4-9-2016

 Good Morning All!!

Acts 11:23; “When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose”

    There was a persecution of the new Christians in Jerusalem.  Many of these new believers left Jerusalem and went throughout the region.  Some of them ended up in the city of Antioch.  Now all these people were Jews and when they went to Antioch, they met with other Jews and taught about Jesus.  Soon some of the Greeks were listening and began to believe in Jesus as the Christ.  The church in Jerusalem heard about this so they sent Barnabas to go check things out.

    What Barnabas saw excited him for he saw the grace of God.  He spoke to the people and exhorted them or encouraged them to remain faithful.  He didn’t tell them to build a bigger church or give more money or start some new mission project.  He didn’t tell them to launch a membership drive or have more potluck suppers.  Barnabas encouraged them to remain faithful.  In many ways, this is the same encouragement for us.  We are to remain faithful.

    It can be difficult.  We can have friends or even family members who question or try to lead us away.  Maybe not on purpose or even by design but the devil uses them to lead us astray.  The devil’s goal is to lead us to be unfaithful to fall away or to walk away from Jesus and his teaching.  This can take many forms.  It might be where you question whether God can or will hear you.  It might be to question the events around you and question the goodness of God.  When we look around we might be tempted to lose heart and to lose faith.  We want to figure it out; we want to explain why things are the way they are.  This is not what God calls us to do.  God calls us to be faithful.

    Many people think that they want to understand everything that happens.  It might be a very great blessing that we don’t.  We don’t know all the pain and all the suffering that God knows because of the sin in the world; it could very easily be more than we could ever stand.  We could very easily be crushed under the weight of that knowledge.  In many ways, God is shielding us and protecting us from the pain by not revealing all of this to us.  God invites us to remain faithful, to keep our focus on his gracious will for us revealed to us in Jesus.  God invites us to remain faithful and thus be steadfast in our purpose; this purpose being to be His witnesses and ambassadors here in this world.

    We are not called to defend God or to explain God.  We are called to be faithful.  We are called to remember what Jesus did and does for us.  We are called to hold onto God’s truth and to live as his people.  We are to live as his people of loving; bringing healing and hope to this broken creation.  We are to touch the untouchable, love the unlovable, comfort the hurting, feed the hungry and give solace to the dying.  That is what faithful people do; they show the love of God to all in need.

Father, you call us to be faithful.  Send your Spirit to empower us to always focus on you and your grace in our lives.  Enrich us with your holy presence that we may be your people.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

4-8-2016

Good Morning All!!

           Matthew 4:17;”From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

   This is one of those verses that cause people to really kind of wrinkle their nose at.  “Repent”; it makes it sound like I am some sort of bad guy; well you are.  Yet there is more to this verse than most of us read.  Most of us see this as Jesus “the kill joy God” coming into our lives and screwing up the good times we are having.  This is what the devil and our sinful nature wants us to believe.

    Of course the devil and our sinful nature lie to us every single time.  The truth is, God is trying to get us to see that we are on the wrong path and we need to fix it.  When God created the world, it was perfect.  Man was perfect and all of creation worked in harmony with each other.  Then sin entered the world and brought disharmony and caused man to turn away from God.  So that is where we sit, with our backs turned toward God looking and going away from God and his grace.

    To this life Jesus says repent.  In other words, turn around, come back, don’t go that way it will only harm you.  Repent, turn from the sin that harms you and come back to my grace; repent.

    We need to understand that the 10 Commandments are a reflection of God’s Will.  This is God telling us how we can live the life that we were designed for before man sinned.  This is how the relationship between you and God along with you and your fellow man are designed to be.  We see that if we believe that God is our God and not some other false god pretending to be; that our relationship with our creator is better.  If we see that in our dealings with other people should be based on respect, love and honor, we see that we have a better existence.  God’s law serves to bring us back to this proper existence.  When we sin, we turn from God’s perfect design to the broken sinful one.  When this happens we need to repent; we need to turn away from our sin and back to God’s grace.

   This is what repentance is really all about.  It is not about God taking away our fun but about returning to the proper, healthy life that we were created for.  To keep returning to sin is to keep returning to the very thing that causes us pain.  God calls us to repent; to turn away from this self-destructive behavior and return to God’s grace and favor.  We can continue to beat our self over the head and claim we like it or we can repent and turn back to God and his path for our life.

Dearest Father, too often we go our own way which causes us pain and suffering.  Too often we miss your call to repentance and only suffer more.  We give you thanks for the mercy to call us and we ask that you strengthen us to hear your call and heed it.  We ask that you be with those who are in the most pain and suffering.  Lead them to hear your call to repentance and to come home.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-7-2016

Good Morning All!!

       Genesis 18:32; “Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”

     “If you change your mind, I’m the first in line; honey I’m still free; take a chance on me.”  Alright, I admit it; I know songs by ABBA; not a proud moment but a moment anyway.  We like the idea of change.  We like it when others change for us.  “Change the channel, please, my show is on now.”  “Let’s change seats so I can see better.”  “Instead of going out for supper, let’s cook a pizza.”  We like it when people change their mind, alter their actions or plan to fit our desires, but what about God?  Can we change his mind?

     Our text is part of the story of Abraham praying to God that he spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Abraham starts out by asking God if he would spare the city if there were 50 righteous people, then 45, then 40 all the way down to 10.  At each request, God tells him that he will not destroy the city if there were that many righteous.  In the end, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.  Yet how do we match the idea that God is perfect and immutable (changeless) and then he changes his mind?  If God does not change, why pray?  Why ask God for something if it is already decided?

    The most important part about prayer is that while it does not change God; it completely changes you.  In our story, Abraham knew, without a doubt, that these two cities did not even have 10 righteous people in them.  When you and I pray, God uses prayer to change us.  For most of us, praying helps us to identify our fears and worries.  Once we identify what we are afraid of or what we are worrying about; it tends to “shrink the problem.”  The devil loves it when we live in nebulous fear, when we are just afraid.  Yet, if we put a name to that fear, such as, I am afraid of losing my job, God, through the Spirit, will send you comfort.  It might be in the form of helping you realize that there are other jobs or opportunities for you.  It might be from other friends or family members.  God works in many ways, but he works.

    The most important part of prayer is that we come to God and lay our fears, our worries and our burdens at his feet.  Then we trust God to keep his promise to provide for us.  If we do this right from the start, we will begin to have comfort right from the start.  If we trust from the start, then even if our prayers are not answered in the fashion that we thought was best, we know that God will make all things work for good for those whom are called according to his purpose.  So we pray and God heals us; in his way and in his time, but he does heal us.

Father, we come before your throne of mercy seeking your blessings upon the families of the land.  Many families are under attack.  We pray for reconciliation; we pray for peace within our own lives, within the lives of those whom we love, and within the lives of all those who are hurting.  Send your Spirit of peace to your people.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret        

4-6-2016

       Good Morning All!!

    Isaiah 40:31; “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint”.

   Have you ever watched the movie “Forrest Gump”?  I really like it because it is a movie that you can watch over and over and find new nuances or story lines.  There are some really good lines to quote from this movie.  “Life is like a box of chocolates” “Mamma said stupid is as stupid does!” “Sometimes I guess there just aren’t enough rocks” “I am not a smart man, but I know what love is” These come in handy once in a while.

    One of the side stories of the movie that intrigues me is how Forrest waits the entire movie with his love for Jenny.  Jenny starts out as the young school girl who befriends Forrest and they grow up together.  She eventually grows away from him (she thinks) but he never does and writes her letters everyday when he is in Vietnam.  Through her whole life, when Jenny has to make a choice; she usually takes the wrong one.  Her life is tough.  It is a struggle every step of the way, never answering Forrest’s letters but his love continues.  He waits for her until she comes home for a while.  She sleeps like she hasn’t slept for years.  They eventually get married but she dies shortly afterwards from some new disease. (Unstated but AIDS is implied)  So Forrest is waiting again, with their son.

    I don’t know if I could wait like that.  Waiting can be hard for us.  We wait for the job we want.  We wait for the spouse we need.  We wait years for a child to be born.  Sometimes we wait for a prayer to be answered and then it is not what we hoped for.  Sometimes we find ourselves waiting for a loved one who has left us and will not return.  Sometimes we wait and it feels like time stops.  Yet God tells us to wait.

    To wait on the Lord means to know that God is doing something for us that is wonderful.  He is doing something so wonderful that, even when we know it, we don’t really understand it.  God’s grace is alive restoring us to his family.  God is preparing us for heaven and is preparing a place in heaven for us.  When we “wait for the Lord” when we are expectant; anticipating God’s wondrous mercy and as we trust in that mercy.  As we trust in the Lord we are renewed; we can run like we are not weary.  Think of all the restored joy and energy which God gives to us which we pass by because we are waiting for something different and yet God has the precious gift waiting for us; life eternal with him.  We will live in what the Bible describes as a wedding feast.  This is a time of eternal gladness.  Wait for the Lord; it is going to be great!!

Dearest loving Father, your mercy is new to us every day.  Teach us to wait; teach us to wait as you do the wondrous events and actions in our life.  Be with us and guide us.  Protect us and give to us the energy to run and never tire in our service to you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret