4-7-2025

Good Morning All,

     Luke 24:32; “They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

    Are you like me in that I like to watch some movies over and over?  There are some movies that I just can’t watch enough.  Some of the nuances in the film can be missed the first time or two.  Sometimes you need to read some background information on the film or the era of the film setting.  Sometimes, you have to hear the line or see the scene over and over to make it make sense.  Sometimes, it just has to “click” in your mind.

    One of those movies we watch often is “Forrest Gump.”  It took a few times of watching to hear the line where Forrest is asked if he had ever been on a shrimp boat.  He answers,” no but I’ve been on a really big boat.”  Bubba was talking about the type of work that the boat did, as in a boat that catches shrimp.  Forrest thought it meant the size of the boat; he rode a big boat not a small (shrimp) boat.  It takes some listening to truly hear the comment and sometimes you have to have the right mood as well.

    Our verse is part of the story of the two disciples as they are on the road to Emmaus.  The then unrecognized Jesus joined them as they walked and talked about the events of Jerusalem and the death of Jesus.  As he sat and talked with them, their hearts burned as he talked to them.  You can imagine that they had heard his message many times during the three years that they had traveled with him.  Some of these stories they maybe had witnessed or experienced as well.  They had probably experienced the feeding of the 5000; perhaps the raising of Lazarus; perhaps they had heard him tell them that he would have to die and in three days rise again. 

    These two disciples had heard it before but this time it was different.  This time this message packed a wallop.  Their hearts burned.  Their hearts burned with the desire to really hear what God was saying to them.  I must confess there are times when I read and hear God’s Word like I have heard it over and over.  It sometimes doesn’t have the impact that it should.  I assume that you are the same way.  However, God has a way of changing our hearts.  He can make them burn.

    As the Spirit works on us, through the Word and through the Sacrament, he brings to us the desire to believe that God truly loves us.  Jesus died for us to pay for our sins.  The resurrection is the sign that God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice and that the victory over death has been secured.  So, as you read and listen to God’s Word, listen with your heart on fire.  Hear anew the Words of forgiveness, the Words of hope and the Words of life.  Don’t just hear them with your ears, hear them with your heart.  If you need comfort or hope hear God’s Words of comfort and hope.  Know that this is part of God’s gift to you; a message of hope and comfort that you can use today and every day.  Christ is risen; he is risen indeed!

Dearest Father, through the gift of Jesus you bring us hope and you bring us comfort.  Never let your words become mundane or meaningless.  Keep our hearts burning on zeal for you and that we take each word to heart and grow closer to you trusting in your promise.  In the name of our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-6-2025

Good Morning All,

     2 Samuel 22: 17-18“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.  He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.”

    I remember watching a movie many years ago in which the story starts with a young boy who was out fishing with his father.  It was a cold day, and the boy moved in the boat and fell into the water.  The scene was very surreal; the boy slowly was sinking in the cold water.  There was no sound; just him sinking.  Suddenly a hand grabbed his coat collar and yanked him back up.  As he was pulled out of the water, you heard yelling and screaming and the little boy was coughing and crying, and the boat was hurrying back to shore to get him into dry clothes and warm him back up.  The boy was scared; the father was shaken.  The father never took the boy fishing again.  Yet the boy grew up to become a soldier who feared nothing.  The battle he fought was fear and he fought it head on.  

    In many ways this is what God does for us, he reaches down and takes hold of you and rescues you from your enemy –sin, the devil and death.  But God doesn’t just pull you out and then leave you.  When God takes hold of you, he holds on tight.  One way to think of it is that when God takes hold of you in what you could call a hug.  God takes you and hugs you close to himself.

     There are really three ways to respond to a hug.  First you can fight it and try to break away from it and run.  There are many in the world that do this to God’s hug.  They fight it; their sinful pride tells them they don’t need God’s love and care, his hug so they fight it and end up lost and often in struggles which they never win with problems that never go away.

    The second way to respond to a hug is to just stand there.  Let the person hold you but try not to respond to it.  Unfortunately, there are many Christians who respond to God’s hug in this fashion.  They wear their faith like their Sunday clothes, for an hour a week after that their faith; like their Sunday clothes, hang in the closet.  They miss the robust value of God’s relationship with them.  They battle life by themselves and often face tough roads all alone.

    The third way to respond to God’s hug is to hug back with all the gusto you have.  Cling tightly to God; this is what faith is it is clinging tightly to God.  As you cling tightly, you can experience his comfort, his strength, his guidance but above all you can experience the true peace which God promises us.  We experience this true peace when we fully embrace God and his promise, when we hug God back. 

    God gives us the ability and the choice to pick which way we will respond to his hug.  Let God strengthen you to hug him back!

Dearest Father, all that we have is from you; give me the power to hug you back to embrace your love with all that is within me.  Lead me closer to you, in Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

4-5-2025

Good Morning All,

     Genesis 16:13-14; “So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”   Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi;”

    Isn’t it kind of amazing how there are times in our lives when we want everyone to see us and there are times when we hope no one even notices us?  When we graduate or when we get married, we feel on top of the world and wish all could see us and how happy we are.  Then there are times when we hope no one will ever notice us and then there are those times when we wish someone would see us, but we fear that they don’t.

    It is this last thought that comes from our verses for today.  This is from the story of Hagar.  She was a young maid to Sara.  Sara and Abram used her to produce an heir for Abram as he and Sara were barren.  Hagar became pregnant and Sara resented it and drove her away.  So here we have this poor young slave girl being driven away from the only life she knows.  You know a young pregnant girl with nowhere to turn; a story that happens to often even today.

     As she runs the angel of the LORD speaks to her and calms her fears.  She calls him “the God who sees me” and the well where the angel spoke to her as “the well of the Living One who sees me.”

    As we struggle through life, always remember that God sees you.  This isn’t meant to be a lecture on our sinful ways; rather I want you to take comfort in the fact that God always sees us.  He sees us when we want someone to see that we are hurting but sometimes; no one notices.  We don’t have to face all of the trials and troubles and garbage out there on our own; God sees it and hears us as we cry to him in anguish and pain.  As we fear the report from the doctor or our job is on the line or the rain hasn’t fallen or our spouse seems distant or our children rebellious, we are not alone.

    God is a God who sees us and more than that he has compassion on us.  He sees our hurts and heals them.  He has compassion on us and repairs the damage, even damage we cause ourselves.  It can be painful, but God is a God who sees and heals.  We have to be aware of the way god works in our lives.  God uses created things to bring joy and comfort to his people.  When we are hurting, he places people in our lives to bring us comfort and hope.  Listen to his words of comfort; experience the comfort of your brothers and sisters in Christ and above all; pray speak to God with all your pain, all your fear and all your desire.  Call upon him and he will see your affliction and bring you peace.

Dearest Father, in many ways we are distressed and in pain.  The world is filled with it, and we cannot avoid it.  See us, Lord; see our pain and our fear and our sorrow.  Send your Spirit of healing and comfort.  Bring us safely home to you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.         

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-4-2025

Good Morning All,

     John 19:30; “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

    “It is finished!”  Have you ever used this phrase?  How did you use it?  Was it in exasperation and frustration?  Sometimes this is the way a despondent couple responds as they watch their marriage crumbling, or a parent when the problem child has to be bailed out of jail for the fourth time.  We feel the weight of the world crushing in on us.  We see no answer; we see no hope, so we just throw up our hands and walk away.  We are beaten, battered, bloodied, and defeated by all that we face.

    Perhaps you exclaimed this as a big project has been completed.  You feel the exhilaration of getting it done.  It is over; I can enjoy the fruits of my labor.  All the work is done, and it is all downhill from here; I can coast to the end.  I’ve felt this each time I finish a class.  The load of the class is lifted, and I can breathe easier, for a couple of weeks anyway.  Maybe you feel that when the harvest is done, or when the graduation ceremony is done, and the guests have all gone home.

     Most people would probably evenly divide into these two camps when they look at the words of Jesus, “It is finished!”  Some see it as Jesus the man finally being broken and just giving up on life.  It is finished; I am broken, beaten, defeated.  At least that is how the devil wants you to see it.  “Jesus died, get over it” The world and the devil will scoff at us and continually try to cast doubt into our lives.

      Others will see this as the victory whoop of Jesus.  It is finally over; I am out of here.  This job is done, never to worry about it again.  The same response a graduate might have, “school’s out no more books no more teacher’s dirty looks.” Yet this isn’t quite right either.  We are missing the important part of this phrase.

    It is finished.  It is complete, concluded, paid off.  This is a better way to hear this.  It is paid off.  The debt of sin which we owe is concluded; it has been paid off!  What a wondrous gift!!  What a phrase to hear; imagine going into your lender to try and figure out a way to pay off a debt that you can’t pay only to hear him say,” It has been paid off!”  How would you react?  How would you feel?  We would probably jump for joy and hug whoever was standing there.  It is finished; your debt is gone.  It is finished; we no longer have to fear God’s wrath and punishment.  It is finished; we can come before the throne of grace and receive the blessings which God has for us.  It is finished; we can come to the Altar and be fed and nourished by his precious body and blood.  It is finished; thanks be to God!!

Dearest Father, in your wondrous mercy our debt of sin is paid.  We give you thanks and honor and praise for this amazing gift.  Keep us in your precious arms and hold us tight to you.  Guard us and protect us from the devil’s darts.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-3-2025

Good Morning All,

          Genesis 21:19; “Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.” 

    Are you like me?  I can’t tell you the number of times I have to look for something or other in my office.  I know I put it right over there and the next time I want it; it isn’t there.  Then I start looking all over the place and then don’t find it.  Then a few days later, there it is right where I put it.  I must confess that, at times, I think someone is messing with me, but I have no proof. (Yet)

    Most of us have these moments and, for the most part, we can laugh them off.  A moment of forgetfulness and we pass it off.  But have you ever felt it more deeply in your heart and in your soul?  In our verse, this is a continuation of Hagar’s story.  She went back to Abraham and Sarah, and it was ok for a while but then Sarah gave birth to Isaac and then they kicked Hagar and her son out again.  She took her son and a jug of water and left.  Soon the water was gone, and her son was listless from thirst.  She laid him under a bush and walked away because she couldn’t watch her son die.

    I don’t know if any of us have felt like this.  There have been times and there will be times when I have felt like I was searching for an answer from God and just couldn’t seem to find it.  Maybe you have as well.  Perhaps you have felt the sting of an angry remark or comment from a loved one.  Perhaps you felt the stinging rebuke of an employer.  Perhaps the doctor’s report wasn’t what you expected.  So, you are left wondering where everything is.

    Hagar went to look for water and couldn’t find any, so she cried to the Lord, and he answered her.  Then he “opened her eyes.”  Isn’t that what we really need more than anything?  We need God to open our eyes to the truth of his grace.  We can search and search, but we never look in the right place.  Too often, we turn to the “experts” in the world and listen closely to their advice and yet we receive no comfort or hope.  The “experts” never address the root problem.  Our sin costs us our ability to truly see God’s grace around us.  It is there, just like the well that Hagar didn’t see; it is there right in front of us.  God pours his love out on us every minute of every day.  Many times, we just don’t see it.

    That is what Easter is all about, God opening our eyes to see the well, or the river, of his love and grace.  We will still face the sinful world and its trials and troubles of this life, but we do not face them alone and we do not face them without hope for we have the everlasting hope of our salvation.

Dearest Father, your mercy overflows us like a river, yet we do not see it.  We focus too much on our troubles and not on our salvation; we see our failures instead of your grace.  Lead us to see the waters of your wondrous grace and mercy.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-2-2025

Good Morning All,

   Mark 3:5; “And he (Jesus) looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”

    When my sons were in high school, there was a foreign exchange student in the senior class.  Everyone really got a charge out of him.  He was very likable and good natured about just about everything.  He tried to play football and on one play where he was going to make a touchdown, his only chance, a teammate, was called for a penalty.  The penalty was away from the play and should not have happened.  When everyone got home from the football game, I asked them how he took it, they just started to laugh.  He told them that, “He was so mawd (Mad) at the player who had the penalty.”  Ever since then, in our house, you are “so mawd” not just mad.

     We all get “mawd” sometimes.  If the newspaper comes late; if the mail isn’t delivered; if the guy in front of us is going just under the speed limit and balling up traffic; or it is being in the checkout line when the guy in front of you really fouls the checkout up; something gets us “mawd.”  Yet there are times when we should not be mad, we should, like Jesus, look around in anger and be grieved by the hardness of the heart.  We need to feel and express God’s holy anger.

    Far too often, we sit back as Christians.  We fail to take up the cause of the poor, the widows and orphans and the aliens in the land.  These are the classes of people whom God continually lists when He addresses the sins of Israel in the Old Testament.  God looks to how the Israelites treated those who were unable to fend for themselves or were able to do anything for the Israelites.  God told the Israelites, “You were once aliens and slaves in a foreign land;” thus, they were expected to have compassion on these people and to share God’s compassion with them.

    So why do we sit back and watch?  What do we fear?  We have God’s blessings.  He has redeemed us from sin and death.  He has called us out of the world to be his holy (separate) people.  He is OUR God; we can call upon him whenever we want, and he wants us to live the good life in the good land.  We are like Israel in that we had nothing, but God gives us everything.  We don’t earn any of it; everything is a gift from God; so why are we slow to share? 

     God wants us to burn with anger at the injustice in the world and be grieved by the hardness of the heart of sinful man.  We can begin by praying that God would end this tragedy.  We can pray for courage to speak and to act.  God calls us to be different from the world.  If the world exploits the underprivileged, what must we do to be different?

Dear Jesus, You were angry at the hardness of the Pharisee’s heart.  Move us to soften ours and to grieve over the hardness of man’s heart.  Move us by you Spirit to act, to speak, and to have compassion to make a difference.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret          

4-1-2025

Good Morning All,

   Romans 12:2; “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

     Have you ever heard the phrase “I believe in individuality…as long as we all do the same thing?”  It is alright to be yourself as long as you conform to the norms that are set out.  Even as this may sound like a safe idea, it is the devil and the world that wants you to conform to the world.  It can occur in very subtle ways.

    It can start when we are much younger and in school.  The devil wants you to believe that you are never good enough; you are never smart enough so just sit back and fit in like everyone else does.  As this occurs, our sinful nature not only feeds our lowered self-esteem but it also speaks to our guilt.  Not only are we not good enough to win the prize; we are told that we are not fit for God’s kingdom either.  So, a vicious cycle begins its downward spiral of guilt, self-doubt, and self-loathing. 

     Jesus came into the world to transform you.  He came into this world, into your life in a way that would completely change us from what we were to what we are.  We went from “lost and condemned creatures” to “redeemed children of the Highest God.”  That is a change!  Our status is completely different.  We are no longer conformed to or by the world; we are formed by God through Jesus

    Yet the devil continues his whispers against us.  He continually whispers in our ear; you are handsome enough for her; you are not pretty enough for him.  They will look for someone else very soon.  You are not smart enough for that job; you lack the charisma for people to truly like you; it is all an act.  The devil will hammer you over and over to destroy the confidence in God’s promise that we have.  Faith is as much a mental act as much as anything.  We don’t “feel” we are saved; we “KNOW” we are saved.  God made a promise, and we need only to cling to that promise.  

     So now we don’t have to conform to the world and its view of us.  Jesus has freed us from all that the devil will try to twist us into.  We are free to be the disciples which Jesus sets out to make us.  We can trust, by faith, that God’s will is pure and good for us.  This is part of the promise that God made to his people long ago; a promise that you and I experience.  He wants to redeem us, to be our God and to let us live our life in full confidence of our salvation.  He wants us to enjoy our redeemed life as long as we live it here.  This is part of the “already but not yet” part of the story.  We are already saved but we are not yet glorified.  We live by grace and grace is God’s glory not yet finished. 

    Do not conform to the world; let Christ total transformation give you hope and comfort until life eternal.

Dearest Father, you sent Jesus to transform us into his disciples.  Guard us as your dear children.  Be with those whom the devil is attacking with all those painful salvoes and give them the strength and courage to stand tall in Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret