Saturday, December 31, 2022

12-31-2022

 Good Morning All,

    Mark 8:27-29; “And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 
And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 
And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ!” 

    Who is that?  That is a question that we often ask.  We see someone and we remember them, but we are unsure of who they are; is it Bob or Bill, I don’t remember.  Sometimes we ask that question when we see something amazing.  If you watch a sporting event and you see someone who is faster than anyone else; you may wonder who that is.  We might even ask,” who was that masked man?”  We wonder who people are and how they fit in to our life.

     Sometimes we wonder how we fit into others’ lives as well.  That is when we end up asking the kind of question that Jesus asks in our verse; “who do people say that I am?”  Most of us have this question in mind after the first time we meet the parents of our prospective spouse.  Did they like me?  Was I nice enough?  Did I make a fool of myself?  We can be very curious about how others perceive us and how they deal with us especially when we are not there. 

     That is not the reason that Jesus asked this question.  First, he didn’t really care how the people saw him; he already knew.  Second, this question isn’t really about others; it is about the disciples.  Jesus uses this question to begin the conversation with his disciples and to get them thinking along the lines he wanted them to think.  “Who do the people say that I am?”  The disciples would have been out and about in the villages and the countryside; they would have heard the people’s comments and known what they were saying.  “Some say you are Elijah; some say you are John the Baptist; some say you are Jeremiah.”

    The point of this question leads to the next question, “who do you say that I am?”  That was the real question.  Peter answered for the whole of the disciples,” you are the Christ” The disciples were kind of getting it.  Jesus is the promised Messiah.  It didn’t matter what others thought; it mattered what the disciples thought.

    In the other Gospels, Jesus tells Peter that this is not of man but of the Holy Spirit.  Peter didn’t figure it out; the Holy Spirit revealed it to him, but Peter responded out of faith. Peter confessed that Jesus was the messiah, the Son of God.

    The crucial part of this is that Jesus asks each of us that exact same question,” who do you say that I am?”  Each of us must belief, and confess, on our own, what we believe.  We might think we can dodge it or hide from it, but our lives show it, and our lives confess it.  When you say Jesus is Lord, you live your life in His Presence, in worship and praise to him and in service to your neighbor.  Who do you say that Jesus is?  Is he a wise teacher, a noted prophet, the leader of a doomed religious sect?  Or do you answer with Peter, “You are the Christ” “You are the Savior of the world” “You are my Lord;” how do you answer that question,” Who do you say that I am?”  May God give you the faith to answer,” You are the Christ!”

Dear heavenly Father, by your grace we are given the power to proclaim Jesus is our Lord, but we often fail to do so.  Forgive us our slowness to speak and our unwillingness to live our lives in your Presence and service.  Lead us back to you through your Spirit and give us the courage to love others as you have loved us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

Friday, December 30, 2022

12-30-2022

 Good Morning All,

    Ezekiel 36:26; “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

    On Dec. 3, 1967, the world’s first human heart transplant occurred.  Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the procedure in South Africa on a grocer who had chronic heart disease.  He lived 18 days with the new heart before he died of pneumonia.  That was an amazing feat some 50+ years ago; today some 3500 transplants and performed yearly with the average survival time of 15 years.

    A new heart, it was an incredible feat at the time.  The nightly news programs counted each day that the patient survived.  Many people wondered if this was the end of dying (it wasn’t) but all saw it as a definite change in the way we all would live our life.

     In our verse, God promises his people a new heart and a new spirit.  The interesting thing about this verse is how God refers to removing the heart of stone and giving you a heart of flesh.  When God created man, he placed man in the garden to tend it and to live in harmony with his companion and to live quietly and joyfully in the presence of God.  This is what we were supposed to be, but sin entered the world and it hardened man’s heart turning it to stone.

     Some may wonder at this idea but look at the nature of the sinful world.  How else can we explain the brutality that man will cause to another human being?  We see the indiscriminate destruction, the willful refusal to come to the aid and comfort of people in distress.  Starvation and rape are viewed as “legitimate” methods of war.  Violence is common and hatred is the norm.  We must have a heart of stone to act this way.

     As God reveals the truth to us, we see our abysmal failure in any attempt to live a God-pleasing life.  Man simply could not overcome the sinful desires which he had.  His heart was so hardened and so closed to what we were supposed to be that he no longer had a human heart rather he had a heart of stone.  So, God performed a heart transplant.

     As we read this, we see it as baptismal language or talk.  Remember that through Baptism we receive the Spirit of God, and we drown the old Adam and become new creations.  Through Jesus’ atoning death, Baptism now saves us.  Because of the work of Christ, we receive this new heart and new spirit.  God is restoring us to our original intent; to be human; to live in his glorious presence and to live together with God’s true gift of love and peace.  We see this promise given to us through Baptism.  We see God removing the stone heart and replacing it with a human heart filled with his Holy Spirit.  It is through this gift that we can now live as God designed us.  We no longer need to fear the devil, but we can look for ways to live our life in harmony with each other in the presence of God and in his mercy.  We receive many gifts from God through his grace but receiving a new heart, which actually does end dying, may be one of the greatest.

Gracious Father, your mercies are new to us every day.  We thank you for the gift of a new heart and our new life.  Move us to live our life in service to our neighbor as we live in peace before you.  This we ask in Jesus precious name, amen!

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

Thursday, December 29, 2022

12-29-2022

Good Morning All,

Hebrews 10:23-25;” Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

    “Hang in there,” “Don’t give up,” “Keep trying;” how many times have we offered these words to our children and grandchildren when they are trying a new venture.  Whether they were trying to play a band instrument or try a new sport or maybe a new class at school or a more challenging 4-H project, we encourage our children to keep trying.

     Perhaps you have offered these words to someone who is experiencing a personal tough time.  It may be a family relationship issue; it may be job related; it may be health related; it could be any of a number of things.  We tell them to hang in there.  We may have no idea what we mean by that, but we don’t know what else to say.

     The author of Hebrews offers us this same exhortation; except he gives us a little more background and support.  In the previous portions of Hebrews, we read where the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is all sufficient for our salvation.  We no longer have to offer animal sacrifices or pay the priest for his sacrifices; Jesus’ sacrifice is complete.  So, what do we do now?

      We hold onto that promise; the promise that we are redeemed and washed clean by the blood of the Lamb.  We hold on tight to the confession of our hope and that hope is based on the certainty of the promise of eternal life.  Since our salvation is secure, now what?  What do we do with all the time we spent doing sacrifices and making offerings to God for our sins? 

    We have to figure out how to stir each other up so that we show love for one another by doing good works.  We remember that a “good work” is anything that glorifies God and benefits our neighbor.  It might be going to some far-off place as a missionary; it might be sitting down and listening to a neighbor who is lonesome and has little company.  Our salvation is secure now let’s live a life that is free form the worry of salvation and live a life of joy as God designed us to do; loving one another.

     Yet we need to keep gathering together with our fellow believers.  This is where we hear God’s Word spoken to us.  This is where we hear God’s Words of redemption.  This is where we join for the soul nourishing meal.  We join together for the same reason any family joins together; to show the love and affection to our brothers and sisters, our uncles and aunts, our parents and grandparents.  We join for those times when we need comfort and consoling as well.  We look to our family for support when we need it and to offer it when others do.  God made man to be a communal creature not a loner; we join to meet this need and to receive this blessing.

     So, hang in there; hold fast to the confession of our hope.  God has promised us eternal life because of Jesus.  We have that as a certainty.

    Lord Jesus, you are our hope and our confession.  Thank you for the gift of salvation which you give to us freely.  Use us as your hands and mouth to proclaim your love to those who are most in need of it.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

12-28-2022

Good Morning All,

         Proverbs 18:24; “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” 

    One of the more fascinating side effects of the covid lockdown is the proliferation of internet-based communication, almost like something out of the “Jetsons.” There was Zoom, Skype, Facetime and myriads of others that allowed us to be distanced and yet be there.  It is amazing how we can stay in contact with each other anymore.

    I think back to when I was in high school and college; if you wanted to be in contact you either wrote a letter or made a long-distanced phone call, which was expense.  If you mailed a letter, you waited until the other person got it and then waited for them to write back.  It was difficult to keep in touch and we often felt as if the friendship or the family was drifting apart a little.  You felt like you were farther away than you wanted to be.

     Sometimes, we feel that way about God.  Sometimes, it feels like He is a long way away and not answering his mail very fast (or his phone battery is dead).  Most of us know those times.  A family member is lying there close to death, we have a lot we want to say but don’t know how.  We wonder where God is; is he listening at all?  We are finally getting things to feel like they are going smoothly; then the car dies and how do we afford a different one.  We finally find the perfect job and our spouse gets transferred to a different town, now what, God are you listening at all?  The neighbor kid who went off to join the army just came home without any legs, how can this happen? 

     Sometimes it seems that we are all alone and the weight of the whole world is on our shoulders.  It can even seem like all our friends are no longer around to even care let alone help us.  Even though it doesn’t seem like it, God is still there holding us close, closer than anyone.  We still live in a sinful world; bad things happen even to God’s children.  The difference is that we know that God is still there to comfort us and to console us and to give us courage to give us hope.  We live with the hope of the resurrection.  We live with the hope of eternal life.  We live with the certainty that we will be re-united with our loved ones and all the faithful who will gather at the throne of grace to celebrate the feast that will never end.

      Along with that promise, God has given us a family that will love us and comfort us with hugs and shared tears.  We still grieve at death, but we grieve as one who knows that soon we will all gather together in heaven.  God may feel like he is far away but he really isn’t that is just our sinful nature trying to drive us away from God so the devil can torment us.  Yet God is holding us close standing with us closer than any friend or brother ever can.

      We can, and are, always in contact with God.  He is as close as your Bible and your prayers.  We can read what God reveals to us and he will listen to your prayers.  The Spirit will bring you peace, the kind of peace that only God can bring.

Dear Father, we rest in your loving arms.  In your mercy we find rest.  Protect us from the devil and his ways and give us that sense of hope and comfort that we can only receive from you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen,

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

12-27-2022

Good Morning All,

                   1 John 4: 12; “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

     His love is made complete in us.  How we read and understand this has a great bearing on our life.  How we understand the word “complete” affects our understanding.  There are two ways to look at this.  The first is the more common way of looking at it.  If you go to a movie, when the credits run; it’s over or completed.  If you run a race, when you cross the finish line, you have completed the race.  It is done and over. When you have combined the last acre, harvest is complete; it is finished.  This is how we usually use the word complete.

     Yet the word complete can also mean something a little different.  Think for a moment about baking some cookies.  We mix the ingredients, turn on the oven, bake the cookies for the allotted time and then take them out of the oven.  We have completed baking the cookies but then what?  Well in our household, we eat them!!  Completion here is not an end but the next step in a process.  Here a better analogy would be to be eating the cookies while you are baking them.  Just as soon as you can pick one up, find that cold glass of milk and have at it.  His love is made complete is like when we are made disciples.  This is a process that will take our whole life to finish.

     This is why we don’t wait for his love to be finished before we enjoy it.  As each little cookie comes out of the oven, eat it, and enjoy.  God’s love is continually poured into, onto, and throughout our life and body.  Because of God’s great love and promised mercies, we are able to love others as God loves us.  As we love others, we experience the joy of God’s love in our own life.  We don’t earn God’s love, we experience it.  We can relish in the process of being made complete. 

     Most of us have made cookies with a small child, either a son or a daughter or a grandson or granddaughter.  For that child, at that moment, knows only joy and excitement.  They have this loving anticipation of something wondrous being given to them.  We have that same experience.  God’s love, his undeserved grace and mercy, is something we can experience, we can anticipate the wondrous gift we have, and we live with that loving anticipation of something amazing about to be given to us.  The only thing more enjoyable than baking cookies with a child is when they are encouraged to share them with someone else, someone special in their lives.  The wide eye joy that they have as they share this gift of cookies that they were part of because of the love of a parent or grandparent, is a marvel unto itself.  We too, have that same joy.  God’s love is being completed in us as we love one another. 

Dear Father in heaven, as your love is completed in us, keep us active in your service by showing your love, given to us, to all those that we see.  Help us Father to share that gift of your love especially to those who are in most need of you love and care.  Make our hearts to ache for those who suffer and cause us to use your love to reach to them.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen   

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

Monday, December 26, 2022

12-26-2022

Good Morning All,

       John 20:30; “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  

    People don’t write letters like they used to.  This is really unfortunate for many reasons.  One reason is that we are losing our ability to express ourselves with the written language.  Now we twit on twitter and use ridiculous shorthand words which are ruining our language.  We no longer take the time to craft a letter which conveys our deepest thoughts and feelings to be shared with someone whom we love or trust.  It could even take the form of a legal document where the writer is relaying the events which he is witnessing.

    The second reason that it is a sad event is that personal letters and diaries are among the best resources for historians to determine what life was like.  Oh, there are many official documents but those are written by people who have a stake in what others believe.  The king will always want his subjects to hear how brave and wise he is.  Yet it is in the personal letters and diaries that we find the true thoughts of people at the time.  An example is “The Private Diary of Dr. Samuel Pepys.”  This is one of the primary sources about 17th century England.  He gives firsthand account of the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London.  Much of our knowledge of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War comes from the letters that soldiers wrote home to their loved ones. 

      It was even common for some of the great writers in the 19th century to tell the readers what the storyline of the novel.  “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Or “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

    Yet today we don’t often write so we often do not give a clear explanation of what we are trying to communicate.  In our feeble attempts we fail.  That is not the case in our verse for today.

    The Apostle John is very specific about why he wrote his Gospel and epistles.  The Holy Spirit is telling us the whole purpose, not only of John’s Gospel, but the entire Bible.  Why are we told some things but not others?  Why are there apparent “blanks” in Scriptures?  Why don’t we hear about Jesus between the ages of 13 and 30?  What about all the people who appear briefly in the narratives but then just as quickly disappear?  The answer to these questions is in our verse “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” 

     The Bible is God’s way of revealing to us how we are saved.  It is not designed to be the entire historical compendium; rather it contains the information about our salvation.  From Adam and Eve and the fall into sin through Jesus’ glorious return in the Revelation of John, the central message is the Gospel of Jesus.  As we look at each book of the Bible, we can see the Gospel of Jesus and his atoning sacrifice.  Sometimes it is foreshadowed like with Abraham going to sacrifice Isaac (his only son) or flat out prophesied, “he was wounded for our transgressions” but it always points to our need for a Savior and who that Savior is.

      God reveals this plan to us in the Bible.  There are many things about God which are not revealed to us; things we accept by faith.  Yet our salvation is clearly explained so that we may believe and by believing have eternal life.

Dear Father, your grace is wondrously poured out on us daily.  Without it we are lost.  Give us the power of your Spirit and the faith to hold onto our hope of salvation.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

Sunday, December 25, 2022

12-25-2022

Good Morning All,

       Luke 2:14; “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!

    One of the more iconic ballad/anthems of the early 1980’s was a song by Anne Murray called “A Little Good News.”  In the song she laments that there is fighting all around the world, the economy is in bad shape, and all she wants to hear is a little good news. She wants to hear about a county fair, that there really wasn’t much news because “nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain,” just a little good news is all she wants to hear.

    The thing that intrigues me about that song is that only the names change.  Her newscaster was Bryant Gumbel now it might be Carson Daly. It might have been Lebanon but now Ukraine, the economy is still up for argument, bad things still occur, death still rules the world. We could use a little good news, today.

    This song could have been sung a couple thousand years ago as well. The people of Judea were under the onerous rule of the Romans, who was making them get counted to make sure a little more tax could be squeezed from them. The religious leaders were demanding, self-serving tyrants, and life was very hard and oftentimes, hopeless. They needed a little good news, and they got it! A tiny band of forsaken shepherds were the first, but it quickly spread. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord!” Then, the multitude of the heavenly host, filling the sky with wonder and music in an awesome display, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!”

    That same message of hope and peace is ours today. Even in the middle of all the world’s cares and despairs, we can have peace. We have peace with God which should give us peace in our heart that evil, pain, suffering, sorrow, and death will not win for Jesus came to change that. He came that you and I can look to the miraculous love that God has for us and see in Him our victor over all that assails us. We can know his peace now because He is our peace forever and his desire is that we may walk in His way, according to His mercy, that we may rest secure in the certainty of his unending love. We can rest in the absolute guarantee that our God, is a God who loves us beyond any measure, and we may have his peace forever.

    The news of the world is always bad, but the news of Jesus is always one of hope, a hope for a better tomorrow and a life eternally in God’s new paradise.

    Merry Christmas!! God’s blessed peace be upon you that you may know of his rest, his comfort, his unending love, and above all, that you may know that your salvation is secure in His name.

Loving Father, at this wondrous time we look to you for all of our hope and desire. Father, you alone give us good news, you alone give us peace. Guard our hearts to always look to you for the grace that you give us. Lead us to remember that the world and its victories are only temporary but that your love, shown to us in a baby born today, will never end. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

Saturday, December 24, 2022

12-24-2022

Good Morning All,

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

    This is the last verse of, probably, one of the read passages of Scriptures.  Psalm 23, Luke 2, John 14, then probably 1 Cor. 13 would be the top to me.  This passage is most often read at weddings, and it has a very airy and a feel-good quality.  This is one of the passages that scoffers and unbelievers look to when a Christian dare speaks of God’s law.  “I though you guys were all love and that stuff; what you are saying doesn’t sound like love to me.” (sigh) 

    The sad thing is that when we lift this passage out of its context; we change the meaning that Paul has for it.  But we will trust the Holy Spirit to speak what needs to be heard and look at it from the perspective that many of us read this, as a definition of love.

    We use the word love very loosely.  I love my wife; I love picking apples; I love Canadian bacon and black olive pizza; but do I really equate these three as the same?  Some do.  What we need to do is to look at how we define love and how God defines love.

     We look at this passage as the definition of love.  What we see is that love, true godly love, is focused outward.  It is about me giving to you because I love you.  God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; this is love.  True love is not focused on me but on thee.  We actually can look at like this.  Love is one thing; the other is lust.

    Lust in this situation is not just how we look at an opposite gender individual.  Lust is about satisfying me.  When we speak love words they are “you” or “them;” lust words are “me, myself and I.”  If you listen to couples who are seeking a divorce, you hear phrases like, “I fell out of love” or “I need my space” or “I feel the need to explore me;” all the focus is inward on my wants, my desires, and my satisfaction.  Love is about others.  So, in many ways, chapter 13 does help us to define love.  It is patient, kind, bears all things, endures all things, and never ends.  Lust does not.

    Unfortunately, many in the world see love as conditional.  Conditional love is lust; it is about meeting my wants first and foremost.  What is sad is that so many see this as love.  I’ll love you if you love me.  I’ll give you gifts if you give me some.  I’ll stay with you if you keep me interested.  I will love you forever if someone better doesn’t come along.  True love is not a two-way street; true love is me loving you with no strings or requirements.  That is love; anything else is lust.

    Can you love like that, I know I can’t.  Yet this is the kind of love which God wants us to have; the same love He has for us.  Fortunately, God’s love is this way for me; even when I sin (which is often) God still loves me.  He calls me back with his forgiveness and his love.  He continues to mold me and shape me to try and show this love to others.  When I deal with others, like the checkout clerk at the grocery store and I remember how God treats me, I try a little harder to be patient and kind.  I don’t do this because it earns me anything it simply brings me closer to Jesus.  The same is true for all of us.  These three remain; faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.

Holy Father, your love is demonstrated in our lives at every turn.  Too often we miss it by rushing other directions or ignoring the signs.  Forgive us for being slow to love as we are loved.  Guard us and guide us by your faithful hand to love as you continue to shape us and mold us into your holy image.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret        

Friday, December 23, 2022

12-23-2022

Good Morning All,

     Jonah 4:11, “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left?”

    This is the somewhat haunting end to the book of Jonah.  Most of us have a very minute knowledge of Jonah.  He was the guy swallowed by a great fish.  What we don’t often realize is that Jonah is the Old Testament version of the “Prodigal Son.” The Prodigal Son took his inheritance, squandered it, and then came home to his father who then threw a huge party for him.  The older brother, who stayed home and worked hard for the father, was jealous and wouldn’t celebrate with his younger brother.  The older brother wasn’t happy that his younger brother had returned and was back in the family.  He wanted the brother to be “dead” to the family.  Jonah wanted God to destroy Nineveh because it was a powerful enemy of Israel.  He too, wanted them dead but literally.

     Jonah, like the older brother, was jealous to the point that he hated Nineveh and wanted God to destroy it.  He just couldn’t handle the fact that the Ninevites had repented, and God had spared them.  In the last chapter, Jonah is complaining to God about saving them and God asks this question of Jonah to which no answer is given.  “And should not I pity Nineveh?”

    Jonah hated Nineveh and all that it stood for.  As far as he was concerned, they were the worst people ever and should be wiped of the face of the earth; at least that is what he (Jonah) would do if he were God.  So, the question is who is your “Nineveh?”  Who is it that, if you were God, you would give the holy zap to and be gone with them?  There are many candidates.  On the large level, we have the terrorists and the rogue governments that are causing so much havoc in the world.  If we bring it in a little closer, maybe it is the opposing political party or its candidates and some of the incredible things they say.  If we bring it even closer, is it the guy that you work with who knows when to work when the boss sees him but slacks all the time, or the neighbor who always claims to have a little better yield, maybe it is your mother or father in law who always knows how to do it “right” and just wants to make it easier for you, maybe it is the team that you just can’t quite beat and they remind you of that.  We all have a “Nineveh.”

    But God calls us to go to Nineveh and preach the Gospel to them, can we, do it?  Jesus told his disciples to pray for your enemies.  We should too.  First, we should ask for forgiveness for our thoughts and maybe our words and deeds.  Then we should pray for them; pray that God would change their heart as He changes ours.  Then as we pray that God will do something; we need to listen as he tells us to “go do something” to reach out in love and begin to rebuild the relationship to reconcile with our neighbor.  It may take several tries, but God calls us to keep trying.

    God looked at you and at me and had pity on us for we were sinners.  He had such great pity that he sent Jesus to die for us.  As we ponder on that great blessing, we hear the question of Jonah; “and should not I pity Nineveh?” 

Dear Father in heaven, your mercies roll over us like a great river.  Forgive us that we are slow to forgive and slow to reach out to those whom we view as Nineveh.  Give us the courage, patience, and loving heart to reconcile with those who we struggle with.  Help to love those that you bless and seek out.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

Thursday, December 22, 2022

12-22-2022

Good Morning All,

     2 Corinthians 5:19, “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. “

    Much has been made these last few weeks about the referees in the NFL.  The NFL has kind of succeeded with bringing more parity or equality among the teams with many games determined by one score or less. Of course, the downside is that missed calls, blown calls, wrong calls seem to have a greater significance. It is one thing to miss a call in a game that is decided by 30 points; it is entirely different when the game is a couple of points.

    We spend a lot of time talking about calls that referees or umpires make which we see as just plain wrong.  Most sports fans can look back and list some of their all-time worst rulings by an official.  We even see it go farther than sports as we look at rulings by our court system and just scratch our head in wonder.

    We might follow different trials in the news and then we cannot imagine how that person was found not guilty! We were convinced that there was no way that these people would get off.  They were guilty and the whole world knew it and yet they were found not guilty.  They were declared innocent despite all the evidence to the contrary.

    We may not like this in our sports or judicial system, but we experience this type of judgment every day.  Everyday God looks at us and declares us “not guilty.”  The devil and the whole world will look at our sins and scream “how can you make that call?” “He is as guilty as they come.”  But just like our examples when the ruling is made; that is the way it is.  If the referee says he caught it; well then, he caught it.  If the judge says he is not guilty; he is not guilty.  That is the way it is.

     Fortunately, that is the way it is in our faith life as well.  Because of the work which Christ did on Calvary for us, God looks at us and declares us innocent of all charges.  You and I stand before God as saints because the merit of Jesus makes it happen.  We stand righteous before God because we are cloaked in the righteousness of Christ.  This is sometimes called “the great exchange.”  We exchange our sins for Christ’s righteousness.  God looks at us and sees the righteousness of Jesus and not our sins.  He then rules that we are “not guilty” and when the judge (God) says “not guilty” we are not guilty.

     This should be a source of great joy for us.  Imagine your mortgage or your credit card or student loans or your farm bank notes suddenly being declared “forgiven, they don’t owe anything;” how would we respond then?  Our joy should be even greater than that and the whole world should see it.  We have joy because our sins are forgiven; we are “not guilty” declared holy by God.

Gracious Lord, we given you thanks for our redemption by your blood.  We ask that you lead us to live a life of joy and thanksgiving for this promised mercy.  Move us by your Spirit to tell others of this great gift and lead them to your saving grace.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

12-21-2022

Good Morning All,

     Deuteronomy 11:9, “and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.” 

    We are going to live in a land of milk and honey.  That is a phrase we don’t use much.  It refers to a land that is bounteous and fruitful.  So, do we live in a land that is flowing with milk and honey?

    It is always kind of funny to listen to farmers talk.  Most will always tell you that they farm the worst ground in the area.  One farmer told me that when the soil surveyor came through and surveyed the land; the surveyor told him that he would starve to death before he raised a family on this land.  Another tells the story of sending in a soil sample to a soil lab to be analyzed.  He received a letter from the lab telling him that he sent the wrong sample but that his dog has worms.  A fair number claim to farm in “No Hope Township.”  So apparently, most of us do not think we farm or live in the land flowing with milk and honey.

    A lot of this is just the humble nature of most farmers; they usually don’t brag too loudly about what they do.  Some might be self-preservation.  If you are renting good land, you don’t want everyone to know and then try to bid it away from you.  But deep down, do you live in a land flowing with milk and honey?

    This phrase has always fascinated me because when you look at the land that the children of Israel occupied; it would be hard to call it the land flowing with milk and honey.  It is mostly a desert and is about the only Middle Eastern country without any oil.  They build dams to catch the spring runoff from the mountains to have water for their gardens. How is this, the land flowing with milk and honey?

      The reason that it is the land flowing with milk and honey has nothing to do with the dirt of the land but with the owner of the land.  The children of Israel were living in the land that God was giving to them, as a gift, keeping a promise that he made to their forefathers.  It was a land flowing with milk and honey, not because it grew 250-bushel corn or 75-bushel soybeans, but because the children of Israel were living in the covenant of God’s grace.

      We too, live in a land flowing with milk and honey.  We live in God’s grace.  We are his children, righteous and redeemed before God.  We call him Father and he hears us; he embraces us with the love that we cannot even begin to fathom.  We see that love in the life of Jesus; we see it in the empty tomb.  We see it in the promise of salvation that is ours.  We see it when we join in the communion of saints and the holy fellowship with our fellow believers. 

     We live in a land flowing with milk and honey.  We receive God’s blessings when we deserve his wrath; we receive his mercy when we deserve his judgment.  God’s love for us gives us our land flowing with milk and honey and nothing can take it away.

Dear Father, your mercies are new everyday as we live in your land flowing with milk and honey.  Forgive us when we are slow to see the wonders of your love and the greatness of your grace.  Guide us to live out our lives in such a way that we draw others to live in your land as well.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

12-20-2022

 Good Morning All,

      2 Corinthians 12:9; “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

    “These are the times that try men’s souls.”  That is the opening line of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine during the Revolutionary War.  It was written at a time of uncertainty during the war.  As you read it, you get the sense of stress that he feels.  This was written during a national emergency when our liberty hung in the balance.  How come, at the end of the day, does it feel like this is the summation of the day?

     Do you have days like that; the ones that really make you stress out?  Granted, it may not be of national importance; but it stills matters to me and it still feels awfully difficult.  Over the last couple of years that I have been taking classes through the seminary I have gotten to know and become friends with some of the other students.  One of the guys who will be ordained in my group is facing a potential transfer which will totally change what he is doing.  Another has lost the financial support of his church to pay for the classes; he took a second job to try and make ends meet.  For them, these are the times that try men’s souls.

    All of us experience those days.  The co-worker that just pushes and pushes our buttons; the child who has moved away and we worry about if they listened to anything we said.  The new in-law who has thrown a monkey wrench into everything; the spouse who doesn’t seem to care anymore.  We deal with vehicles and equipment that always seems to break down at the most inconvenient time.  We have those days that try our souls.

    One thing that I have noticed on those days is that my greatest source of stress is me.  I am the one who places the deadlines and goals in place.  I am the one who has to do it all, all at once, in the fashion that I decide.  Did you notice these past few sentences; there are a lot of “I’s” in them.  Therein is the trouble.  My focus is inward, and I am not listening to the Spirit.  When you have days like this, listen to what Jesus says to us,” My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 

     We stress about a lot of things.  We worry ourselves sick about many things that never happen.  Instead of placing our confidence, our faith, in Jesus and his all-powerful grace, we trust in “good old me” and we always fall short when I count on “me.”  When we realize that we are weak, so weak that we are totally helpless, completely unable to do anything for our own salvation, we see that all our hope is in Jesus.  That is what it means when Paul writes “my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Here perfect means complete or accomplished.  When we receive Jesus as our Savior and stop trying to do it all, Christ is there, waiting patiently to give us a hug and the comfort we experience with and though His wondrous grace.

    So don’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders; trust in God and his ever-sufficient grace to give you the peace to have God’s holy rest.

Gracious Lord, we are often anxious and stressed about many things, but none are ever important, and none ever really matter when we see that all we have, and need is from your benevolent hand.  Be with those who are experiencing the pain of stress and anxiety.  Remove this from their hearts and lives and give them the comfort and the certainty of the hope in your salvation.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret             

Monday, December 19, 2022

12-19-2022

Good Morning All,

      Jeremiah 31:33, “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. “

    It would appear that my curmudgeonly ways are becoming more ingrained. There are very few new shows that I like to watch. Give me the old ones, even though I know the dialogue; they are still the best. Lately, I have been watching a show from my high school days, it is “Emergency.”  That is the show about the fire department paramedics in Los Angeles.  They were always saving someone who had a heart attack, at least one per show.

    It is always fascinating to watch shows where one of the characters has a heart attack.  They always show the monitor that shows his heart rate, and it always goes flat and plays that one long tone before we see the “blip” on the screen and suddenly he is alright.  Everyone cheers because without the amazing skill of the doctor and his beautiful nurse, the patient would have died. 

    It is fascinating to think about the flat-line patient.  In the real world, which signals no heartbeat; shortly you are dead.  It takes something external to bring him back to the living.  In the earlier shows it was always a hard thwack on the chest; the later shows used electronic shock paddles, but it takes something to bring him back.

    We are the same way before God.  In our sinful state, we are dead, dead in sin.  Nothing we can do can change that.  We need an external force to move us.  That force is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross on Calvary.  That saving grace which God feely gives to us through faith makes us alive.

     Faith is an amazing thing.  It brings the Holy Spirit and produces new life in us, new life in our hearts.  Now that we have the Holy Spirit living in us; we now have spiritual impulses in this new heart.  The old has passed away; we are new creations.  This is what Jeremiah was referring to when he wrote, “I will write it on their hearts.”  We have the Spirit which will,” bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).  God’s message is written in our hearts and the Holy Spirit reminds us of that fact.  This then gives us the greatest comfort that we can have; we are God’s people.  We are God’s people chosen by him, claimed by him, loved by him, and saved by him.         

    God’s mercies, new every day, renew us and bring us new life just like that electric shock brings new life to that heart attack victim.  God gives to us new blessings everyday which he wants us to share with those around us.  In this fashion, we return to the purpose which we created, to live in God’s presence with joyful thanksgiving and with love for our neighbor.  With the new beating heart, we are no longer dead but alive in Hm.

Dear heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the blessings of this life and the promise of life eternal.  Forgive us when we fail to trust this great mercy which you shower on us.  Keep us close to you safe in your arms.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret