9-30-2025

Good Morning All,

        Psalm 145:18; “The Lord is near to everyone who prays to him, to every faithful person who prays to him.”

    I remember watching Sesame Street with my sons many years ago.  I used to like the part where the two monsters taught the concept of near and far.  There was some catchy music and the monsters would show up near to the camera or far from the camera.  Sometimes the monster would be right in front of the camera saying “near” fairly loudly then soon he would be far away from the camera and you would barely hear “far.” 

    They learned the concept of near and far.  The problem with learning this concept is that as soon we understand near and far; many things seem to be far.  We seem to be far from our friends or far from being done or far from getting enough rest or far from being satisfied.  It seems like near is more about nearly lost, nearly broke, nearly empty or near exhaustion.  All too often, this is how we feel.  When we feel this way, it gives the devil a platform.  He stands near to us and whispers in our ear how far away God is.  In our sinful state, we listen.  In our time of being lost or wandering, we feel that God is far, far away.  We still see him as God but he is the great God who is far above the world far away from us.

    This is because our sinful nature doesn’t want to see God as being near; our sinful nature does not desire to have a loving relationship with God.  It only seeks to hold God in contempt.  As we do this we move far from God or so we think.

    But God is always near to us.  He is always calling to us.  He always wants to be in a loving relationship with us.  Even when we look at our world, at our life and we think God is far away; we may even be angry or hurt that God doesn’t care but he does, always has always will.  So how do we stop feeling so far from God?  How do we fix it?

    God gives us the tools to deal with this life.  One of the tools is prayer.  Prayer is a great gift of God to us.  It is half of that “holy conversation” that God engages in with us.  It is our part of the conversation.  God speaks to us through his Word and we speak back through prayer.  This conversation, this relationship is built up for us by God’s grace.  Prayer is never a “what” it is always a “who.”  Prayer is about talking with God and staying in close contact with Him.  The amazing thing is not that God gets nearer to us but that we recognize his presence in our lives and we rely on that nearness to give us hope to give us strength.  Our continuance in our prayer life, connected with our listening to God speak to us through His Word will keep us near to God and we will experience his love, his mercy, and his grace.  He is always near and with prayer; we will realize it.

Father of all mercies, your mercies are new to us each day and roll over us like a river.  Keep us aware of your closeness and the love which you have for us.  Guard us by your Spirit.  We especially ask that you send your Spirit with your Word to those who feel that you are so far away.  Comfort them with the assurance that you are near.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-29-2025

Good Morning All,

    Galatians 3:11; “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

     One of my favorite movie series is the “Indiana Jones” series.  I really liked “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”  In it, Indiana and his father are trying to find the Holy Grail.  When he finally comes to the cave that it was secreted in, he has three tasks to accomplish in order to recover the grail.  The first is about being penitent before God, the second is knowing the name of God.  The final task was to take a “step of faith” which appears to be an attempt to cross a distance of many feet, too far to jump.  As he looks down, he sees nothing but the deep of the abyss.  He must get to the room with the grail or else his father will die.  In a scene with some pretty good acting, you can see the anguish of fear and doubt on his face as he takes that step of faith.  As he steps out, he lands on a bridge that looks like the abyss below.  The pathway was there but he didn’t see it at first; he had to walk by faith to cross the abyss to the grail.

    That last task, the step of faith, really applies to us in real life as well.  We stand at the edge of the abyss and God invites us to come to him; in order to do so, we must take a step of faith.  And it is a step of faith.  Almost everything we learn in this world will tell us that to take that step is a mistake.  “If you can’t see it, you can’t believe it;” this is what the world will tell you.  So, we live a life alone.  You cannot see love, or trust, or compassion or any other emotion that we experience. 

    So, we don’t love, not really anyway, we manipulate and use others to accomplish our own goals and dreams.  We don’t trust because we know everyone is like us, willing to lie and cheat to get what we want.  We have no compassion unless we can get something out of it in the end.  This life is filled with sadness, hopelessness, and shame.

    Yet God still loves us and sent his Son to die for us.  He did this to show us that the path we can’t see really is there.  He did this to provide that path. He does this so we have somewhere to go when the pain and sadness of this life is just too much to bear.  God gives us the path and we walk it by faith.  He gives us the desire to believe that the path is the right one.  He gives us the faith to see what true love, true trust and true compassion are. 

     There will be many times when we will have to walk in that faith.  There will be troubles but we can rest assured that we will live by faith, trusting in God’s grace to pull us through.  It is his love that keeps us going and gives us hope.  We take that step but we know that the bridge is there and God goes with us every step of the way.

Gracious Lord, all we have is faith.  This is what gets us through and moves us forward.  Be with us as we walk through this life on the path that you give us.  Be with those who are especially struggling with life today.  Give them the certainty of your grace and bring them through their trials, strengthening their faith as they go.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

9-28-2025

Good Morning All,

    Romans 5:8; “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

     Love is probably the most sought-after condition in the world.  There have probably been more songs, more books, more movies about love than any other single topic.  There are undying love, unrequited love, supposedly eternal love, unselfish love and also greedy love, self-centered love because after all; “all you need is love!”  So, we want love.

    The problem is that we don’t really know true love in this world.  We may speak of love in many contexts but most people only love when they are loved in return.  We seem to have this idea of reciprocity.  I will love you if you will love me.  It seems to get ingrained in us when we are children.  If a group of other children exclude us, we are given the advice that “if they don’t like you then don’t like them.”  They’ll learn how much they are missing someday.”  Early on this kernel of reciprocity begins to work in us.  Even as we get older, we define our friends as the ones we can count on when we truly need something or someone.  We call out to those who can help.  We need to get something from them.

    Yet almost everyone has a point where they cannot or will not love someone else.  The spouse who is unfaithful or the friend who always takes and never gives.  There is the one who says something unkind about you behind your back or even the child who engages in a completely reprehensible act can cause people to stop loving.  I know many will claim that they will hate the act but love the person.  I hope we never have to find out if that is possible but it does seem very, very difficult.

     That is why God’s love is so amazing and almost completely incomprehensible.  I understand loving someone who loves me but God loved us when we were his complete enemies.  We were in a state of total hatred toward God; yet he sent his Son to die for us.  Can you ever comprehend sending your son to willingly die for someone who hates you?  The sheer magnitude of this is overwhelming.  That is what God does for us; His love completely overwhelms us.  It inundates us; it overpowers us; it covers us with a grandeur beyond compare but above all God’s love saves us from our own wretched self.

    This truth of God’s love carries us even when we don’t know it or feel even when we feel abandoned, God’s love sustains us.  At the hour of our greatest weakness, His amazing love will always sustain us.  His grace will float us above all the pain of our trials.  He truly loves us; he shows us this by the fact that his incredible love for us goes back beyond our understanding.  While we were sinners; he died for us.

Wondrous God, the depth of your love is beyond us.  We flourish in it; we relish the taste of your mercy.  Guard us as we travel the path that you have laid out for us.  As the path seems hard and arduous give us that true peace that we have from you through your love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace

Pastor Bret

9-27-2025

Good Morning All,

        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.”

  “Anfechtung.”  No, you don’t respond “Bless you.”  This is a German word that describes much of Martin Luther’s life.  It doesn’t have a real good English translation.  Some attempts include “tribulations,” “temptations,” “trials,” “afflictions;” but these don’t do justice to the word.  When used to describe Luther, many are surprised that it includes the whole concept of self-doubt or self-unworthiness.

    Most people who think of Luther, the monk who made the pope blink, would have nerves of steel.  Yet Luther was a man of trials, tribulations, self-doubt, “anfechtung.”  This is what really propelled the Reformation.  Luther just didn’t believe that all the prayers he said, the good works he did, the Scripture reading he did, the alms he gave to the poor; none of this was enough to satisfy God’s judgment against sin.  So Luther spent much of his early life in “anfechtung”  It wasn’t until the Spirit moved him as he read verses like the one we use today, and others like it, that Luther finally grasped what the Bible really told him; you aren’t ever good enough, we are only saved because God is a God of love.

    Often times, maybe most times, we are plagued by this self-doubt, this “anfechtung.”  There are many times I have sat with someone who expresses this self-doubt.  They look at their life and think that they aren’t good enough for what they have so God will surely look to extract some form of punishment.  “My life is so good right now I am afraid of what will happen tomorrow.”  We think that God’s blessings are in some way, shape or form dependent upon our behavior or action.

     If things are going bad, we work harder at being good.  We read the Bible more; we try and impress God maybe by going to church more or putting more in the collection plate.  We see our situation as God punishing us so we try to get on God’s “good side.”  Or we look at our life and see how God has blessed us and we think “when will it all come to an end?”  “When will my bad deeds catch up to me?”  “Anfechtung” is at work.

    In many ways Luther never got past these self-doubts, even at his death.  But one of Luther’s greatest offerings to us was this simple view “We are all beggars before God.”  All we have is from God.  We can take comfort in this because when “anfechtung” kicks in, we know all depends upon God.  Our actions do not influence our salvation; God took care of it through Jesus and then gave it to us, out of love, through the faith that he gives us.  So, we cling, by faith, to God’s promise.  We will still experience this self-doubt but we can and should always cling to the God who loves us so much that he died for us to pay the cost.  So, as you live your life, know that bad times are just that; bad times: the result of a sinful world.  Also know that good times are not dependent upon how you act but simply upon the good and gracious nature of our God.  So next time you “anfechtung” remember by grace you are saved.  This is what our hope rests upon.

Gracious Father, your love even overcomes my self-doubts.  When I think I am unworthy, I know that you sustain me with your mercy.  Give me the faith to hold onto you and your grace.  Please be with those who are feeling great amounts of self-doubt and guide them with your love back to the certainty of hope in you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret        

9-26-2025

Good Morning All,

         Romans 4:3; “What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

    I read a story on the internet yesterday (so we know it is true!) about a retired lady who had been receiving her monthly retirement check.  She had worked for this company all of her life.  She retired at the age of 62.  She is now almost 90.  She has been receiving these retirement checks for almost 30 years each month depositing the money that she and the company had paid in.  The other day she got a letter from the retirement fund management company.  They had miscalculated her payments and had been overpaying her the whole time.  With interest calculated in, they felt she owed them $620,000.  They were waiting for her prompt payment.

    The fund management credited more money to her account than they should have.  Now they expected it back.  God credits to your account all that Jesus did and counts it as your righteousness.  Just think if your place of employment or your retirement fund was to deposit a large sum of money every day, something like $25 million every morning, at 6:00 am.  Every day of the week, every week of the year, every year of your life.  What would you do with this?  You would never owe anyone anything and you would run out of things to buy and never have to pay it back.

    This is how much God credits to your account through the righteousness of Christ.  It is a sum that you cannot exceed in one day.  Now some of you may think you have.  You may think that you have exceeded your allotted amount but you have not and cannot.  The devil will try to tell you that your “grace account” is overdrawn that you are in debt to a level that you can never repay.  Yet God continues to put into this account every day, grace upon grace; to a level you cannot comprehend.

   God does this out of love for you.  He does this so you can be his redeemed child.  There are so many ways that God shows you, his love.  He does this with his creative act as he creates the world; he does it with his redemptive act of his death; he does it with his re-creative act as he restores us to his kingdom and he does it with the regenerative act of his holy meal as he nourishes us.  This he does in order to sustain us through the trials and struggles of this life.  This he does so that we can live confident of our future; confident in the hope that he gives us.  We are able to face the tasks of today and the challenges of tomorrow because our account is full, never overdrawn.  God, in his mercy, sustains us with his righteousness that he wraps around us with his love.  You can take that to the bank!!

Father in heaven, your mercies are new to us each day.  We give you thanks for the grace that you pour out upon us.  We know no other hope than you.  Be with those who struggle and are in fear.  Be with those who see their struggle as beyond their tolerance.  Give them your comfort and your hope.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-25-2025

Good Morning All,

           Isaiah 60:2-3; “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.   And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

    As much as it is a nuisance for all people, I am fascinated when the electricity goes out.  Because when it does, you really get the sense of what darkness is.  Most of us never really experience true darkness.  We have night lights or there are security lights.  We even use our cell phones to provide light.  There are always enough lights around to give us some semblance of seeing what is there.  It might just be shapes or outlines but we see the forms well enough.  So, when it gets really dark, most of us have a sense of awe at what total darkness is like.

    That is what sin does to the world.  It turns it completely dark.  It tries to hide God from our eyes.  The more it looks dark, the harder it is to see God.  This leads us away from God because we do not see Him and we soon try to find our own way.  When we hear the Gospel and the Spirit moves us to faith, we begin to see the light.  It is a little foggy but we see the light.  There are times when we lose sight of God but he continually seeks us out and bring us back to the light.  But what about those who do not see?

    This is the wonderful and daunting task that God gives to us, His Church.  We are to be his light in this world.  We are to be the active agents in this dark world.  We are to be his light in this dark, sin-filled world.  We are to the proclaimers of God grace and forgiveness.  We are to do this with our mouths but also with our lives.  In order for people to see the light, we must be out in the darkness.  We must reach out to people in need with God’s grace.

    Many people say things like, “if I could see God then I would believe” or maybe “why doesn’t God show himself to us to prove everything he claims?”  This is an interesting view.  It calls for the incarnational (the physically living) God to appear to them. Just like he did in Bethlehem so many years ago.  Even some Christians think this.  The truth is that people do see God every day.  They see God in us.  We are the Church, the body of Christ, we are the incarnation (Physical presence) of God here on earth.  We are called to be the hands and arms of God.  We are to be the very presence of God of among the people.  Luther calls the Church the “masks of God;” the people see us at work but it is really God through his Spirit that is interacting with those around us.

    So, take time this week to be the incarnation of God to the people around you.  Take time to be sure that people really see God in your life.  Be the light that shines brightly in this dark and sad world.

Dear Father, make us shine brightly.  Make us shine the light of your wondrous love.  Give to us the courage to boldly proclaim your love to this world which too often knows only pain, sadness, and darkness.  Move us by your Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,       

Pastor Bret       

9-24-2025

Good Morning All,

         John14:3; “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” 

    Here is a touchy question, are you a person who will loan out your things?  This can be a serious dilemma for some people, especially for the little quirks that we all have.  Mine are books.  I have a lot of books but I am hesitant to loan them out.  If I loan a book to you, I trust you completely.  Some people are this way about their tools, or their special silverware, or cookware.  Some people will loan out clothes while others would never think about it.  One thing about loaning things out shows trust in the other person.

    One thing that we often don’t see is that all of the relationships that we develop with other Christian brothers and sisters are really only loans from God.  See in our verse “I will come again and will take you to myself.”  To a believer, our destiny is heaven and then the resurrection.  It is a great future.  But until this happens, we wait here on earth.  In order to make this wait a little more tolerable, God gives us the gift of companionship.  This gift comes in the form of spouses, children, siblings, parents, friends, and whatever other relationships we have.

    Yet these gifts don’t all last our lifetime.  Some of them may end sooner than we plan or expect.  While this may be uncomfortable or sad to us, it is the truth.  Our relationships are only loans from God.  One day, they will return to God.  One day we will have to give them back. 

     God gives us these gifts of relationships to help us as we go through our life here. They are to be treasured and never taken for granted.  We can never fully know God’s will so we should never feel we have many tomorrows.  This isn’t to make us sad or lonely just cognizant of the fact that our many relationships may cease as we know them sooner than we plan.  So, God encourages us to maximize these relationships while we have them. This is why he encourages us to “not let the sun go down on your anger” or for us to reconcile with our brother as soon as we can.  Forgiveness is always the key for us to remember in order for our relationships to continue on.

    We also need to remember that while our relationships here are important, our truly important relationship lasts forever.  God love for us is eternal.  It is through his love and forgiveness that we have everlasting life.  We will live with God and all believers forever!  One day, after Jesus has returned, we will all live together in the re-created creation.  All of those who we loved in the past, who lived in faith, will be there.  The “loaner” relationships will fade away as eternal ones grow.  We will live together in joyous praise and wondrous love.

Dearest Father, help us to see that while our relationships here in this life are important, they are only loans from you.  Help us when we feel the loss of these relationships.  Keep us focused on your grace and mercy which is active in our lives.  Be with those who especially feel the loss of someone close at this time and give them the comfort of your Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

9-23-2025

Good Morning All,

     Psalm 32:5; “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”                                           

    Whenever I do some “heavy” work, I always start humming that Tennessee Ernie Ford song “Sixteen Tons.”  “You load sixteen ton and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt.”  There are a lot of days when it feels like that is about all I get done in a day, just a little deeper in debt.  I spin my wheels and go like a madman and the pile that I was working on didn’t get any smaller; it just shuffled a little. Have you ever felt like that; just a little more in debt, a little more weight on your back to carry?

    Our verse is from that great confessional Psalm written by David.  It was written during the time when David had committed adultery and had the husband killed in battle.  David did all he could to hide his sin and his shame from God and the people.  He may have fooled the people but he did not fool God.  So, as David carried these sins with him, in an effort to hide the truth from God; David only got deeper in debt.  The weight of carrying that sin only weighed him down.  When you read the verses immediately preceding this one you see phrases like “my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long” and “my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”  These are phrases that definitely speak to the pain of bearing sin.

    That is what happens when we refuse to repent and try to either hide the sin we commit or we try to think that “I can handle this one; it isn’t that bad.”  We keep the sin in our own body, on our own back.  We carry the weight and it is soon like carrying sixteen ton and at the end of the day, you are only deeper in debt owing more for the sins that you carry.  This isn’t something that God imposes on us; this is completely self-inflicted.  We carry the pain of the sin, the weight of the sin, we carry the guilt of the sin.  The devil wants you to feel guilty; he loves to torment you with the doubts that guilt places in your heart and on your soul, sixteen ton and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.  All we get when we hold onto sin is more pain, guilt, and a greater debt for the sin.

   But God tells us we don’t have to carry that sin.  God has already forgiven that sin.  So, when we acknowledge, or confess that sin, we are not telling God some big secret, He already knows what you did; confession is like saying to God, “Here God, I am tired of carrying this sin around; you can have it.”  And God takes it.  He takes that sin and ships it as far as the east is from the west.  It is no longer your burden because it never had to be you chose to hold onto it!

    God forgives your sin, let him take it from you so the devil has no ammunition to fire at you.  Don’t keep your sin; let go and get out of debt.  Let God’s mercy carry you home so that you can enjoy God’s abundant grace and blessings.

Father of all mercies, your wondrous love is new to us each day.  Help us to see that we are the cause of our debt; that we refuse to give to you, our sins.  We foolishly or shamefully hang onto them out of pride or fear but we hang onto them and we are weighed down more and more.  Free us from this burden that we may live the life which you have freely given to us.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-22-2025

Good Morning All,

         Romans 6:4; “When we were baptized into his death, we were placed into the tomb with him. As Christ was brought back from death to life by the glorious power of the Father, so we, too, should live a new kind of life.”

    I would like you to think for a moment about Jesus at the time of his crucifixion on Good Friday.  It is really a gruesome event.  Remember all the things that he had experienced since Thursday night.  He was beaten with a rod.  He would have had his beard plucked out.  He was slapped repeatedly and often.  He was scourged.  This was a process by which he was whipped with a whip that would have had thirteen lashes which would have been embedded with either pieces of bone or metal in the end to ensure the maximum amount of skin slicing effect.  He had a crown of thorns forced upon his head.  He was crucified with nails driven through his hands and feet.  Lastly, he was stabbed in the side with a spear.

    As his body was taken down from the cross, it would have been a very broken body.  It was bloodied and beaten to a point of almost non-recognition.  So, as he was hurriedly laid into the tomb, he was a very broken body.

     Now think of how he looked three days later on Easter Sunday.  He had his glorified body and was not recognized by his own mother.  He was restored.  The scourging marks were gone.  The thorn imprints were gone.  He chose to keep the marks in his hands, feet, and side to show the proof of the wounds.  He went into the tomb broken and emerged whole.

    There is one more element to remember; as Jesus entered the tomb, the sins of the world went with him.  As he emerged from the tomb, those sins were left there.  This is what Paul is speaking about in our verse.  When we are baptized, our broken, sin-filled bodies are, in effect, placed in the tomb with Jesus.  Then, just like Jesus emerged from the tomb glorified, we come through the tomb, through Baptism, new creations. This is how and why we value Baptism as a great gift from God.  It makes us new.  It washes away our sins and makes us marked as children of God.  We are now redeemed children of God.  We are loved by God now and forever.  The sins are left in the tomb and we are brought out as new creations filled with Jesus’ righteousness as our own righteousness.  Our old sinful self no longer controls us.  The devil will try to get you to live in the tomb surrounded by all those sins but we don’t have to.  We are redeemed and forever loved what a gift!

Dearest Father, through your wondrous love we emerge from the tomb forgiven by the blood of Jesus.  We come through Baptism as new creations, as your dear child.  Keep us strong in this knowledge.  Reach out to those who struggle with life and sometimes do not see the new creation but feel they remain in the tomb. Restore them, Father, bring them comfort bring them peace.  Give us hope.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

9-21-2025

Good Morning All,

     Exodus 33:14; “And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

    All I need is a little rest! How often have you spoken those words? Maybe at the end of a long day or week; perhaps after a particularly difficult experience. Whenever I counsel families at a funeral or as a loved one is slipping away, I always counsel to get some rest, even if it is a nap once in a while; get some rest. Many don’t realize that they are actually functioning on adrenaline and when that stops, they crash. Many may even get sick with a cold or the flu.

    There are many times in our lives when we can think of times when this happened. A death is difficult but so can be a severe illness or some major change in our life. It might be changing jobs or losing a job or even retiring from a job. Yet, there are many times when there isn’t something particular or specific; it is just a nagging feeling of sadness or despair. It just keeps us up at night. We toss and turn and never really rest. It might be a worry about the economic stability of our family. It might be the choices that a loved one is making. It might just be a constant attack on our own self-image causing us to fear that we just aren’t good enough for our marriage, job, friendships. We feel isolated, lost and alone. This is just where the devil wants you. He wants you separated from you family, your friends, but above all; he wants to separate you from God.

    This is the very thing God wants you to know does not happen! You are never alone; God is always present. From the Garden to the tabernacle to the Temple to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; God is always with us. And this is not just some fancy theological truth speaking to the power and eternal presence of an all-mighty God. This is a relational story. God’s presence is not merely spatial or temporal; it’s covenantal, personal, and transformative.

    The presence of God means that He desires to have a loving fatherly relationship with you. So that you may know the quiet comfort of His Word. He wants you to always be aware of his loving presence so that you may draw the comfort of His eternal love for you. The love that God has for you is just that: for you. He draws you in through our Baptism into his grace that we may always know we can call upon Him, return to Him and forever cling to Him.

    This eternal presence of God in our life is to transform us from frightened children to a child confident that his Father will protect him. In that protection, that loving embrace of the Father, we can find rest and peace. We can know rest because of God’s eternal vigilance, keeping us safe from whatever the devil wants to throw our way. We have peace; not because we will not experience trouble, for we will experience trouble in this broken creation. Rather we have peace because God’s presence makes us whole.

Gracious Father, you give us rest and peace in your Name. Guide us by your Spirit to look always to your loving kindness to keep us safe. Be with those who are especially troubled at this time. Lead them to your merciful arms so that they may know your holy rest and peace. Keep us ever in your loving embrace. In the precious Name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-20-2025

Good Morning All,

          John 15:20; “Remember what I told you: ‘A servant isn’t greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they did what I said, they will also do what you say.”

    Persecution.  This is one of those phrases that most Christians try and avoid.  We read about China or some Islamic country and we think it always happens there.  We think we know what persecution looks like.  We know about being imprisoned, losing jobs, being physically tortured, being shunned by other family members are just a few of these events.  This is what most of us think of when we think of persecution and we probably think that “At least I don’t have to go through that.”  Yet maybe we should re-think that idea.  We are all persecuted.

    Persecution takes many forms.  It might be as severe as being physically beaten but it can also be a psychological or an emotional attack as well.  It can be the condescension from a co-worker because you believe abortion is a sin and should be avoided.  It can be friends who don’t understand why you don’t want to go fishing every Sunday morning so they begin to leave you out of other activities.  Perhaps you are expected to, “not talk about your church stuff” around the office.  These are all examples of being persecuted.  Anything that causes you to question whether it is “appropriate” to show your faith, you are being persecuted.

    Sometimes persecution takes a sharper edge.  Sometimes the devil and the world aim both barrels at you and fire.  You may experience a sense of great emotional distress.  You may feel at a loss when a job disappears.  You may feel lost when relationships strain or break.  You may feel alone after talking to the doctor and he tells you he doesn’t know what is wrong.  The tests were inconclusive.  Not that all events are of the devil’s doing but he will use those events to try and cause doubt in your mind and with doubt comes loneliness.

    The devil doesn’t cause all the bad things that happen in your life; most of these things are the result of a sinful and broken creation.  Yet the devil will take all these problems and be right there to whisper in your ear that you are all alone and that God doesn’t care.  His goal is to separate you from God and his family.  It is vital to remember that you are never alone; God is always with us and when one part of the body is hurting the whole-body hurts.  So, when you feel lost or alone, all the brothers and sisters in Christ feel your pain.  All true believers pray for you and share in your pain and fears.  All of us will be persecuted by the devil and the world.  Their goal is to separate you from God but nothing, absolutely nothing can do this.  God will never forsake you; this you can count on at all times!

Dearest Father, many times I feel lost and alone and the devil persecutes me and causes me to lose hope.  Give me the strength to trust in your word.  Give me the certainty of your promise that I may continue to live in and experience your grace and comfort.  Please be with those who are being persecuted right now.  Give them strength and bring into their lives those fellow believers who will be your hands and arms.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret