8-7-2022

Good Morning!    

               Proverbs 1:33; “but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”

       “Will you listen to me?”  Any exasperated parent has spoken these words at least once or twice in their lifetime.  This is usually followed by, “Next time, maybe you will listen to me” as everyone gets down to clean up some mess that resulted from not listening.  I think that, for most people, starting at a very young age, we learn how to turn on and off our ears.  Just think how often someone hears something you do not want them to hear and how often they do not hear something you want them to hear.  We learn that really early and use it real often oftentimes it leads to less than desirable results.

     Listening is probably our greatest weakness.  We tend to think we know how the conversation will go so we quit listening.  Sometimes we get easily distracted and lose our focus on the one who is speaking.  Sometimes we do not like what is being said so we ignore the speaker.  We do this with our boss or co-workers; we do this with our parents or teachers, we do this with our spouse or children but, above all, we do this with God.

    It would almost seem that sin affects our ears as much as any other part of our life.  Too often, we simply fail to listen.  When we listen to God speak to us through his Word, we often quit listening.  We have heard it all before; we have heard it often enough that we can recite what we will hear.  We hear it so often that we can mumble the sounds without caring about the meaning.

    Sometimes we listen but get distracted.  The false pleasures of this world, the sinful and destructive siren call can cause us to lose our focus.  We look around at the world and think that maybe it is ok to follow it once in a while.  Everyone around us is going that way; why shouldn’t we?

    Sometimes we stop listening because we don’t want to hear what God tells us.  Maybe we aren’t ready to forgive just yet.  Maybe we don’t want to worry about our neighbor or see that what we have is truly a gift from God, a gift to share.  Maybe we don’t want to hear that we are to care for one another; we prefer to be selfish.  Sometimes we simply don’t want to listen.  This always leads to trouble.  It leads to pain; it leads to sorrow and hardship, and it ruins relationships.

    So, our only recourse is to listen to God and to do his will.  When we fail to do so, we suffer greatly from our sinful existence.  When we listen to his Word and follow it faithfully, we are secure in our faith and secure in our world able to rest at ease because of his great grace.

Father, in your great mercy you pour out your Spirit upon us.  Lead us to listen to your Word.  Guide us to hear you as you speak.  Defend us from all harm and danger.  Lead us to live in your kingdom in service to you.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen King we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret         

8-6-2022

Good Morning!    

       1 Corinthians 12:31; “But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”

    One of the things I truly enjoyed was coaching little kid baseball.  There is nothing more pure than the excitement of a child who comes to master certain tasks.  When they start, they have a hard time hitting or throwing or catching but soon they are able to do it with a certain amount of skill and proficiency.  Of course, every so often, you run into a parent who sees things a little differently than you do.  The problem that I had with those parents was that they saw short term success as the only measure.  I had a long discussion with a parent who wanted her son to swing up at the baseball when he played Tee ball baseball.  “If he hits it in the air; it can be a homerun!! Don’t you want them to hit homeruns??” When I told her “no,” she was completely deflated.  Then I explained to her that swinging at the baseball like she wanted him to would only work if the ball was always stationary and sitting on a “T.”  When a pitched ball is swung at; you want a slightly downward motion not an upper cut.  I was trying to teach them to be real baseball players and to have skills that would serve them throughout their playing days.  I thought learning the game properly was a higher goal; something that was of greater merit than winning a Tee ball game.

    This is sort of what Paul is trying to tell the Corinthians in our verse.  The Corinthians were arguing and engaging in divisive practices because of different spiritual gifts.  Some thought highly of speaking in tongues and some spoke highly of healing and so on and so on.  Of course, the gifts that I had were better than the gifts you had and the whole debate went downhill from there.  So, Paul told them that there were higher things; far greater than the spiritual gifts they sought.  So, he told them about these higher gifts.

   Paul ends up telling of three greatest gifts, faith, hope and love.  These are what we should desire over everything else.  Faith, because this is what gets us through today.  God gives us faith, the desire to trust in his promise of salvation, so that we can know for certainty that, whatever befalls us today, will never derail us from God’s love and his mercy.  We have hope because this is what leads us to a better tomorrow.  Hope is that anchor that we can toss out to secure us in God’s salvation.  We have hope because God’s act of salvation does not depend on you or me, it does not depend on whether you believe it or not; it always depends on God.

   Paul called love the greatest, probably because that is the one thing that will always remain.  Some day we will not need faith or hope; we will be standing side by side with Jesus in victory.  At that time, the only thing we will need or want is to love and to be loved.  These are the higher things, and they are more excellent than any earthly or other spiritual gift.

Father, lead me to seek after higher things.  Lead me to seek after faith, hope and love that I may be drawn even closer to you.  Lead me to see the excellence of your gifts which give me life and hope.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen King we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

8-5-2022

Good Morning!    

                 John 20:1; “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.”

      It must have been tough that Sabbath day especially for the women.  They had stayed and watched Jesus die.  They went with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus to bury Jesus, but it was late, and the Sabbath was rapidly approaching so they did a quick preparation of the body and then would return after the Sabbath to finish the task.  The wait on that Sabbath must have been hard.  Of course, according to Jewish customs, you would so no work on the Sabbath so what would you do to occupy your time and your thoughts?  Many today will wash clothes, or wash the table and do the dishes or they will sit down and write out lists of things that need to be done but if you are not to work, and all of this would constitute work, what would you do?  Then there would have been the night; probably a long and restless night and she was up early to get to the task at hand.  She was ready so early; it was still dark but off she went.

    Do you ever have times like that?  Do you ever experience times of stress and times of pressure?  How do you handle it?  Do you try and keep yourself busy and occupied and try to keep your mind off of things or do you just sit and mull over what is happening?  Do you keep replaying the events or wonder what tomorrow will mean?  Have you had nights when sleep was slow in coming and then there comes that tipping point, when you have to decide that it is too late to sleep now so you might as well get up?  Do you have times like Mary Magdalene had?  Then do what Mary Magdalene did; go to Jesus.

    Mary went expecting to prepare Jesus’ body for a proper burial; what she received was a total change in her life.  You and I may come to Jesus for all the wrong reasons bur he can and will heal you and give you hope and, especially on those sleepless nights, he can give you peace if you listen to him.  When you are troubled, fearful, or lost do what Mary did; go to Jesus.  Open your heart to him, speak to him and let him hear your fear and your pain.  Don’t wander the house looking for things to take your mind off of your hurt; go to Jesus and let him heal the hurt that you have.

    Jesus invites all who labor or are heavy burdened to come to him.  Jesus told us that not a sparrow falls without God knowing it, so he knows your pain and fear.  He invites you to come to him and to unload this fear to him.  You don’t have to stay up all night and worry; you don’t have to keep on stressing about the many “what ifs?”  God has your answer; so, don’t just wait up and worry and fear.  Go to Jesus so that you can be healed.

Gracious Lord, lead us to come to you.  Lead us to bring the burdens and the struggles of our life to you.  Send your Spirit of comfort and peace that we mat know the joy of the contentment that you offer us freely.  Keep us in your loving arms.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior and King we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

8-4-2022

 Good Morning!    

         Ezekiel 33:7; “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.”

     As we look at the resurrection accounts in the gospels, many look for places where the accounts differ.  I find it interesting the things that are similar and even more intriguing to me is when the similarities exist even today.  One of the common elements in the resurrection accounts is one of fear.  The disciples hide for fear of the Jews.  Now before we get too irate at the disciples let’s remember that they had just watched or heard that Jesus was killed in a most horrific manner.  Their beloved teacher, their rabbi, was murdered and, for all the disciples knew, they were next on the target list.  You can almost imagine Peter and the other Galileans, recognizable by their accent and maybe dress and skin coloring, feared recognition and being executed in the same way.  They feared for their lives.  When or if you feared for your life, would you be any better?  I doubt that I would.

    Yet even today, fear seems to be a very common factor for us.  We look around us and it causes us to fear.  We watch the news and see Christians around the world killed, in horrific fashions, for their faith.  We see a media and a culture that is more and more hostile toward our faith.  I read an article a few weeks ago where the author listed a number of job/occupations that Christians should not be allowed to have because “their simpleton beliefs render them unable to properly perform them.”  So, what do we do?  Many of us cower behind locked doors for fear of _____ (you can fill in the blank).  What should we do?  Trust Jesus.

    One of the issues that I think many of us have is that we don’t fully understand what God wants us to do.  We think that we have to go out and explain everything that God does, and we have to be able to clearly and concisely debate, discuss, convert and save every single man, woman and child that we meet.  That is not what God tells us.  God wants us to simply tell the world who Jesus is and why he matters to me.  If the other person denies, rejects, refuses or attacks Jesus; let them.  In our verse, our job is to warn them.  If they don’t heed the warning, it is their loss.  In the next few verses, God tells us, “if you fail to warn them, it is your sin but if you warn them and they fail to hear; it is their sin.”  We have no need to fear.

    We have no need to fear our inadequacies; it is not about you or me rather it is about Jesus.  It is not about what I think you should do or live but rather it is about the relationship between man and God.  How do you stack up to God?  I am a sinner and need God’s forgiveness every single day and I trust his promise that I have that.  If the other person doesn’t think he needs the same, well; that is his choice.  It is the wrong choice, but it is his choice.  We are only the messenger so do not fear; it is already our victory through Christ.  We have won; believe it.

Father, give me courage to speak you word.  Give me courage to give your message of hope and salvation to this broken world.  Guide me and guard me by your Holy Spirit.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-3-2022

Good Morning!    

         Matthew 6:6; “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

    I remember a story about a little boy who had a hard time in school.  He wasn’t that popular; he wasn’t that smart, and he wasn’t that athletic.  He didn’t have the newest clothes or toys and he never had any money to buy anything at the store.  Most days he would just kind of mope through the day except on Thursdays.  On Thursdays, he seemed a little more alive, a little happier with life.  He would hurry home from school because it was Thursday.  He loved Thursdays because on Thursday his mother would take the eggs she had collected into town and sold them.  After she did this, she would buy him a piece of hard candy.  When he got home, his mother would give him some lemonade and the piece of candy.  Then they would sit and talk about the day and what was happening.  Thursdays were all right; it made up for the rest of the week.

    The little boy had something to look forward to and he saw it as a time of leaving the boring and sometimes painful day behind.  He loved the quiet time with his mother.  He liked the candy and the lemonade.  He liked telling his mother about the day and how she listened and would make him laugh.  We all need times like that.  We need times when we can get away from the weight of the day.  We need some time to refresh our batteries.  For us as Christians, we have a thing that we call prayer that can serve the purpose well.

   When Jesus told his disciples to go into the room and close the door, it was not out of embarrassment or fear.  Rather it is meant to bring about our focus.  We do not need or want any distractions at this time.  This includes praying in a manner that is more designed to impress the world rather than open our heart to God.  It can be a time of great healing for us as we speak of our fears and our sorrows and though we know that Jesus isn’t a genie who grants us wishes and solves all our problems and he is not an ATM machine that simply spits out rewards for prayer. God’s plan is too big for that, and somehow it includes the hard times as well as the good times. But Jesus does promise never to leave us or forsake us, and sensing that kind of closeness in prayer can be a powerful thing for us when we too feel accepted, loved, and cared for.

    We may face struggles and pain, but we do not face them alone.  With prayer, especially if we take time to truly pray, more than a quick thank you for lunch or a short “I need” petition but rather a time of prayer that is regularly scheduled; we can feel a closeness to God that may be absent otherwise.  Regular daily prayer can train our mind to seek God and his peace and hope first and by seeking him first; we will find the contentment that we desire.

Father, we look to you for all of our needs and you fill them. Lead us by your Spirit to seek a closer time with you and a deeper sense of hope in your Word. Lead us to know that you hear us and that you answer our prayers. You know the plans that you have for us, and they are plans to prosper us.  Lead us to trust this promise. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

8-2-2022

Good Morning!    

         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 isn’t 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 has to go somewhere.  There has to 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

8-1-2022

Good Morning!    

           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 didn’t get one from me that day.  I looked at him and said, “Good for you, I hope that works out for you” and that was the end of it.  I am not sure if he was disappointed that I didn’t argue or if he thought he had won because I walked away or if it left him confused but it ended right there. He didn’t need God so good for him.  As for me, I need God, I rely on God, God is my source for all of my needs.  That young man may have believed he had a better source, but I don’t believe that, so I rely on God.

    Our verse is one of those verses that are really interesting because we don’t 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