5-22-2020

Good Morning All, 

         Psalm 86:1; “Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.”

    I must make a confession; I get a little frustrated when I hear people say, “I have tried everything else, I guess all that is left is prayer.”  I must admit that this is somewhat frustrating to listen to because prayer should never be the last thing, we turn to, but it should be the first.  But if I am honest and admit that I, a poor, sinful creature, have had those same thoughts at different times in my life.  I have struggled with events and trials and put all my skill and know how to work to resolve the situation only to be frustrated by things and events beyond my control.  I cannot control the weather or how other people will act or react to a situation.  As I look at the situation, I find that there is actually little that I can control and when I finally realize this; I pray.

    I have heard some people say that God never gives you more than you can handle.  Personally, I do not really agree with this idea.  If God did not give more than I could handle, I wouldn’t really need prayer.  I could simply sit down, reason out what must occur and figure out the problem.  It would be much like a chess match where I planned my moves and I accomplished what has occurred.  I could reach a point where I do not need God.  But of course, that never occurs; I always need God.

    It is when I sit and think, plan, calculate, delve into the inner working, and come up lost or short; it is at those times when I truly realize that I am poor and needy.  It is at times when I am looking at events and situations that leave me saying, “I haven’t got a clue” that I truly see that my only hope is God.  It is at this time that I remember to “call upon my Name and I rescue you” this is when God reveals his love for me.

    God does not always reveal the answer, at least the one I wanted when I started, but what he does reveal is his love for me.  It might take a little while for my sinful human mind to see it, but God’s love is there.  It might be hidden in the gentle refusal or in the harsh rejection, but it is there.  God will hear you and he will answer you in his time.  We need to trust, and we need to wait, wait for the Lord.  He has promised to deliver us from the devil and his attacks.  We have his promise to bring us into the kingdom of God through our baptism.  Being part of this kingdom lets us come before his throne of mercy and giving to us the promise of God listening, hearing, and answering our prayers.  Waiting to pray only prolongs our pain and discomfort.  Trust in God to hear and to answer your prayers.

Father, you hear us when we cry. You hear us even when we are slow to call upon your name.  In your mercy, you show your patience and loving kindness in our slowness to learn.  Move me by your Spirit to call upon your Name daily both with cries of despair and shouts of thanksgiving.  In you is our hope, in you is our life.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-21-2020

Good Morning All, 

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

    Our church started using a credit card a few years ago.  It was hoped that this will make life a little easier on the treasurer as I do not always get all the bills organized and turned in in a timely fashion.  Since most of the church’s mail comes to the church/parsonage mailbox, 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 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 had not 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     

5-20-2020

Good Morning All, 

        Romans 10:13; “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

      During a discussion with a couple of young people about faith, I learned some interesting things.  I asked them to explain what they thought was needed in life.  One of the popular answers from them and from reading the social media is that we need to “think good thoughts.”  I asked what that meant.  These two hemmed and hawed a little but decided that you needed to have a positive attitude and to think that only good things will happen to you.  This will help alleviate the problems when they occur.

    The next thought was that there was a need to “try harder.”  This was defined as bad things can happen when we get lazy or that we do not put in our best effort.  I asked how this was decided; how is it apparent that I am trying my best or that I am not trying my best, what is this criterion?  There was no answer from the two I was talking to and I have never read any explanation about how this works, so we left that.  So, we took these two life theories and then I asked them a question.

    I asked them, “If you were drowning, what would you want me to do?”  At first, they looked at each other and then gave me “that look” the one you get when they think you are looney.  They said, “I would want you to save me.”  “So, you wouldn’t want me to tell you to ‘try harder’?”  They looked at me like I had two heads.  They both said that they would drown because obviously they were trying hard not to drown but they were drowning anyway.  Then I asked them “how about if I tell you to think good thoughts, would that save you?”  Apparently, I grew a third head.  They both agreed that would be of absolutely no help whatsoever; how could they have good thoughts while they were drowning?  That was a good question.

   So, I asked, “Would you want me to rescue you, perhaps even jump in the water to being you to safety?”  They both agreed, with a hint of exasperation, that was what needed to happen.  So, then I asked them, “Have you ever had times when you felt like you were ‘drowning’?”  Were there ever times when life seemed to be rolling against you and you just felt like it was slipping away?  They were a little quieter and more subdued, but both agreed that they had had times like that.  Did they need someone to save them or just give them advice?  Did they need a hand to grab or be told to ‘think good thoughts’ or to ‘try harder’?

    God saw our life and we were drowning in a world of guilt, pain, and sin.  He sent his Son to dive into this life to rescue us.  Jesus gave his life in the process.  He died in order to rescue you.  We can hold onto this and onto the promise that God gives to us about his love for us.  The problems of this life will not last, but his love and comfort always will.

Father, you sent Jesus to rescue me from sin, death, and the devil.  These can no longer torment me.  Through your grace, you give me hope.  In your mercy you comfort me.  Be with those who are especially suffering and hurting.  Give them your Spirit that they may know your mercy and find comfort in you.  In the precious name of Jesus our Risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

5-19-2020

Good Morning All, 

        Genesis 12:1; “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.”

       I remember many years ago when I was in college talking to my grandfather about his parents and uncles and grandparents who left Germany and immigrated to the United States.  They left everything they knew, most of the people they knew and grew up with.  It was possible that a young man or young woman had fallen in love and was suddenly transported to another country far away to never see that person again.  They left their homes and the life they knew for a promise of land and a better way of life.  It must have taken a lot to go, especially the first one.  It might be a little easier if all of your brothers are going, along with a fair number of cousins and friends but what if you were first, or worse, the only one to go; a new land, new neighbors, new customs, new names; it took courage and faith.

    In our verse we see where God spoke to Abram.  We don’t know if it was a dream or a vision or something like the burning bush of Moses but somehow God directed Abram to leave his country and his family to go to a new land that God has promised to Abram and his descendants.  Yet it had to take a lot of faith, and convincing, for Abram to take his wife and his nephew and head out and go where God was directing them to go.  They left all the familiar things in life to go to a brand-new land.  It certainly took courage and faith.

    God is leading you to a new land as well.  He wants you to leave the old life behind.  He wants you to leave the sinful existence behind.  For many of us, this can be difficult.  It can mean leaving behind friends, places that we are comfortable at, even perhaps some family members might get left behind.  Yet God calls us to a new land, a new life.  He calls us there for much the same reason he called Abram to go; to get out of a sin-filled environment that might lead us astray.  God wants us to be safe and sometimes a new place is the only way to safety.

    So as you feel God introducing changes into your life, these changes may be God’s way of   telling you to come to a new land, a new country or just a different set of people for you to be with.  The old relationships, the old places to go may be the toxic things that are dragging you down and holding you back.  This may be what is keeping you in sin; you are not leaving the temptations behind.  If you are tempted to drink to excess; stay away from the bars.  If you are prone to gossip, stay away from that coffee klatch.  Go to the new land.

    It might be difficult; it might require a few tries to finally leave the old behind.  Yet the new land that God is leading you into is the land that he has promised, a land of milk and honey.  It is the promised land of our salvation.  It is home.

Father of all wonders, you lead in the paths of righteousness for your name’s sake.  Give me the courage and strength to travel the path you have laid out and to follow as you lead me.  Show me the way to walk with you.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

5-18-2020

Good Morning All, 

         Proverbs 10:25; “When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever.”

     We have reached the time of the year here in the Great Plains when the storms will no longer be blizzards but will be thunderstorms; some of which can produce tornadoes.  These are often more violent storms, short in duration often only a few seconds, but tremendously destructive.  It can be one of the fiercest forces of nature away from the ocean.  Homes, farms, even entire cities have been completely destroyed by these twists of nature.  If viewed from a distance, they are awe inspiring but if viewed up close they are terrifying.  They are unpredictable to the exact.  The best we can do is to predict where the likelihood is greatest.  It is when you are in the target zone that you sit up and take notice.  As one area farmer said, “When you see the CNN storm chaser truck sitting at the end of driveway; you take notice.”

    Most people on the Great Plains have some type of shelter for when the storms hit.  It might be the basement of the home.  The warning is to hide under a set of steps or in an interior closet preferably reinforced.  Some folks have a storm cellar which is a reinforced basement-like structure usually made of concrete.  We watch the weather and when in doubt, we choose safety.

    Our verse is a lot like that.  Notice it says when the storm hits and not if the storm hits.  We know there will be pain and trouble in this world.  It is still a broken and sin-filled creation.  It still suffers the effects of the sin which man introduced.  So there is no such thing as a storm free life; there will be times of trouble and heartache.  We will experience times of loss, sickness, divorce, unemployment, loneliness, depression, hopelessness, and fear.  We know the storms will come, so how do we prepare?

    First we need to know who our true storm shelter is; it is Jesus.  He alone can provide for our weathering the frightful.  We read it over and over again in Scriptures; “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe (Proverbs 18:10)” or “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear (Psalm 46:1-2a).”  There are many more references to our life being a storm and God being our protector and all point to the same truth; only in God do we have hope.  Those who place their trust in anything else will be disappointed.

    There will be storms and yet our storm cellar is always ready.  Jesus is ready to shelter you in the storms of this life.  Trust in his mercy to bring you through the storm and to see the rainbow of his promise.

Father of all mercy, you protect us in the storms of life.  In you we have our only hope.  Keep us safe in your arms.  Be with those who are in a storm t this time.  Lead them to know that you are their true shelter.  Give them hope and give them peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

5-17-2020

Good Morning All, 

          James 4:17; “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

      We spend a lot of time thinking about sin as doing something wrong.  In the Old Testament, they are called “transgressions” which can be translated as “crossing the line”.  They are viewed as rebellious acts or acts of defiance.  We know what they are; if you kill someone or speak evil of them; you are actively doing damage; you are actively harming the other person.  Most of us even realize that if we intentional harm nature that we are engaging in a sinful act against God and his creation.

    But what about sin; which can be best defined as “falling short or missing the mark”; what about those failures?  What happens when you know of a need of a neighbor ad you just look the other way?  It is one thing to avoid doing what is wrong; most people, even unbelievers, can do this.  But what about not doing the right thing; how well do we do the right thing?  There are times when we really struggle with this; for one thing, it requires some effort.  I can very easily not push you down; I just have to walk away.  But it takes time, effort, and willingness to stop and help you stand back up again.  When you do the right thing, you have some skin in the game.

    This is part of the forgiveness of sins which we receive from God because of Jesus.  The first part is to stop doing what is hurtful and harmful.  We are to stop causing pain and doing things that are against God’s will, things like greed, envy, jealousy, theft, and the like.  But the next step is to do what is right; to share with those in need, to place our wants below their needs, even to place our needs below their needs, this is true agape love that Jesus showed for us when he surrendered his life for us.

    Yet a huge part of our faith is doing the right thing, doing the thing that benefits our neighbor.  God has restored us to his family; he has restored us to be his children.  We all hold onto this; we all see this as a great mercy that God has promised ad delivered to us.  Yet we are slow to follow through with the balance.

    Since we are restored to God’s family, we are also restored to our original purpose.  We are restored to the purpose to which we were created.  We are to live humbly in God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise, we are to take care of each other, and we are to take care of God’s creation.  These are things to do and failing to do them is a sin, we are falling short of God’s will in our life.  God’s will is to “do no harm” but to also “do some good.”  Take care of each other and take care of God’s beautiful creation.   We are to bring healing to God’s creation; we are to go and do good.

Father, too often I fall far short of your will.  Strengthen within me the desire to seek your face and to love your heart.  Give me the will to do your will and to show your great love to all that I meet.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

5-16-2020

    Good Morning All, 

             Hosea 11:4; “I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.”

     About every ten days to two weeks, I need to take an afternoon or a day to tie up loose ends.  I will have projects that are a third to a half done but need to be finished soon.  It might be a Bible study I am planning or a service or a wedding sermon; you never know.  Sometimes it is catching up on doing the paperwork like getting records filed properly.  A few years ago, I had to add cleaning up the inboxes of my email’s accounts.  That is beginning to take more and more time.  The only loose end that seems to slip by is cleaning my office and desk; that usually loses its appeal quickly.

     Sometimes those loose ends are a little more personal.  Sometimes it is a shut in that I have not seen in a while.  Sometimes it is taking time to visit my parents or spend time with my family.  It is kind of a shame when our important relationships can be seen as “loose ends.”  Yet relationships need maintenance.  We need to spend time together or the cords of kindness or the bands of love can unravel.  We can end up at frayed ends instead of loose ends.  Sometimes when the frays begin to show, you have to stop and tie them together or better bind them up and heal them.

    This can, and often does, include your relationship with God.  We can push it back, put it off, or try and set it aside.  We can miss some of our devotional time, we can miss some of our prayer time, we can miss some of the corporate worship time and our relationship with God can begin to fray.  We can begin to feel that God is distant or not hearing our infrequent prayer.  The ends begin to unravel, and we wonder where we are.  We feel lost and drifting, which is probably what we are doing.

    Fortunately, we have a God that does not give up on us.  We have a God who is continually calling us back into the security of his mercy and the constancy of his grace; giving us the forgiveness that we need, and the encouragement and the desire to bind our wounds.  He calls us to repentance, a turning away from our sin but more importantly back towards him.  We see his face shine upon us, and we can rest in his loving arms.

    It is by his grace that we can bind up the loose ends in our relationships.  He moves us by his great love to try.  The devil will encourage you to let it slide, to let it wait.  Yet God, through his Word, seeks to have you tie up the loose ends right away so that you can live in the joy of the love of the people whom he has placed into your life.  God binds you up with his bands of love and his desire is for you to have loving relationships here as well.

Loving Father, you gently bind us up with the bands of your love.  Keep us in your loving embrace.  Guard us with your Spirit.  Enrich our faith and strengthen our heart.  Guide us to support the loving relationships that you give us.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret