11-3-2017

Good Morning All,

         Psalm 103:12; “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

    As I was typing this (or is it word processing it?) I got about 1/3 of the way through and didn’t like the way it was going.  This was mostly because it wasn’t going anywhere.  So I pushed the left click button and highlighted the portion and then hit delete; “Poof” it was gone.  There was a time when you would have pulled the paper out of the platen, crumpled it up and tossed it in the waste basket, pulled out a new sheet of paper and twisted it in and started over.

    Now if it was only a mistake or two, you could use your correcto-ribbon if you had a Smith Corona Electric typewriter.  Otherwise you had to break out the white out.  Now we only backspace to get rid of an extra letter or two.  If we still used white out, I would have to buy it by the gallon.  But nothing beats the backspace or delete button to rid yourself of those pesky typing mistakes or even the entire rambling paragraph.

    There have been other times when I wish I could have had a delete button in my life.  Maybe, just maybe, some of those dumb things I said or did could have been erased before they had a chance to hurt the feelings of others.  Maybe I could have backspaced a couple of times when I had my mouth engaged but my brain in neutral.  Deleting a couple of painful actions would be nice as well but we don’t get to do that do we?  While we can’t always delete past mistakes we make with people; God makes it possible for us to delete our mistakes with Him.

    Because of Jesus, our sins are forgiven, forever deleted from God’s memory.  He does this out of love for us.  He does this to bring us back into the loving, family relationship which he wants to have with us.  He does this because we need to be holy in order to be in his presence.  By declaring us holy and paying for our sins himself, our sins are removed.  The barrier of sin is removed and we are once again His beloved children.

    But if God hadn’t forgiven us, we would still be in our broken relationship.  We need to see the importance of this.  If we do not forgive, then our relationships continue to be broken.  Remembering others sins, real or imaged, only cause us pain.  As long as we hold onto the sins of others who commit them against us in our hearts and minds, we will never know peace.  Until we hit the delete button and erase those sins, those memories of pain, so that we only have a blank screen, we will suffer the consequences of having unforgiven sins in our lives.  By holding the sins of others in our heart, we tend to view our sins as unforgiven and being retained by God.

    Yet God does forgive our sins and he desires that we forgive others as well.  To delete the sins of others frees us to experience the complete freedom of God’s forgiveness.  So delete away, God has.

Father, you remove our sins and bring us back into your grace and favor.  Lead us to forgive others as well.  Lead us to see that in this way, we heal ourselves even more than we help to heal others.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

11-2-2017

Good Morning All,

         Matthew 2:2; “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

     In 1980, the R&B group known as The Manhattans had a song entitled “Shining Star”.  It was a love song about how the singer saw his girlfriend as the shining star in his life.  It seems like there are people in our lives who provide us with that spark or light that we crave so much.  We look to them for examples of how things are done properly.  We look to them for inspiration and we look to them for direction and answers.  We look to them for guidance.

    For many young athletes, this person may be a coach or an older player on the team.  It might be a teacher or a mentor from the church.  It might be a co-worker that is our light; it might be a neighbor or a friend.  Most of us have someone that we look to for inspiration; to be a light to our life.  This seems to be human nature.

    It is that human nature that makes being a light so important.  The Magi saw a star that told them that something amazing had happened.  Their understanding of the prophecy told them that “the King of the Jews was born.”  This must have unnerved Herod, the sitting king, when he was asked; where is the King of the Jews?  Yet the Magi had seen the star and went on looking just as the Spirit had guided them to do.

    Later, Jesus told his disciples to let your light shine that the world will see your good works and give glory to God the Father.  Then he told them about being a city on a hill.  Then he told about the foolishness of putting a lamp under a basket.  Jesus is big on light isn’t he?  This is because he is the light of the world and he gives us the path to follow and the light to see it.  As he was speaking to the disciples after his resurrection, he told them, in essence, “while I am gone, you are the light now.”

    So that is where we are, we are the light in the world.  We are the ones who are to be that light on a hill showing the world God’s love.  You are to let your light shine so that the glory of the Father may be seen.  How do we do this?  Jesus gives us many examples both by word and deed.  He tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison.  This is the continuation of God’s call to His people in the Old Testament.  “Take care of the orphan, the widow and the alien in your land.”  He showed us his love by healing the sick, raising the dead and, ultimately, dying for us to remove our sins.

    So be the star in the night, be the light in the dark world.  Jesus empowers us to be this light.  Show God’s love to those around you, especially your family and your friends; they may need it the most.  Epiphany is about revealing a truth to the world.  Make this the year that you reveal the truth about Jesus to someone.

Father, help my light to shine so that others will see your love, your mercy and your glory.  Make me to shine brightly.  Guide me to those who are in the greatest need of your loving hand and grant them your peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

11-1-2017

Good Morning All,

         Habakkuk 2:4b; “but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

    What do you live by?  Some people live by sight.  They claim that they have to see it.  They claim that they have to have visual contact to assure that something is real or not.  If they can’t see it; it doesn’t exist.  Yet how many things do we not see but we know they exist?  They may be small or far away or exist in total darkness; yet we know they exist.  We experience the result of the actions of these small particles.  We know electrons exist by the shock we get from them; yet we never see them.  So living by sight might not be that great.

     Some live by touch.  They need to feel things to know that they are real.  They need the wind in their face or the spray of the rain to know it is real.  If it cannot be held or touched it is not real because reality has substance.  Yet how do they explain the pain of a heartbreak?  How do they explain sadness or happiness?  We know these exist but we can’t touch them.

     Some people live by knowledge.  They claim that they must have complete understanding of something for it to exist for them.  If they don’t understand it, they reject it.  Everything must fit into their way of thinking.  The problem with this is that it leaves no room for the fact that none of us can ever know everything.  How do we explain new ideas or objects?  We can only deny them if we follow the idea that if I don’t know it then it cannot exist.  It also leaves no room for learning. 

    So how do we live?  Scriptures tell us that the righteous shall live by faith.  But what does this mean?  The easiest way to think of this is that faith means the desire to trust in God’s promise.  The righteous are those who God has declared to be holy, separate from the sinful world.  So we live, separated from the sinful world, because we trust in God’s promise of forgiveness and salvation.  We trust God to deliver on his promises and we separate our self from the world.  This can be a challenge.  When all your friends call abortion a choice, fidelity an old fashioned idea, or homosexuality a lifestyle, what do you do?  God calls these sins and calls us to flee from them.

    They are sins because they go against God’s will and design.  They destroy the gifts that God has given to us.  They pull us back into the pit of despair that God has pulled us out of.  There are others than the three listed and the three listed aren’t any worse than any others.  Sin separates us from God.  It is that simple.  Yet God brings us back into his family by forgiving our sins.  By faith, by trusting God’s promise to forgive, we remain in that family but we must remain faithful to God’s promise and his call to righteousness and holiness.  We are to be his people in this world, a light in the darkness, hope for the hopeless and comfort for the hurting.  We live by faith because we trust in God’s promise.

Wonderful Father, your mercies are new to us each day.  Thank you for giving me the ability and the desire to trust in your promise.  Thank you for declaring me righteous in your sight.  Help me to live the life that you have laid out for me.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret