4-7-2023

Good Morning All,

     John 14:3; “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

    “I shall return.”  As many of you know this was the phrase uttered by Gen. MacArthur as he was leaving the Philippines.  The Japanese Imperial Army was conquering the islands and the general had to evacuate or be captured.  As he left, he made this now famous statement.  His opponents saw it as false bravado; his supporters saw it as an attempt to bolster the morale of the troops and native Philippines.

     Many of the people left behind actually did find some comfort in his statement.  Even through the darkest days of the occupation by the Japanese, it gave them hope.  The people left behind kept hope because they believed that the general would keep his promise so they struggled and battled as best they could.  They believed that eventually he would return and bring with him the necessary army to drive out the Japanese.  These islanders faced many hardships while he was gone but eventually, they were liberated.  The general returned to the islands.

    Jesus made the promise to us to return.  He told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them.  He went back to His heavenly Father to prepare a place, to prepare the way for us.  Then he told them that he would come again and take them with him.  This promise is what we cling to and what we wait for.  We wait for the return of Jesus.  It is what we cling to even in the darkest hours; it is the hope that we hold onto.

    We look forward to Christ’s return; it is what we hope for.  Until he returns, we wait in a world which is still full of pain, still full of sorrow.  The world is still infected by sin and as a result we still have some dark times ahead.  We may face health troubles, job troubles or relationship troubles or a myriad of other events.  Yet we know that the time will soon come when Jesus returns and rescues us from this tyranny.  He will return to destroy all the evil which the devil does.  When Jesus returns, he will restore creation back to its perfect “very good” form.

    When Jesus returns as king, the creation will be restored.  The rift between heaven and earth will be fixed.  The King of Kings and Lord of Lords will once again walk in the cool of the morning with man.  This is his promise; I will come again and take you to myself.  We will be liberated from the tyranny of the devil forever.  In those days and at that time we will see Jesus face to face and celebrate with him and with all those who have gone before us in faith.  We will enjoy true peace and true joy.  We will celebrate the joyous feast forever when Jesus returns.  Jesus promised to return and to take you to him.  This is a promise we can rely on.

Dear Father, you sent Jesus to pay for our sins and He promised to return to bring us to him.  Give to us the certainty of this hope, whatever befalls us keep us strong and certain of your grace.  Come Lord, Jesus, come.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret          

4-6-2023

Good Morning All,

     Revelation 21:3; “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” 

    We all like it when the story ends the way it should.  The nice guy marries the nice girl.  The bad guys are punished.  The guy who has to overcome insurmountable odds wins in the end.  The cowboy kisses his horse and rides off into the sunset.  There is something about these stories which have a sense of completion for us.  Even if you watch a movie or read a novel and early on you can see on the story is going to end, we keep watching or reading because we want to see the story end the way it should.  We want the story to end the way it should.  We don’t like loose ends; we don’t want any unfinished business.  It should end with no loose ends but with a neat and tidy finish.  We get that also with the Bible.

    The last two or three chapters of Revelation fix what gets broken in the first two or three chapters in Genesis.  We can really see this if we think of heaven, not as a place, but as an existence.  Heaven is living in the visual, physical presence of God.  Adam and Eve lived in heaven when they lived in the Garden of Eden.  They would walk with God in the cool of the morning and be in complete and total communion with him.  However, sin ripped that in two and heaven and earth were separated.  Creation, which was perfect, now became chaotic and frustrated by man’s sin. 

     Yet with Jesus’ death and resurrection, the change begins.  The sinful realm and reign are still here but so is God’s reign of grace.  We are saved from our sins but not yet perfected.  We are getting closer with each passing moment but until this happens; God is giving those who do not believe time to repent and he is giving us time to reach out to them so that the Spirit will be seen by them through us.  So, we wait for Jesus to return.  We wait and watch eagerly for that time.

     Because when that time comes, all will be perfected.  When Jesus returns, heaven will again be on earth.  All of creation will be restored.  The chaos and the frustration will be gone.  We will once again be able to walk with God in the cool of the morning.  We too, will be perfected.  Just as the world went out of control when man sinned, so it will returned to control when Jesus returns.  Just as man destroyed our existence with God with our sin, God restores our existence with God and makes us whole with Him once again.

     This is the ending we look forward to; the restoration of creation, the return to the life in an Eden-like existence.  We will live perfectly in the presence of God in complete joy and peace; with all the other believers.  Heaven and earth are united again in perfect union.   

 Gracious Father, we wait with eager anticipation for the completion of this age.  Give to us the courage and faith to sustain us until Jesus does return.  Keep us in your hands and guard and protect us with your mighty arm.  Bring peace and comfort to those who do not know it.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-5-2023

Good Morning All,

        Luke 21: 3-4; “And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.  For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on”

    This is a portion of the story that is often called “The Widow’s Mite”.  Jesus, along with his disciples and a few other onlookers, are watching as people are putting their offerings into the treasury.  The rich are putting in a lot of money and this poor widow puts in a couple of copper coins. 

    For us today, we might ask the question; who gave more?  What if Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or T. Denny Sanford donates $5 million dollars to a cause and then what if a widow lady who only has social security to live on and she gives $800?   Who gave more?  Obviously the $5 million is numerically greater than $800 but who gave a larger share of what they had? 

   We often struggle with lessons like this one.  By any measure, the people of the United States are wealthier than most of the rest of the world can even dream.  So how do we balance this?  Do we give to God only out of our abundance?  Do we ever give like the widow, who put it all in?  Now before you think this is another plea for a lot of money, this lesson goes far deeper than a few more shekels in the collection plate; this lesson is about our faith.

    The rich in the Bible story (probably Pharisees and Sadducees) gave a lot of money.  They did it with a lot of show, but they kept a lot back.  They gave but they always had a reserve because they lacked the trust, they lacked the faith to go totally in with God.  It is when you don’t totally place your faith in God that you get in trouble.

    Adam and Eve lost that faith and they looked for a better way.  They held back on the trust that God was able to provide entirely for them.  They held back and decided that they could do a better job directing their lives than God could.  They wanted an alternate plan; they wanted to keep their options open.  They figured that they could do better.

    We often do as well.  We hold back on trusting God fully.  We will give him a portion of our life, a portion of our faith but we hold back some; we keep some in reserve.  Yet this is what causes us the most pain.  We hold back; we look away from the only true source of our hope and salvation.  We keep some in reserve only to make our life worse.

    God calls us to complete faith; he wants us to go all in; to trust fully in Him.  God calls upon us to completely lay down our sinful lives and to live as his redeemed children.  He wants us to keep nothing back; nothing of the sins we hold to so tightly especially the sin of thinking our way is better.  Trust God to deliver you.  Give yourself fully to him and have faith in His promises.

Dear Father, too often we refuse to give our complete self to you.  We hold back out of fear and out of foolish sinful pride.  Strengthen us through your grace and give us the faith to trust you   In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

4-4-2023

Good Morning All,

       Ephesians 3:20; “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”  

    When you were younger, did you use to imagine about the world?  Did you ask or get asked, “If you could be anything in the world; what would you be?”  How about, “If you could go anywhere; where would you go?”  Most of us had some wonderful dreams and wishes.  Some were fanciful; some were heroic.  So where did you want to go or what did you want to be?  Was it some exotic faraway place?  Did you want to be an astronaut or a famous doctor?  Did you dream of your successful business?  What did you dream?

    In the Bible, many people dreamed to.  Isaac and Rebekah dreamed of a child, so did Hannah and Elizabeth.  Samuel dreamed of a godly king.  Ruth dreamed of a husband.  Many people dreamed of something that they longed for.  They hoped for something; they held the desire in their heart.  Yet these had one more element; they prayed for God’s help and answer.

     Maybe praying to be an astronaut might have been a stretch (but then maybe not); yet we do not often pray for God’s help.  We may think we are unworthy, we may think that what we pray for is not important to God.  Maybe we doubt that God can or wants to answer our prayers.  Whatever the reason, we often miss out on one of God’s greatest blessings.  Yet when we pray in a faithful fashion, God promises to hear and to answer our prayers.  We hear that over and over in the Bible; Matthew, Luke, and John are just a few that repeatedly tells us to ask or to call upon his name.  So, do we?

    Look at our verse, far more than we ask or think.  God wants to bless you far more than you can ever imagine.  He wants you to call upon his name and trust that he will answer.  He wants you to be happy, he wants you to be content; yet we continue to falter and we continue to miss out on his grace.  Too often we look too short and fall even shorter.  Yet God continues to invite you to call upon his name and to ask of him.

    The promise of answered prayers; the promise to work in us and through us.  God’s love for us exceeds anything we can ever imagine or dream.  Yet we limit ourselves because we limit our faith.  We have God’s promise to answer our prayers beyond anything we could ever dream or imagine and we turn away from it.  Trust God, have faith in his promise to you.  Receive his blessings for your life.
 Dear Father, your mercies are new every day.  Forgive us when we fail to call upon your name.  Forgive us when we fail to trust in you fully.  Give us the faith to trust you.  Give us the holy desire to seek your blessings.  Keep us close to you send your spirit of comfort to those who are in the most need of your comfort.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

4-3-2023

Good Morning All,

  Psalm 40:2; “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”

    I was watching a movie the other night.  It was a war movie in which one scene was shot during a rain-soaked period of time.  Everything was wet and slippery.  The mud was everywhere, and walking was tough, and driving was even more difficult.  The enemy was about to attack so as they tried to move all the equipment.  Of course, as the enemy is coming, one of the jeeps gets stuck and it takes a heroic effort to save the day.  

    It seems that rescuing the hero at the last minute is a common theme in many movies.  Sometimes the villain dies while the hero gets saved.  The scene is frequent, and the result is often the same.  This seems to occur because in many ways; we recognize that we need to be rescued in our own lives.

    Man has long known that he was in desperate shape.  We see this from his earliest fears.  We recognize it by our earliest refusal to care about others.  Our only thought was to self-survival and no thought to others; hence Cain and Abel.  This is partial why we tend to show hatred to others; it is the fear that we need to be rescued and that there isn’t enough help to go around.  It is this need to be rescued that causes us to build walls around ourselves to protect ourselves and to feel a little bit secure.  We separate ourselves from others in an attempt to feel safe and secure in a slippery pit.

    Martin Luther King once commented, “People often hate each other because they fear each other, they fear each other because they don’t know each other, they don’t know each other because they cannot communicate, they cannot communicate because they are separated.” This seems to be an accurate description of our human existence.  We fear so we hate.

    There is no way for us to solve this crisis.  On our own, we can only fail.  We soon see that relying on our own skills, our own power, on our own self sense of right and wrong; we soon fall into the pit of destruction.  That slippery slope just leads down, pulling us in to the quagmire of total despair.  Our hope is lost, the light is gone and we sink slowly out of sight.

    Yet God, in his mercy, pulls us from the miry bogs.  He brings us from the pit of complete despair.  God pulls us out through the blood of Jesus.  He sets our feet upon a rock.  So we can face the world with confidence and hope.  There is nothing that the world can throw at us that God cannot or will not pull us through.  The trials of this life are just that; trials.  Through them we can see God’s hand protecting us and giving to us the blessed certainty of life eternal.

Dear Father, you pull us from the pit and give to us the certainty of hope.  Within you is our salvation.  Keep us safe within your arms and guard us with your tender mercy.  Keep us aware that all things work for good for those whom you love according to your purposes.  Bless us with your peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-2-2023

Good Morning All,

     John 2:5; “(Jesus’) mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  

    In front of a small rural church, the minister used to list the sermon titles for the next two weeks.  He had them listed like this:

                                                                     Jan. 20th- Jesus walks on the water.

                                                                     Jan. 27^th- Searching for Jesus

 

    I don’t think this is exactly the message he meant to convey but he did.  Many people are, or at least claim to be, searching for Jesus.  They claim to be looking and listening for Jesus.  They profess to pray to him and to believe in him and yet do they.

    Many people search for Jesus but are really searching for a way or method to obtain the things of this world which they want.  They are like teenagers with Dad’s credit card.  All you have to do is swipe it in the machine and just like that you get what you want.  It couldn’t be easier.  They have no idea as to the cost or to the process of how this works.  They simply demand and get.

    There is the story of two friends who rarely attended church.  One of them got a very aggressive form of cancer.  So, these two friends sat down each day and read the Bible.  Yet when the one who got cancer died; the second friend decided that there was no God because he didn’t heal his friend.  This man had a vision of God and it was that God was to do what the man demanded.  He was searching for a God who would cover his expenses and fulfill his demands.

    Our verse is from the story of the wedding at Cana.  Jesus’ mother tells him that the host is out of wine and that he should fix it.  Even here, Mary is trying to use Jesus for mundane and selfish purposes but she believes that Jesus can do something so she tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do.  The servants comply and fill water jugs with water and then draw from those jugs wine for the feast.  The servants, who did what Jesus asked, knew what had happened.  Most of the others had no clue; they only knew they got more wine.

     We should be like those servants; do whatever Jesus tells us.  It isn’t that hard.  Jesus tells us to repent and to believe.  We are to believe in his promise and assurance that our sins are forgiven and that we will share in eternal life with him.  That is pretty much it.  He encourages us to take advantage of the blessings which he bestows on us: prayer, Communion, the gathering with fellow believers to name a few.  Yet he calls upon us to repent and to believe.  Do whatever he asks of you.  Trust in his words of hope and promise.  He will never forsake you.  Do whatever he asks of you; live your life in his hope and comfort.  Then all that you seek will be given to you.

Dear Father, too often we do not do as you ask; we go our own way and fall and fail.  Forgive us our sins and cleanse us and bring us back to you.  Guard us from all evil and give your holy comfort to those in need of your care.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

04-01-2023

Good Morning All,

     Matthew 27: 4-5; “(Judas) saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.”

    Have you ever felt sorry for doing something?  Did it help or did you feel just as bad?  We often realize that we have done something wrong and then we feel bad.  We have a hard time getting over it and often we don’t.  We continue to feel guilty with little, if any, sense of relieve or respite.

     Which brings up a question, if feeling sorry for your sins doesn’t make you feel better; then what does?  Many will tell you that repentance means to feel sorry for your sins.  That is only a small part of the story.  This is also why, when we feel sorry for our sins, that we still feel empty of forgiveness and still burdened by sin.

    It is always interesting to me that Judas felt sorry for his sins.  After he betrayed Jesus and saw that Jesus was soon to die; Judas felt tremendous remorse.  He went to the Temple and threw the money back to the Scribes.  “I have betrayed innocent blood!!”  The regret and the remorse which he felt were incredible; yet he went out and hung himself.  He felt bad; he felt terrible; he felt the greatest sense of remorse and yet he received nothing from it. 

    So how does repentance work?  It is more than feeling sorry; it is the knowledge that God has forgiven our sins.  When we repent, we look to God for forgiveness and then we have faith in his promise to forgive.  You see, Judas real problem was he went to the wrong priest.  He should have gone to Jesus, our true high priest.  He should have gone to Jesus trusting in His promise to forgive our sins.  Remorse is only part of repentance, and it really doesn’t matter if you are sorry because you are afraid of punishment or sad because you feel guilty about your sin; the critical part is that you truly believe that your sins are forgiven.

    Our comfort doesn’t come from feeling sorry; our comfort comes from knowing that God has mercifully forgiven us of all our sins.  Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, our debt for our sins has been paid.  We don’t do anything to “re do” this; once was sufficient.  We only benefit from his gracious gift.  We receive this wondrous gift by faith alone; that desire to trust and to believe in God’s promise.  Our comfort doesn’t come because we feel bad.  Our comfort comes from what God has done: He forgives our sins that is our comfort.

Dear Father, to you alone belong the glory.  We come to you as a broken people; we are broken by sin and its guilt.  Yet through all of our failures, you forgive us because of your love for us.  We pray for those in our community who have watched loved ones return to you.  Be with them and give them your comforting Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret