8-31-2018

Good Morning All,

     John 3:5; “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”

          “You put your right hand in, You put your right hand out, You put your right hand in, And you shake it all about, You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around That what it's all about.”  Do you remember this?  I think most people at one time or another, in their youth, sang this little ditty.  The thing about this song that is curious; I read on the internet (naturally) one time.  It asked the question: “The Hokey Pokey; what if that is what it’s all about?”

    I giggled, at first, but then thought about the many people in the world who do not know or believe in the redemption of Jesus.  Without faith in your life, what is your life all about?  These people have no meaning of life.  When we do not live in a faith relationship with God, or maybe we have lost sight of that relationship, we cannot understand the ultimate purpose in our lives.  We do not see the true purpose for our life.

    This is where many often go off and look for other ideas.  Some seek total sensual satisfaction.  It might be drugs and alcohol; it might be sex, it might be seeking all the wealth you can find.  Some seek some form of introspective self- religion which leaves them empty.  Through it all, searching for what they will never find.  The good thing is that God is seeking them.

    We find our purpose, not through some strange life or actions; rather we find it because God gives us new life and restores our purpose.  Through Baptism, we have new life and we live in Christ.  Our life has meaning, it has purpose.  We get a new beginning.  God gives us the gift of a “do over” every day.  Every day we get to live as his dear children.  We see our life as being one that is blessed by him.  We look forward to eternal life with him.  With this new life, with us being born of the Spirit, we now have a new desire in life.  We no longer desire the sinful and the emptiness; we desire to live in God’s grace. 

    Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t occasionally slip back into that destructive mode, we still have a sinful nature.  But we do know that it is wrong, conscience and the Holy Spirit will tell us that.  Being shown that it is wrong, we are then shown how to fix it; by trusting in God’s mercy and forgiveness.  We are made his holy children by Baptism and with this we are given new life with a new purpose; to live the life that he has laid out for us and to show his love to those around us and THAT is what it’s all about!

Father of all mercy, we are overwhelmed by your grace and love.  Guide us by your Spirit to trust in you.  You give us new life each day.  Through you we have new birth.  Lead us to rejoice in that new life.  Lead us to live the life of purpose for you.  Lead us to be your light in this dark world.  Guide us by your grace. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

8-30-2018

Good Morning All,

     1 Corinthians 6:11; “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”

     The other day it was my turn to cook; so I stopped at the pizza place.  While I was waiting for my pizza, I watched a 3 or 4 year old boy walk in the parking lot.  He had a pair of rubber or plastic water boots on.  They were bright yellow with black polka dots.  They went up to his knees.  As he walked with his mother, he walked by a small puddle of water.  This puddle was about 6 inches in size and was about two cups of water; it wasn’t much of a puddle but he tried to jump and splash in it any way.

    That can mean only one thing, it is the time of year when little boys (and some little girls) will hear those words from their mother, “TAKE THOSE MUDDY BOOTS OFF BEFORE YOU COME INTO THE KITCHEN; I JUST SCRUBBED THE FLOOR!”  Even if the little guy only wants a drink of water, or worse, really needs the bathroom; He must be far cleaner than he is to get into the house.  He is banished to be out of the house until he gets cleaned up.  Now mom still loves him dearly but he needs to be much cleaner before he is allowed in the house.

    This is the exact state that we find our self in when we try to come to God.  Our sins make us too dirty to come into his presence.  We need to be completely and totally clean; we can have no sin present or we cannot enter.  This presents a great problem all sin so we can never really enter into God’s presence.  So God does what this little boy’s mother, He comes to us and cleans us up.  Just like mom, who comes outside with a wash cloth, God comes to us and washes us with water and Spirit to cleanse us.  Just like mom who pulls the muddy boots off our feet and then carries us into the house so we stay clean; God cleanses you of your sins and carries you forward in grace and mercy into his house.  It is here that we can rest in his comforting presence.

    And just like little boys (and little girls) everywhere, we need to be cleansed every day.  We need to be cleansed of our sins every single moment of every day.  God, because of his incredible love for you, does this as he shows us in our Baptism.  We are washed, cleansed, sanctified by the Spirit.  We are declared holy by this sacred washing.  We are declared clean enough to enter the house, the whole house, where we can come to God, our Father, in that holy conversation called prayer.  We can rest in the comfort of his arms and be renewed and strengthened by his mercy.  We are clean because of his love.

Father of all mercy, you cleanse us through the waters of Baptism.  You wash us clean and give us new birth.  We are born anew into your holy family.  Guide us as we travel this path.  Cleanse us we pray so that we may always live safely in your arms.  In the name of Jesus our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

8-29-2018

 Good Morning All,

               Daniel 3: 24-25; “Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”  He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

     It didn’t quite go as King Nebuchadnezzar had planned.  He built a huge idol and all the people were to bow down and worship.  Yet three men told him; “no.”  The king did not like being told no so he decided to teach these men a lesson.  So he had these men thrown into a fiery furnace, so hot that the men standing outside of it were killed by the heat.  So the king had these three men thrown into the furnace but when they looked in; they saw four men walking around.  The fourth looked like a son if the gods.

     There are many things we can take away from this story.  The one we want to look at today is that faith doesn’t always keep us out of the fire.  Sometimes we face some huge challenges.  Some seem almost insurmountable and they are if we tackle them alone.  We can face struggles in our families.  Many sociological reports continually show the steady decline in the viability of the family.  In a few years, it would appear that the traditional nuclear family will be in a very distinct minority.  How do we face that challenge?

    We see struggles with our jobs and financial situation.  No matter how much we work or how hard; there never seems to be enough.  On those rare days when we do feel a little ahead, all of a sudden the car needs some major repairs and we start all over again.  Sometimes we struggle with our health and we wonder if it is ever going to be better.

    Sometimes we struggle because of our faith.  We are ridiculed; we are made illegal. We are called intolerant, arrogant, stupid and many other things; some by our own family.  “Get with the times; don’t be so old-fashioned!”  Where do we go?  We go to God.

    No matter what happens in our life, God is the only true hope that we have.  Only God and his grace will see us through.  Yet we might still have to face the fire.  We might still have to be tossed about by a sinful and broken world.  We might still have to face some pain in this world but we do not have to face it alone.  God is always with us and he gives us his church to be with us as well.  We should always rest assured that our brothers and sisters in faith will stand with us.  Our brothers and sisters in Christ will give to us the consolation that God gives to us.

     In our passage, we often see the fourth man as Jesus.  Yet we could also see him as our earthly brothers and sisters who God sends to be with us at times of trials.  Either way, God is there for us with his Spirit of hope.

Dearest Father, when we face the fires of this life; keep us safe in your arms.  Hold us tight.  Be with those who are feeling the extreme heat at this time.  Keep them confident in their faith and give to them the comfort and the consolation that they need.  In the name of Jesus our precious risen Savior, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret