3-14-2024

Good Morning All,

Genesis 2:8; “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom He had formed.”

     There is a poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney entitled “God’s Garden.”  In this poem is a verse that goes like this. 

                                                The kiss of the sun for pardon,

                                     The song of the birds for mirth, --

                                               One is nearer God's heart in a garden.

                                    Than anywhere else on earth.

     I am not sure why this poem came to me.  Perhaps the fact that the weather has been warmer than we usually expect and the lure of the garden is calling  Perhaps, I am missing the warmth of the day, the smell of the flower, the feel of the dirt in my hand, the serenity of just sitting in a garden and listening to the birds.  I can sit quietly and read or drink my coffee or just close my eyes and enjoy the whole moment.  Perhaps, as I sit in my office at a hectic time of the year, I long for the garden again.

    Our faith lives can be like this as well.  There are times when it feels like God’s love is distant and cold.  We see no beauty; we smell no beauty; we feel no joy.    Soon we feel the bleakness of the dreary night.  Soon we think the beauty is gone forever.  Yet we can rest assured that they are not.

     When times and days like this set in, first of all recognize that the devil and our sinful nature is at work on us.  It is their attempt to deprive us of God’s peace and comfort.  We need to remember God’s promises.  We need to remember the God’s love and grace are always there for us.  At no point in time does he ever abandon us, we may walk away, or we may experience a time when the devil convinces us that God’s love is gone like the flowers in wintertime.  Yet we know of God’s perfect love for us.

    It is his love that is the beauty of the garden.  It is his love that gives us the hope and the certainty that there will be a better tomorrow.  God’s grace supplies us with all that we need to see this.  So when the devil battles us and assails us with the dullness of a dreariness that seems to remove all hope; always remember that the devil is already defeated, Christ, through his death and resurrection, have given us the final victory and the guarantee that we will live in that garden of beauty, walking with God in the cool of the morning, for eternity.       

    If prayer and listening to God speak to you through the Scriptures fail to help lift the cloud of darkness, then find someone who you can talk to so that they can help you see the beauty that God has for us.  This is another tool that God uses to help and comfort us, to help us find the garden.

Father of love, there are times when I lose the garden to the devil’s false illusions.  Help me to grab onto your wonderful grace and enlighten my life with your splendor.  Be with those who are suffering now.  Lift them from the pit.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

 

3-13-2024

 Good Morning All,

       John 16:33; “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

        Maybe you have played a word association game where someone would say a word and then you would respond with the first word that comes to you.  For example, if someone says “dog” you might answer “cat.”  It gets interesting when you use a word with many choices like “black;” you might answer “white” or “blue” or “cat” or “jack.”  The way you answer gives a clue to your thinking process.   If you want to make it more of a game, try and think of what the opposite of the word is given.  So, if the word is “light” you might try “dark” or “heavy.”

    We kind of need to play a word association game to understand our verse.  We see Jesus telling his disciples two different ideas.  First, we have “peace,” but we also have “tribulation;” how can we have both?   How can you have peace and tribulation, it would seem that these are opposites.  Yet they are not complete opposites as we can look at peace and see something a little different.  “Peace” or “shalom” is not the opposite of war or fighting or battling.  “Peace” here is more about being secure, or at rest or whole.  Peace does not define our life in this world rather peace defines the condition of our relationship with God.

    Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, our broken relationship with God has been made whole; it is completed by the payment that Jesus made for our sins.  With this payment being made, our account is settled, and our future is secure.  We have the knowledge that our eternal salvation is all set.  God’s grace and mercy allows us to see that we are all set.  We have no worries about tomorrow; we can rest assured that we are God’s redeemed children; loved by the Father.

    So, no matter what the world tries to throw at us, we can have peace with and from God.  The pain of life that can occur does not and cannot take us from God’s loving hand.  We are in his eternal embrace.  Nothing can pull us from God’s love, so we have peace.  We are complete in God’s grace, secure in our salvation and because of this we can rest knowing that the God of all creation is the God of love who loves us dearly.  We are safe in his arms.

    So as the world, still broken by sin, will have tribulations, pains that sin will always cause; these can spill over into our life.  We are still part of creation; we are still impacted by the sin of the world, but it does not control us.  It does not have to keep us in terror.  We have salvation; we have God’s Spirit to remind us of his wonderful love and grace.  We can have peace, total peace with God and because we have peace with God; we can peace within our own heart knowing that, as forgiven children of the heavenly Father, our hope is secured.  Shalom to you in the name of Jesus.

Father, you give us a peace that the world can never give.  Keep us strong and content in the peace that passes our understanding.  Father, we know that many suffer from a lack of peace.  The devil and the world confuse them and lead them astray.  Bring them home and lead them to know your peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

3-12-2024

Good Morning All,

           1 Timothy 4:10; “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”

    The English language is a strange beast. How a word is pronounced or how it is used can vary and be dependent upon the person using the word. For example, the word “stock” means something different to a person who raises animals, to a person who is a race car driver, to a gunsmith, and to a person of finance. The word “unionized” means (and is pronounced) differently between a scientist and a member of the Teamsters. (un-ionized to union-ized). Words can be difficult and frustrating but what can be very frustrating to a Christian is when the devil and the world take really good Bible words and mushes them all up and uses them to mean something altogether different.

    Hope is one of those words. In the worldly vernacular, hope is a flimsy, worthless, imagination of folly. When people use the word “hope,” you can almost sense that they think their “hope” is lost. I hope my team wins the World Series this year even though they have never won one and they traded their best players for some unknowns. I hope I have better crops this year than last year even though I am not changing anything from last year. I hope I win the Powerball lottery even if the odds are 292.2 million to 1. So, when we use the word hope like this, what good is there in having your hope set on the living God? How can that possibly be of any value?

    “Hope” in the Bible refers to the expectation of future good because of past events. Hope is a certainty not a flimsy wish. I hope that when I get out of bed, my feet hit the floor. Gravity has not failed before, and it won’t fail now. So, playing with English words, we can read “our hope set on the living God” and think “our ANCHOR set on the living God.”  Our hope is in God. We can anchor ourselves to this truth. We can hold onto God’s great promises of forgiveness and salvation and eternal life in the face of every earthly life storm.

    There is no greater power or force than God’s love for you. He shows us that love in the person of Jesus, whose death and resurrection gives us hope. It is our anchor into God’s rock of love. We will be battered, slammed, and attacked by everything this world has, yet just like the ship that rides out the storm because it is anchored safely in the cove, we too, are safe, anchored in the resurrection of Jesus and secure in his loving arms. We “wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” That is our hope, that is our anchor. We have Jesus and more importantly, He has us.

Gracious Father, our hope is in You because of your great promises which never fail. Help us to always know the confidence of your grace and the certainty of your mercy that declares us your children. Keep our hearts and minds safe in the knowledge of your love. Defend those who are struggling and send Your Spirit that they may know Your peace. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-11-2024

Good Morning All,

            2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

       I remember watching reruns of “Married with Children.”  I actually thought a lot of it was funny.  It satirized American life to the point of incredible exaggeration.  If you watched closely, you probably have known someone who matches one or more of the characters portrayed.  I must admit that I laughed the hardest at poor Al Bundy.  Looking at his present life and at his future life, he was so discouraged by those two prospects that he lived in the glory of his past. 

     Al “I scored four touchdowns in one game for Polk High” Bundy lives in the past glory of his high school days.  He often reminisces about his past greatness; at times, he relives them in an attempt to either prove he had potential or to correct some past error.  He is always living in the past because he sees it as superior to his life either today or tomorrow.  To him, yesterday is far better than today.

    Do we live like that?  Do we look at the past and think that it is superior?  It rarely is.  We usually look at the past through “sentimental” tinted glasses.  We want the past to be better because it is what we create it to be.  We can make our past as pretty as we want.  Unfortunately, we sometimes miss the truth about what was missing in our life and continue to miss out on God’s blessings. 

   Sometimes we look at the past and think we have to live there because we can’t see any way out of it.  This can be the most painful of all.  Sometimes we look at our past and think that there is no way that anyone, God included, can love a person like that.  Perhaps you were alcohol or drug dependent and thus were completely undependable.  Perhaps you treated someone cruelly and now continue to punish yourself for the past failures.  Sometimes we think the past is all we deserve.

    The wonderful thing is that God does not want you to live in the past.  He wants you to live in his present grace and, eventually, in his glory.  In order to accomplish this, God made you a new creation, cleansed with the blood of Jesus.  Our slate is clean because of what Christ has done for us.  We live in his grace heading toward his glory; it is full steam ahead and we need not look back.  If you feel that you are being pulled back, look at what it is, repent of the sin, try to make amends if possible and then let it go.  God has forgiven this sin and looks at the new you and not the old you.  You should do the same.

Gracious God, you have made me new so that I may live before you in perfection.  By being new, I can stand in your holy presence and live in your merciful kingdom.  Help those who are stuck in the past.  Bring them to the knowledge of your wonderful forgiveness.  Heal their pain and keep them safe from all the devil’s attacks.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-10-2024

Good Morning All,

    Psalm 25: 14; “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”

       Most of us relish “being in the know.”  We like to have some of the inside information from and about the people who make decisions.  We like to sit and listen to the president of a corporation, or the superintendent of a school, or the head football coach or someone who makes the choices that impact things that are important to us.  We like to listen to what they think should be and how they plan on making their ideas work and then apply them.  We like to listen to the intrigue; we like to listen to how they are preparing for any events which may have an impact on their plans.  We get to listen to what the planned results are after the process is completed.  We like it when someone takes us into their confidence.  We like to feel important.

    We are important.  We are important to God and to his plans.  He includes those of us who fear him, have faith in his promises, trust in his Word and seek after him in his plans.  We are invited to listen to the plans for mankind.  He shows us what the results of the covenant will be.  God includes us because it is part of our calling into his kingdom of heaven.  God shares with us how the kingdom is to spread, what it means and where it is to occur.

    God includes us so that can know what we are to do.  We are to execute the plans that God has to move forward the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus gave us the example to follow.  He showed us and he told us how to do this.  He showed us to be a people, to be his people.  He showed us to be a compassionate people.  He showed us to care for all of his creation.

    We are to feed the hungry, especially those who hunger to hear the words of forgiveness and the words of hope which God gives to us.  We are to give something to drink to those who thirst, especially those who thirst after righteousness.  We are to meet the physical needs of those around us.  We are to especially meet their spiritual needs.  God’s design is to bring all people to salvation, to living in his kingdom under his loving reign.

    Jesus began this process of reclaiming all to the kingdom when he came to earth to bring healing to all the broken and suffering.  He continued this through his death and resurrection and then passed on the task to his church, to his disciples, to you and to me.  It is a task of great importance.  It is also a task of great joy.  It is a task that gives us satisfaction.  It is a task that God has given to us that we might celebrate with him in the spreading of his kingdom, in the healing of those who are suffering.

    So, take God’s merciful kingdom and share with all you meet.  Share his love, spread his healing, and tell of his wondrous salvation.  God has revealed to us his plan; now let’s make it work.

Gracious Father, you have given us the task of calling the lost home.  Guide us by your Spirit to bring about the change that you desire.  Be with those who are suffering because of the pain of sin in this world.  Send your healing, use us to spread your wonderful kingdom.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

3-9-2024

Good Morning All,

            Romans 15:13; “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

     It is the best of inventions, and it is the worst of inventions.  I am talking about a cell phone.  At times I cannot live without it.  It is always with me so the members of the church can get hold of me.  I don’t have to arrive home from a visit to the hospital to find out someone is heading back.  As winter is making a very gruff appearance, I know I can be in contact if I need some assistance along the way.  It is a very useful tool.  The problem is it always seems to have a low battery and about to lose power.  I need to take care, or it might not work for me when I need it.

    In a number of ways our spiritual life is the same.  Notice how the Apostle Paul writes in our verse.  The God of hope fill you with joy and peace so that you may abound in hope.  The God of hope wants you to abound in hope.  We are fully charged and when we are fully charged, we abound in hope.  We can abound in hope because we are filled with joy and peace.  We are fully charged with God’s joy and peace.  We have his Spirit that allows us to abound in hope.  No matter what is going on in our life, no matter what the world throws at us; our hope can never be destroyed.

    Yet that hope, that certainty of God’s eternal grace and favor being actively given to us is something that we can and should hold onto.  This can aid us when a loved one is battling for existence and is somewhere between life and death while we can only watch and wonder; we can have hope.  We can have hope because we know that God is forever on our side and his grace will see us, and our loved one through.  This hope can aid us when relationships end, and the pain seems beyond endurance; this hope can guide us to the one relationship that will never be ended by God and that is his redemptive love for us.  We have that hope and when life makes everything difficult and painful; hope will see us through.

   However, that hope needs to have a full charge and that charge is given to us by God when we listen to his words of comfort, promise and hope.  We hear those words when we read his Scriptures and cling to those words of hope.  God also charges that hope by listening to our cries using them to bring us to the complete awareness that our only hope is in him and his mercy.  Nothing else will work.

   So, hope abides but it needs to be fully charged; charged by the hearing of God’s mercy and coming before his throne of grace with our cries of pain, of sorrow or of joy.  Keep the charge full; read God’s Word and study it often; pray often and the fully charged hope will see you through.

Gracious Father, you give us hope and fill us with peace and joy.  You give us the courage to face this world and all the demons that fill it knowing that in you we have total victory.  Keep us fully charged that we might forever know the certainty of your love and promise of life eternal that we may live forever as people of hope.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

3-8-2024

Good Morning All,

       Job 19:25-26; “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.   And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”

     Confidence: that is what the “little engine that could” had; it had confidence.  As it climbed the mountain, its confidence grew until it knew that it could climb the mountain.  Confidence: that is what Babe Ruth had.  In Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe Ruth pointed out to centerfield and then hit the next pitch over the centerfield wall.  Confidence: that is what Michael Jordan had as he played professional basketball.  Many times, while shooting a foul shot, he would say to the opponent who fouled him, “watch this.”  He would close his eyes and, usually, make the free throw without looking.  Confidence is an amazing thing.

    When many people think of Job, they describe him as being patient, perhaps you have heard or even used the phrase “the patience of Job” to describe dealing with a tough or a perplexing problem.  Yet patience does not exist by itself; it needs a stronger counterpart to make patience work.  In order for patience to work you must have faith.  It is only by faith that we can have patience.  Faith gives us the strength and the courage to face the battles that we face.  Even if these battles seem insurmountable, we can be patient because we have faith that, in the end, we will succeed.  We will be victorious.

     It was faith that gave Job the courage to be patient.  It was faith that let him see past the horrific events of his life and to see his Savior.  Job had complete confidence that he would see his Redeemer, standing on the earth, and then Job would see him in Job’s only flesh.  Job knew that his Redeemer would live and that he, Job, would live to see it, even after he was long dead.  So, no matter what happened, Job had faith that God would give to Job the victory; so, Job was patient because Job was confident.

    We can have that same confidence that Job had.  That confidence can give us patience because we know, in time, that our Redeemer (Jesus) will stand on the earth, and we will see him in our flesh no matter how long it takes.  This simple fact is what gives us all of our hope, all of our confidence, all of our patience and all of our peace.  We know that Jesus lives.  The grave could not hold him; death could not defeat him.  So now the victory is ours.  No matter the pain, no matter the battle, no matter the sorrow, the victory is ours and we know that Jesus lives and because he lives, we will live also.  Confidence: it is what you and I should have when facing this life.  Confidence: that we will overcome whatever obstacles there are and move forward to eternal life with Jesus.

Father in heaven, give us the confidence to rely only on your grace and mercy for the needs of this life.  Help us to hold onto your loving arms that we might be strengthened.  Be with those who are feeling the full weight of life’s many struggles.  Send them your Spirit of comfort and peace that they may say, “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  In the precious name of Jesus, our living redeemer, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret