4-5-2016

Good Morning All!!

            Luke 24:8; “And they remembered his words,”

     “Just remember what I told you.”  You have probably said this at one time or another.  A parent will say this to a child in hopes that the child will remember his manners when he attends his first party.  It is what the teacher tells the students as they prepare for the test.  It is what the coach tells his players as they prepare for the start of the game.  It is what a person tells the one they love as if they are going to be separated for a while.  Remember, it is what we are to do when it come to our faith.

    Jesus spent a lot of his time teaching the disciples about the things that were about to occur.  He would tell them and tell them.  He taught and re-taught the disciples.  He taught them so that when the events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and finally Easter occurred; He wanted them to remember everything that He taught them.  Unfortunately, they didn’t remember.

    The days we now call Good Friday and Holy Saturday must have been the longest days in the disciples’ lives.  They had dreams and hopes in Jesus.  They had hopes for a new Israel to emerge, free from the bondage of any nation.  They would no longer be slaves to any nation but be great like they were when Solomon or David was king.  They had witnessed such wonders and heard such teachings; they knew Jesus had to be the Christ, The Anointed One.  Now he was dead and they now feared for their lives as well.

    When the women went to the tomb, Jesus was gone and the tomb was empty except for the angels who told the women that Jesus was alive and that they should remember what he said.  Then they remembered and ran and told the other disciples; eventually, everyone came to know that Jesus had arisen from the grave.

    Jesus wants you to remember as well.  Not just the historical event of Easter but what it truly means for you as a believer.  The resurrection of Jesus means that God the Father accepted the sacrifice of Jesus as full payment for your sins.  It means that the teachings of Jesus are the true teachings of God.  Easter means that we now have life, we have hope and we have the reconciliation back to God.  No longer does the devil and death hold us in their grip.  No longer does sin destroy us.  We have a new day to live for we have everything to look forward to and we can live today knowing that God’s promise is certain and secure.

    So when the storm clouds of life gather; remember.  When pain and sorrow overtake you; remember.  When it seems like it is all going wrong; remember.  Remember that because of Jesus, nothing that happens today will separate you from God’s love.  Remember this all of the time.

Father, your love is poured out to give us hope and life.  Lead us to remember that Jesus has already won the victory for us and that by this hope we know that we have overcome the world through Jesus.  Strengthen our faith and enliven our hope.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-4-2016

Good Morning All!!

            1 Corinthians 15: 20-21; “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.”

    I enjoy some of the old mystery stories.  Stories like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot or Nero Wolfe are interesting.  One of the crucial things to remember about reading or watching really good mysteries is that there are no meaningless clues.  Everything that gets mentioned matters.  This is also true of the different stories in the Bible.

  There are a couple of events in the resurrection story that many wonder about.  In Matthew’s account, the women grab Jesus’ feet. (Matt. 28:9)  Then in Luke 24 Jesus asks for a piece of fish and eats it. (Luke 24:41-43).  These seem like details that don’t matter or are just extraneous.  So what if the women grabbed Jesus’ feet or if he ate fish; what does this matter?  Just like our mystery stories, these facts play a part in the story.

    Again, remember that the books of the Bible, especially the New Testament, were letters written to different new churches and different readers.  There were the original readers, often new to the faith and now we are the second set of readers that the Holy Spirit wants to read these letters.  These new readers still held some of the more common superstitions and beliefs.  These play a part in the stories of grabbing the feet and of eating fish.

    At the time of Jesus, it was believed that ghosts did not have feet.  It was widely believed that ghosts floated along the ground so they did not feet.  When it came to ghosts, they did not eat, they couldn’t eat.  So both of these seemingly meaningless details were simply subtle ways to restate what Easter is all about.  Jesus lives!!  It is not a mirage or a ghost.  It is not the vivid imagination of a few women.  The Gospel writers are giving extra evidence and extra clues to bolster and re-affirm the truth that Jesus rose from the grave.  In this act, Jesus showed his victory over the grave and how now sin, death and the devil are defeated and under His total rule.

    Death no longer needs to hold the terror that it once did.  It is no longer the end.  Death, for the Christian, is only a nap.  Death is only a rest, just like Jesus rested for three days we will rest for a little while.  It is but a time to wait for the return of Jesus.  While our soul goes to heaven, our body waits for the return and the reunion of body and soul in that perfect existence.  We wait for that time when all creation is restored to its perfect state.  We wait with total confidence that our resurrection is assured because Jesus lives we will live also.

Father of all mercy, In Jesus you give us life.  You give us the gift of salvation and with it we have the gift of hope in your eternal promise.  Lead us by your Spirit to walk as you would have us walk.  Lead us so that we are the witnesses for Jesus.  Strengthen our faith; enliven our spirits that we may boldly and tirelessly serve You.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

4-3-2016

 Good Morning All!!

John 10: 28; “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

         It seems like every action movie has that one scene in it.  The scene where the hero is either on a mountain or high up in a building and he has to grab hold of someone, usually the girl he ends up with, to keep them from falling.  He holds on with a tenuous grip until he can either pull or swing her to safety.  They are usually getting shot at or in an earthquake or something are happening to make it more exciting.  Yet we know if it is a good guy he is holding; he won’t let go.  If it is a bad guy, there a pretty good chance the bad guy will slip away.

    Maybe there has been a time or two when you have felt like you were slipping away; I know I have.  Events going on around us can really make things seem completely crazy.  Pressure from the job, your marriage, your children, your parents, the doctors and any one of a number of other places can build up and squeeze you like a pimple.  All that pressure can cause you to lose your grip.  You may even feel like it is easier just to let go.  It is easy to feel exhausted from all the pressure, especially if you think no one understands what you are feeling right now.  There are times when you feel like letting go; I know I have as well.

    It is at times like this that we see our comfort and our hope is entirely dependent on God.  No matter how squeezed you feel; God does not let go.  Even if you are absolutely positive that the best thing to do is to let go; God doesn’t let go.  So when we feel like we are tumbling and spinning out of control and everything is flying apart; what we are really doing is thrashing around in the palm of God’s hand; God doesn’t let go.  It is times like this that we recognize that all those external pressures are exactly that, external.  The pressure comes from the outside but our peace comes from the inside; our peace comes from God.  Our peace comes from knowing that God holds us and not the other way around.  God holds on and doesn’t let go.

    No matter what you think you have done or are doing, God does not let go.  His love for you is overwhelming and he provides for us each day.  The most important things he gives us are hope, comfort, and peace.  We live knowing that God has something great in store for us- eternal life with him.  He gives us comfort- knowing that what hurts today is only temporary, what we fear right now will fade away but God’s love never will.  He gives us peace- the certainty that no matter how often I feel like letting go- God doesn’t let go.  He is our rock and our shield; he is always there for us and he will never let go.

   God never lets go; trust in his promise and when you feel like you can’t hold on; trust that God will and you are always safe in his arms.

Father, you protect me by your mighty arm because of your wonderful love.  Guard me by your mercy and keep me secure in my salvation and in the protection of your loving arms.  Be with those who feel as if they are slipping out of your hands.  Give them the knowledge and the certainty of your grace.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-2-2016

Good Morning All!!

Deuteronomy 5:15a; “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.”

      “We are slaves to no one!”  That was a comment made by the Jewish leaders to Jesus when he called them slaves.  The fact that their country was occupied by the Roman Empire at the time was just a matter of perspective I guess.  As we read that section of Scriptures, we often chuckle at this; how can they possibly say they aren’t slaves?  Now maybe technically they weren’t but they paid onerous taxes to an occupying force and were required to ask for permission of this occupying government to do just about anything.  That sounds like slavery, a time when you do not get to make your own choices.  It is either slavery or prison; take your pick.

     That is the good thing about living in the good ole’ US of A.  We are free; we are slaves to no one; almost.  Unfortunately, we are among the poorest slaves because we are not only slaves but we willingly became one.  We have abandoned God in favor of what we call being tolerant of others.  Now on the surface this sounds good; except it has become the code word for “don’t speak the truth.”  We are slaves to consumerism and think that we have to buy more and more.  It always amazes me how everyone has a smartphone, even kids, why?  Usually the answer is “because everyone else does.”

    We are truly slaves.  We are slaves to sin, to greed, to a pluralistic consumerism that demands that we “buy” into anything.  We believe that our personal wants should supersede the needs of others.  “I want, I want” is enough of a mantra for us to turn our backs on the needs of our fellow man because we are slaves to our own selfish foolishness.  But we don’t need to be that way.

    Just as God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, so God has freed us from slavery to sin and our own selfish foolishness.  We are free but just like the Israelites often times wanted to go back to Egypt and live in slavery; we too want to go back to slavery to sin.  We want to go back because our sinful nature wants us to believe that this is the best life we can have.  Yet God calls us to a better life.  He calls us to a life of freedom from this want.  We do not have to be slaves to this want; we are free from being slaves to this want.

   God, by his grace, will give us peace and contentment if we trust in him.  He gives us so much to enjoy, the time with family and friends, the beauty of nature and the freshness of his Word.  Jesus stretched out his arms to free you from slavery; don’t go running back.

Gracious Father, in your great love and mercy you have freed me from the slavery to sin.  Give me the wisdom to maintain that freedom.  Help to overcome the slavery to wants that only hurt us and separate us from your love.  Grant us the wisdom to seek your peace and your peace alone.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

4-1-2016

Good Morning All!!

         John 16:8; “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment”

     Have you ever noticed how often the Scriptures sound like a courtroom drama?  Conviction, judgment, laws broken; it could be Perry Mason or Boston Legal.  In many ways that is a good way to think about it especially if you think of it in terms of going to debtor’s prison.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with debtor’s prison, if you were in debt and could not pay, you could be placed in prison and you stayed there until you paid off your debt.  All of your property and perhaps your family would be sold first and then you would go to prison until the rest is paid up.  Yeah, it was a tough task.  If you were lucky a relative would help but usually you sat in prison until the debt was paid.

    We can think of sin as taking something of value from God.  We take away from the respect and honor that we owe.  We mar and spoil his creation and each other.  In this process we are in debt to God and when the time comes, the debt will have to be paid.  So we will stand before God the judge and the devil will be pointing to the Law and highlighting everything we have done wrong, pointing to every penny of debt we owe.  You can almost hear it play out, “You owe for this sin and this sin and this sin”; “you have nothing of value to sell, how do you plan to pay this debt, how do you plan on paying all this back, please don’t ask for more time that ploy hasn’t worked for years.”  “Here is the bill, pay up or go to prison (hell) until you do.”  You can almost see the devil turning to God the Father who is serving as Judge and begin in, “Your honor, this deadbeat is hopeless; send him to the place where he belongs, he’ll never pay this debt not in a million years!”

     This is where Jesus, our defense attorney states, “The debt has been paid.”  As he sits down he shows our debt with “paid in full” stamped on it.  If we hold that by faith, the debt is paid.  If we do not hold this by faith, no one will stand to say the debt is paid.  Someone has to pay the debt; someone has to balance the books that someone is Jesus.  He died to pay the debt.  He suffered the full brunt of God anger in order that every debt could be declared paid for.   If we cling to this by faith, the debt is paid; if we do not believe this, well someone has to pay and that someone will be you and you will remain in hell until you have paid your debt.  Just like the guy in debtor’s prison, how do you pay when you have no way to earn?  The debt never goes away; it hangs over the head of the unbeliever until it is paid. 

    Fortunately for us, a loving relative took pity on us and paid the debt.  Do you believe?  Do you believe that Jesus paid your debt?  That is the question.  If you believed you are saved; if you do not believe; well you better have deep pockets.  Sadly, no one has that deep of pockets.  Trust in Jesus to pay your debt and give you forgiveness.

Father in heaven, you sent Jesus to pay all I owe.  Give me the faith to trust this truth.  Give me courage to live my life according to this great promise.  In the precious name of Jesus our Risen Savior I pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret