11-3-2018

Good Morning All,

              Proverbs 10:20; “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth.”

     When you were young, were ever told, “don’t talk like that, here.”  “Don’t use that kind of language, here; someone might hear you.”  “We don’t talk like that here.” It is funny how we choose to think that there are places that we can talk like that and that there are places that we can’t.  Even as we hear these things said, deep down we know that they don’t make sense.  Deep down we know that words that shouldn’t be spoken, or thought in one place are wrong in another.

    Yet we try and do it.  We go to church on Sunday and sing of God’s praises.  We speak of our faith; we raise our prayers.  We say, “amen” and “halleluiah”; we sound so holy but what do we say on Monday or Tuesday?  Do we sound so holy then?  How is it that we can so wonderfully sing God’s praises one day and the next attack and destroy our neighbor?

    How do we go from singing to God to slinging mud?  We finish the “Alleluia” chorus and then go right in to viewing someone as “a lazy, slob who has never worked a real day in their life.”  We take into our mouth the Lord’s Supper only to later spew out venom and disgust at our fellow man.  We look down on those who are hurting, seeing their problems as some innate weakness on their part.  We do this, often without thinking it all the way through.  We often respond in this fashion because we do not listen to our better angels, we listen to our own demons and our selfish pride.

    This is part of what Jesus was referring to when he said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Too often, we speak without thinking.  Too often we let our sinful nature lead when we need to let our faith step forward first.  We need to think before we speak.  It is an adage that your mother probably told you years ago and she was right.  That is what the proverb is about having a righteous tongue that speaks only after thought.  Our first impulse may be sinful, especially if it is in an area where we are easily tempted.  Part of fighting off temptation is recognizing it and fighting it.  Sometimes this is best done with patience and thoughtfulness. 

    Patience and thoughtfulness are not two words which describe the devil, for his is quick to speak and with little concern for those around.  Yet Christ often waited for a little bit before he spoke and his words were kind and gentle.  Which example should we follow?

    So take your time and think before you speak.  Let your tongue be silver.  Let the words of your mouth be praises to God both on Sunday and the rest of the week.  Let your mouth speak of his love for you and for all.  Let your mouth show God’s mercy.

Father of all goodness, use our mouths to speak your love and mercy.  Guide us by your Spirit to move away from anger and hatred that so often spews out.  Move us to love others as you have loved us.  Guide us to speak mercy to those around and move us to ask forgiveness when we have spoken words which hurt.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret                   

11-2-2018

Good Morning All,

                Luke 10:30; “Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” 

     This is the start of one of the most famous parables, “The Good Samaritan.” This is a very common story but it may go a little different than you think.  We often hear this and think that this guy had some really bad luck. He went to Jericho and was robbed.  Yet didn’t he know that this was a dangerous route?  He should have; he should have known that it was a bad idea to go down that path by himself.  It was dangerous but he went anyway.  After he was robbed and beat up, two people who he should have been able to count on, a Levite and a priest, walked by not even stopping.  His help came from a completely unexpected source. He was only helped by a Samaritan.

    Sometimes, we just make a wrong decision like the man in our story.  We take a course of action that is inadvisable.  We can call that “temptation.”  We know better, we know it will only end badly but we do it anyway.  Once we give into temptation, the devil and his demons fall upon us like thieves in the dark.  He will beat you up, steal all you have and leave for dead.  But you won’t be dead, not yet; he will leave you there to suffer some more.  That is what sin really does to us, it beats us up and leaves us destroyed.

    Now we may think that we can handle it, or at least deal with it.  We may even have a couple of ideas of how to deal with the destruction.  We may think we can just handle it, we may think we can lie our way through it, we may think someone (parents or spouse or friend) will just bail us out, we may think that no one will ever know.  Yet when sin hits us with the guilt and the accusations.  We cannot hide from what we did, we know and deep down it hurts us, deeply hurts.  It paralyzes us; it leaves us suffering almost dead.

    It leaves us to where we cannot do anything to help our self.  There is only one way for us to be saved from the ravages of sin, God himself had to step in and save us.  In our life, Jesus is the only answer.  He is our only hope.  He picks us up, pays for our recovery and will pay for future “expenses” (sins).  This is our only hope all others will fail.  So the great news is that we can trust in that hope with the certainty of God’s promised mercy and saving grace in our lives.  Even when we make really bad choices, he comes to save us and to rescue us from sin.

Father, in your mercy, you have sent Jesus to rescue us form sin.  You have rescued us from the devil and his torments.  Keep us safe on our travels.  Keep us free from temptation.  Guard us by your Spirit.  Be with those who are especially hurting at this time.  Be with those who are beaten and left along the side of the road.  Use us as your hands and feet to deliver them by your grace.  Bring them safely home.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

11-1-2018

Good Morning All,

        Matthew 18:21; “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

     “Mom, Tommy hit me!”  The mother replies, “Tommy, tell your sister that you are sorry.”  Tommy, “I’m sorry.”  It may or may not be heartfelt.  This usually ends the parental lesson for the day but it shouldn’t.  How come the mother never tells Tommy’s sister to forgive him?  This is an important part of the event.

    In our verse, Peter is being generous.  It was the custom to forgive someone three times; after that you no longer were expected to forgive.  So Peter was more than doubling the requirement.  He was being twice as generous as needed.  It would be like giving 20% of your income rather than the expected 10%.  It was doing what was required but the problem with doing what was required was that you often had to “keep track” in order to do what is required.  In this fashion, forgiveness is an act of the law and not an act of love.

    So Jesus told Peter, “not seven times but seventy seven (or seven times seventy, depending on the translation) times.”  Either of these are a bit of hyperbole as to show that you can’t keep track and that is the point.  Forgiveness is about letting go of the past.  Forgiveness is about the future.

    What occurred in the past cannot be undone.  We cannot undue any action we did yesterday.  We cannot “unhit” our brother or sister, we cannot take back the insults to our spouse, we cannot take back the cruel remarks to our children or co-workers or the gal in the checkout line.  We can apologize for them but we can’t take them back.  The person who received those actions or comments cannot “unexperience” them.  There is only one option; you have to forgive yesterday and move on to today.  You have to forgive, no matter how many times, if you plan on moving forward.  Failing to forgive will only hold you down and only hold you back.

    One way to view this is that forgiveness is about looking out the windshield rather than looking out the rearview mirror. (Pastor Jeske) We need to look out the windshield looking forward rather than looking in the rearview mirror where we only see what was.  It is far better to look ahead and look forward to the wonders and the grace that God has in store for us.  If we look back, too often, we focus on the pain and the sorrow.   If we look ahead, we can look ahead in hope of God’s mercy. 

    Our future is in God’s loving hands.  We should savor that and look forward to that eagerly.  By failing to forgive, we hold ourself back by keeping the hurt within our heart.  Forgiveness is about letting go of the pain.  It is about ending someone else controlling our happiness.  By forgiving others, our happiness depends solely on God’s grace and not on our sinful desires.  Forgive and look forward.

Father, help us to see that by forgiving others, we heal our hearts.  Help us to see that forgiveness relieves the sinner and those who are sinned against.  Be with those who are struggling to forgive and to look forward to your continued love.  In the name precious of Jesus, our risen Savior,  Amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret