7-31-2022

Good Morning!    

                   Deuteronomy 30:19; “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live”

      If there is one thing that we have in the United States it is choice.  You cannot ever just order something without the person waiting on you asking you a lot of questions.  Even a glass of water will often get the question of lemon or no lemon.  Sometimes ordering coffee can take longer than drinking it.  If you go to a restaurant and order a hamburger and fries, well even lawyers ask fewer questions.  So, we are used to choices, and we make then; sometimes they are not always the best choices in the world. 

    One of the amazing things about our forgiveness is that we now have a choice.  When we were lost, we had no choice.  We were only lost.  We were left to go on the journey of life alone.  We were unable to call upon God for his grace and peace.  We had no hope.  We were lost.  We had no options.

    Jesus’ death and resurrection changes everything, even our ability to choose.  Jesus came to bring us life even abundant life.  Jesus came to bring you into the kingdom of God and to give you his peace and hope.  It is yours, given to you by grace through faith.  You can hold it, cling to it, rely on, relish it and revel in its tremendous joy.  It is yours unless you don’t want it; then walk away.

    We still walk on our path of life, the journey which began at our birth and will change either upon our death or Christ’s return whichever comes first.  Jesus has brought us back into God’s family.  God has sent his Spirit to walk with you, to guide you along the way and to keep you mindful of all that God has, is, and will do for you in this life and beyond.  God offers to hear our prayers and to answer them.  Jesus came to lift the burden of hopelessness.  He came to give you all this.  He came to give you the blessings to live this life as a redeemed child of God.

    Yet you can walk away.  You can choose to remain in the old life.  You can choose death.  You can choose to walk through life on your own.  You can face all of life’s struggles and challenges on your own but why?  You have been given the wonderful mercy of God, why walk away?

    Many dos: but that is what a choice is, staying and clinging to God’s wonderful mercy or walking away and facing life alone.  We have the choice; we get to choose.  God gives us our salvation, but we can throw it away or we can cling to his promise and live in his peace.

Gracious lord, you came to this world to redeem us from sin.  You give us the freedom to live in your righteous kingdom or to turn our back and walk away.  Guide me by your Spirit to cling to you.  Guide me to trust in your wondrous promise.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret          

7-30-2022

Good Morning!    

                1 John 1:9; “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

    Every river, lake or ocean has what is called the “high water mark.”  This is the line or level where the water reaches its highest point.  It often leaves and interesting picture.  Above the line can be the dirt and the debris which the water does not wash away and below the line is the cleansed wall or bank.  This is especially true in rivers where the water is moving constantly.  You can see the rocks which are polished below the line but rough and dirty above the line.  What exists above the line is above the scouring effect of the water.

    Do you listen to preacher tell you that all your sins are forgiven but wonder about a few?  Do you think that there are some that are simply above the high-water mark?  Do you think that there are some sins, which you commit, that go unforgiven?  Then do you feel even worse because you doubt God’s forgiveness?  If it is any consolation, you are not alone.  Most Christians, at some point in their life, feel this way.  Some feel this way more often than others, maybe you are one of them.  This feeling leads to guilt and guilt is the devil’s best friend.  You may feel that there is something in your life that is just beyond any forgiveness.  It can lead to a couple of things.  First, we may feel that, deep down, God is punishing us here on earth for this sin.  It might be that you don’t feel the same health as you think you should.  Perhaps a friend or neighbor seems to always have more than you do.  Perhaps it seems that the neighbors always get more timely rain than you do.  You constantly feel under a cloud.

    This probably isn’t occurring, but guilt will lead us to see it. Guilt does many things to us.  It can even be more debilitating if we let the devil convince us that our sins are soon to be revealed to God and everyone and when they are everyone will look at us in disgust and abandon us as quickly as they can.  This kind of guilt can separate us from those around us as we are afraid to get too close for fear, they will see the hidden sin.  They will see where the high-water mark is and know what sins are not washed away. 

    Always remember that God’s ways are above your ways and the blood of Jesus washes higher than any sin you have.  The blood of Jesus will always scour clean your heart and soul; it already has.  All you need to do is to cling to this truth.  All you need to do is to cling to the reality that ALL your sins are forgiven, not just a few or just the little ones but all of them.  God wants you to live free from sin so that you can live in his kingdom in joyful service to him.  God wants you to live in hope and in peace.  No sin is ever higher than God’s mercy; nothing is higher than Jesus.

Father, too often I try to hide from you because I think I have sins too hard to forgive.  Guide me by your Spirit to trust fully in the promise of your salvation.  Give me the comfort of your grace that I might rest in your loving arms and content in your mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior and King we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

7-29-2022

 Good Morning!    

              1 Corinthians 13:5; “It (love) isn’t rude. It doesn’t think about itself. It isn’t irritable. It doesn’t keep track of wrongs.”

   Do you know any “score keepers”?  You know, the kind of person who keeps “score” with others in life.  They keep track of how often they invited you over for coffee versus how many times you invited them.  They know how many cards or notes they mailed you versus how many they have received.  I had a friend who was a high school basketball coach.  He was dealing with a couple of parents who were keeping track of how much playing time all the players on the team were getting.  They tracked them down to the seconds played.  He was trying to win a game and they were wondering why little Johnny played 25 seconds more than little Billy.  He had a headache a lot that year.

    One thing about a “score keeper” is that they are never happy.  Sometimes you wonder if they keep enough scores so that they can be unhappy.  Sometimes you wonder if they have a special room in their house to keep all the scorebooks in.  They keep track of each and every perceived wrong.  They know very little happiness and there are times when I am them.  There are times when I keep score.

    I don’t set out to do this but somehow it happens.  I do exactly what this verse speaks of.  I get rude; I think only of myself.  I get irritable and then I start taking names and start keeping score and the great thing about being the scorekeeper is that you always win, at least in your own mind.  Yet here we see one of God’s truths; love conquers all.

   When we keep score, we do so in a selfish, self-centered, egotistical existence.  It is I, I, I and no one else.  We think we are the center of the universe and with this attitude we exclude all love.  This exclusion of love also excludes our own contentment.  It can take us a lifetime to realize that selfishness never leads to contentment.  Selfishness takes us away from God.  Love is God bringing us back to him.

    Love does not keep score; it simply gives of itself.  It can show itself in many small ways.  Yet one of the best ways is to stop keeping score.  All that keeping score accomplishes is to hurt everyone involved, especially the scorekeeper.  By keeping score, you never let go of the hurt that we feel.  There will never be contentment or happiness in any relationship where someone is a “scorekeeper;” there will only be sadness.

    So, we need to see and follow Jesus’ example and God’s directive to us: forgive as I (God) have forgiven you.  It is only through forgiveness that we will have contentment in this life.

Dearest Father, help me to not be a scorekeeper.  Give me the strength to forgive those small slights that occur to me.  Help me to see that what you forgive is greater than what I can forgive.  Lead me to be your light in my community and show that forgiving one another is a greater good than keeping score.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

7-28-2022

Good Morning!    

        Matthew 28:20; ^“Teach them to do everything I have commanded you. “And remember that I am always with you until the end of time.”

    “All by myself, Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore, All by myself, Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore.”  That is the chorus to an old pop song by Eric Carmen.  He sang about having no one to turn to no one to talk to.  He was living his life all alone.  He felt empty, lost, and isolated.  This is a common expression of many people.

    A couple weeks ago, while in a bookstore, I saw an anthology of some love poems.  One was very bittersweet.  The author (a male) was writing to his wife or girlfriend.  The title was “When you don’t say ‘I love you’”.  He lamented the apparent indifference of his partner.  He felt empty, lost, and isolated.  He wrote of being “afloat in a sea of indifference” and “living in darkness with no light of her love.”  At times it was corny, but you almost got the impression that the writer just sat down and wrote the poem as the emotion poured out.  He was at an emotional loss.

     This can be a fear for many people.  Loneliness is one of man’s greatest fears.  We are by God’s design social creatures.  We long for and seek out companionship.  We long for and seek out love.  This is why ambivalence can cause so much pain.  We know love; we know hate, but we struggle with indifference.  It is that indifference that that can cause loneliness.  Yet even when we feel all alone, we never are.

    Jesus is always with us.  It is the devil and the sinful world that wants you to feel all alone.  Yet, just as God gave us these relationships to help us live the life that he gives us; he also wants us to nurture those relationships.  By doing this, we encourage each other.  We strengthen them according to God’s plan.  Jesus is with us, and he uses His Word, His Sacraments and His redeemed children to be with us.  He uses others to comfort and console us; he uses others to bring us his love.

    But sometimes, Jesus uses US to bring this comfort to someone else.  Sometimes you are the helped and sometimes you are the helper.  We need to see this clearly.  God entrusts to us His Spirit and thus entrusts us to do his work here on earth.  So, God desires that you and I give comfort to our brothers and sisters in Christ but especially to our blood family and to our spouses.  Our blood family and spouses are the truly special gifts that God gives to us.  So, we need to be especially sure to show them the love that we have for them.  So be sure this day and each day to express your love for your family; by doing so you express Jesus’ love to them.

Dear Father, too often we fail to express our love for our family.  We fail to bring Christ to each other and in doing so some feel lost and alone.  Give us the strength to fulfill your desire that all know your love.  Be with those who are especially troubled at this time and send your Spirit to those around them to bring your love to them.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

7-27-2022

Good Morning!    

          Hebrews 12:2a; “We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith.”

    Have you ever paid attention to the way you drive?  When you drive, you focus on the road ahead.  You watch to keep the car headed in an even fashion going straight ahead.  You do this so that you don’t swerve too far to the left or right and so that you can avoid any bumps in the road ahead or if the road changes direction.

    Yet, we also have to pay attention to what else is around us.  So, we take glances out the side windows or glances in the rearview mirror.  We need to be aware of what is going on around us, but we must maintain our focus on the road ahead.  So, we focus, a quick look to the left, focus ahead, a quick glance to the right, focus ahead, a quick glance in the rearview mirror, focus on the road ahead; that pretty much is how we drive.  We might throw in a quick check of the radio or heater, but we keep focused on the road ahead.

    If you ever start to focus on what is going on out the side window, you will soon be in trouble.  There has been many a farmer who, while looking at the neighbor’s fields, has found himself either on the wrong side of the road or heading into the ditch.  His focus is on the wrong direction, and he loses control of his vehicle.  It is easy to do if you focus in the wrong direction; pretty soon you are no longer heading down the right path, but you are veering off to the left or right and you are finding the ditch in a hurry.

    Our faith life is like that as well.  We need to focus on Jesus and our salvation.  The problem is that too often we focus on our sin rather than glancing at it.  We need to be aware of our sin.  We need to recognize our sin and thus try to avoid those sins, but we shouldn’t focus on those sins; we should focus on Jesus.  When we focus on our sin; we can veer off course and live a life that is based on guilt.  We look at what is wrong in our life and then we live life as only focusing on what is bad in life.  When we look at Jesus, we focus on Him on the cross.

    What we should focus on is Jesus and the grace and love for us.  Instead of focusing on our sins and shortcomings, we should focus on God’s love and the joy it should bring us.  We need to glance at our sins, they remind us that all our “good” is from God.  We need to focus on Jesus, on the love that he has for us, on his desire for us to live with him in eternity.  This is where we find our joy and contentment; this is where we find our love for life and our fellow man.  God’s mercy lets us focus on the road ahead toward our final destiny, life eternal with Jesus.

    So don’t focus on your sins.  Know they are there, strive, with the help of the Spirit, to move past them but focus upon Jesus and his saving grace.

Gracious Lord, your death and resurrection has freed us from the fear of watching out for the problems in this world and allow us to focus on your love, your mercy, and our final destination of living with you eternally.  Give us the strength to focus on you and to live our life of contentment which you desire for us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

7-26-2022

Good Morning!    

          1 Samuel 28:7; “(King) Saul told his officers, “Find me a woman who conjures up the dead. Then I’ll go to her and ask for her services.”  His officers told him, “There is a woman at Endor who conjures up the dead.”

    “The Witch of Endor;” this is one of those stories in the Bible that always causes people to sit up and listen during a Bible study class.  King Saul and the Israelites were at war with the Philistines.  He was trying to find out how the battle would go.  He turned from God and turned to a medium, a sorcerer, a witch who lived at Endor.  He asked her what she saw.  She told him it was the ghost of Samuel, the prophet.  The ghost told Saul that God had turned from him because he turned from God.  In the ensuing battles, Saul was killed. 

    Not every story has a happy ending.  Here was a man whom God had selected to be the first king of Israel, but he turned from God and even turned toward false idols for his hope.  In the end, he died away from God.

    Many people seem to go the same route as Saul.  They seem to be on top of the world.  They have a good job, a good spouse, a good family; it looks like they have it all.  Then they begin to look away from God and look toward any other source of comfort and support.  It can take many forms; it might be false religions, it might be believing the government can solve your problems, it might be wealth, it might be their intelligence, it might be that they simply want to trust the randomness of chaos.  They look to anything but God.

    The temptation is great.  It can be easy for us to be seduced by the elements of the world that want to lead us away.  Saul was seduced by the power of being king; all that wealth and everyone doing his bidding led him away from God.  The power of the seduction can be great no matter where it comes from.  The real problem is that when we are seduced away from God, when temptation leads us astray; we will die.  It may not be in battle with the Philistines but bring led from God will lead to our death. 

    The witch of Endor led Saul away from God.  Are there any “witches” that seek to lead you away from God?  There are probably many, but the critical thing is to see them for what they truly are: temptations to lead us astray.  We need to keep “The Spirit’s toolbox” handy.  We need to pray, to study God’s Word, to worship regularly with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, use his sacraments wisely.  These are all the tools that God gives us to help us withstand the “witches” in our life.  We need to use them diligently and trust in God to provide us a way to escape from the “witches.”

Gracious Lord, you give us the tools to battle our “witches.”  Strengthen our faith and give us the resolve to see only you as our hope and comfort.  Keep us mindful of your great love for us.  We ask that you especially be with those who are struggling with their own “witches” at this time.  Use us to help them overcome and remain in your kingdom.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

7-25-2022

Good Morning!    

         John 17:3; “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”

    It was always an interesting time.  The first day of classes in college were always interesting.  The instructor would come into the class and then proceed to tell you what class it was and who he was.  Then he would pause and about 6-10 people would get up and leave; they were in the wrong class.  They didn’t belong.  It happens; you look at the room number and misread it. 

     A few years ago (pre-covid), I stopped at the hospital to visit a member.  I asked the desk for his room number and then went to that room.  As I entered, a lady was sitting on the chair.  She said,” he is in the bathroom and will be right out.”  The member was an unmarried man, so I thought this was a sister I hadn’t met.  We chatted until he came out of the bathroom, and I looked at him and had no clue who he was.  We introduced ourselves and talked for a few minutes and then went on my way to find my member.

    When you go to the hospital, the nurses are the ones who really know what is what so I asked one of them where my parishioner was.  He had been dismissed and someone else checked into his room.  Most of us have found our self in the wrong room or at the wrong time and we were out of place.  We are usually a little embarrassed but that is about it.  Yet we like to be in the right place.  We like to belong to the right group, whether it is a classroom or a hospital visit, or a church; we like to fit in and belong to the group.

    That is one thing that the devil tries to do; he tries to convince you that you are not part of the group.  The devil wants you to believe that you are in the wrong place.  He wants you to get up and leave God’s presence and grace.  That is really the only way he can get us; he has to separate us from God.  He can only accomplish this if you leave; God will never leave you out of his group.

    Notice how our verse goes, Jesus is praying for his disciples.  They were God’s and God gave them to Jesus.  Now they belong to Jesus.  We are the disciples that belong to Jesus.  He is our source of comfort, hope and belonging.  We are safe in his family; we are at home with him. 

    The devil will do everything he can to try and separate you from God and the love that is Jesus.  That is his goal; to torment you in any way that he can.  He takes ordinary and random events and tries to get you to see them as acts designed to punish you or to have you feel excluded from God’s grace.  The devil wants you to feel like you don’t belong.  But we do belong to Jesus.  He has purchased us back from our sin and given to us his gift of salvation. 

Gracious Lord, we belong to you.  Keep us secure in that knowledge.  Give us the certainty of your Word and the complete fulfillment of our hope in you.  Be with those who feel lost and as if they do not belong.  Comfort them by your Spirit.  Bring them to the full knowledge of your saving truth.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

7-24-2022

 Good Morning!    

              1 Corinthians 10:13; “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

    Did you ever buy or play with Weebles?  Remember, “Weebles wobble but they won’t fall down!”  They are small round bottomed plastic toys that are weighted in the bottom, so they always stay upright.  You can push them, and they will wobble to the left and right and eventually they stand back up.  Little (and not so little) kids can play with them for hours.  They always come back to stand up straight.

    Sometimes I wish I could do that in real life.  I slipped coming down the stairs a few times.  I wish I would have wobbled instead of going thud.  I would guess that if you have every fallen down and broke or cracked something you would have liked to wobble as well.  There are plenty of times when being able to wobble would come in handy.  Then we wouldn’t be knocked over and hurt.

    One place where wobbling can come in handy is when we face temptations.  Make no mistake temptation can cause us to be knocked and knocked hard.  Without faith, those knocks can send us sprawling all over the place.  It can break bones and everything.  Without faith, the devil can break us, cause us to hurt greatly but above all he will separate us from God’s grace by leading us away from God’s love. 

    Yet God provides us a way out.  He gives us the strength to wobble when we are hit.  We might wobble but we will get back upright.  When temptations hit, they can hit very hard.  Some people worry that temptation affects them.  But know that temptation can hit you hard but true temptations can hurt a lot.  They also give us an opportunity to look at our self.  Know that when temptation comes, and God allows it; it occurs not so God knows what is in our heart but so that we can know what is in our heart.  Temptation can bring you to your knees, but it is in this position that we best speak to God. It is here that we best recognize that we do not and cannot stand on our own.

   The only way we can stand is like the Weeble; we need something special inside of us.  We need something inside of us that will orientate us in the right direction.  We need God’s Spirit to dwell in us.  We need to use that Spirit to trust in God’s promise.  No matter how much we may wobble; God will not let us tip over or be knocked down permanently.  God will bring us back upright in and through his grace.  For it is by his grace that we are able to withstand the devil’s blows; it is only when we try to stand on our own that we get knocked over and damaged.

   God gives us the ability to face temptation.  God gives us the strength to remain upright and standing even if it makes you wobble; you can endure it because God has promised to give us that strength.

Gracious Father, I often wobble in the face of temptation.  Continue to give me the strength to face those tests.  Be with those who feel the sting of the devil’s attacks.  Bring them back upright in their life.  Strengthen their faith.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-23-2022

Good Morning!    

             Ephesians 2: 8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

    When I was in college, one of the guys who lived in the dorm that I did was nominated to be the homecoming king.  It was about a 4-step process as every organization could nominate.  Then the homecoming committee narrowed it down to 5 men and 5 women to be candidates.  We teased him a little, at first; but when he made the final cut, we really gave him a hard time.  We would bow deeply before him as he walked by.  We formed and entourage for him and we always called out, “we are not worthy, we are not worthy” when he came into the room.  At first, he was a little put out but after a while he went with the flow.  He didn’t win but we all had a lot of fun.

    Have you ever been around someone who you felt you weren’t worthy to be around?  When my wife first started to show interest in me, I thought it was for my buddy.  I didn’t think I was worthy of someone that pretty.  (I still don’t).  It can be hard when you are in their presence.  You don’t know what to say; you don’t know how to act; you feel tentative and very stressed about being with them.  It can be that way when we think of our relationship with God.

    It is said that Martin Luther climbed the 28 steps of the Scala Santa (Holy Stairs) on his knees, saying the Lord’s Prayer on each step trying to be worthy of God.  When he got to the top, he didn’t feel any better than he did at the bottom.  He could never feel worthy of God and his grace.  Luther finally realized he never would.

    We are never worthy of God’s grace.  Nothing we do impresses God.  Nothing we do makes God sit up and notice us.  We are saved because God loves us and for no other reason.  He came to us and sought us out and brought us back to his kingdom because of his loving nature not because we are worthy.  So, we don’t have to worry about how good we are or how many acts of “good works” we do, we could climb 100 steps on our knees; it would not impress God. 

    What impressed God was when Jesus died for us.  What really impressed God was when Jesus took the full brunt of the punishment for our sins.  That is what impressed God.  It impressed him enough to call it good enough to forgive our sins because of it.  This action makes us worthy to stand before God as his redeemed children.  This action saves us from eternal damnation and gives to us the promise of eternal life.  All we need to do is cling to that promise and trust it to be true.  We are saved, not by being worthy or good enough; we are saved because we are loved.  We are loved by a God whose desire is to have us live as his dear children.  It is God’s love not our actions.

Gracious Father, we are never worthy of your grace, yet you pour out grace upon grace upon us.  For this we give you thanks.  We ask that you bring comfort to those who struggle, trying to be good enough.  Let them come to know that we are saved by your love and not by our works.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

7-22-2022

Good Morning!    

          Philippians 3:20; ^“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”

     “Homeward bound, I wish I was homeward bound” at least that is what Simon and Garfunkel sing about.  This song is about a man who wants to go home but, for many reasons, can’t go home.  Going home is a dream for many, it is what many people want especially during the holiday season.  Many ballads are about going home, wanting to go home, or arriving home.  It seems to be a popular theme.

    Going home is a desire for most of us.  It is interesting how people define home.  We know that “home is where the heart is” so I often find people in the nursing home, even those who enjoy where they are, still long to go home.  Many people, even though they have lived in a city for many years still consider home to be where they grew up.  They would like to go home but they can’t find any work there.

    Home is a desire for all of us.  It is a common desire of humans everywhere.  Home is where we are safe.  Home is where our loved ones are.  Home is where we find our rest at the end of a long and hard day.  Home is the place where our fears can be put to rest as we seek out the comfort of our friendly surroundings.

    This is why Scriptures spends so much time describing heaven as home for us.  In our verse, we read where out citizenship is in heaven.  In the Gospel of John, we read where Jesus is going to his Father’s house to prepare a place for us.  When Stephen was being stoned in the Book of Acts, he saw heaven open up and invite him home.  Home is a place for us to look forward to in our faith life as well.  Home is where we long to be; it is where we are safe from the perils of the world.  It is where our loved ones are.  Home is where we are safe in the arms of our loving Father.

   It is a place to look forward to.  It is a place that we can look to at times of trouble and at times of peril.  We can look to it as the place where, at the end of a long, hard day; we will have rest.  It is where we can lay our head upon the lap of our loving Savior and rest.  It is where the loving arms of our heavenly family waits to comfort us. 

    So, as we live in this world and we struggle with some of the challenges that this world will throw at us, we can look forward to our heavenly home.  It is always an amazing experience to listen to those who are in the final hours of their life here on earth and they are quietly looking forward to going home.  This is the comfort that we can take in this truth.  Heaven truly is our home, and we can look forward to our home to come.

Father of grace, our home is with you, and we look forward to living with you.  Until we do, give us the certainty of our place with you.  Give us the certainty of knowing that our future is secure with you.  Guard us with your Word.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

7-21-2022

Good Morning!    

          Psalm 103:4; “who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,”

    Many years ago, Erma Bombeck wrote a book entitled, “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What am I doing in the Pits?”  It was her humorous look at life in suburbia.  She had many quaint sayings and observations that were somewhat insightful and usually funny.  Yet it asked a serious question if it was intended to be funny, why am I always in the pits?

    We use the phrase “in the pits” to describe a feeling of despair and or loneliness.  We feel we have a problem and that no one has an answer to it.  This feeling can run the gamut from the high school athlete who just can’t beat his opponent to the employee who just can’t seem to get that promotion to the person who keeps losing a job or some other type of calamity.  We usually associate this feeling with being down as in “down in the pits”.  This is actually a very old idea and goes way back to Scriptural and pre-Scriptural time when a person was punished by being thrown into a literal pit.  Often times this pit would be at the low end of the village so rainwater and sewage would flow freely into it.  Sometimes it would have a cover of some sort over it to keep out the light and any chance of escape.  So, life in the pit was a dark, dank, cold, smelly, and lonely existence.  It was a punishment at a time when punishment was very mercurial and completely dependent upon the whims of the ruler.  The length of time was often arbitrary as well.  

    So, as we look at our verse, we should have the image of a person, unjustly and cruelly judged, being thrown into a pit of punishment.  How long he will stay there is yet to be determined.  He will have little, if any, contact with those who love him; he will just sit in the smelly, cold pit until the ruler or judge decides to let him out.  Also, remember this was at a time when they put you in prison for a debt and didn’t let you out until you paid it so he could be in that pit long enough to die.

   There are times in our lives when the devil puts us in a pit like this.  First, something goes haywire; it might be accidental like a car wreck.  This spins into not being able to get to work on time.  This could lead to being fired.  Now you are in the pits.  It might be a relational issue with your hormonally challenged teenager that explodes into a real war.  It might be the declining health of an aged parent or worse it might be a combination of all these events with a know-it-all neighbor with all the answers for you.  Yikes!! This is really the pits.

    So, we see our Savior pulling us out of the pit and not only pulling us out but lifting us up.  He holds us with his everlasting love and mercy.  He sees our condition and sends his spirit of hope to us; he sends his Spirit of comfort to us.  We need to trust in his mercy that the pit is usually of our own doing, and we only need to focus on Christ for our deliverance. 

Father of all mercies, you extract us from the pit of despair with your love.  Be especially with those who are struggling with the battles of the pit, depression and despair, ad give them the refreshing breath of your Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-20-2022

Good Morning!    

    Proverbs 30: 8b-9; “give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is useful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God."

    This is the second part of our prayer. Here we see something unique. Agur is praying, not for abundance, but enough to live on. He sees that he needs balance in his life. If he has too much, he fears forgetting God and his blessings. If he has too little, he fears he may steal and then, by breaking the commandments, profane (dishonor) God’s name. This is a very self-aware person. If he has too much, he fears walking away from God; if he has too little, he fears dishonoring God. Do we pray for, “enough but not too much”? Or do we pray for “more, more, more!!”

    I remember watching a comedic movie a number of years ago and in one part a group of people went on a boat to watch the whales. They sailed and sailed and didn’t see anything and the passengers began to grumble. After a long while someone saw some whales off of the one side. Everyone ran to that side and the ship tilted that way. The passengers panicked and they all ran to the other side and the ship titled that way, so they ran back, and the ship titled again. This went on for a few tries until finally a little boy told them to stop and stand in the middle of the ship and soon it was on even keel again. For the ship, a sense of balance with the passengers spread out in a pattern that allowed the ship to sail even was needed. Here, Agur is praying for balance, for contentment. He wants enough to be able to live but not too much so that he forgets God’s goodness in all of his life.

    A prayer for contentment, this is probably not prayed as much in the United States as it probably should be. How often is our prayer for “more” and not a prayer for “enough?” Does our prayer for “more” lead us to envy, jealousy, divisions, greed, selfishness, and things of this nature? The desire for “more, more, more” also causes us the stress of running around and chasing wild ideas and get rich quick schemes, plus the stress of the amount of time we spend and the relational cost which this entails. A prayer of a man who maybe had too much and regretted the way he turned out.

    The thing about this type of prayer is that it encourages us to want enough but not too much; it prays for balance in our lives including a time to refresh and worship God in his grace and mercy and to be in his presence with joy and thanksgiving and not looking at our watch wondering when this over so we can go back to making money.

    Balance in life is something that Scriptures encourages us to desire. A time to sow and a time to reap, a time of joy and a time of sorrow, a time of balance in our life remembering that we live in God’s grace by God’s grace.

Father, lead me to a life that is content and satisfied with all that you give me. Keep me from greed but also from dire struggles. Keep us focused on your great love and mercy so that we may rest in your loving arms and rest with you in peace. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret