11-15-2018

 Good Morning All,

            Hebrews 10:25; “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

     I recently was talking to the newest pastor in our circuit, wondering how it was going.  He relayed that it was going well as a member even offered to keep their patio furniture and grill in his garage.  The new pastor said the patio furniture could go but the grill stays and gets used all year; a man after my own heart.  I asked if he used gas or electric or old school charcoal.  He like charcoal; I think he will fit in fine.  He agreed it is a challenge in the winter but the results are worth the challenge.

    The tricky part is getting the coals to be hot and achieve a uniform heat.  In order to get the coals started you usually have to stack them up and then gently build the fire from the bottom and have the heat rise throughout the stack until all the coals are glowing a bright red.  Then you spread them out evenly.  But it is important that they maintain contact with each other.  It is kind of funny to watch.  If one of those top coals, even if they start out kind of hot, rolls off of the pile and rolls over to the corner of the grill, it will soon cool down and soon the fire is gone.

    Our faith life can be a lot like this.  This is also why God invites you to come to worship where the gathering of believers occurs.  Through worship, God builds the heat in our life in order to keep our faith burning.  It is by the gathering of the believers that we are nourished, strengthened and renewed in our faith and in our soul.  This is where we are best fed.  This is where we are best restored and rejuvenated.

    Many will often ask if they have to go to church.  They seem to think it is more of a hassle and a waste of time.  While it is not a requirement of salvation, it is how God nourishes us and gives us the power to grow our faith.  It is through his worship that we grow together as the body of Christ.  It is where we have the consolation of the brothers and sisters in Christ.  It is here where we make those connections with our fellow Christians that are so necessary when pain and troubles occur.  It is also where we make those connections when we celebrate in God’s goodness in our life.

    God uses worship to help us grow and be strong in order to face the devil and his assaults.  It is to help us to have the certainty of faith when we need it most.  Worship is for us to hear God’s Word and enjoy the comfort of his tender words of forgiveness.  It is a time when we, as his redeemed children, come together to call upon his name.  We call to him with our praise and adoration, with our fears and concerns, praying for our brothers and sisters who are in need.  God brings us to worship to keep our fire burning hot.

Gracious Father, in you we have hope.  Give us the renewing source of that hope.  Gather us together that we may hear your word and receive your wonderful grace.  Be with those who have turned a hardened heart to your call to worship.  Bring them back into your arms.  Stir in them the desire to join in your worship and praise.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

11-14-2018

Good Morning All,

Acts 16: 30-31; “Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

      When discussing the Christian faith, we face a rather profound conundrum.  Our faith is simple but it is not easy.  Whenever I share this thought, you can see the light bulb above the head light up.  It is as accurate as we can state.

   It is simple.  There is not a simpler religion than Christianity.  Oftentimes children grasp it better than we adults do because children take things on faith far better than adults do.  Adults often try to equivocate truths and ideas; children just accept them on faith.  This is usually part of the thought behind having a children’s program at Christmas.  The whole thought process of Christianity can be clearly explained by a group of 6 year-olds.  We have years of study and doctrinal understanding but the basic truth is simple.  God loves you; God saves us from our sin which we cannot pay for by having Jesus die in our place.  If we believe that God did this, that Jesus’ death for my sins is payment enough; then we are saved.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved!!”  It is simple.  We do not need years of study to grasp this; most of us grabbed hold of this while sitting on our parent’s or grandparent’s knee.  It might have been in a Sunday School class where a grandmotherly figure who loved you like her own told you that God loves you.  It really is that simple.

    Yet it is not easy.  The world and the devil does everything it can to destroy this simple truth.  We are under constant attack by the devil.  We are bombarded by those who would seek to marginalize, undermine, ridicule, belittle and to destroy our faith.  We are constantly being told how we are wrong, how our actions are “unloving” how we are simpletons from the Stone Age who lack even the most basic capability to understand simple science.  We are called intolerant, arrogant, uninformed and unenlightened.  Every time I listen to each round and each barrage I remember how Jesus told his disciples, “You will be hated because of me” and we are.  So what do we do?  How do we get smart enough to argue and with?  The simple answer is; we don’t.

    Jesus never tells us to defend or explain him.  We are simply to witness to what we believe.  Does this mean going up and down our streets knocking on every door?   Not necessarily.  What it really means is that as Christians, you and I are different from the world.  We look to our neighbor and we don’t see someone who we can cheat or take advantage of but we see one of God’s children, perhaps yet lost, but a child of God who may need our help and encouragement.  We don’t look at creation and see something to be exploited and misused but rather we see something that God has entrusted us to take care of.  You don’t have to speak rather you have to do.  You have to love as Christ loves.  We are a compassionate people who reach out in love to those in need. That is what we do.

Father, make me your light and your hands, your arms and your voice in a world that desperately needs your grace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret                

11-13-2018

Good Morning All,

                 Romans 4:3; “What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

    Most of us use credit cards.  We have one for the church.  It is hoped that this will make life a little easier on the treasurer as I don’t always get all the bills organized and turned in in a timely fashion.  Since the majority of the church’s mail comes to the church I get most of the mail and go through it to figure out who gets it next.  About a week after we got the actual card in the mail and activated it, we got a statement from the credit card company.  It seems that we activated the card with about 3 days left in the billing cycle so we got the statement.  It showed that the church owed $0.00; the minimum payment was $0.00 and that the average amount owed for the billing period ending was $0.00.  I showed the bill to my wife and we thought we should keep it and frame it.  We had never received a bill from a credit card company that showed $0.00 owed.

    Now this statement showed $0.00 because it hadn’t been used but what if you received a statement from the credit card company that you used all the time and it said $0.00?  We oftentimes will hold our breath a little when statement comes in because we know there will be some big numbers on it; sometimes we even cringe when we see it.  It would really be nice if we could open that statement one time and read $0.00 owed someone else paid it off.  I doubt that any of us will ever have a credit card bill work like this but we have a more important bill that does look like this; it is the bill we owe for the sins we have committed.

    When you and I sin, we owe God.  Sometimes what we owe is not money but we owe respect, faithfulness, loyalty, honor and the like.  We owe it to God to do his will and yet we fail.  We owe a penalty each time we miss the mark.  Each time we break one of God’s commandments, we are putting a charge against our credit card and someday the bill will come due.

    But because Jesus paid our debt, our faith in Jesus is credited as righteousness.  So when God opens our bill and looks at what we owe, we owe nothing because it has already been paid.  Since we believe that Jesus died to pay for my sin; our account with God is given a credit of the righteousness that Jesus earned.  It counts as righteousness for us.  We are credited with more than enough righteousness so that our bill will always show a balance owed of $0.00.  The debt is paid and we are free of the requirement.  We are free to be God’s children.  We are declared to be saints because we owe nothing.  For us, faith is the credit we need because Jesus has paid for us all.

Loving Father, you sent Jesus to die for us so that we may receive the promised mercy of forgiveness. Refresh us daily with your love.  Strengthen our desire to do you will.  Strengthen our desire to serve you will our whole heart.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret