were only wrong on this one problem but it was aggravating that we couldn’t figure it out.  My son was frustrated and I was as well; we should have been able to figure it out.

     When he came home from school the next day, he couldn’t wait to tell what had happened.  It turned out that book had an error in it and a part of the problem was missing.  Part of the equation was missing so we would have never figured it out.  We felt both relieved and even more frustrated because we never had a chance to get it right.  It just goes to show you can’t leave something vital out of the equation or else you will never get the right answer.

      That is the trouble with a lot of people today.  They leave something out of their equation; they often leave God out.  They look at the battles of their lives and they try and figure out how to solve them.  They add drugs and alcohol here, they subtract faith there and they divide from their family over there and all this does is multiply their struggles.  They leave God out of the equation and then wonder why nothing ever comes out to the right answer.

     Part of the problem is that, like the textbook, we leave God completely out often trying to leave Him at church where we can pick Him up next time we go.  There are many who like to keep God bottled in and left in the church so that they are not bothered by Him during the rest of the week.  The problem is that the rest of the week is where our struggles occur.  They occur at work, or at the doctor’s or around the kitchen table.  The rest of the week is where we need God in our calculating the most.

     God desires to be part of your solution.  He gives ti us the hope of everlasting life and the comfort and consolation for today.  He wants us to have peace.  He wants us to have abundant life and to live with the total contentment that gives us the serenity to wait eagerly for our lord’s return.  Place your trust in God and your problems will have solutions.

Wondrous Father, in you we place our trust and confidence.  It is through your grace that the struggles of today seem less harmful and less stressful.  Guide us by your Spirit to place our faith in you.  We ask that you be with those who are struggling at this time and the lives that don’t add up.  Move them by your Spirit, use our hands and our voices to reach out to them and to being them into the certainty of your eternal hope and love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

6-29-2018

   Good Morning All,

         1 Corinthians 13:13; “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”

     It has probably been a school yard argument for as long as there has been school yards.  “My dad is smarter than your dad” or “My dad is richer than your dad” or “My mom is prettier than your mom.”  School yard bragging about who is better, faster, stronger has been going on for ages.  It is that as we get older we outgrow it, don’t we?

    That was the problem that the Apostle Paul was facing in the church at Corinth.  The church had divided itself among different factions who claimed to have certain gifts from the Spirit and that the gift they had was the best gift of all.  Some claimed that speaking in tongues we the greatest gift; some thought it was healing and some thought it was preaching.  So they argued back and forth and did a lot of damage to the church.  Their infighting made their evangelism almost dry up.

    So Paul goes through all of chapter 12 telling them that it takes all kinds of gifts and talents to make the church work just like it takes many different body parts to make the body work.  That is the background for 1 Corinthians 13, “the love chapter” is really Paul criticizing and correcting one of his churches.

    It is always interesting listening when you ask people why Paul said that the greatest of these is love.  You would be inclined to think that faith would be the greatest.   After all faith is an element in our salvation, as in “through faith.”  Yet Paul chose love over faith and over hope something that he had said wouldn’t put us to shame.  Why did Paul choose love?

    Paul chose love because love is what you give to others.  Love is how you react to others.  Faith and hope are things that God gives to you so that you will stand tall and firm until Christ returns.  Love is given away.  Love is what causes us to come to another person’s aid.  This is why Paul describes love in the terms that he uses earlier in the chapter.  Love is patient, love is kind, love bears all things.  These are actions we take for other people.  Faith is for our own good; hope is for our own good.  We may share them with others whom we love but faith and hope are personal while love can only be shared.

    So the Spirit, through Paul, tells us to love one another, bear one another’s burdens.  Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, bring comfort to the dying and consolation to the suffering.  This is love and this is why Paul claims that it is the greatest of these.  Because love best emulates Jesus.  For God so loved the world; something God did for you so pass it on.

Father of all love, in you we see love in its most perfect form.  You loved us enough to send your only son to die for us.  Here we see love.  Help us to show this love to those around us.  Help us by your Spirit to love as you have loved us.  Be with those who do not feel the love that you have for them.  Help them as they travel the way of their life and guide them back into your grace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

6-28-2018

Good Morning All,

    John 10:10; “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

    Have you ever watched any of the different “Robin Hood” movies?  I am partial to the old Errol Flynn movies.  Yet I watch most of them as they come along.  The one thing I notice is that the newer movies have a much darker view of life in the 1200’s than the earlier movies.  They seem to really try and express the desperate nature of life.  The common people always live in hovels and are always dirty.  Their clothes are ragged and they are always very poor.  They are usually being harassed by the king’s men for money for taxes.  These later movies paint a sad existence.

    In our world today, there are many people who live this same existence.  They struggle just to get from today to tomorrow.  They struggle with just surviving.  All too often, someone who is powerful will come in and steal whatever they have.  When you see this, you often see these people begin to stop even trying to exist.  They don’t even try because there never seems to be any way to keep enough to live on.  Someone comes and steals it away.

     This is the spiritual battle that we face.  The devil comes to steal and kill and destroy.  He does this out of sheer delight in tormenting us.  He steals your hopes and dreams.  He kills your love for God and for others.  He will destroy your soul as you agonize over life.  This is what the devil enjoys doing, causing you to suffer.  He drains your life of any type of enjoyment or contentment or happiness.  He wants to leave you in a dark and foreboding place.  He wants to come to you to steal, kill and destroy.

    This is where sin leaves us, as the plaything of the devil.  Sin separates us from God leading us away from God’s grace and security out into the world where the devil waits. But God had seen our wretched state and turned to us a father’s heart.  Rather than watch us suffer and slowly be tormented by the devil; God had a plan to rescue us.  He sent his Son to take our place and earn salvation for us.  This wasn’t an easy task but shows to us how much God loves us.  Jesus came to give us live and to give it abundantly.

     God’s grace isn’t skimpy by any measure.  We receive grace upon grace, blessings upon blessings.  God gives us life, abundant life.  He gives us what we need to face the devil’s attacks.  He gives us His Word, His comfort, prayer, companionship of fellow believers, but above all he gives us hope.  All this is out of love for us.  We have God’s love pouring down upon us.  He gives us life, very abundant life!

God of all wonder, you give to us life.  We are slow to see it but are truly blessed by your mercy.  Help us to see that you do carry us through our struggles and you lead us through our perils.  Strengthen our faith as the battles rage around us.  Be with those who are especially struck by the darkness of the devil’s attacks.  Give them the certainty of your grace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret