4-30-2020

Good Morning All, 

         Genesis 3:8; “In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking around in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden.”

       We have gone to Como Park in St. Paul, MN a couple of times during the past; hopefully, we will go again.  It has an exquisite conservatory.  It has some exceptionally beautiful plants and flowers and an incredibly unique Japanese garden.  There are places along the path of the Japanese garden and within the actual conservatory and on the grounds surrounding the conservatory where a person can sit down on benches and just sit and take in the beauty of the surrounding.  It can be incredibly quiet and peaceful.

    In our verse, we can easily imagine the beauty and the quietness of the garden as God walked in the cool of the evening.  It is safe to assume that Adam and Eve were quiet as they tried to hide from God.  Yet even though they were hiding, God was looking for them.  God was calling to Adam and Eve.  In the quietness, God sought out his lost children calling to them to come back home.  He was noisy; trying to get them to respond.

   Many years later, we see a different garden.  It is late at night and it is quiet.  Some of the people there are sound asleep.  Others are searching for someone so they are moving through as quietly as they can.  Off, all by himself, Jesus is praying.  He prays to God, but God is quiet.  Jesus is beginning to face the wrath of God by himself.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, God was silent.  His wrath left him silent.

    All for you and me, Jesus prayed in a garden when God was silent.  God was silent because all was decided.  A bill was due; a price to be paid.  The wrath of God was poured out upon Jesus.  It started in the garden and continued the cross.  God’s silence, pouring his holy wrath on Jesus, means God is seeking us all the time.  God is not silent about you and me.

    God calls out to you and to me continually through his Word.  Because of God’s silence in the Garden of Gethsemane, God is not silent to us.  He calls us with his love and grace and desires.  He heals us as he restores us.  His grace gives us hope.  He gives us hope so that we can go to the garden and sit in peace knowing that our salvation is sure, our future proven and our present provided for.  God walks in the garden of life with you to keep you safe.  This can be the source of your great comfort and hope.  We can trust in God’s promise to give us the victory over the devil and all his lies and attacks.  God gives us peace in the garden.

Father of all mercy, you bring me hope and peace.  You call to me that I might hear your joyous Word of comfort and grace.  Keep us safe in your loving arms.  Be with those who feel that you are silent to them.  Bring them the peace of your loving mercy.  Heal their pain and bring them into your gracious kingdom.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

4-29-2020

Good Morning All, 

       Isaiah 40:3 “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

        “Help me, help me, grandpa, I’n stuck!”  A few years ago, we went outside to play in the snow.  There were snow piles pushed up in the back of the church in the trees.  So, we put on boots, snow pants, hat, coat and mittens and out the door we went.  We would walk along and every so often he told me, “Watch out, grandpa, it’s slippy”.  We worked our way over to the hills, but the snow was a little deeper there.  Soon as we were walking, he would stop and declare that he was stuck.  The snow wasn’t even to the top of his shoes, but he was stuck.

    After about the fourth time, Grandma decided that grandpa was supposed to plow a path so he wouldn’t get stuck.  So, I shuffled to make paths so he wouldn’t get stuck.  For the most part, it worked.  He followed the paths and we went about our play.  There were only a couple of times when he veered off the path and was stuck.  As long as he stayed on the path that I prepared for him, everything went fine.

    Our life is a lot like that.  In our verse, this is a phrase that relates to what was called “the king’s highway”.  These were superhighways.  They were wide and flat designed for speedy travel. They were designed to allow the king and his army to travel anywhere in the kingdom speedily.  Usually, if a commoner was on the road when the king was coming, he was either driven off or killed.  This was for the king and his emissaries.  Yet the people often took the chance because the travel was so much easier.

    This verse is quoted in the New Testament as a prophecy about John the Baptizer.  It is that but this phrase has more meaning to it as well.  When the path is made straight, when a highway for our God is made; we can rest assured that God makes it.  God made the road straight so that he could come easily to us.  The death of Jesus paid for the debt of our sin.  It cleansed us to stand before God.  We can stand in his holy presence we can travel on his highway.

    We can always go before God and we can do it quickly.  We can always call upon his name; at a moment’s notice, we can go to God.  If unplanned or unexpected events suddenly appear, we can, and should, always call upon his name.  We should always look to God for our comfort, our hope, our restoration; he is the source of our healing.  He gives us the love and the mercy that we need but do not deserve because often times; we get stuck by going off the path.

    God provides us the path, but we often go awry.  Yet even when our own foolishness and sin causes us all sorts of pain and sorrow, God pulls us back onto his path, he gets us unstuck.  We do not have to stay stuck in sin and pain.  God puts us on his path; we must trust him that it is the best path.

Father of all grace, you build the highway that goes straight to you.  Lead us by your holy and loving arms to stay on your road.  Be with those who have strayed and are stuck.  Bring them back to your gracious family.  Place them safely on your road of salvation.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,                 

Pastor Bret          

4-28-2020

Good Morning All, 

       Matthew 27:21; “The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.”

      Our verse occurs during Jesus’ trial before Pilate.  Pilate wanted to release Jesus but was a coward.  He tried a back-door approach by trying to stack the deck.  He would free one prisoner at the feast of Passover.  He gave the people the choice between Jesus, a seemingly harmless itinerant rabbi from Galilee, and Barabbas, a murderous thief and anarchist.  It should have been obvious, but the crowd chose Barabbas.

     There are numerous theories as to why the crowd chose Barabbas.  Some think the crowd was paid off by the Scribes and the Pharisees.  Some think the devil possessed the crowd.  Some think the crowd did not know any different.  I am no great theologian, but I think the crowd chose Barabbas because they wanted to.  Barabbas was a pain in the side of the Romans; he was the bad guy who only brought mayhem.  He would cause a riot where Roman property was destroyed.  The people wanted to cause problems for the Romans, so they picked Barabbas.

     So, do you pick Barabbas?  Do we seek being part of the problem?  Do we seek to avenge even the smallest of slights?  Maybe we don’t do it intentionally, but we still do it.  We want to get even, balance the scales, get square or whatever we call it.  Do we tend to gravitate toward what the world calls “making it fair”?  It can feel so right but it causes so much pain.

    The world will always pick Barabbas; our sinful nature tells us to pick Barabbas.  Picking Barabbas is the way of greed, selfishness, of an inward curved view of life.  It is part of the view of life that thinks by tearing others down we can build ourselves up.  It is the view that leads to others pain and to our own destruction. 

    It is the view that sin causes.  Sin chooses Barabbas.  Yet we know that this painful way of life is not the only way.  Christ came, rejected by the world, rejected by sinful man in order to redeem sinful man.  Jesus came so you would have a choice.  The lost, the condemned and the unbeliever have no choice; that person always chooses Barabbas and always suffers the consequences of that decision.  We, as God’s children have a choice.  God gives us the ability to choose Jesus.  He comes to us in his Word and his Spirit moves us to desire Jesus.  His Spirit gives us the desire to look outward.  His Spirit gives to us the desire to love rather than hurt; to give rather than take; to have compassion rather than selfishness. 

    God, because of Jesus and by his Spirit, gives you the ability to choose Jesus and reject Barabbas.  This should always be our hope.  There will be days when we fail but God picks us up and stands us up again so we can choose Jesus.  Because of Jesus we can live; so live.  Trust in his grace to always guard our ways.

Father of all mercy, move us by your Spirit to choose Jesus as the one we want to live as.  Help us to bring the healing that the world needs.  Stir in our hearts the desire to do your will.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-27-2020

 Good Morning All, 

         Psalm 28:2; “Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.”

     I have been asked numerous times the basic question, “why pray?”  The logic of the person asking the question goes something like this.  Since God is unchangeable, since he knows the future and what is best and since his will is always followed then “why pray?”  On the face of it, this may seem like a logical question to some and it may seem like a faithless fatalism to others.  It is probably somewhere in the middle.

    Why do we pray?  Our first and foremost reason should be because God tells us to.  This is not because God has some need that we must fill; rather God tells us to pray because it is beneficial for us.  It does us good to pray.  When you and I pray, we are the main beneficiaries of the prayer.  We benefit by expressing to God our fears, our dreams, our desires and all our thoughts.  God gives us the gift of prayer that we might be comforted, that we might be strengthened and that we may come to know his peace.

   So, does praying make a difference? Definitely!  Does it change God’s mind?  No one can ever know.  We know that God is a God that is unchanging, but we also know that he is a God whose love for us is the greatest love ever to exist.  God’s love is far beyond our comprehension.  So, can God be moved by the pleas of his people?  We cannot say that He cannot or will not.  God is God and his ways are above our ways so in the end it is all about faith.

   Since God’s love for us is beyond our understanding; his actions for us are going to be the best for us.  So, he invites us to pray so that we will know that he is there for us; that he is near to us.  He invites us to come to him the same way that a small child comes to his father with a love and a longing; with a trust that, what is asked will be given.  So, we pray with that same boldness.  God answers prayer: he has promised us this.  His answers may take a form or shape that we are aware of, but God will answer your prayers.

   God will use your prayers to shape you and to form you into the disciple that he wants you to be a follower who is completely dependent upon Him and one who relies solely on God’s goodness and mercy.  This means that we turn to prayer first and not last.  It means that we should always be in a state of prayer where we lift up to God those things that are upon our heart, trusting in God’s grace to provide for us.

   Does God answer our prayers? Yes.  Do our prayers change God? We do not know.  Do our prayers change us? God uses them to do so.  Should we pray? Absolutely!  We will be strengthened and encouraged because we do.

Father of grace, you hear us and give us comfort through prayer.  As you hear us cry out, your love is poured down.  Be with those who doubt or are unsure of your active mercy in their life.  Guard them by your loving arms.  Give them the certainty of your love for them.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

4-26-2020

Good Morning All, 

            Hebrews 13:6; “So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

       The part of paradise where I live, South Dakota, was homesteaded and settled after the Civil War, primarily in the 1870’s and into the 1880’s.  The land was given to the person who settled on the land provided that he lived on the land.  Since some of the earliest settlers were miles and miles from any city, it was common for them to live on the farm in the summertime.  Then as winter came, they would load up the grain that they produced and go back to the nearest city, sell the grain, live and work in the city until spring when they would head back to their farm.  They would do this until the railroad was close enough that they would have a place to market their grain and cattle with greater ease.

    One of the problems with this practice was that sometimes squatters would move in.  A squatter is someone who moves in or lives in a property that they do not legally own or rent.  Many times, the squatters would move as soon as the original owner arrived having thought the homestead was abandoned.  Sometimes it took a little “forceful persuasion” to get the squatters to leave.  Yet the lawful owner was always in his rights to take full possession of his property and to have the squatters evicted.

    Sometimes you and I have “squatters” in our lives as well.  As God’s redeemed children, God has given us peace, comfort and hope.  Yet sometimes the “squatters” move in, fear, despair and the unquietness or restlessness of Spirit.  These squatters are never invited and are always unwelcomed.  They usually arrive when some other pain or sadness occurs.  Sometimes this pain or sadness causes us to stumble a little, our faith may be shaken, and the “squatters” see this as an opportunity to move in. 

    The thing to know about these “squatters” is that they have no right to invade your space.  We do not have to let them stay.  They are not supposed to live in our life.  Jesus has dismissed them from our life and replaced them with his love, his hope, his peace.  Those painful squatters claim the right to our life, but those claims are false.  God gives us the power to evict them; we do not have to let them stay.

   They may show up, but they do not have to stay.  We need to see them for what they are; they are the devil’s attempt to drive us from God’s love and mercy.  They are an attempt by the devil to separate you from God.  The devil can’t pull you away but he can entice you away and that enticement can be either by making you think you are too big for God or by making you think you are too little for God.  Yet we know that both these ideas are false and God’s love for us is the true owner of our life.  Trust in his faithfulness.

Gracious God, you are our true owner.  Keep us safe from the squatters that the devil sends to disrupt and to destroy our lives.  Keep us in the certainty of the hope that you pour out upon us.  Guide us by your Spirit.  Be with those who are battling with the devil’s squatters.  Evict them from their life that they may know your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret         

4-25-2020

Good Morning All, 

         Genesis 2:8; “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom He had formed”

     There is a poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney entitled “God’s Garden”.  In this poem is a verse that goes like this. 

                                                The kiss of the sun for pardon,

                                     The song of the birds for mirth,--

                                               One is nearer God's heart in a garden

                                    Then anywhere else on earth.

     I am not sure why this poem came to me.  Perhaps the fact that the land is awakening with new growth and new life and my wife and I are preparing our gardens. I am anticipating the warmth of the day, the smell of the flower, the feel of the dirt in my hand, the serenity of just sitting in a garden and listening to the birds or watching the squirrels.  I can sit quietly and read or drink my coffee or just close my eyes and enjoy the whole moment.  Perhaps, as I sit in my office and the time, we spend in our self-imposed but strongly encouraged quarantine is wearing me down and I long for the garden again.

    Our faith lives can be like this as well.  There are times when it feels like God’s love is distant and cold.  We see no beauty; we smell no beauty; we feel no joy.    Soon we feel the bleakness of the dreary night.  Soon we think the beauty is gone forever.  Yet we can rest assured that they are not.

     When times and days like this set in, first of all recognize that the devil and our sinful nature is at work on us.  It is their attempt to deprive us of God’s peace and comfort.  We need to remember God’s promises.  We need to remember the God’s love and grace are always there for us.  At no point in time does he ever abandon us, we may walk away, or we may experience a time when the devil convinces us that God’s love is gone like the flowers in wintertime.  Yet we know of God’s perfect love for us.

    It is his love that is the beauty of the garden.  It is his love that gives us the hope and the certainty that there will be a better tomorrow.  God’s grace supplies us with all that we need to see this.  So when the devil battles us and assails us with the dullness of a dreariness that seems to remove all hope; always remember that the devil is already defeated, Christ, through his death and resurrection, have given us the final victory and the guarantee that we will live in that garden of beauty, walking with God in the cool of the morning, for eternity.       

    If prayer and listening to God speak to you through the Scriptures fail to help lift the cloud of darkness then find someone who you can talk to so that they can help you see the beauty that God has for us.  This is another tool that God uses to help and comfort us, to help us find the garden.

Father of love, there are times when I lose the garden to the devil’s false illusions.  Help me to grab onto your wonderful grace and enlighten my life with your splendor.  Be with those who are suffering now.  Lift them from the pit.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-24-2020

Good Morning All, 

      John 16:33; “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

        Maybe you have played a word association game where someone would say a word and then you would respond with the first word that comes to you. For example, if someone says “dog” you might answer “cat”. It gets interesting when you use a word with many choices like “black”; you might answer “white” or “blue” or “cat” or “jack”. The way you answer gives a clue to your thinking process. If you want to make it more of a game, try and think of what the opposite of the word is given. So, if the word is “light” you might try “dark” or “heavy.”

    We kind of need to play a word association game to understand our verse. We see Jesus telling his disciples two different ideas. First, we have “peace”, but we also have “tribulation”; how can we have both? How can you have peace and tribulation, it would seem that these are opposites. Yet they are not complete opposites as we can look at peace and see something a little different. “Peace” or “shalom” is not the opposite of war or fighting or battling. “Peace” here is more about being secure, or at rest or whole. Peace does not define our life in this world rather peace defines the condition of our relationship with God.

    Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, our broken relationship with God has been made whole; it is completed by the payment that Jesus made for our sins. With this payment being made, our account is settled, and our future is secure. We have the knowledge that our eternal salvation is all set. God’s grace and mercy allows us to see that we are all set. We have no worries about tomorrow; we can rest assured that we are God’s redeemed children; loved by the Father.

    So, no matter what the world tries to throw at us, we can have peace with and from God. The pain of life that can occur does not and cannot take us from God’s loving hand. We are in his eternal embrace. Nothing can pull us from God’s love, so we have peace. We are complete in God’s grace, secure in our salvation and because of this we can rest knowing that the God of all creation is the God of love who loves us dearly. We are safe in his arms.

    So as the world, still broken by sin, will have tribulations, pains that sin will always cause; these can spill over into our life. We are still part of creation; we are still impacted by the sin of the world, but it does not control us. It does not have to keep us in terror. We have salvation; we have God’s Spirit to remind us of his wonderful love and grace. We can have peace, total peace with God and because we have peace with God; we can peace within our own heart knowing that, as forgiven children of the heavenly Father, our hope is secured. Shalom to you in the name of Jesus.

Father, you give us a peace that the world can never give. Keep us strong and content in the peace that passes our understanding. Father, we know that many suffer from a lack of peace. The devil and the world confuse them and lead them astray. Bring them home and lead them to know your peace. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

4-23-2020

Good Morning All, 

        2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

       I remember watching reruns of “Married with Children”. I actually thought a lot of it was funny. It satirized American life to the point of incredible exaggeration. If you watched closely, you probably have known someone who matches one or more of the characters portrayed. I must admit that I laughed the hardest at poor Al Bundy. Looking at his present life and at his future life, he was so discouraged by those two prospects that he lived in the glory of his past.

     Al “I scored four touchdowns in one game for Polk High” Bundy lives in the past glory of his high school days. He often reminisces about his past greatness; at times, he relives them in an attempt to either prove he had potential or to correct some past error. He is always living in the past because he sees it as superior to his life either today or tomorrow. To him, yesterday is far better than today.

    Do we live like that? Do we look at the past and think that it is superior? It rarely is. We usually look at the past through “sentimental” tinted glasses. We want the past to be better because it is what we create it to be. We can make our past as pretty as we want. Unfortunately, we sometimes miss the truth about what was missing in our life and continue to miss out on God’s blessings.

   Sometimes we look at the past and think we must live there because we cannot see any way out of it. This can be the most painful of all. Sometimes we look at our past and think that there is no way that anyone, God included, can love a person like that. Perhaps you were alcohol or drug dependent and thus were completely non-dependable. Perhaps you treated someone cruelly and now continue to punish yourself for the past failures. Sometimes we think the past is all we deserve.

    The wonderful thing is that God does not want you to live in the past. He wants you to live in his present grace and, eventually, in his glory. In order to accomplish this, God made you a new creation, cleansed with the blood of Jesus. Our slate is clean because of what Christ has done for us. We live in his grace heading toward his glory; it is full steam ahead and we need not look back. If you feel that you are being pulled back, look at what it is, repent of the sin, try to make amends if possible and then let it go. God has forgiven this sin and looks at the new you and not the old you. You should do the same.

Gracious God, you have made me new so that I may live before you in perfection. By being new, I can stand in your holy presence and live in your merciful kingdom. Help those who are stuck in the past. Bring them to the knowledge of your wonderful forgiveness. Heal their pain and keep them safe from all the devil’s attacks. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-22-2020

Good Morning All, 

          Psalm 25: 14; “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”

       Most of us relish “being in the know”. We like to have some of the inside information from and about the people who make decisions. We like to sit and listen to the president of a corporation, or the superintendent of a school, or the head football coach or someone who makes the choices that impact things that are important to us. We like to listen to what they think should be and how they plan on making their ideas work and then apply them. We like to listen to the intrigue; we like to listen to how they are preparing for any events which may have an impact on their plans. We get to listen to what the planned results are after the process is completed. We like it when someone takes us into their confidence. We like to feel important.

    We are important. We are important to God and to his plans. He includes those of us who fear him, have faith in his promises, trust in his Word and seek after him in his plans. We are invited to listen to the plans for mankind. He shows us what the results of the covenant will be. God includes us because it is part of our calling into his kingdom of heaven. God shares with us how the kingdom is to spread, what it means and where it is to occur.

    God includes us so that can know what we are to do. We are to execute the plans that God has to move forward the kingdom of heaven. Jesus gave us the example to follow. He showed us and he told us how to do this. He showed us to be a people, to be his people. He showed us to be a compassionate people. He showed us to care for all of his creation.

    We are to feed the hungry, especially those who hunger to hear the words of forgiveness and the words of hope which God gives to us. We are to give something to drink to those who thirst, especially those who thirst after righteousness. We are to meet the physical needs of those around us. We are to especially meet their spiritual needs. God’s design is to bring all people to salvation, to living in his kingdom under his loving reign.

    Jesus began this process of reclaiming all to the kingdom when he came to earth to bring healing to all the broken and suffering. He continued this through his death and resurrection and then passed on the task to his church, to his disciples, to you and to me. It is a task of great importance. It is also a task of great joy. It is a task that gives us satisfaction. It is a task that God has given to us that we might celebrate with him in the spreading of his kingdom, in the healing of those who are suffering.

    So, take God’s merciful kingdom and share with all you meet. Share his love, spread his healing, and tell of his wondrous salvation. God has revealed to us his plan; now let’s make it work.

Gracious Father, you have given to us the task or calling the lost home. Guide us by your Spirit to bring about the change that you desire. Be with those who are suffering because of the pain of sin in this world. Send your healing, use us to spread your wonderful kingdom. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

4-21-2020

Good Morning All, 

         Job 19:25-26; “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God”

     Confidence: that is what the “little engine that could” had; it had confidence. As it climbed the mountain, its confidence grew until it knew that it could climb the mountain. Confidence: that is what Babe Ruth had. In Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe Ruth pointed out to centerfield and then hit the next pitch over the centerfield wall. Confidence: that is what Michael Jordan had as he played professional basketball. Many times, while shooting a foul shot, he would say to the opponent who fouled him, “watch this”. He would close his eyes and, usually, make the free throw without looking. Confidence is an amazing thing.

    When many people think of Job, they describe him as being patient, perhaps you have heard or even used the phrase “the patience of Job” to describe dealing with a tough or a perplexing problem. Yet patience does not exist by itself; it needs a stronger counterpart to make patience work. In order for patience to work you must have faith. It is only by faith that we can have patience. Faith gives us the strength and the courage to face the battles that we face. Even if these battles seem insurmountable, we can be patient because we have faith that, in the end, we will succeed. We will be victorious.

     It was faith that gave Job the courage to be patient. It was faith that let him see past the horrific events of his life and to see his Savior. Job had complete confidence that he would see his Redeemer, standing on the earth and the Job would see him in Job’s only flesh. Job knew that his Redeemer would live and that he, Job, would live to see it, even after he was long dead. So, no matter what happened, Job had faith that God would give to Job the victory; so, Job was patient because Job was confident.

    We can have that same confidence that Job had. That confidence can give us patience because we know, in time, that our Redeemer (Jesus) will stand on the earth and we will see him in our flesh no matter how long it takes. This simple fact is what gives us all of our hope, all of our confidence, all of our patience and all of our peace. We know that Jesus lives. The grave could not hold him; death could not defeat him. So now the victory is ours. No matter the pain, no matter the battle, no matter the sorrow, the victory is ours and we know that Jesus lives and because he lives, we will live also. Confidence: it is what you and I should have when facing this life. Confidence: that we will overcome whatever obstacles there are and move forward to eternal life with Jesus.

Father in heaven, give us the confidence to rely only on your grace and mercy for the needs of this life. Help us to hold onto your loving arms that we might be strengthened. Be with those who are feeling the full weight of life’s many struggles. Send them your Spirit of comfort and peace that they may say, “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  In the precious name of Jesus, our living redeemer, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-20-2020

Good Morning All, 

Matthew 22: 37-39; “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

     In 1976, a new group on the scene called “Boston” released a song entitled “More than a Feeling”. It was a song about a guy who let his one true love gets away. There are old songs that remind him that this love for the long-lost love is more than just a feeling but rather a deep-seated response to the world around him.

    While it is a popular rock song from the 1970’s, it expresses an opinion about love that is contrary to the world’s view. The world will tell you that you have to “feel in love.”  The world tells you if you feel it then you are in love but if you don’t feel it then you are not in love. According to this thought, you could be in and out of love a dozen times a day. The world tells you that love is what you feel and if you don’t feel it then, whatever. This is not how Scriptures explains love. In Scriptures, love is “more than a feeling!”

    Love is more than a feeling; love is an action. In the world, love is more of an adjective, describing you as a person. In Scriptures, love is a verb; love is an action. Love is a definitive action that we do. We must act in order to love. Love is more than a feeling; it is an action. Love is more than a feeling; it is motion or movement that makes itself known by doing something for another person.

   We see love in its purest form when see how God loves us. God’s love for us is seen in Jesus dying for us. The Apostle Paul tells us that “while we were yet sinners; Christ died for us.”  In other words, while we still hated God, he was dying for us to being us back into his family and to give us hope. We see it when we look and see how Jesus went out and actively sought out the sick, the lame and the hurting. We see true love in everything that God does for us.

    For us to love is to show action. To say that we love God is to praise him, to thank him and to follow his will. This type of love is more than a feeling; it is also a change in our lives that the world will see. True love is seen by its actions; it is more than a feeling.

    Part of this love is seen in our response to others. How we act toward and how we treat others will show as well. It is not enough to “have good thoughts;” true love acts on behalf of another. True love is an action that benefits the other person and not you. True love makes the life of the other person better. True love is what you do not what you feel. It is deeper than a feeling; it is more than a feeling; it is an event for someone you know.

God of love, in you we see true love in action. Move us by your Spirit to love as you have loved us. Move us to act, to show your love though our actions to others. Move us by your Spirit to make the lives of those around us to be easier, happier and more fulfilling. Cause us to reach out to those who are especially in need of your love. Act through our hands. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

4-19-2020

Good Morning All, 

          Exodus 15: 26; “saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

    I remember watching a movie a few years back where the hero of the movie was a young man who could not stand to be in sunlight. He always wore clothes that covered his entire body. He would wear long sleeves, a hat, gloves, and a scarf all to keep the sunlight from hitting his skin. He would get blistered burns wherever the sunlight would hit. Because of this he was something of a recluse, shy and a little timid.

    What he did possess was the ability to heal living creatures, birds, animals, and people. For the most part, he kept this talent hidden until one day he met a girl and fell in love. Eventually, she falls ill, and he must withstand the sunlight in order to get to her and heal her. He suffers burns over his face and hands and arms and in the end; he dies from his wounds. He died saving his girlfriend from death. It was a sad movie.

    The ability to heal would be a remarkable gift. If one could remove pain or suffering just by touching another person, you could do a lot of good for many, many people. That is why our verse can be such a comforting verse for us. God is our healer and he uses the name of Yahweh (LORD) here to show us that he does indeed get his hands dirty in our lives healing us from the spiritual devastation that sin causes.

    The people would have been used to shamans and other false healers who would have let the sick person down time after time. For them to have a real healer who would cure them; gave them great joy and comfort. God was their comfort and. in a very real sense; he healed them of what they suffered from.

   We too, have this great joy and comfort in our life. God is our healer. He heals us emotionally, spiritually, within a relationship and often in a physical sense as well. God heals us so that we may be whole. We can have confidence that God will hear us and send us his Spirit of hope and compassion. We can trust that God, who did not spare his Son, will give to us healing. God will make us whole, make us part of the kingdom of heaven restoring us, healing us, and making us whole again. God is our healer and we can have faith that, through his grace we are being made perfect and whole.

Father of mercy, in your arms we have healing. Send your Spirit upon your children that they may know the completeness of your mercy. Be with those who are broken and are suffering. Give them the certainty of your incredible grace and heal their hearts to know the love that you give them. Heal their spirits that they may know peace. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-18-2020

Good Morning All, 

          Numbers 13:30; “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

      Our verse is part of an amazing story. 12 spies from the Israelites crossed over the Jordan to study their soon to be opponents. These spies checked out the cities, the land, and the people of Canaan; the land that God had promised them. The spies saw it. They saw fertile land, bountiful vineyards, large cities, and people that they described as giants. They returned and gave their report to Moses and the Children of Israel.

    Ten of the spies went on and on about how they could never conquer this land or this people. “We will die by the sword.”  They looked and saw the giants and knew they could never succeed. There were two, however, who took a different view. Two men, named Caleb and Joshua, told a different tale.

    Caleb and Joshua both said they should conquer the land. They spoke of the fertile land; the bounty of the land was amazing; they spoke of the cities and the people who inhabited the land. They saw the people as giants, but they focused, not on the size of the task but on the size of God.

   How do you face challenges? Do you look at the size of the “giants” or do you look at the size of God? It is easy to be overwhelmed by the size of the “giants” in our life. Health issues look huge, financial strains can look humongous, cracks in a relationship can look gigantic. The size of the troubles can be immense. There is no denying it, even Caleb and Joshua in our story did not deny the size of the “giants” in Canaan. We can look at the size of the struggles that this life will throw at us and realize that they are big; definitely bigger than we can handle on our own. That is what the other ten spies did. They looked at the size of the “giants” and could see no way for them to win against these great cities, armies of these “giants.”

    But Caleb and Joshua did not look at the size of the giants; they looked at the size of God and the promise that he had made to them. Caleb and Joshua had faith that God was bigger than the giants that they were to face and trusted God to deliver them. They knew that God was faithful to his promises; they had witnessed this throughout their entire life. They trusted God and we should as well.

    God is faithful to his promises and he has promised to love you, to redeem you, to protect you from all harm that the devil will throw at you and he has promised to be with you every step of the way.  God is with us, giving us comfort and hope until we are reunited with him in his glorious kingdom.

Father give me the strength to know that you have destroyed my giants. Keep me safe in your holy kingdom. Hold me in your arms. Be with those who are facing their own giants at this time. Send your Spirit of comfort and hope that they may be calmed by your grace and they may know your peace. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

4-17-2020

Good Morning All, 

      1 John 4:18; “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

        He was a cantankerous patient. He growled at the nurses and the nurses’ aides who tried to help him. He never said thank you or offered a smile or a kind response. He seemed to be angry at everything. One night, when he was particularly grumpy, an older aide asked him why he was so mad at everyone. He stopped for a moment and while looking at the ceiling began to tell the aide his story.

    He told the aide that he wasn’t angry; he was frightened. He was afraid of what the doctors would tell him. He was afraid of losing his independence. He had never depended on anyone for anything but now; he had no choice. He was afraid and being afraid made it hard to be thankful, joyful, or hopeful. Fear was driving away his confidence; fear was making his life miserable.

    Fear is the devil’s favorite tool. When we fear, we tend to become frozen in our vision. We seem to only focus on how big the challenge ahead of us is and not on God’s grace. Fear paralyzes us into inaction. It drives us to emptiness and hollowness. It deprives us of the confidence in the love that God pours upon us; it weakens our faith. Fear causes us to deny our thankfulness and our willingness to see past the immediate and miss God’s perfect promise for our life.

    The only way for us to lose our fear is for the perfect love of God to drive it away. We can never fight fear on our own. We will never defeat fear on our own. It is far stronger than we are. If we are going to defeat fear, we will need help; help from God. His grace is poured out upon us freely because of Jesus and his all atoning sacrifice for us. Because of Jesus’ victory, we have nothing to fear. The devil can only taunt us but in the end, we know that God and his mercy will prevail in the end. Nothing can defeat God and his love for us.

    So, as we face our fears, we can be confident that God has already defeated them. We can trust that in Him we have complete victory; in Him we have the promise of our salvation. When we grab hold of this truth, we can give thanks to God that this challenge or struggle that we face has already be conquered by his mercy. We can know that each struggle will end in God’s loving arms. We can rejoice in his grace and peace.

Father of all mercy, when we stand on our own fear can overtake us. Use your love to drive out our fear. Strengthen our faith that we may stand tall and face our fears with the confidence of your love destroys fear. Be with those who are struggling at this time. Give them the strength to overcome their fears. Show them your perfect peace. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

4-16-2020

Good Morning All, 

        Romans 8:15; “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

       It is always fascinating how animals are trained. How do they train those huge elephants? They start when they are babies and then tie a rope to their leg and then attach the rope to a stake in the ground. As the baby elephant pulls on the rope, it cannot break the rope or pull away. It thinks it cannot get away, so it quits fighting. Anytime a rope is tied to its leg, it “thinks” it is still tied to the post and will just stand there.

      The devil does the same thing to us. He wants us to think we are still tied to him. The devil wants to keep us as slaves and for us to live in fear. He does this by taking the events that occur in a broken creation and making us fear what we do not know and what we do not understand. We can see that throughout our life. Remember the near hysteria that occurred when we started dealing with the Ebola sickness. Our fear led us to think and advocate actions which were not useful or helpful. We reacted in fear.

     Perhaps you have a story that is closer to home. Perhaps you have faced a time when fear made you feel tied down as a slave of the devil. The devil loves to sit on our shoulder and talk to us. He loves to remind you of your failures and sometimes he convinces others that they can build themselves up by reminding you of those failures. The devil wants you to think that the string he tries to tie to your leg to keep you tied down as his slave. When we are his slave, he torments us and makes us to live in fear. It might be an illness in the family; it might be rumors at work; it might be an uneasy feeling in a relationship; it might be anything but the devil whispers to us and tries to make us slaves to sin by pointing out our weaknesses.  Maybe you did not live as healthily as you should have, the devil whispers it is your fault that you are sick. The devil will tell you that you are the weakest employee and you will soon be out. The devil will tell you that you do not deserve a healthy relationship. The whispers are designed to make you live in fear.

    It is this fear that Christ came to free us from. Jesus freed us from sin so that we are no longer slaves to sin. We are now co-heirs with Jesus in God’s kingdom; we are part of God’s family. Now, rather than be afraid of God, we can call out “Abba!” “Father!”  We can approach his holy throne as dear children approach their father. We know God’s love for us by looking at the vacant cross and the empty tomb. We are free from the devil; we are no longer tied to him; he no longer rules our life. We are free to live in God’s kingdom knowing God’s love and grace. We can leave the past behind us and strain forward for what is ahead, eternal life with Christ.

Father, you free us from the devil’s noose because of Jesus. Give us strength to resist the devil’s lies and to live in your peaceful grace. Be with those who are especially troubled by Satan’s treachery. Bring them to know the certainty of your mercy and the end of their terrors. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

4-15-2020

Good Morning All, 

1Peter 5:7; “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you”

      My office habits are not necessarily the greatest. I am a proponent of “organized mayhem” or “controlled clutter”. I do not really file things; it is more that I pile things. I have a pile on this corner of my desk and then a pile on the other corner of my desk. One pile is for marriage counseling stuff. One pile is for the LWML stuff. There is a pile on an upside-down plastic milk crate that has stuff for the next week’s service. There is a pile on the side table by my chair that has sermon prep stuff. There is a pile by the printer that is miscellaneous church mail. There is a pile of books on my library shelves from various study material. A new pile is forming for confirmation and then there are just the seeds of a pile for more electronic preaching. It is mayhem but moderately organized.

    Yet sometimes, especially if things get a little hairy and harried, the piles get a little deep. Sometimes, I just have to stop and take an afternoon and start throwing things away. I just hope as I go through it that nothing of an importance emerges from the bottom of one of the piles. So far nothing major has shown up. But I do find a fair amount of material that really does not need to be kept. It might be duplicate material, it might be outdated, or it might not seem as valuable or important as it did a few weeks ago. Sometimes I need to go through the piles in my office. Sometimes we need to go through the piles in our life as well.

    Sometimes we keep piles of past sins, past worries and past hurts and fears around too long. Every so often, you need to go through and truly clean house. When we hold onto these painful, past events, they pull us back from Christ and his love. They serve to distract us from focusing on God’s grace and his promise of salvation. It causes us to lose sight of God’s promised mercy in our life. Holding onto the past pain short circuits our contentedness and our ability to genuinely enjoy the life that God has for us.

    Jesus invites us to get rid of those sorrows and worries. He invites us to cast them on his back. He invites us to replace our anxiety with his peace, peace that only God’s mercy can give us. So, go through your “piles” in your life. Are there worries that are outdated? Are there worries that occur over and over? Are there worries that are not important to us at all? Then cast them away. Don’t keep the baggage; that only serves the devil. Cast off the unneeded and the unwanted cares and sorrows of this life. Jesus has removed our sins and with this, has given to us the certainty of God’s grace. So, clean out the piles that are hurting you. Give them to God for he loves you and cares for you.

Father of all mercy; help me to clean up the piles in my life. Help me to throw away those things in my life which cause me pain. Help me to have a clean heart and spirit that I may better serve you. Be with those who are struggling with the piles that are building in their life. Lead them from the destruction of the world and the devil and to return to you and your peace. In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret                 

4-14-2020

Good Morning All, 

         Matthew 14:29; “He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.”

     Are you one of those people who have a set routine? Perhaps you read the newspaper the same way every day. You drink the same kind of coffee every day. When you go somewhere you take the same route. Perhaps your meals have the same combinations like hamburger and french fries but never hash browns.  We all have routines that we follow. Some occur because it is the easiest way to accomplish our task. Some occur because of other factors weighing in. We may have a morning routine that meshes with our spouse and children. Yet often it is just the comfort of the routine and the fact that it takes some thought and some energy to change.

    So how comfortable are you with change? A new hair style or a new restaurant, a change in our job or maybe even a whole new occupation, a new home; for many thoughts of these will keep us up at night. We are creatures of habit and that can be both good and bad. It can be very challenging to change but sometimes; change is what is needed.

    Often, we become so comfortable with our life that the devil uses it to make us complacent in our faith life.  We are comfortable where we are. We might put money in the collection plate occasionally, but the amount or frequency has not changed in 10 years. We read the Bible occasionally but not regularly. We pray when we are desperate enough. This has become our routine and we are comfortable in this rut and the devil tells us we are just fine.

    Yet one of the most remarkable things that Christ does to us is to shake us from our comfortable routine. He takes us from our complacent life in this sinful world; a life that lets us just skirt along and he changes it and he challenges us. He takes us as we are broken, sinful beings and changes us into new creations. He makes us his holy people and then gives to us the power and the authority to bring his kingdom to the world. Then he looks at us, at our complacent lives, and says, “Come, get out of the boat and come.”

    Now Peter was in a boat on stormy lake late at night. He got out of the boat. The Lord called to him and he got out of the boat. He didn’t last long, this time, but he got out of the boat. Later in his life, Peter changed from his original routine. At the start of the gospels, Peter is brash, hotheaded, and often speaks long before he thinks. Yet in his later life, Peter is the apostle of love, patience, and hope. He changed because he was changed. He truly “got out of the boat.” 

   What about you? Will you get out of your boat? Will you step up and live the life that Christ has given you? Maybe you can volunteer some time at a food bank or a homeless shelter. Maybe you can mentor a neighbor child who is alone far too much of the time. What about you, will you get out of your boat?

Father, make me uncomfortable at the sight of pain and brokenness around me. Break my heart as yours breaks at the pain of your creation. Move me to get out of my complacent life and be a force of change for you. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret