7-4-2015

 Good Morning All!!

         James 3:5; “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.  How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!”

      I can still remember the look on his face.  It was a few years ago but the look of pain and bewilderment was striking.  We sat down and started to talk.  It seems the young man had done something and he wasn’t particularly proud of it.  In fact he was deeply embarrassed by it.  He sat down and told a friend.  He poured out his soul to his friend but in the end; the friend shared this new found knowledge with others.  The young man was now the victim of a gossip campaign which only added to his pain.  The friend, while not meaning to hurt him, shared the juicy inside information with “just a couple of concerned others” and soon it was the topic at many a coffee get together.

     It is so easy to do.  We hear some information and we simply think we have to share it and in doing so we cause more pain and more harm.  Soon we are living what James was writing about in our verse.  The tongue can cause far more damage than just about anything.  In fact James spends most of chapter 3 in his book warning his readers about taming the tongue and we still often fail to listen today.

    It is a humbling and special honor to serve as someone’s confessor.  This means that you are trusted by another person enough that the second person shares his deepest fears, worries, sins and failures with you.  He looks to you for guidance, direction, comfort, forgiveness and for a sense of healing.  Often times this person is already lacking trust and to come to you to unburden their soul requires a huge step of faith.  The role of confessor within the Christian community is common and too often it is breached because the confessor fails to hold the confidence of their fellow Christian and they share the inside information freely.  The trust that the wounded penitent showed you is now even more eroded.  This can cause the penitent to withdraw even more and cause even more pain.

    So what do we do?  First, ask yourself why am I sharing this confidence with someone else?  There can be valid reasons.  The person you are sharing with has knowledge or insight and can give you guidance to help your penitent friend.  Yet even this must be done with the strictest of care.  If the person you are sharing with has nothing to offer; then why share, why betray your penitent fellow believer?  Why add to the pain?

    We all need to be careful at all times.  It can be easy to slip and fall.  We need to pray for God’s guidance as we serve one another and bear one another’s burdens.  This is a Christian thing to do but when we carelessly share and break that trust we only cause pain.

Father, there are times when we fail to protect our wounded brothers and sisters.  We speak too freely with a careless tongue.  Forgive us when we fail.  Heal us and lead us to be more caring for our fellow man and to lead a life which is pleasing to you.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

7-3-2015

        Good Morning All!!

          Psalm 137:4; “How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?” 

        You can almost envision the setting of this verse in this psalm.  This psalm is a lament psalm.  It was first sung while the Israelites were being held in captivity in Babylon.  Their nation had been conquered, their city Jerusalem was destroyed, their sacred Temple was in ruins.  About a third of the people had died, about a third was just gone and about a third were taken into captivity to serve as slaves to their now Babylonian overlords. 

    The Babylonians took great pleasure in “over lording.”  They made fun of them, they abused them, they had defiled their Temple, carried of the Temple gold as plunder and now treated them with complete disdain.  They taunted the Israelites by trying to get them to sing their sacred songs here, in Babylon.  The Israelites, especially those who valued their faith and religion, were saddened and distressed; they felt abandoned by God and would cry over their situation.

    There have been times when I felt like I was by the rivers of Babylon wondering how I could sing the Lord’s song.  Perhaps you have experienced the same feeling.  Perhaps you have felt that gnawing in the pit of your stomach with the ache of something completely gone wrong.  At first, it didn’t seem so bad.  But slowly we are sucked into the pit of pain and despair.  Guilt and shame become very cruel overlords that taunt and haunt us.  They leave us feeling lost and abandoned.

     If you have been there or if you are there, you have hope.  You have a Savior that has not abandoned you.  He came to this earth to bring about healing, your healing.  He came to give you peace and hope.  Through his death and resurrection, he gives you value; he makes you precious in the eyes of God and gives to you the righteousness that you need to stand in his presence and to seek his comfort.  He lets you sing those songs, or better yet, he lets you come to him as he gives you comfort.  God does not lock you out; he does not turn his back to you.  He gives us his grace to conquer our fears and to rise above our sorrows.

    The world may taunt us but Jesus has overcome the world by his death on the cross and his resurrection.  He takes that victory and he gives it to you.   He gives it to you so that you may be free from the pain and the despair.   He brings you into his family to heal you and to make you whole.

Father, at times my heart is heavy and at I feel you are far away.  Yet I know your promise to be with me is always true.  Lead me by your Spirit to know your mercy.   Lead me by your Spirit to know the gentleness of your loving arms.  Lift me up from the depth of my despair that I might be healed.  Be with those who are sinking in their own pit.  Free them in your mercy.  Guide them with your love to know your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus I pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret            

7-2-2015

Good Morning All!!

            Genesis 3:7; “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

    Just like that; just that quick innocence was lost.  Yet something far more profound is occurring in this verse.  The verse immediately preceding this one tells of Adam and Eve eating the fruit they were supposed to leave alone. The most immediate effect of sin was and still oftentimes is- shame.  Shame is a destructive guilt inducing reaction to an event.

   Even as many parents, teachers, coaches and other authority figures will often use shame as a method of encouraging or inducing proper behavior; the vast majority of psychologists will tell you that you cannot shame someone into better behavior.  Shaming another person only leads to guilt, feelings of inadequacy, loss of worth and a belief that they are unworthy of love.  Shaming leads to guilt- period end of discussion.  This is why the devil introduces us to shame at an early age.  When we feel shame we go right to guilt and the devil loves for us to feel guilt.

    When you think about it, why do most people avoid personal confession of sins to another person?  Chances is are, we feel shame admitting that we look at pornography on the internet, or have lusted after a friend’s spouse, or thought some very unkind things about a fellow Christian.  We don’t want anyone to know how we really are.  So we hide, or try to, just as Adam and Eve did.  We pull something on to cover our shame and then we hide so no one can find us.  Then as we hide, we cower, afraid that someone will find out that we really are naked and full of shame.

    Perhaps the greatest shaming is what we do to ourself.  The devil and the world will help by pointing out our flaws but it is our sinful nature that gets the “shame walk” on the move.  We beat ourself up and decide that we are unlovable and without hope; just where the devil wants you to live.

   Yet God comes looking for you just like he did Adam and Eve and he comes to you as a loving father looks for a lost child.  He calls out your name inviting you into the safety of his loving arms.  He invites you to feel the warmth of his love and the comfort of his mercy.  He invites you to find rest and peace in his arms; a place to lose your shame.  God knows what you did and he loves you regardless of what you did.  Yet God is not about your past; he is about your future.  He forgives your past so that your future is bright and filled with hope, filled with his grace. 

    The world wants to fill you with shame but God wants to fill you with his love.  This is a love that can move you to love others, but above all, to love yourself.

Father, free me from my shame.  Fill my heart with your incredible love.  Fill me with your Spirit that I might be cleansed of the pain of shame.  Heal my soul, refresh my spirit, lift me from the pit that I may see your face.  Show me your kindness with no end.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

7-1-2015

  Good Morning All!!

         2 Kings 6:17; “Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

     Have you ever tried to walk in a straight line?  Most people who cannot do this make the same mistake; they look down at their feet and watch them closely.  As they do this, they tend to weave and waver about.  Soon instead of a straight line it is a very wobbly zigzag.  If you want to go in a straight line, you need to look up, pick out a point in the distance, focus on that point and walk toward it never taking your eye off of that point.  When your focus is down, you zigzag; when your focus is up you can walk in a straight line.

    We do this in our life as well.  Too often we look down and focus only on the troubles that we have or the troubles that we hear.  We let the news get us down; we let disappointments in life get us down.  When these bouts of doubt occur, the devil wants nothing more than to keep us down.  He wants you to always look about and only see those things in life which hurt us and cause us pain.  He wants you to focus on “friends” that are not; he wants you to focus on the power and might he wants you to think he has.  He wants you to focus on the weaknesses and failures in your life.

    This is why God encourages us to look up and to focus on his love and his protection.  This is what the prophet Elisha was praying for in our verse.  He was praying that the young man with him, so fearful of the enemy that he saw and thought was so powerful, would open his eyes and see that God was with him and protecting him from this enemy.

    God is there to protect us and to comfort us as well.  We need to remember that God’s love for us is greater than any enemy that attacks us.  God’s love is greater than any trial we face or any calamity that might befall us.  We are surrounded by his angels to protect us; we are engulfed by his grace to bring us salvation.  We are never alone in our battles for God is always there to defend us and to keep us in his arms. God is there to do battle for you.  You have been marked and claimed by Christ the Crucified; he will never abandon you or let you suffer the devil’s attacks. 

   So look up with eyes that are opened by faith to see that God is with you and that his plan for you is to prosper you to life eternal.  His love and grace are always there to defend you and to keep you safe in his arms.  Open your eyes and see his mercy.

Father, to you alone belongs the glory.  Thank you for sending Jesus to be my Savior so that I can always be safe in your loving arms.  You make me your child and defend me with your power and might and through your love you pick me up that I might be safe in your arms.  In you I have peace, in you I have hope.  Be with those who are wrestling with forces they cannot handle.  Open their eyes to your mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret