1-27-2017

 Good Morning All,

             1 John 2:9; “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. “

    Imagine for a moment that you are taking a friend to a sporting contest.  It can be between two local high schools or two colleges or your favorite pro sport teams.  You cheer for team “A”.  The friend that you brought along, and paid for the ticket in, gave a ride to and bought dinner for, agrees to cheer for your team as well.  The only thing is that he is wearing a team jersey from the opposing team “B”.  Every time team “B” does something good he stands up and cheers for them.  Every time team “A” does something good, he just sits there.  When you ask him, “Whose side are you on?” and he replies with, “yours”; do you believe him?

    Most people would agree that you cannot tell me you are for team “A” if you cheer for team “B”.  You have to cheer for one team or another.  You cannot claim to be in the light (a follower of Jesus) and then hate your brother and keep living in the dark (sinful nature).

     In this, his first epistle, the Apostle John makes it clear that when it comes to faith, you are either in or out.  You are either in the light or in the darkness.  You either confess that Jesus is your Lord or you confess that he isn’t and something or someone (usually me) is lord of our life.  For many that is difficult.  Many want to have it two or more ways at the same time.  Some want a spouse but do not want to remain faithful to that spouse.  Many want to live their life in total freedom with no sense of responsibility for their actions.

     Jesus loves us with a special self-sacrificial love.  It is a love which only gives and never expects something back in some form of a trade.  We all know people like that.  “I’ll love you if you love me first.”  This is not self-sacrificial love but of self-serving selfish love.  Selfish love is the kind of love the world knows.  Your concern is for, “what is in it for me?”  Jesus calls us to the light of his grace, to the light of reconciliation, in order that we might love others as Christ loves us.  Remember what Jesus endured for you on Mt. Calvary, remember what he gave up (heavenly glory) for you, remember what he does now for you (intercedes with the Father for you).  All this and more he does for you even, actually especially, when you do not show God’s love to others and you deserve punishment.  Jesus takes that punishment for you.

    The beauty of living in the light is that you can see where you are going.  We know where we are going; we are going to heaven to live with our heavenly Father, with our brother Jesus, with our comforter the Holy Spirit and all the saints who died in faith and went before us.  The gift of the light to see the truth, to live in harmony with each other, to comfort and console, to protect and help defend each other from the attacks of the devil.  Live in the light of Christ’s righteousness and the hope of our salvation.  

Dear Lord Jesus, you are the light of the world.  Shine into our hearts with your truth and the saving warmth of your grace.  Guard us this day from our foe the devil and keep us from the darkness.  Give us the strength and courage to share your amazing gift of salvation with those whom we meet.  In Your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s peace,

Pastor Bret

1-26-2017

 Good Morning All,

             John 1:14; “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

    “I’m only human.”  We might say this from time to time.  We might say it when we face a challenge that is more than we can accomplish.  I confess, I say it, especially at graduation time when we get more invitations then we get time.  We try; we try to make to as many as we can but we are “only human.”  Yet what does that really mean?  What does it mean to be human?  Do we really understand what we are saying when we say “only human?”

    It is interesting when we read the creation account how man (humans) is a special part of creation.  God created the land, sun, sea animals, literally everything by speaking and creation came into existence.  Yet with man, we are told in Genesis 2 how God formed man out of the dust of the earth and then breathed life into man and made him a living being (or soul).  Man is special to God.  This is why God placed man in the garden to take care of it.  This is why God would walk with man in the cool of the morning.  God made man to be a special creature.  God loves man above the other parts of creation.

    Yet man sinned and fell away from God.  We turned from God; we turned from our original purpose and calling.  We stopped being human.  We stopped being human and started to be selfish, arrogant, destructive creatures within God’s creation.  In the process of doing this, we damaged the creation, we damaged our fellow creature and we damaged our fellow man.  We were and are unable to resolve this despicable event.  We spiraled downward becoming less and less human.

    So God stepped in and became human.  Jesus, God Incarnate, became flesh, became human, in order to restore, reconcile and re-connect us to whom we are supposed to be.  As Jesus walked this earth, he did so in order to do what we cannot.  He kept God’s law perfectly, the perfect human so that you and I would have salvation in him.  Through his death and resurrection, we now take on His perfection, we take on His righteousness; we are human again.  We are capable of living as we were designed: compassionate, loving creatures whose task is to care for the creation.  That is why we were created, to care for God’s creation.

    We will struggle to maintain our “humanness”.  The sinfulness that pulls us away is always lurking near but with the forgiveness of sins, God continually calls us back to being human.  We are given God’s Spirit to help us strive to be human; we are given his grace when we slip.

    So strive to be human.  Show respect for others, compassion for those who suffer, mercy for those whom we deal with, treating all with fairness and justice.  This is what it means to be human; God’s special creatures who have a unique and loving relationship with our heavenly Father.

Gracious Father, through your wonderful grace you have remade us to be the human you designed.  Continue to supply us with your mercy.  Keep us striving to bring healing and hope to this broken world.  In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret         

1-25-2017

Good Morning All,

           Isaiah 53:3; “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

     Most of us experience times when we feel inadequate; when we experienced a time of rejection.  It might have been the time when you finally squired up the courage to ask that special girl to dance only to have her laugh at you in front of her friends or how you were the only girl not to have a date to the big dance.  Perhaps you were cut from the team or didn’t get the part in the play you wanted.  Perhaps you were turned down for a job or had your idea completely shredded at the idea meeting.  It hurts.  Rejection is one of the most painful things we experience.  It causes us to question our personal value.  It causes us to feel the “we’re not worthy” syndrome.  It causes us to question whether we are worthy of the friendships we have, whether we are worthy the love of our family or spouses.  We question whether we are worthy of God’s love.  We have all been there; I know I have.

    For me, this is one of those times when God’s grace pops up to lift us up.  I always remember the first hymn I learned for our church Christmas program.  It took Mrs. Gange (my first Sunday School teacher), my mother and two older sisters to drill it into me but it stuck.  You really only need the chorus; “Therefore I’ll say again, God loves me dearly, God loves me dearly, loves even me.”  

    The thing that the devil keeps trying to force on us is that worthiness depends upon me.  The devil wants us to think that I must bring something of value before God and, having been rejected by mere mortals; surely God will reject you as well.  This is what the devil wants you to believe and it is a lie.

    Our worth to God is not dependent upon who we are or what we are or what we have.  Our worth is determined by the love that God has for us.  Our worth is determined by the One who creates us and makes us His.  Our worth is determined by the One who redeems us and calls us his own.  Our worth depends upon the everlasting love of God that moved Him to send his son to become man and to walk this earth and to suffer and die for us because he loves us.  That is what we are worth to God.  He does not reject us or despise us; God loves us dearly.  He shows us his love through our creation and our preservation; through our redemption and through the grace that he pours out upon us with an abundance beyond our understanding.  God loves me dearly, loves even me.

Father of all mercies, in you we have hope, in you we find love and acceptance.  You claim us as your children, you listen to our cry, you embrace us with the everlasting love of a perfect father.  Keep us mindful that our hope, our value is in your perfect love and not in our imperfect actions.  Keep us safe in your loving arms.  Be with those who suffer because of rejection and self-doubt.  Send your Spirit of comfort and healing.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

1-24-2017

Good Morning All,

             John14:3; “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.” 

    Here is a touchy question, are you a person who will loan out your things?  This can be a serious dilemma for some people, especially for the little quirks that we all have.  Mine are books.  I have a lot of books but I am hesitant to loan them out.  If I loan a book to you, I trust you completely.  Some people are this way about their tools, or their special silverware, or cookware.  Some people will loan out clothes while others would never think about it.  One thing about loaning things out, it shows trust in the other person.

    One thing that we often don’t see is that all of the relationships that we develop with other Christian brothers and sisters are really only loans from God.  See in our verse “I will come again and will take you to myself.”  To a believer, our destiny is heaven and then the resurrection.  It is a great future.  But until this happens, we wait here on earth.  In order to make this wait a little more tolerable, God gives us the gift of companionship.  This gift comes in the form of spouses, children, siblings, parents, friends and whatever other relationships we have.

    Yet these gifts don’t all last our lifetime.  Some of them may end sooner than we plan or expect.  While this may be uncomfortable or sad to us, it is the truth.  Our relationships are only loans from God.  One day, they will return to God.  One day we will have to give them back. 

     God gives us these gifts of relationships to help us as we go through our life here. They are to be treasured and never taken for granted.  We can never fully know God’s will so we should never feel we have many tomorrows.  This isn’t to make us sad or lonely just cognizant of the fact that our many relationships may cease as we know them sooner than we plan.  So God encourages us to maximize these relationships while we have them. This is why he encourages us to “not let the sun go down on your anger” or for us to reconcile with our brother as soon as we can.  Forgiveness is always the key for us to remember in order for our relationships to continue on.

    We also need to remember that while our relationships here are important; our truly important relationship last forever.  God love for us is eternal.  It is through his love and forgiveness that we have everlasting life.  We will live with God and all believers forever!  One day, after Jesus has returned, we will all live together in the re-created creation.  All of those who we loved in the past, who lived in faith, will be there.  The “loaner” relationships will fade away as eternal ones grow.  We will live together in joyous praise and wondrous love.

Dearest Father, help us to see that while our relationships here in this life are important, they are only loans from you.  Help us when we feel the loss of these relationships.  Keep us focused on your grace and mercy which is active in our lives.  Be with those who especially feel the loss of someone close at this time and give them the comfort of your Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret