10-7-2022

Good Morning All,

        Gen. 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

     There are a handful of verses from the Bible that most people, who any biblical knowledge at all, can quote from memory.  This is one of those verses.  Yet it is one of the most ignored verses in the Bible.  In the first verse of the entire Bible, we see what our relationship with God should be.  God is the creator, and we are the created; we are creatures that fit into the creation.  Yet most people are truly offended if you tell them this.  Try and tell someone who is commenting on how great mankind is and how we can do anything if we just put our mind to it.  Tell them that we are creatures in God’s creation but in this simple verse, 10 words long, that is exactly what is declared.

    Now it is true that God created humans with a special purpose, to care for creation and to serve God, and given something that the animals do not have, a living soul, God created us to be the “image-bearers” for him here on earth.  Humans were supposed to tend the creation, to have dominion over it, and to be in worshipful fellowship with God.  But man couldn’t live with this.  Remember what the serpent told Eve, “you will be like God” so Eve ate, and Adam did too.  Sin entered the world because Adam and Eve were not happy being the creature; they wanted to be like the creator.  All sin reflects back to this verse.  The First Commandment springs from this verse.  Why should we have no other gods before Him; because He is the Creator God who made everything out of nothing.  All sin is a sin against the First Commandment. 

    In the Book of Revelations, there is a description of the Throne of God.  As you and I go through life, our struggle with the devil is who is sitting on that throne?  Do I see God on that throne, or do I place myself on that throne?  Do I see God as the Sovereign God who rules over all He has created, or do I have a “different” theory.  No matter what that theory is, evolution, aliens, new age religions, everything else is about me sitting on God’s throne and refusing to accept that God is there.  In essence, we are rejecting our own human creaturely status and have lost everything.

    God, in His mercy, sent Jesus to die to reconcile us back to Him.  God continually calls us back to Himself, out of love, to return to our true nature to be the “image-bearer” in this world.  Since sin is still prevalent, God calls His Church to be partners or helpers in this reconciliation process.  He empowers us through the Holy Spirit to again be the “image-bearer” for Him in this broken world.  We continually fall short, but God continues to call.  This cycle or rhythm is what some call worship.  God calls us and pronounces us forgiven, we rejoice in His forgiveness and go forth only to fall short again.  We repeat this cycle until the Lord returns.  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” He is the creator, and we are the creature.  It really is that simple.

O Holy Creator God, we, your poor creatures, continually fail to serve You as we should.  We ask for Your mercy.  We celebrate because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice; we know we are forgiven.  Lead us, empower us, and give us the will to serve as your “image-bearer” to a world of pain and suffering.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret            

10-06-2022

 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 “no-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 couldn’t 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 chicken off of the platter 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 an honest and 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 don’t 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 

10-05-2022

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

10-04-2022

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 very 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.  My wife and I 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 wouldn’t be on the call list and then we told them.  We had good news to share and couldn’t 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 isn’t 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   

10-3-2022

Good Morning All,

         Galatians 3:28; “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ.”

     I was reading an article by a child psychologist the other day.  She was addressing an issue raised by a young parent whose young child pointed to someone in a wheelchair and the rather loudly asked, “why can’t that man walk?”  The horrified mother asked what to do.  The psychologist suggested that rather than get upset she should point out all the similarities that existed.  Yes, the man couldn’t walk but he had two ears like you and two eyes and two arms, etc.  She felt by pointing out all the similarities, the differences would hold less prominence.

     Why is it that we always seem to look for the differences at first?  Why do we seek those things which we use to divide and separate?  It often starts out innocent enough: it is how we identify individuals.  We see Suzy as the short, blonde girl and Billy as the tall red head.  But all too soon we take those differences and use them to hold others down or try to push them back; all in an effort to get to the front.  So, we take those differences, and we begin to categorize people.  This group is greedy; this group is lazy, this group is selfish, this group is made up of criminals.  (I didn’t list who, but you probably filled in the blanks).  Instead of looking at what we have in common and try and build on that; we build walls to keep some back from us or out of our sight or away from us.

       Yet when God looks at people He sees one thing, a sinful creature.  Before God we are all the same.  There is no difference; we are all sinners deserving eternal punishment.  But by God’s grace, God sees only righteousness and holiness when He looks at His redeemed children.  All God sees is Christ’s atoning sacrifice.  He sees us as one in Christ, holy and undefiled.  We are not male or female, tall or short, fat, or skinny, black, brown, white, yellow, purple or orange; we are the redeemed children of God.  That is how God sees us and that is how we should see our fellow believer.  We are all the same.  We are forgiven sinners who live by God’s grace and mercy.  We need to tear down the walls we build and see what God sees, forgiven creatures.

     When we do this, it enhances our desire to have compassion on one another.  When we see each other as more like us than different than us; we will see the pain or sorrow that others experience.  When we see how we are alike; we see ourselves as brothers and sisters just as God desires us to.  We are God’s children, one and all; all of us alike. 

Father in heaven, too often we let our sinful nature lead us into prejudice and suspicion.  Forgive us our sin.  Guide us Lord to remove the walls and the barriers which we build between us and our fellow believers.  Cause us to see them as our brothers in Christ and to feel their pain and to share in their joy to your glory here on earth.  In The precious name of Jesus our ascended Lord we pray, amen. 

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

10-2-2022

Good Morning All,

         John 3:16; “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

     It is one of the hardest decisions we ever have to make.  It is one of the hardest decisions to counsel someone about.  It is the decision to give up on someone, at least for a while.  Sometimes it might be a parent who has a child that is a drug addict or an alcoholic.  He never seems to have a job.  Maybe he has been arrested a few times.  Maybe he even went through the detox program a couple of times, but nothing seems to work.  It is tough on parents to deal with this.  Few things age a person like this does.  Each phone call, you wonder; is he dead or in jail or involved in some drug deal that went bad; what happened?  It hurts to watch them struggle but sometimes you have to let them go.  You have to let them suffer the consequences of their actions.  You shield and shield them, but you are slowly losing your own sanity.  You are suffering more than they are, so you have to let go.

   It might be a spouse who stopped working on keeping the marriage going.  They stopped saying, “I love you” a long time ago.  They barely acknowledge you even exist.  They have started to attack you with verbal assaults that cut you to the core.  They have left the marriage in every way except they have an occasional presence in the house.  You have tried and tried.  You have asked that they go to counseling with you.  You have asked what is wrong and now you hear rumors they are spending time with someone else.  Maybe you have even found hotel receipts and you are distraught and shot emotionally.  You are exhausted and completely lost; you have to give up before you lose your sanity.  You have to walk away and let things heal and start over later.

    These and a few more like them are extreme events that hurt us so deeply.  Maybe you have been through these or maybe you know someone who has.  It is tough and it ages us quickly but at some point, in time we have to give up.  That is what makes what God does for us so incredibly special.  God never gave up on us.  We were the unfaithful spouse; we went chasing after other gods and denying the true God and living as if he didn’t matter.  We were the delinquent child, taking whatever God gave to us and destroying it by seeking only our own physical pleasure.  You and I are that child; you and I are that spouse.  Anyone would have given up on us a long time ago, but God does not.  God’s perfect love, the perfect sacrificial love, would not allow him to give up on us.  God’s perfect love moves him to seek us out no matter were.  Most of us would not chase a child to those places or a spouse to those places but God does.  God came to this wicked world to save us because he loves us.  We all know how far we would go for the love of a child and yet God exceeds the distance that we would ever go.  That is the kind of love he has for us; it knows no end!

Father, your love for me goes beyond anything I can ever imagine.  You keep me safe from the devil’s arrows and when I lose my way, you come to me and call me back.  Be with those who are struggling with their personal relationships.  Give them strength and courage; remind them that you never fail them.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

10-01-2022

Good Morning All,

      2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you”

     How many times have you made a promise?  How many times has someone made a promise to you?  How many times have you broken promise?  How many broken promises have you had?  All of these questions probably are quite a few.  A big part of this is we use the word promise way too freely.  I promise to pick up supper on the way home.  I promise to wash clothes when I get home.  I promise to come to your ballgame.  I have made all those promises and broke each of them, more than once.

    Perhaps you have too.  We all have made promises and not kept them.  Yet most of us have made major promises which you are keeping.  For those of you who are married, how long have you been keeping that promise?  If you are not married, look at your parents and grandparents. 

    Notice the change in the verb from kept (or made) to keeping.  A true promise is one that you are always keeping or fulfilling.  That is what the verse for this morning is telling us.  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise…toward you.  The Lord made a promise to you; a personal promise to you.  The Lord God, creator of the universe, makes and is keeping his promise to you.

    Another thing about this promise is that it looks to the future.  When you took (or will take) your wedding vows, you are promising for tomorrow.  You promise to love and remain faithful “until death us do part.”  God promise for you is future oriented as well.  The promise made to you is a continuing promise for eternity.  You are given the promise of eternal life.  It is looking forward to what God promises not to what you did in the past.

    Another thing about a promise is that it depends on the person who makes it.  We all know (or we may be) someone who makes a promise, and the expectation is often (we’ll see).  The promise depends on the trustworthiness of the one who makes it.  God is always faithful to his promises.  God’s promises are always kept.  That is part of why God addresses himself as “the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”  It shows God’s faithfulness.

    This is the promise for you.  It looks forward and depends totally on God.  It comes to us as a gift.  God keeps this promise every day.  Even, maybe even especially, on those days when we struggle or feel that God is far away; He isn’t.  He is always close to you, keeping his promise; a promise that includes eternal life, the comfort of the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of your fellow believers.  God keeps his promises new and fresh every day, trust in his promises.

 Dear Father in heaven, we give thanks for your holy promise, the promise of eternal life and salvation.  Give us the strength and the courage to hold onto that promise.  Lead us by your Spirit forward with your promise.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret