5-31-2026

Good Morning!

                Psalm 121: 1-2; “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

      I watched a movie about a group of people who were traveling through a jungle.  Along the way, they were attacked by natives.  They would run a little and then hide.  They would run a little more and then hide a little more.  They went this way and that way and they kept saying over and over how they were lost.  About halfway through the movie, they decided that one of them would try and go look for help.  They drew straws and the short straw guy took off for help.  The rest of the movie was waiting for him to get help before the natives found them and killed them.  I could never figure out how that guy knew which to go for help.  He didn’t have a compass or a map.  He just took off and found help.  I guess that is why he was the star of the movie.

    So how do you know where to look for help?  In my western movies, the cavalry always comes over the hill at just the last second.  Of course, everything works out in the movies but what about real life?  Where do you look for help?  There are many times when we are like the guy who just took off and went looking for help.  In the movie it worked, in the real world, not so much.  If we were to take off like that, we would soon be very lost or worse, caught by our enemies. 

    Yet some look for help from the strangest places.  It is interesting how many people will believe anything that appears on the internet.  If you go to a bookstore, or maybe Amazon.com, you can find thousands of self-help books.  Unfortunately, they don’t work so well; maybe that is why there are thousands of them.  Where do you look for help?  Some try to use drugs or alcohol to “bring enlightenment.”  Yet this always leads to pain and sorrow.  It is never a good place to look for help’ so where do we look?

    The psalmist tells us to look to God, the One who made heaven and earth.  That is to be your standard.  Is the help that I am seeking coming from the maker of heaven and earth?  If the answer is “yes;” then go forward.  If the answer is “no;” then you might want to think again.  It is only the true God who can ever provide any hope or help. It is only through Him that we have salvation; anything else is a false hope, a false direction and will lead to your destruction.  So, look to God for your help; look to God for your salvation.

Father of all goodness, we look to you as our only hope and you give us comfort and hope.  In you alone do we find peace.  Guard and protect us from all harm and danger.  Find those who are searching on their own and finding nothing.  Bring them safely back into your loving kingdom.  Lead them to the quiet still waters of your mercy.  Give them the consolation which they seek. Protect our service men and women, especially those in harm’s way. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

5-30-2026

Good Morning!

       2 Corinthians 7:6; “But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus.”

        It is always interesting to listen to people who have just been through a struggle in their life.  It doesn’t seem to matter if it is a health scare, family struggles, or even death.  Most of them are very thankful to me for “being there.”  “I don’t think I could have made it without you.”  “You were such a great help.”  “Your words were comforting.”  These are phrases that can go right to a preacher’s head.  Except that deep down, they are really terrifying.  Because if you think that these people really need you, you begin to weigh down a lot.  This is where our verse comes in and helps.

    It is important to remember that it is God who gives the comfort.  In our verse, Paul mentions that God’s comfort takes the form of Titus.  Yet it could have been Silas, or Timothy, or Luke or anyone else because God would have seen to the comforting of Paul.  The same is true today.  God may use me to deliver his comfort but he could and would use anyone to bring the comfort and the consolation to his people.  God speaks so that you may be comforted.  Who God uses as the physical hands, arms and mouth is up to him.  This has a couple of implications for us.

    When we are Paul, when we need to be comforted or encouraged; God will send someone.  It might be your pastor or a family member or a neighbor or a good friend; but God will send them.  So be prepared to receive those saints into your life.  Hear God through them.  Be comforted by their presence, their words, and their prayers.  Listen as you can hear God’s Words of comfort.  This is how God works in our lives.  He uses the church (all believers) to bring us comfort and hope.  This is part of “bear one another’s burdens.”

    Yet sometimes, you are Titus.  You are the one who brings comfort.  It can take many forms.  It might be a short visit.  It might be to take them to the doctor.  It might be to watch the children as they do something else.  It might be a meal shared.  It takes many forms because each of us has a different skill, talent, and comfort level.  You may not feel comfortable speaking but you can listen.  You really only have to be there for them.  Most of the time, people just need someone to listen to them and to be there with them.  They need someone to pray for them and to pray with them.  When God calls you to do this, be like Titus knowing that God will go with you and aid you in your task.

Father of all comfort, we come before you praying for all those who are downcast.  Lift their spirits up that they may see your wondrous love at work in their lives.  Too often we look down at the pain instead of up to you in glory.  Keep us safe from all harm.  Move us to serve as Titus when our brothers and sisters need us.  Lead us to receive like Paul when our hearts are heavy.  Lead us to bear one another’s burdens.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-29-26

Good Morning!

               Numbers 11:31; “Then a wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground.”

      I was talking to a friend the other day.  He is one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet.  He will do anything to help you out.  Yet he is one of those guys who never seem to catch a break in life.  He farms, but not the best land around.  It seems he gets hailed on a lot of the time.  His equipment isn’t the newest around.  His wife isn’t the healthiest person so she visits the doctor quite often.  He works hard but doesn’t seem to get ahead.  Yet despite all this, he is content.  He will tell you about the beauty of a sunrise or the miracle of the birth of a new calf.  His faith is strong.  He will tell you that God is bigger than any problem he has so he can sleep knowing things are under control.

    So, do you think that God is bigger than any problem that you have?  It is a more difficult thing to think about.  If you and your spouse are struggling to find the love for each other and it feels like your partner has thrown in the towel, is God bigger than that?  If your health or the health of a loved one is beginning to wane, is God bigger than that?  As we watch the news and see all the hatred and distrust, is God really bigger than that?

    Our verse is about a time in Israel’s history when many questioned God’s ability and judgment.  They questioned why God brought them out of Egypt just to die in the desert.  They had all witnessed the miraculous rescue from Pharaoh’s army and now they questioned God.  So, God gave them a sign or maybe even a sign and a half.  Within the Hebrew tradition, a “day’s journey” was about 15-20 miles.  So, the camp is surrounded by quail, there for the picking, over an area that is over 700 square miles and over those 700 square miles the quail are three feet deep.  In a few verses after this, we are told that everyone who gathered picked up 10 homers of quail.  A homer is about the size of a fifty-gallon barrel. 

    The people of Israel questioned whether God could feed them, so God fed them in an amazing fashion.  God was far bigger than their problems and he is bigger than any of our problems as well.  We may not see it, feel it, or even fully believe it; but God is bigger than any problem that we have.  So, he gives us the power and the courage to face the battles head on; knowing that God will not let these battles destroy us or his love for us.  God is bigger.  His love for you spans farther than the east is from the west.  God is bigger. His comfort for you, his grace for you is beyond any measure.  God is bigger and he is bigger so that you may have life.  He is bigger so we have hope.  So, we face the challenges knowing that, when all is said and done, God is faithful to us and to his promises.  His grace will never fail.

Father, we give you thanks for the grace you give to us.  You are our rock and our place of refuge.  Be with those who are battling at this time.  Give them hope for a better day and comfort in their struggle now.  Guard and protect them.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

5-28-2026

Good Morning!

       Colossians 1:22; “he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him”

    What would happen if you fell down and broke your arm? For most of us, we would go to the hospital. We would go to the x-ray and then after they found the break, we would go to the doctor and have him put us in a splint or put a cast on it. We would take our time and then let it heal until it was strong enough to use again. You would take the time to heal.

    We would never think about leaving a broken arm or a broken leg unattended to. We would never think that it doesn’t matter. We would never leave it broken so every time we bumped it, we would feel the pain all over again. Every little twist or bump, whether intentional or accidental, would cause us pain and maybe even cause us to remember how we broke our arm or leg. We would not let it go untreated; we would do what it takes to make it heal. So why don’t we try to heal our relationships as well?

    Jesus came into this world to bring an end to the wall of separation that existed between man and God. By offering his body as a sacrifice, he reconciled us back to God. Because of his sacrifice, we can stand before God whole, holy and blameless. We are before him as his dear children. The brokenness of the sin which separated us from God has been healed. It is by his grace and mercy that we can come to him in all boldness and approach his throne as children approach their parents.

    Since God has healed our pain and our brokenness; since he has made us whole; He gives us the power to heal the brokenness in our relationships with our brothers and sisters. Just as he heals us to stand before him in a loving relationship; he empowers us to heal the relationships with those around us. The brokenness, all the pain that occurs because we fail to heal the break, can be healed. This is done best by focusing on the forgiveness that is ours through Jesus. Since we are forgiven, we need to look at all of our relationships through the lens of our forgiveness. Since we are forgiven and are forgiven so much; we have the power in our hands to forgive those around us, we just need to have the desire in our heart.

   We have been given the power to change the desire of our heart from selfishness to loving. We have been given the opportunity to desire the love of God to pour through us. This is what God desires for us, to live our life in the fellowship of each other. God desire is for all of us to live in peace together. By forgiving our sins, he enables us to forgive our brother.

Father of all goodness, your mercies are new to us each day. They roll over us like a river. Through your gift of redemption, you have brought us back to be your children. Enable, empower, and encourage us to rebuild the relationships with our brothers and sisters. Be with those who are struggling at this time. Be with those who are broken and distraught. Heal them with your Spirit. In the precious name of Jesus, our risen savior, amen.

God’s Peace,           

Pastor Bret

5-27-2026

Good Morning!

     Romans 7:18; “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.”

        After every visit to my doctor, I try to exercise and lose weight. I know what I have to do: watch what I eat cut down on sugars and fats, exercise more and drink more water. Yet I really like “Special K Bars.”  Now I know that one bar is at least 2 hours on the tread mill, but I follow all the classic denials. I can try to justify the action; for example, I can eat them on the weekend as a reward for not eating them during the week. I can try to offset the action; for example, I will spend more time on the tread mill for each one. The final one is to hide the fact that I eat them and then deny, deny, deny that I ever ate them. I know what is right, but it is hard to do what I should.

    The technical name for this is called “cognitive dissonance.”  It is when we hold two contradictory thoughts at the same time. As a Christian I know I should forgive you but the sinful nature in me wants to punch you. So, I struggle. I have a friction in my heart and in my mind. I know what God’s desire and what God’s law says. I know I should keep it because of God’s great love for me and why would we hurt someone who loves us? Yet I desire revenge, I lust, I am greedy, I gossip, I judge the actions of others harshly, I really don’t want to give someone else what I worked hard for. Both are at work, the devil on the left shoulder and the angel on the right.

    Theologians call this existence “simul justus et peccator.”  We are, at the exact same time, justified saints and we are sinners. The sinful nature still rears its ugly head in our life. Sometimes, we can fend it off and sometimes we can’t. We will always fight it. We will battle it until we die or until Christ returns. The struggle will always be there.

    The unbeliever doesn’t have this trouble. The unbeliever doesn’t think about what their faith says to them. The unbeliever only worries about self-preservation and his own self-interest. It is only the believer who struggles because we know what is right, we even desire to do what is right but there are times when we fail. So, we struggle, we battle and we win some and lose some but through it all we are forgiven by God because of Jesus.

    We all have this battle; you are not alone in your battle. Yet while this struggle occurs in all believers; Christ continues to forgive us and to renew us. His Spirit continues to remind us of what is right, what is proper and what is according to God’s will. His desire is that we do his will because that is how the world was designed to run smoothly and peacefully. Through it all God is with us. His love and forgiveness will always be with us to give us power to withstand and to pick us up when we fail.

Father of all mercy, your Spirit guides me and shows me what is right, yet I often fail. Give me the strength to withstand the temptations of this world. Lead me to overcome this world’s deceits. Lead me to know your truth. In the precious name of Jesus, I pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

5-26-2026

Good Morning!

     Hebrews 11:17; “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son.”

      “By faith” that is the theme of this great chapter in Hebrews; some call it the “Hall of Faith.”  It lists many of the “greats” who we all look to as inspiration in the Bible. We look to these people as the greats, the stalwarts of faith. Yet if we look at them truly closely, we see that they are really human, just like us.

     Abraham led a life that was filled with questioning doubts at times. Even though he had God’s promises, Abraham often struggled with God’s truth. Along the way there were many times when Abraham doubted God’s assurances. He hid his wife Sarah twice by calling her his sister rather than his wife. He thought he was getting too old to have a child with his wife Sarah, so they “borrowed” Sarah’s slave girl and used her to produce a child. Abraham would hear God’s promises but would sometimes wonder.

    We do that much of the time; don’t we? We have heard God’s promises to us, yet we wonder sometimes how it can ever work out. We may wonder what God can possibly have in store for us when our spouse turns cold or our children turn angry and belligerent. We wonder what good comes from our health going bad or our memory failing. We wonder sometimes what it all means. Sometimes it means that God is showing us faith.

      Sometimes we claim faith, but do we have true faith? We have the security of our job, the security of our wealth, the security of our family, so we are safe and secure. Yet what happens if these are slowly stripped away? What do we truly rely on then? We may find that we place too much of our trust in the wrong things and sometimes, God strips those away so we can find our true faith. Sometimes, he removes the crutches that we rely on to show us that our true hope is not found in them. Sometimes he slowly removes them to show us the truth. Sometimes, this process can be incredibly painful. It might be physical pain or emotional or spiritual, but it is pain.

    So, God peels away the false hopes and reveals to us the only true hope that we have and that is God’s own grace. That is what Abraham was left with when he held the knife over Isaac. God had promised to use Abraham’s son to build a great nation and yet God wanted him to sacrifice him. We can only imagine what went through Abraham’s mind at that time, but we know that whatever it was; it settled on faith and trusting God. There are times in our life just like that and we too can only trust in God’s faithful promise to be with us, to guard us and to defend us through it all.

Gracious Lord, all we have is you. You are our only hope; our only stay. Strengthen us that we might not be moved from this certainty. Be with those who are struggling with the challenges of life and lead them to focus their eyes and their hope only on you. In your precious name, O Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

5-25-2026

Good Morning!

     Psalm 23:6; “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

      It is interesting to watch how a true shepherd works with his flock.  The shepherd is up in front of the flock.  He is looking for good grass and fresh still water for the sheep to eat and drink.  He keeps an eye out for predators.  He calls the flock to follow him.  He calls each sheep by name and they respond to him.  They follow him to the fresh water and grass.  They follow him to the safe place to rest; usually.  There are always a few stragglers.  So how does the shepherd lead the flock and keep the stragglers and the wanderers from getting lost?  He uses sheep dogs.

     These are very highly trained animals, and they serve a very important purpose.  They keep the sheep in the flock.  They keep them moving along.  They keep them from losing sight of the flock and being lost.  The sheep dogs literally hound the sheep to keep them in the sight of the shepherd so that they are always safe and can hear the voice of the shepherd and be in the fresh grass and water and rest in the safe place.

    We often read this verse as some sort of a lazy day stroll.  “Goodness and mercy shall follow me” sounds like a carefree meandering.  Yet when we look at the original language, “follow” actually means to chase or pursue; almost to the point of hunting.  So rather than see this as a leisurely strolling, we should read this more like goodness and mercy are chasing us or hounding us.  We can see that goodness and mercy are Jesus’ sheep dogs.  They keep us up to the flock. They don’t let us get lost or distracted and if we do; they bring us back.  They chase us back to the flock and under the care of the shepherd.

   God uses his goodness, his grace, and his mercy to remind us of his great love for us.  He uses his love to remind us that he cares for us.  He calls us by our name, our own name, in gentleness to live in the safety of his precious, blood bought flock.  Even as we stray, he continues to call us, and he moves us forward with his goodness and mercy to bring us home.  He restores us with his blessed bread and wine.  He uses his Word to comfort us and to give us hope.  It is in this hope, this certainty of our salvation, that he brings us peace; the safe resting place under his watchful eye and protective arm.  We are his flock, brought in by the loving grace that he bestows upon us through our baptism. 

    So, as you graze in the glorious pasture of God’s immeasurable peace.  Rely on his wonderful love to sustain you.  Remember that his sheep dogs, goodness and mercy, will always be there to return you to the flock to remind you of his great loving kindness for you.  Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Gracious Father, you keep me in your flock by your grace and mercy.  Hold us close to you.  Keep us safe in your loving arms.  Be with those who have strayed and bring them safely home.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

5-24-2026

Good Morning!

      Joel 2:13; “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

      There was a news story about when the iPhone 6 was introduced. There was quite a promotion and people were camping out to be “the first” to buy one. The first one was purchased by a man who, when showing it to the reporters and to the rest of the customers, dropped it on the floor.  I find that amusing; I am sure he didn’t.  It is amazing how dependent we have become on these devices.  It is said that the average person checks their cell phone 110-150 times a day.  They check their Facebook account 14-18 times a day on their phone.  It is vital that we stay connected to everyone.

    I can remember the tractor that I spent the most time on when I was in high school.  It didn’t even have a radio.  I had no phone so the only way to contact me while I was disking or racking hay or whatever I was doing was to drive out and talk to me.  Without a GPS, you had to know where I was and how to get there.  I actually enjoyed the solitude.  Now, as I watch people drive down the road, they are all constantly talking on the phone.  I don’t know enough to have that long of conversations.

    When I ask some people what they talk about, high school girls talk about boys and what other girls were wearing or doing.  High School boys were talking about girls, cars, and sports.  Spouses were asking their spouses what was for supper and where they needed to be that night.  Parents were checking with their children to see how practice or school went and did they have their homework done.  Employers were informing employees of the next assignment.  Everyone finds it so important to be in contact with each other.  So how often do we contact God?

    Do you contact God 110-150 times a day?  Some of us do but most of us don’t.  Most of us wait until something “really big” comes up.  Then we pray and it often seems like nothing happens.  The problem is that God is not a vending machine.  We don’t put in our money, push a button, and then watch what we select spiral out and down to where we can get it.  Prayer is about staying connected to God.  It is a vital part of our faith life.  We need to listen to God (through his Scriptures) and speak to God (through prayer). 

    So, God invites us to return to Him.  Return to the Lord and hear his words of comfort and grace.  Return to having the holy conversation with Him that keeps us connected and keeps us strong.  Keeping connected strengthens our faith and anchors our hope.  Keeping connected to God through prayer and devotion leads us to be more content and peaceful.  God is abounding in love which he daily and richly pours out upon us.  Trust in his mercy and his love to sustain us and to bring us home safely.

Gracious Father, keep us connected to you.  Guide us to desire to return to your mercy and grace.  Guard and protect us from the devil and his attacks.  Be with those who have lost contact with you and bring to them the certainty of your promise and your grace.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-23-2026

Good Morning!

     Luke 18:1; “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

      Are you a household that has two types of dishes?  Do you have the “every day” bowls, plates and silverware and then have the “good dishes”?  Perhaps it is even China with real silverware.  It might be handed down by your mother or grandmother.  It might be special to you.  It may have even caused some discomfort in the family as someone got it and someone else did not.  Do you use it sparingly?  Perhaps for Christmas, a special anniversary or birthday, it may be a special guest who you want to impress.        

    In our verse, Jesus uses a story to try and teach his disciples.  The basic idea of the story is to pray and not faint away.  So, what does that mean to us?  What is Jesus telling us?   The message here is pretty clear.  First and foremost, prayer is not a luxury in the life of a Christian.  It is not the fine China in the house that we take out and use when we want to impress someone.  Prayer is the everyday stuff.  Prayer is the day in and day out dishes that we use.  We need to see that prayer is not a meaningless function or something that we try to fit into our busy schedule.  Prayer is and should be far more than that.  When Jesus says, “ought always to pray” He means we ought to be in prayer at all time.

    Yet he does not want us to avoid our everyday activities either.  What he is talking about is that our soul has an intimate contact with God.  We keep his Word in our heart and in our mind.  Our first thought is to look to his grace to defend us and to comfort us.  In this mode, we never lose conscious fellowship and communion with God.  When we stay in this communal state or desire is to trust God.  Our desire is to rely on him from the start and not from the middle.

   This type of prayer is the type of prayer in which it is completely and intricately connected to God’s Word.  The two combined and never can really be separated.  It is by keeping this combination first and foremost in our mind that we keep focused on God’s grace.  We remember our inability to accomplish on our own and can thus rely fully on God.  By fully relying on God, we will not faint away at those times of intense emotions or reactions to events. 

    The thing to remember is that there will be times when we fail.  Fear will creep in and control us for a while.  Yet God does not give up on us so we should not give up on God.  Continue to strive for the prayer life that God has designed for us.  It is designed to give us hope.  When we cling to it, we have the comfort and the peace that we desire.

Father of all mercy, in you we have our hope secured.  Keep us mindful and focused on this truth.  Keep us in prayerful communication with you so that we may not faint away.  Keep us courageous at all times that we may stand strong in this life.  Be with those who are struggling and in need of your grace.  Strengthen them by your tender mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,                                     

Pastor Bret

5-22-2026

Good Morning!

     Isaiah 40:22; “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.”

      I remember reading a “Beetle Bailey” cartoon once that had the characters Plato (the smart one) and Zero (the not so smart one) watching an ant colony.  Zero commented on how they worked together so well.  Plato went into this long, drawn-out discussion of how they were not as advanced as humans; they had no laws or justice system; they had no military or method of exploration.  About the time he got to this part of his speech, a plume of smoke, in the shape of a mushroom cloud erupted from one of the ant hills.

    Some people took offense at this comic.  They thought that the cartoonist was making a political statement about the use of nuclear weapons and that he was somehow implying that the people who were responsible for them were about as bright as ants.  Others thought he was saying that humans thinking that they could control atomic weapons weren’t any brighter than ants.  Either way, the assumption is always that humans have the highest level of intelligence.

    Yet it is this line of thinking that gets us into the most trouble.  We think that we are far smarter than we ever are.  So, we think that we have a better thought or plan than God does and every single time; we are wrong.  That is the very crux of our problem and our sinful nature; we think we are smarter than God.  We have moved away from that original purpose of existence.  We were designed to live in God’s holy presence, worshipping and praising him and living a life completely dependent upon his grace because it was sufficient for us.

    So instead of trusting God to have our best interest in heart and mind, we set off on our own.  We soon become so buried in the mud and mire of selfishness and mistrust that we completely lose our bearing and our focus; we stop trusting God and we trust our own nature which caused us to be lost in the first place.  So, Scriptures keeps calling us back to recognize that God’s way is the best way for us.  Even when we are not sure, we need faith to trust God.  We need to hold onto his loving embrace.

   God, in his mercy, reaches down to us and picks us up like a hurt child and holds us close to his heart and whispers in our ear words of comfort.  Faith is hugging God back.  It is recognizing that God’s ways are far superior to our ways and through everything that this life pours out upon us God’s love is for us.  He is faithful to all his promises and he is faithful to the ones he made to you.

Father of all mercies, we stand before you in awe of your great love.  Move us by your Spirit to trust in your loving arms to hold us close and to protect us from all the harm the devil throws.  Be with those who are especially feeling the pain of this world.  Bring them comfort and give them your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

5-21-2026

Good Morning!

     Psalm 137:1; “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.”

     I remember watching a special on the television about slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War.  It spent a portion of the time on the men and women who made their living chasing down runaway slaves and returning them to their rightful “owners.”  The narrator read from a diary of one of these men and he told how they rarely tried to track the runaways.  They simply headed to the ocean coast and waited.  It seems that the slaves would immediately head in an easterly direction trying to run home to Africa.  They would often be caught standing on the coastal front staring out at the ocean.  The slaves would soon realize that they wouldn’t get home.

    Our verse is a lot like that.  This was a Psalm that sings the lament of being held as a captive slave in a faraway land.  This was a Psalm that the Israelites sang while in Babylon after the Babylonians captured and destroyed Jerusalem and carried many off as slaves to Babylon.  It was a Psalm of great pain and sadness.  It was a Psalm sung by many who thought they would never return to their home.  They feared that they would die in a strange land, forgotten by God.

    Are there times when you feel like that?  Do you feel like you are being held captive in a faraway land with no hope of rescue?  Do you ever feel that God has abandoned you?  Many of us have at one time or another, perhaps even now.  Have you had a health setback or someone in your family?  Is there a relationship in your life that seems to be floundering?  Are you having job troubles or other financial strains?    It can feel like we are on the wrong side of the ocean looking toward home.

    This is one of the devil’s favorite tricks.  He wants you to think that there is an ocean of distance between you and God.  The devil wants you to think that distance is so great that God has forgotten you.  The devil wants you to sit on the shore, by the waters of Babylon and weep in sorrow, all alone and without hope.

    Yet we have hope.  When you sit there and feel all alone, look around; you will see many brothers and sisters in Christ waiting to comfort you, to offer you that holy consolation that God promises to bring us in our times of need.  It will come in the form of our family and friends; it will be in the form of someone we barely know but who has experienced what we are experiencing right now.  This comfort and consolation may take many different shapes and forms but they are all God actively seeking to bring your comfort, to bring you hope, to rescue you from the bondage and the pain that you find yourself in.  Trust in God’s favor; it is with us at all times.

Father of all mercies, there are times when I feel like the waters of Babylon are keeping us apart.  Yet through Jesus, you have brought me through the waters to your protective arms.  Be with those who feel especially lost and hurt.  Heal them with your loving Spirit.  Guide me to be your hands in their life.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-20-2026

Good Morning!

      1 John 2:1; “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

     My wife and I have been watching the new “Matlock,” the one with Kathy Bates. It is pretty good but I still like Perry Mason.  I still think this is a better lawyer show than any other on TV right now.  He could always seem to figure out what was going on in just the nick of time.  No matter how grim the situation would look, he could always get the judge to see that his client was innocent of all the charges.  The man on trial could have been found holding the gun over the dead person’s body and he would still be found innocent.  Someone else would always come forward in the end and take the punishment and Perry Mason’s client would always go free.  You sometimes wonder if the prosecuting attorney would walk in and see Perry Mason and think, “rats, gonna lose again.”

    If I were ever going to have to go to trial, I would want a lawyer like Perry Mason.  He is tenacious and never gives up.  He continues to dig and sift through the evidence until he can prove that his client is innocent.  He doesn’t use a lot of tricks just solid hard work that he then presents in a manner that gets his client declared innocent.  His client leaves the courtroom a free man and is able to either begin anew or return to the life that he had.

    When you and I stand before God, accused of the sins which we have committed, we have the greatest advocate, a lawyer if you will, to argue our case.  Jesus is our advocate.  He makes our case and defends us before God.    As sin after sin is listed, we are declared innocent because the penalty has already been paid.  Because of this, we walk away from the penalty of our sin.  Jesus, our advocate, is also the surrogate who takes our place and receives the punishment which we deserve.  Our punishment is paid for so we are free; we are free to be holy people; God’s people.

    Because we are God’s holy people, we have the free gift of eternal life.  Because we are God’s people, we have the blessings of his presence in our life giving to us the peace and comfort that this world denies us.  We have the blessing of being able to boldly stand before his throne and ask him to give us all that we need and want.  Because we are free, we are no longer the devil’s playthings.  Because we are free, we can live with the confidence that God will never abandon us.  We are always safe within his arms.

Father, your tender mercy is poured out upon us like the rain upon the land.  We give you thanks that because of Jesus we are free.  Lead us to use that freedom to aid and comfort our neighbors.  Help us to give them the direction to lead them back to you so that they too may be able to hear those loving words of forgiveness and hope.  Restore all those who are hurting to you loving flock.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-19-2026

Good Morning!

    Matthew 7:24; ^“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

       It is always interesting to me when I watch the news and the story is about sinkholes.  Sinkholes are usually naturally occurring places where there is a hollow spot in the ground and it collapses.  Most of the time they show up without a lot of warning; sometimes even swallowing a whole house at once.  There was even a time in Florida when the house sank over forty feet and killed a man who was sleeping in his bedroom.  They can occur just about anywhere but are most prevalent in Florida.

    Florida has had hundreds of sinkholes in the last decade and thousands in the last century.  Western Florida is especially prone because the soil lacks clay which normally binds soil together.  The holes can be anywhere from 1 to over 50 feet deep.  It is very difficult to know where they can occur so it is difficult to know where to build or where to not build your house. 

     This kind of reminds us of Jesus’ admonition at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.  We are to build our house upon the rock.  We are to build upon the sure foundation of God’s grace given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We trust that grace to be there for us no matter what has happened, is happening or will happen in our life.  When we look to God for our only source of salvation, trusting only in him for that truth; we are built on the rock.

     It is when we look to other sources that we are on the sand, or worse, on a sinkhole.  When we look to our own skill or strength, we are on a sinkhole.  When we turn to false teaching or other misleading beliefs, we are on a sinkhole.  When we turn to artificial supports like drugs or alcohol, we are on a sinkhole and when trouble occurs; everything will come crashing down.

    Yet we know that God is always faithful to his promises.  He has promised to be with us and to support us in all our times of need to comfort and to console us.  He is there to be our rock and fortress.  The psalmist calls him our rock and our shield.  It is in his arms that we are protected from the attacks of the devil.  It is in his arms that we can rest the holy sleep, in total peace, secure in the knowledge that we our safe.  Our house, our resting place, is on the solid rock and it will not fail.  Nothing will ever destroy this house.  Its foundation is securely built upon God and his grace.  God’s grace is the only solid foundation that we have; without it all the world is a sinkhole.  Only God’s love will prevail.

Gracious Father, your mercies are new to us every day.  They roll over us like a river.  Upon you alone do we build our hope and faith.  Keep us safely in your loving arms so that the devil will have no power over us.  Be with those who are hurting, struggling or lost in this life.  Bring them to your most gracious rock of safety.  Bring them home to your loving arms.  Guard and protect them as their journey continues.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret           

5-18-2026

Good Morning!

    1Timothy 1:15; “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 

     I remember when I became one of them.  I am old enough that I can mutter, “What’s the matter with kids these days?”  I see it every time that I drive.  The worst are younger women between the ages of 14-30.  I think that they would have to have their cell phones surgically removed from their ear.  They are either talking/texting/ adjusting the radio, fixing their hair, checking their makeup or all of the above while “pretending” to drive.  They are oblivious to anything else.  I followed one young gal as she drove her Corolla down a two-lane county road.  She was about 2 feet into the oncoming lane and met a pickup and stock trailer loaded with cattle and she met a semi loaded with cattle.  They pulled over as far as they could; I doubt she even saw either of them.

   But, one day, while driving to town on the four-lane highway, I was trying to recall something that my wife wanted me to do.  So, I called her on the phone, as we were talking, I noticed that I was drifting into the left-hand lane which was already occupied by another vehicle.  I didn’t look the young woman who was driving the Enclave as she passed me by in the eye.  So, I became one of those drivers yesterday.

    Yet even more than that, I realized a sin that I held onto.  If you read the first two paragraphs closely, it still surfaces some.  I was just a tiny bit over the white line; she was practically in the other lane. I doubt the other driver even knew what I was doing; her other vehicles had to swerve to avoid her.  I recognized it; she probably still doesn’t know how close she came to a major accident.  Yet I noticed how easily I condemned her when I did the same thing. 

    Are you like me?  I make mistakes, have failures, and slip ups while others sin and have transgressions and iniquities.  It is at times like this that God’s law points out to me my sin and I understand why I am the greatest.  I am supposed to know better and yet I continue to judge and to keep the log in my eye while looking at the speck in others.  Perhaps, you can relate.

    The thing about recognizing our own sin is that we are often times quicker to offer forgiveness to others.  This is the point that Jesus was making in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant; the level of our sin against God is so great that the sins of others against us is minuscule.  So, I relish in the fact that my sins, as great as they are, are forgiven and I ask God to continue to keep me humble when dealing with others.  I ask God to lead me to give forgiveness to those around because I know that I am worse than they are.

Father, too often I judge rather than love, I dismiss rather than bless.  Forgive me and lead me to forgive as you so freely forgive me.  Lead me by your Spirit to reach out to others with the mercy that is poured out upon me.  Be with those who struggle with forgiving others.  Lead them to know the wonders of your mercy as it is revealed in their lives.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

5-17-2026

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 results of works, so that no one may boast.”

      In a small cemetery in Olney, England, there is a granite marker for a grave that states; “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and Libertine, a servant of slavers, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.”  This is quite a story of a life. 

     John Newton spent much of his early life living in a fashion that was to prove that he was in need of no God and that there was no God that would ever be in his life.  He ended up captaining a slave ship.  It was during a return trip to England from Africa that his life began to change.

    While on this trip, a particularly stormy trip in which he expected the ship to sink, he began to read the book “Imitation of Christ’ by Thomas a Kempis.  The reading of this book, combined with the fierce storm, began to change young mister Newton.  For a while, he tried to calm his conscience by having worship services on his slave ship but he soon realized that those two identities, slave trader and Christian, could not exist side by side.  He returned to England, married his childhood sweetheart, and worked as a clerk in the Port of Liverpool.

   Yet God’s call continued until he became a preacher.  He drew great crowds because of his own personal story “Old Converted Sea Captain.”  It was out of the story of his life that he penned one of the most famous hymns ever written: “Amazing Grace.”

   His life was an example of God’s amazing grace; a man who ran from God, fought God, denied God and, ultimately, restored by God.  You may not have this dramatic of a story but you do have a story and more, importantly, God has an answer for you.  Your story may be more of benign neglect, or of ignoring God but God kept telling you, his story.  You may have not wanted to hear the story but you needed to hear it.  It may have played on your mind and in your head as you mulled it over, not sure of what it meant or how it worked.

   What you probably don’t realize is that as you “mulled it over” the Holy Spirit was working on your heart.  He kept telling you the story of God’s love for you and how Jesus died for you so that you would have life and salvation.  It is truly the most amazing story you will ever hear.  It is the one story that will completely change your life.  It takes some of us minutes to grasp it; it takes some of us years but God keeps talking to us with amazing patience and amazing love.  God’s amazing grace is being spoken to you from the first the moment you hear the story of Jesus told to you.  God’s amazing grace never gives up.

Gracious Father, your grace is truly amazing.  I never deserve or earn it yet it is always there for me.  When I need it the most, your grace pours upon me.  Your mercy restores me; your grace supplies me.  Be with those who are still struggling with your story of love and how it works for them.  Pour your amazing grace upon their heart so they may know your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-16-2026

Good Morning!

Mark 4:36; “And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.”

        I was watching one of my favorite old movies the other day.  Late at night there was a showing of the movie “Jaws.”  For those of you who do not know, the basic premise is that a huge Great White shark is terrorizing a resort and eventually our three heroes go out and try to kill it.  The shark is supposed to be between 25 and 30 feet long.  On the boat is the old sea dog, a veteran of WWII, a young upstart marine biologist and the reluctant town sheriff.  The old sea dog and the young upstart spend much time sniping at each other while the sheriff gets all the “junk” jobs on the boat.

     One of his jobs is to throw bloody fish guts and pieces over the side of the boat trying to draw the shark.  As he is kneeling down over the edge of the boat, the shark jumps out of the water near the boat.  He stands with a look of terror in his eyes; he backs into the cabin where the sea dog and the young upstart are arguing.  He looks at both of them and says, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”  He saw the shark, saw his boat, and decided right away, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

    In our verse, Jesus is crossing the Sea of Galilee when a storm hits.  He is asleep in his boat but the others, especially those on the little boats, are terrified.  They are convinced that they are going to drown.  They wanted a bigger boat.  There have been many times in my life when I wished that I had been in a bigger boat.  There are always times in our lives when the storms seem so huge and the waves gigantic; we may even see sharks in the water.  There are times I wish I had a bigger boat.  Yet, if I had a bigger boat, would I just have more room for the junk that life tells me I need?

     The truth is that what we need is faith in Jesus to be there to calm the storm.  We also need to remember that “calming the storm’ may not mean removing the event but it does mean to remove the fear and the anxiety that we experience.  We may still face job problems, relational issues, health issues and the like but these events do not define who we are.  These events do not represent “failures” in our life rather they are to show us the wonder of God.  No matter what we face, Jesus is there to calm it down.  It is never about the size of the storm or the size of the boat but about the size of God’s love for us. 

    God’s love for you will always prevail.  Even in the tiniest boat, God’s love for you will always prevail.  The challenge for us is to always look at the waves and the storm through the eyes of faith.  Holding onto the truth that God is always there to guard us and protect us.  We don’t need a bigger boat because we already have the greatness of God.

Father, the storms cause us to fear and we look at the size of our boat and we question.  Give us the faith to trust in you.  Give us the sureness of your wondrous grace in our lives.  Help us to know that you will always calm the storms for us and give us the peace that the world cannot give.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.           

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret