8-5-2016

      Good Morning All!! 

       Genesis 4:7; “If you do well, will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

     This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.  “Sin is crouching at your door”; it sounds so ominous, it sounds so threatening and yet it is so true and we miss it often.  This verse is part of God’s warning to Cain before Cain killed Abel.  As we look at the story of Cain and Abel this verse is kind of haunting in the background.

    Many of us have a vague view of Cain and Abel.  We have all see the artwork that shows an angry, violent Cain attacking Abel.  Abel is often portrayed as smaller, weaker and, in some drawings, all most effeminate.  Yet this is probably a very incorrect view of these two.

   Abel was the nomad.  He wandered and care for his sheep; moving them from pasture to pasture, looking for water and new grass.  He would have walked and had to carry some of the sheep at different times.  He was the wandering from place to place moving with the seasons and the rains.

    Cain was the farmer; he was the one who was settled and “civilized”.  He went on to build the first city.  This is an existence which requires a steady and reliable food and water supply.  It would lead to government and the arts.  Not exactly the image that we tend to place on Cain; the violent and crazed murderer.  Yet this is probably a point of this verse that we need to understand.  Sin, especially our sin, tends to come from unique or hidden places; from places we do not expect.  It can creep into our relationships as we begin to see ourselves as the important one in the relationship and soon we have sin crouching at our door.  We are jealous of our neighbor; we feel we are “owed” something (money, power, respect); sin is crouching at the door.

    What God is telling Cain, and us, is that it is easy for our sinful nature to take over and cause us to sin.  It is always crouching at our door just waiting for the opportunity to strike.  If we are not diligent, if we do not pay attention sin will strike.  Even when we know what is right we sometimes do what is wrong because sin crouches at our door.  Our only hope is to trust in God’s Word and to focus on his grace as the method to fight temptation, to avoid the sin that is crouching at your door. 

    We will face trials every day yet God provides for us an escape from our temptation.  God promises to be with us and to protect us from the assaults of the devil; who is always crouching at your door seeking to cause you to trip and fall.  Yet God will forgive us and draw us back as we repent and turn from the sin that is crouching at our door.

Father, we have sin crouching at our door.  Guide us by your Spirit to defend against it.  Help us to see it and to avoid it.  Be with those who are especially being tempted by sin.  Help us to aid them in their struggles.  Use us to bring them back into your heavenly family.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, we pray amen.

God’s Peace,                                                                                                       

Pastor Bret

8-4-2016

Good Morning All!! 

       Acts 2:42; “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

       It is always interesting when you discuss church membership with some people.  When asked what church they belong to; some can’t tell you the name of the minister at the church, they aren’t sure what times services are, some aren’t sure of the denomination or what it meant.  When asked if they are Christian; it is not uncommon for the answer to be, “No, I am Catholic” or “No, I am Presbyterian” or “No, I am (fill in the blank)”.  Unfortunately, many people do not know what it means to belong to a church or what that means.

    So what does it mean to belong to the church?  Probably first and foremost, the church is relational.  It should be a place where, the relationship that you have with God and with one another is strengthened, healed, restored, enhanced, rejuvenated, invigorated, made perfect.  That is what the early church was engaged in; it was engaged in relationship building.  Notice what the members of the early church did: Bible Study, time with other believers, time with other believers in worship, interceding for each other.

    They studied the Bible, the teaching of the Apostles.  They did this, not to be a champion on “Jeopardy” but in order to hear what God was telling them and to see what God was revealing about himself to them.  They hungered to hear God’s Words of mercy and grace.  Through those wonderful words, he drew them closer, strengthened their faith and built them up.

    Because God is rebuilding this relationship with you, he desires that we rebuild our relationships with each other as well.  We do this through the fellowship that is discussed.  This can be a meal together (first potluck?) or time around a table with a cup of coffee.  The important thing is that it is about listening to each other and truly hearing about the events in each other’s life and having a true compassion for each other. 

    It is about joining together, as this compassionate fellowship and sharing together in God’s gift to us in his body and blood in the bread and the wine that we, as a group, may be strengthened in faith and in fellowship with each other.  Then they joined in prayer, corporately and individually, always praying for each other.  Lifting the concerns and needs of each other up to God and sharing in the rejoicing of God’s mercy.

    This is what the church should be.  If this is missing from your life then you may want to prayerfully review your relationship with your fellow believers.  God gives you the church to strengthened and comforted in this life.  It is yours for the using.

Gracious Father, you give us the church so that we may be strengthened.  Help us to see and to use this wonderful gift.  Help those who feel they are alone and without hope.  Bring them to those whom you have called that they may be blessed through the true church.  Keep your church safe from the attacks of the devil.  Heal its wounds and strengthened it that it may be your true light in this world.  In the precious name of Jesus, our head, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

8-3-2016

Good Morning All!! 

            1 John 4:18; “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

        He was a cantankerous patient.  He growled at the nurses and the nurses’ aides who tried to help him.  He never said thank you or offered a smile or a kind response.  He seemed to be angry at everything.  One night, when he was particularly grumpy, an older aide asked him why he was so mad at everyone.  He stopped for a moment and while looking at the ceiling began to tell the aide his story.

    He told the aide that he wasn’t angry; he was frightened.  He was afraid of what the doctors would tell him.  He was afraid of losing his independence.  He had never depended on anyone for anything but now; he had no choice.  He was afraid and being afraid made it hard to be thankful, joyful or hopeful.  Fear was driving away his confidence; fear was making his life miserable.

    Fear is the devil’s favorite tool.  When we fear, we tend to become frozen in our vision.  We seem to only focus on how big the challenge ahead of us is and not on God’s grace.  Fear paralyzes us into inaction.  It drives us to emptiness and hollowness.  It deprives us of the confidence in the love that God pours upon us; it weakens our faith.  Fear causes us to deny our thankfulness and our willingness to see past the immediate and to miss God’s perfect promise for our life.

    The only way for us to lose our fear is for the perfect love of God to drive it away.  We can never fight fear on our own.  We will never defeat fear on our own.  It is far stronger than we are.  If we are going to defeat fear we will need help; help from God.  His grace is poured out upon us freely because of Jesus and his all atoning sacrifice for us.  Because of Jesus’ victory, we have nothing to fear.   The devil can only taunt us but in the end we know that God and his mercy will prevail in the end.  Nothing can defeat God and his love for us.

    So as we face our fears, we can be confident that God has already defeated them.  We can trust that in Him we have complete victory; in Him we have the promise of our salvation.  When we grab hold of this truth, we can give thanks to God that this challenge or struggle that we face has already be conquered by his mercy.  We can know that each struggle will end in God’s loving arms.  We can rejoice in his grace and peace. 

Father of all mercy, when we stand on our own fear can overtake us.  Use your love to drive out our fear.  Strengthen our faith that we may stand tall and face our fears with the confidence of your love destroys fear.  Be with those who are struggling at this time.  Give them the strength to overcome their fears.  Show them your perfect peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-2-2016

Good Morning All!! 

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

      A small group of preteen boys were huddled and engaged in an intense discussion.  One of them had thrown a baseball and broke a window.  Some wanted to just run away; some advised telling the owner and offering to fix the window.  The discussion was pretty intense but had a common theme- fear.  The ones who voted to just run away were afraid of getting in trouble for breaking the window.  The ones who voted to tell the owner were afraid of greater punishment for not telling.  Their logic was that, eventually, they would get caught and be punished more severely for lying and trying to hide the truth. 

    So when you approach a confession of sins; do you do so from an attitude of fear?  Do you speak the confession of sins because you are afraid that God will find out later and then really punish you?  Many do; many think that confession of sins to God is telling God, “I know you don’t know this but this is what I have done.”  This is a human view of confession; it is not how God views it.  God views it as a way to relief pain; we should as well.

    The first thing we need to know is that God knows everything.  When you confess your sins to Him, you are not telling him something that he doesn’t already know.  Confession is not about informing God or giving him so new information.  Confession is not about making God fee; better; confession is about relieving our guilt and brightening our soul.

    Confession is about ridding the guilt of our sin and laying it at God’s altar.  You may even think of it as carrying out the garbage.  When you feel that you have some sins that are just too great to confess or that you feel are just unforgiveable, you simply are keeping garbage that you do not need.  This excess garbage is used by the devil to cause you guilt; guilt about sins that God has already forgiven.  So confession can be seen as you and I going to God and saying, “Dear Father, I am tired of carrying this garbage around.  It stinks and it weighs me down; please take it from me.”  The wondrous love of God means he will take it and throw it away for us.

   So we do not need to view confession with fear; rather we can approach it as God defines it; as a way to free ourselves from pain and sorrow.  It is a way to relieve our heart of guilt and to give our souls peaceful rest.

Gracious Father, you cleanse me of my sin and I am whiter than snow.  With your great mercy, I have peace in this life and the hope of life eternal with you.  Keep me safe in your loving arms.  Strengthen me so that I do not fall for the devil’s lies.  Be with those who are struggling against his lies at this time.  Free them from his voice.  Give your Spirit to them so that they may clearly hear your voice.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,                                

Pastor Bret 

8-1-2016

 Good Morning All!! 

      1 Corinthians 6: 19b-20: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

     “It’s a free country!”  “I have my rights and I will exercise them as I choose!”  We hear phrases like this often, especially in the United States.  It is all about my freedom to do as I please.  The interesting thing is that we are now seeing what happens when my freedom meets your freedom.  So how do we as Christians supposed to act?  We have freedom; Christ freed us from sin and the devil.  We are free, right?

    We need to see this carefully.  Christ has freed us.  He has freed us from the tyranny of the devil.  We are freed from the guilt of sin.  We are freed the fear of being separate from God.  We are freed.  Yet this freedom has never meant that we can choose whatever we want.  We are no longer under the reign of the devil; now we are under the reign of God.  We are God’s children.  We were bought with a great price; we were bought with the blood of Jesus.

    So now we belong to God, we are free of the devil but our allegiance is now to God.  Our allegiance is not to our own personal freedom, our allegiance is not to our own selfish desires; that places us back in the reign of the devil.  Being in God’s kingdom means to desire the “higher things”; we desire those qualities which Jesus displayed.  We desire to serve God and fulfill his will.  We seek to live as God desires us to live.

    This can be a challenge.  There are many times when the world will do everything it can to convince us that we are wrong.  Just remember that even the devil quoted Scriptures when he tempted Jesus in the desert; it can be the same with us.  Yet the world always twists Scriptures just enough to make them wrong.  We know that God loves us and loves all people but God hates sin because it separates us from God’s grace.

    God hates sin because it removes us from his love and from his grace.  God hates sin because it harms us; it harms our relationship with Him.  God’s hatred of sin is probably easiest understood if we think how you and I hate cancer.  We see what cancer does to the body and we see what cancer does to our relationship with the person who has it.  Cancer can destroy the body and kill the person who has it.  We lose that loved one to a disease so we hate cancer.

    Sin is a cancer and because it is, God hates sin.  God does not hate you or anyone else but sin will separate us from Him.  So in order to redeem you, God had Jesus come into the world to pay your debt, to buy you back from the devil.  So we should live our lives for Him.  We should thank and praise, serve and obey Him with complete joy. 

    Father of grace, you sent Jesus to buy us back from the devil.  Let us never forget that we are yours.  Let us never forget that by your grace, we are forever in your mercy.  Help us to live in your holy kingdom.  Keep us from seeing freedom as the desire to follow our selfish desires.  Help us to see that freedom gives us the power to live in your will.  Be with those who struggle with freedom.   In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret