7-27-2016

 Good Morning All!! 

       1 Chronicles 16:10; “Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.”

    What do we seek?  Where do we place our deepest desires and our greatest hopes?  For some it is wealth; for some it is fame.  These are two obvious ones and everyone sees them but what about us?  Most of us do not dream of becoming multi-millionaires or of having to worry if the twitter feed is going to worry about what we wore to the Academy Awards.  Yet sometimes we seek some things that may not be God pleasing.

        It might be something as simple as making snide remarks about another person, always cutting them down.   We see it in many ways and it always comes back to our pride and the desire of our sinful nature to be number one.  It is as old as sin itself; who sits on God’s throne in our life.  Is it God or do we try and take that spot? 

     One of the most interesting facets of human life is that when we engage our sinful nature; it is never satisfied.  Very few people who seek great wealth ever think they have enough.  How else do we explain such incredible greed from people who already have billions of dollars and yet try to cheat people for more?  Those who seek fame, even when it is fleeting, never have enough.  Why else do we always seem to easily attack or run down others?  If we cannot be the top dog of our circle; how can we put our self on the throne of God? 

     So we run in circles, like a dog that chases its own tail, until we cannot even stand.  We are exhausted and have gained nothing.  When we glory in God’s holy name; when we quit trying to take God’s place in life and receive His blessings and grace, our life becomes much easier.  We trust in God to love us and to care for us.  That he will richly provide for all our bodily needs.  When we trust God, we can rejoice because He has promised to take care of us.

     Some of us may be disappointed as we look at that.  What we need and what we want can be two very different situations.  Do we need a cell phone, or a big screen TV with satellite cable or a computer?  Do we need multiple vehicles or the place at the lake?  Perhaps we do, but perhaps we don’t.  The central thing is to remember that what we do have comes from God’s blessings.  We don’t worship the blessings or think that “we did it all.”  Rather, we give thanks to God for what he has given us and what he will give us tomorrow.  When our faith is in God, when we trust that he will take care of us and deliver us; then our hearts are seeking the Lord and we can rejoice in Him.

    Gracious Lord, we are slow to see our deepest sinful desires, help us to see them and to repent of them that we may truly seek after you and that we may have that true peace which only comes from you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-26-2016

Good Morning All!! 

       Genesis 4:7; “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.

   Did you ever see the movie “The Ghost and the Darkness”?  It had Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer in it; it was about 2 lions that killed 130 people and how these guys hunted them down.  You always got the feeling that the lions were spying on the hunters and then attacking away from them and that the lions were outsmarting the humans.  You always had the feeling that these lions were hiding just outside your door waiting to pounce on you.

     In our verse, God is speaking to Cain BEFORE he kills Abel.  Cain is jealous of Abel and God knows this and he warns Cain (and us) about placing ourselves in a place of temptation, kind of like walking where the lion is.  Sin (the lion) is always crouching at the door.  God is telling us to be wise and avoid it.  At first we may think this impossible but God is telling us that we know our weaknesses and we should avoid placing ourselves where that temptation is.

     This is a simple example.  If you are trying to lose weight, don’t spend a lot of time in an ice cream parlor.  A truer example may be to avoid those who you know engage in gossip if you struggle with gossip.  In other words don’t play with fire.

    A woman who was very friendly and bubbly was also a little more flirtatious than she probably should have been.  She never meant anything by it.  She liked the attention and the friendly give and take.  Until one time her flirtations went too far and she found herself emotionally attached to a man other than her husband.  They secretly exchanged emails and text messages.  She felt herself drifting from her husband towards this other man.  Sin was crouching and waiting to strike and when it did; it hurt her, her husband, the other man and his family, her friends and many more.  Sin accomplished it goal-to hurt and harm people.

    God gives us the gift of the forgiveness of sins and he also gives us what the Bible calls discernment.  This is the ability to think and see the possible outcome and to examine events and look at them with a wary eye.  Be careful about things that can be sin crouching at the door.  It might be pride in our family or in our church.  It may even look like the right path to go but then out of nowhere sin is crouching waiting to strike.  This is why God warns us to be alert and to not rely on our strength or skills but always look to and listen to God and his Word for our strength.  We cannot defeat the devil on our own; it is only through God’s power and grace that we will win.

Dear Father in heaven, too often we think we can deal with the devil and his ways by our own strength only to be devoured by sin crouching at our door.  Forgive and lead us to place our faith only in you and not in ourselves.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-25-2016

Good Morning All!! 

    Colossians 1:26-27; “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.  To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

    “Listen, do you want to know a secret?”  The Beatles asked that question.  So do many others as they go through life.  We all like to be part of a secret.  Of course most of the time, we want to be part of a secret because we like to tell someone else.  There is an old axiom that says two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead.  I am not sure if even that is true.  When someone knows a secret, he just has to tell someone.  It is almost as if it simply bubbles inside of you until it just has to burst out.

    We are rapidly approaching that time of year when keeping secrets becomes even harder.  If you are one of those shoppers who seek out the perfect gift for someone, when you find it; it can be very hard to keep it quiet. It can be especially hard on young ones.  A mother, playing games with her very young daughter, told her daughter that she knew the present that the little girl bought her was red.  The little girl answered, “No it is not, your housecoat is blue and your slippers are green.”  She was just bursting to tell the secret.

    You know about a secret, a mystery which has been revealed to you.  You know the secret to having hope.  You know where that hope is; it is Jesus.  Many, many people, for years and years, have wondered where they can find hope.  Many have searched and never really found it.  They searched their minds and their souls; they searched using drugs and other chemicals in order to open their minds to finding the truth about hope but they never found it.

    Hope is found in the empty cross and the open tomb.  Jesus died for you and for me to pay the ransom for our sins.  Through this wonderful gift we have hope.  We no longer have to look for hope; it found us.  Hope comes to us through the Gospel; hope comes to us through the wonderful words of God’s forgiveness of our sins.  Hope comes to us and it gives us peace and contentment.  We know whatever tomorrow will bring, we have the certainty of God’s promise of salvation, his promise of comfort, his promise of hope.

   So you know the secret, our hope is in Jesus; now stop keeping it a secret.  God gave us this mystery to share with others.  He gave us the mystery to the hope of our life so that we can tell others.  We should share by how we live and by how we speak.  We should show it to our family and friends and we should tell them as well.  We should especially share this with our family and friends who are in need of this knowledge.  We need to give them the same knowledge of hope.  We need to tell them that their sins are forgiven by God because of Jesus.

Dearest Father, you have revealed to us the mystery of your love.  Help us to spread this message of peace and hope to all those around us.  Guide us to be beacons in the lives of those around us especially those who feel the pain of separation and loss.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,    

Pastor Bret  

7-24-2016

Good Morning All!! 

              1 John 3:1; “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

    There are many difficult conversations to have with people.  The ones when the other person sees no hope are the hardest.  I think this is because we are a church, a people of hope, so when someone sees no hope it crushes us.  I remember talking to a fellow pastor about his struggles with talking to a young girl and her family.  This young girl had been violently and brutally raped over a two day period.  She was kidnapped and held hostage for that time.  She was emotionally destroyed.  Now they find out she is pregnant by her attacker.  The parents are completely distraught; the young lady is slipping deeper and deeper into an emotional, spiritual and psychological abyss.  The girl’s psychologist, counselor, the public defender prosecuting the case, some of the parents of the girl’s friends are all advocating for her to get an abortion.  The parents are at a loss and feel completely hopeless.  They look to their pastor and say, “what do we do?”

    They saw no hope.  I have had conversations with some of our high school age kids who feel like they are the odd one out.  They think they are different; “why can’t I be normal?”  I remember one conversation particularly as one student was going on about how much better this other person had it.  I couldn’t tell them that I had just had this exact conversation with the one they thought “had it made”.  Most of us, at one time or another, feel lost empty and without hope.  It is a truth of life that sin causes us to feel this way.  We look at our lives, focus on the mess and confusion and wonder if it will get better.

    It is in times of pain and sorrow, fear and confusion that we remember one thing: we are a child of God.  You were when you got up this morning and you will be when you go to bed tonight.  This is a rock solid fact given to us through the blood of Jesus.  We are children of God; not because of what we do or what we say but because God declares it.  God says you are his child and nothing can take that away from you.

    No matter what trials you face, no matter what insurmountable events lay before you; before, during and after the battle you are a child of God.  You are a child that he loves dearly.  You are a child of God and God will never forsake you or leave you.  God will never walk away from you.  He will always hold you in his loving arms and never let go.  The battles we face in this life are the result of a sinful and broken world and the devil will always attack you but God is there to shield you and to keep you in his arms.  You are precious for you are God’s child.

Father, by your mercy protect me from the devil’s assaults.  Keep me mindful that your love depends on you and not on me.  Your great mercy is freely poured out upon your children and you never leave us alone.  Sustain me Father; hold me in your arms.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen. 

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret