9-7-2020

 Good Morning All, 

            Matthew 20: 30; “And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

    What do you do?  What do you do when you see someone standing by the entrance to the mall begging for money?  They may claim to be out of a job and have kids to feed.  They may claim to be disabled or some other calamity that has occurred to them; what do you do?  Do you hurry up and go on by trying not to look at them?  Do you fear them?  Is your reaction different when you are by yourself?  What do you do? 

     This is not an attempt to shame you or make you feel guilty; it is an attempt to make you think.  It is very easy for us to be somewhat jaded and walk on by.  We can come up with a lot of reasons to walk on by.  Our first impulse might be to view them as a fraud.  Maybe you have read some anecdotal stories about how these people can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars a day doing this.  It is just a scam and we just go by.  This may be true but personally I doubt it; if there really was that much money to be made wouldn’t we see more than we do?  If the pickings were really that good, wouldn’t there be more people involved? 

    Perhaps you think that there must be some place, some government agency where they could go for help.  We just got done paying our income taxes and we see how big a bite that takes; it must go somewhere.  There must be some place, the Salvation Army or something for them to go to; doesn’t there?  There might be but what if they do not know where it is or maybe they do not have the ability to get there?  What do you do? 

    I confess; I struggle with this as well.  When I see them, my first thought is one of the Scripture verses like this one and there are a lot of them.  Someone cries to Jesus for mercy; He hears, and He responds with mercy.  Well that is easy, He is God and I am not (we have heard that before) but we are God’s children and he calls us to act; to have mercy.

    First, remember that we are “sinful saints.”  We often know the right thing but fail to do it; that is why it bothers us to walk by and that is good to be poked by the Spirit acting in your conscience.  So, try to show some mercy.  It can be hard and even scary but try.  Perhaps you can ease your way in.  First donate food or money to a shelter, then help at a shelter, and then go from there.  You might not ever get past the “donate to the shelter” part but that is ok.  God calls us to have mercy on our fellow man and every act of mercy, no matter how big or how small, is for the benefit of our fellow man; it is not for us.  So be brave good redeemed Christian; God is with you in whatever you do. So, try and show mercy to honor our Lord.

Father, the good that I would do; I do not do and the evil, which I hate, I do.  Forgive me when I fail to show your love and mercy to those around me, especially those in need.  Strengthen my will to do your will.  Free me from the pain of fear to be bold; bold for you.  Give me the courage to bring healing in this broken world.  Help my light to shine.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior and King, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-6-2020

 Good Morning All, 

          John 14:16; “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,”

      In our world today, there seems to be more and more open hostility toward the Christian faith than ever before.  This may or may not be true, but it certainly feels that way; it sure seems that at every turn we are mocked, denounced, attacked, ridiculed, and rejected.  It was a few months ago when a young man, seemingly full of himself like young men can be, told me quite emphatically that, “I don’t need your God.”  Now I am not sure what he expected; I would guess an argument of some sort; but he did not get one from me that day.  I looked at him and said, “Good for you” and that was the end of it.  I am not sure if he was disappointed that I did not argue or if he thought he had won because I walked away or if it left him confused but it ended right there. He did not need God so good for him.  As for me, I need God, I rely on God, God is my source for all my needs.  That young man may have believed he had a better source, but I do not believe that, so I rely on God.

    Our verse is one of those verses that are interesting because we do not really have the right word in English.  The word here is “Helper.”  In other translations it is “advocate,” “counselor,” “comforter”, “assistant.” “Intercessor” and the list goes on.  The word in Geek is Paraclete or Parakletos.  The word really means all of these and even more.  The word roughly means “the one who walks along beside and guides.”  It very accurately defines what and who the Holy Spirit is in our life.  The Holy Spirit is to lead us to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth and give us divine strength needed to enable us to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom. 

     I often explain life as a journey or a walk.  Because of God’s grace and mercy for me, he gives us the Holy Spirit to lean on, to look to for guidance and one who gives us a deeper understanding of our faith.  The Holy Spirit is the one who “reminds us of what Jesus said.”  He reminds us of Jesus’ promises and his words of comfort and hope.  I know I need this, and I know many others who do as well.  I know families whose parents or grandparents are struggling greatly with health issues.  Some have children or siblings who are struggling with different addictions.  Some are struggling with a loss of love from their spouse or other family.  Often, I hear, “I don’t know how unbelievers make it; I couldn’t do it without God.”

    The young man who I talked to probably only thinks he has things figured out or maybe he has yet to experience one of those life events which really knock us down.  Yet for those of us who need God; He is there walking with us giving us the love and support that we so desperately need.  He has promised us this.

Gracious Lord, I need you every hour.  I look and listen and often see and hear only pain and cries of sorrow.  It is only through your Spirit that we can see the hand of comfort that is yours.  Reach out to all who are hurting or struggling with the effects of a broken world.  Hold them close to your heart.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret    

9-5-2020

 Good Morning All, 

             Deuteronomy 30:19; “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live”

      If there is one thing that we have in the United States it is choice.  You cannot ever just order something without the person waiting on you asking you a lot of questions.  Even a glass of water will often get the question of lemon or no lemon.  Sometimes ordering coffee can take longer than drinking it.  If you go to a restaurant and order a hamburger and fries, well even lawyers ask fewer questions.  So, we are used to choices and we make then; sometimes they are not always the best choices in the world. 

    One of the amazing things about our forgiveness is that we now have a choice.  When we were lost, we had no choice.  We were only lost.  We were left to go on the journey of life alone.  We were unable to call upon God for his grace and peace.  We had no hope.  We were lost.  We had no options.

    Jesus’ death and resurrection changes everything, even our ability to choose.  Jesus came to bring us life even abundant life.  Jesus came to bring you into the kingdom of God and to give you his peace and hope.  It is yours, given to you by grace through faith.  You can hold it, cling to it, rely on, relish it and revel in its tremendous joy.  It is yours unless you do not want it; then walk away.

    We still walk on our path of life, the journey which began at our birth and will change either upon our death or Christ’s return whichever comes first.  Jesus has brought us back into God’s family.  God has sent his Spirit to walk with you, to guide you along the way and to keep you mindful of all that God has, is, and will do for you in this life and beyond.  God offers to hear our prayers and to answer them.  Jesus came to lift the burden of hopelessness.  He came to give you all this.  He came to give you the blessings to live this life as a redeemed child of God.

    Yet you can walk away.  You can choose to remain in the old life.  You can choose death.  You can choose to walk through life on your own.  You can face all of life’s struggles and challenges on your own but why?  You have been given the wonderful mercy of God, why walk away?

    Many do; but that is what a choice is, staying and clinging to God’s wonderful mercy or walking away and facing life alone.  We have the choice; we get to choose.  God gives us our salvation, but we can throw it away or we can cling to his promise and live in his peace.

Gracious lord, you came to this world to redeem us from sin.  You give us the freedom to live in your righteous kingdom or to turn our back and walk away.  Guide me by your Spirit to cling to you.  Guide me to trust in your wondrous promise.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

9-4-2020

  Good Morning All, 

         1 John 1:9; “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

    Every river, lake or ocean has what is called the “high water mark.”  This is the line or level where the water reaches its highest point.  It often leaves and interesting picture.  Above the line can be the dirt and the debris which the water does not wash away and below the line is the cleansed wall or bank.  This is especially true in rivers where the water is moving constantly.  You can see the rocks which are polished below the line but rough and dirty above the line.  What exists above the line is above the scouring effect of the water.

    Do you listen to preacher tell you that all your sins are forgiven but wonder about a few?  Do you think that there are some that are simply above the high-water mark?  Do you think that there are some sins, which you commit, that go unforgiven?  Then do you feel even worse because you doubt God’s forgiveness?  If it is any consolation, you are not alone.  Most Christians, at some point in their life, feel this way.  Some feel this way more often than others, maybe you are one of them.  This feeling leads to guilt and guilt is the devil’s best friend.  You may feel that there is something in your life that is just beyond any forgiveness.  It can lead to a couple of things.  First, we may feel that, deep down, God is punishing us here on earth for this sin.  It might be that you do not feel the same health as you think you should.  Perhaps a friend or neighbor seems to always have more than you do.  Perhaps it seems that the neighbors always get more timely rain than you do.  You constantly feel under a cloud.

    This probably is not occurring, but guilt will lead us to see it. Guilt does many things to us.  It can even be more debilitating if we let the devil convince us that our sins are soon to be revealed to God and everyone and when they are everyone will look at us in disgust and abandon us as quickly as they can.  This kind of guilt can separate us from those around us as we are afraid to get too close for fear, they will see the hidden sin.  They will see where the high-water mark is and know what sins are not washed away. 

    Always remember that God’s ways are above your ways and the blood of Jesus washes higher than any sin you have.  The blood of Jesus will always scour clean your heart and soul; it already has.  All you need to do is to cling to this truth.  All you need to do is to cling to the reality that ALL your sins are forgiven, not just a few or just the little ones but all of them.  God wants you to live free from sin so that you can live in his kingdom in joyful service to him.  God wants you to live in hope and in peace.  No sin is ever higher than God’s mercy; nothing is higher than Jesus.

Father, too often I try to hide from you because I think I have sins too hard to forgive.  Guide me by your Spirit to trust fully in the promise of your salvation.  Give me the comfort of your grace that I might rest in your loving arms and content in your mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior and King we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

9-3-2020

 Good Morning All, 

       Matthew 6:7; “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”

       One time while teaching the confirmands about prayer, I asked them if they ever prayed a prayer that started like this; “Crumbly cheese asparagus.”  Of course, they looked at me like I was growing a third eye out the top of my head.  I got the disgusted teenager response of “noo-ah” with that little “tsk” at the end.  I didn’t see the eye roll, but it could have been there.  So, I tried again.  Crumbly cheese asparagus….and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen.  Again, they looked at me but a little less disdainfully (probably could not have been more!).  So, I said it again a little slower; come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed, amen.  Now they were thinking a little, so I asked them in a different way.

    “Do you say the common table prayer?”  Most said yes.  I asked if they always thought about what they were saying or were they trying to grab the biggest piece of pizza before anyone else did; maybe they were already eating when mom or dad started to pray.  Now they didn’t look up.  So, I asked if they thought this was and honest ad God-pleasing prayer.  Hearing no response, I asked them if they ever prayed other prayers while they were distracted or thinking about something else, again no response.

    There are many times when we are guilty of this.  There are some prayers that we say so often that we may do just that.  This fact is one of the reasons that some believe you should not pray the Lord’s Prayer with great frequency.  I do not really agree but I do read the prayer as I pray it, so I do think about what I am saying.  Empty phrases do not make a God-pleasing prayer.  A God-pleasing prayer rises like incense before God.  It is a prayer that truly connects us to God because it is an earnest and honest heartfelt communication to God.  Even when we are hurting or lost or confused to the point that we do not know what to say; it is better to have our heart full and our mouth empty than the other way around.  It is better simply to cry before God with a plaintive “Help me, O Lord” than all the phraseology and beautiful words but no desire to truly communicate with God.  This is what this Scripture verse means.  This is what this whole section is talking about.

    We are encouraged to go into our closet, not because we are ashamed but because we want to be able to pray and be undistracted.  We want to have a heartfelt heart-to-God talk.  God invites us to come to him in prayer, to relieve the burdens of our life.  We can do this best by praying from the heart, even if the words fail us; God never will.

Father, remove the distractions of my life that I may speak clearly to you.  Father, I desire to walk more closely to you.  Send your Spirit to enable me to be drawn to you.  Send your Spirit to fill me with your love and mercy.  Teach me to trust in you fully.  In the name of Jesus our ascended Lord we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

9-2-2020

 Good Morning All, 

         2 Corinthians 1:22; “and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee”

       “And it comes with the Good Housekeeping seal of approval!”  Most television commercials used to end that when.  It was the coup de grace of the advertising world.  If you had any doubt about the quality of this product well, this should calm your nerves.  It went without questioning that the Good Housekeeping seal of approval was the standard that things were measured by.  It also used to be Underwriters Laboratory or Consumer’s Digest.  These were the measures by which every manufacturer wanted to get the seal of approval from.  It was the standard that one could claim to be selling the absolute best product available.  It was marked with the seal that represented quality and value.

     You and I have been given the seal by God.  He has sealed us in our Baptism with the blood of Jesus and in this event, God delivers all the promises that He has made to us.  Our “yes” from God comes to us in the resounding voice of all that Jesus did/ does/ and will do for us.  By his keeping of the commandments, by his life, death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus began the great “yes” that God spoke to us and we are his sealed redeemed children.  So, we look forward to the completion of all of God’s “yesses”.  The time when all of creation is freed from the bondage of sin and death is finally destroyed and we are reunited with all the saints who have gone on before us.

    We look forward to this but until then we live with the guarantee of that promise.  We have the down payment, the guarantee in our heart, of the Holy Spirit.  This is a sign as well that God is pleased and blesses us with his Spirit.  It is through this Spirit that you and I are able to withstand the devil’s lies and attacks.  The Spirit, alive and active in us, is proof of God’s yes; it is proof of our being sealed by God, given his approval for our life.  Given his seal to show that his love for us has redeemed us and made us his.  We have eternal life; we will always have it and since we are guaranteed this, we can live a life that is full of the certain hope that nothing in this world can ever take that from us.  God’s great gift is ours forever.  God’s great love gives us true peace, that sense of comfort and rest that comes to those who no longer fear.  We need not fear because all our sins are forgiven, and we have God’s seal on us to give us the victory.

Gracious Father, through Jesus, you tell us yes and give to us new life and new hope.  You free me from the power of the devil and bring me into your eternal kingdom.  Be with those who are unsure or are lost bring them to know with certainty that your mercy sustains them and that you give them peace.  These good gifts all come from you.  In the precious name of Jesus, our ascended Lord we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-1-2020

 Good Morning All, 

           Acts 8:35; “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”

     So how do you respond when you hear good news?  Most of us get extremely excited.  We can hardly contain our excitement.  Think of a time when you got good news.  When our son and his wife were expecting their first child, we could hardly wait to tell everyone.  We were sitting together at the table and we agreed that this good news belonged to our son and to our daughter-in-law, so we were going to let them tell everyone.  So, we sat but then my wife said, “I have to tell someone!”  So, we thought of someone who probably would not be on the call list and then we told them.  We had good news to share and could not wait to do so.

    Maybe you have had a similar situation.  When you have good news, who do you tell first?  Do you tell your family or your co-workers?  Do you do the Facebook thing, or do you call them on the telephone the old-fashioned way?  When you have good news, you share it.  When we have good news, we tell the people around us.  We might start with our family, then our close friends and then our acquaintances and then anyone who we have contact with.  It might be the waitress at the diner we eat at, it might be the mail man or the guy we see every day at the mall.  When we have good news, we share it or do we?

     The best news we have is the news about Jesus.  The best news we have is that we have Jesus as our savior.  The best news we have is that we will have eternal life with Jesus in paradise.  We have God’s promise of salvation, of comfort, of being sustained by his grace, of being free from the guilt of sin.  It is placed in our hearts and given to us to hold onto whenever things look bad or we feel sad.  We are the redeemed children of God, held safely in his loving arms protected from all that the devil throws at us.  We literally have everything that we could ever need; so why are we quiet?

     We should be telling everyone our good news!  We should be telling our family and closest friends about the wonder of what we have.  We should be telling everyone but why don’t we?  It may be because we have had the news so long that it is not exciting anymore and that is too bad.  Our salvation and God’s grace is a breath of incredible life-giving newness every day.  Every day we are brought back into God’s family.  Every day we receive the forgiveness of sins and the life affirming words of salvation.  We are renewed and redeemed every moment of every day; we receive this wondrous mercy every day.  This is good news for us, and it is good news for us to share!

Gracious Father, we give you thanks for the good news which you give us.  We give you thanks for the gift of salvation that you give us.  Lead us to be voices heard that proclaim your praise.  Be with those who do not know the peace that this wonderful news gives us.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret