1-28-2018

Good Morning All,

     Proverbs 17:17; “A friend loves at all times,”

     We certainly place a lot of emphasis on friends.  Part of this is because we have some choice about our friends.  The old maxim “you choose your friends not your relatives” plays to this note.  If you watch television at all you know how important friendship is.  There was the show “Friends”; the theme of the Golden Girls was “Thank you for being a Friend”; it seems that most of the truly successful and popular shows revolved around friendship.  Think of “I Love Lucy”, “The Honeymooners”, “MASH”, “Cheers” among many others.

    Friendship is valuable and it is more valuable for you to be a friend than to make friends.  When you make friends, it may simply involve being pleasant to others, maybe having things in common, or just the fact that you are in the same proximity with someone else.  However to be a friend means so much more.  To be a friend takes commitment and serious effort.  If someone calls you and says,” I just lost my job!”  They need your support.  If someone calls and says,” My mother died!”  They need your comfort.  Can you help; you can almost feel their pain.  We have compassion for our friends.  Compassion comes from a Greek word that literally means to “lose your guts.” It is that pit that forms when you see your friend in pain and you want to stop it or ease it, or slow it down.

    There are many types of friendships.  In one you are a disciple type person.  A disciple is a learner or a student.  This usually involves becoming friends with someone older who can share some wisdom and insights into life.  The next type is the other end of this relationship; where you are a mentor.  A mentor is usually older and offers the advice and wisdom but also shares in the joys of the younger persons successes.        Yet there is one more type of friend to be and that is to be a true neighbor.  When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus answered,” Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  The second greatest commandment is “to love your neighbor as yourself.”  Loving our neighbor is about far more than loaning them tools or equipment.  It is about caring.  It is about loving.  It is about taking the time to share in the important things in life and giving them your support, your love, your comfort.  When we are this type of friend, God is using us as his agent as his mask to touch the lives of others.  God uses us to reconcile the world back to himself through the works of His redeemed children.

      Friendship is truly a gift of God; part family part of our own choosing.  God saw that it was not good for man to be alone so he gave him a wife but in that gift; friendship was also born.  So share your love with your friends today; even if it is just an email telling them that you are thinking about them.  Thank them for being a friend.  Thank God for the friendships that you have and the blessings that you receive from them.

Dear Father, you saw that man was a lonely creature so you gave us family and friends.  Keep us mindful of the wonders of this gift and never take it for granted.  Keep old friends close and bring new friends into our life that we may be a witness for you.  All this we ask in Jesus’ precious name, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

1-27-2018

Good Morning All,

    2 Corinthians 7:10; “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

     How many times in a day do you say, “I’m sorry”?  For some of us, it might not be that many but for some it might be quite a lot.  If we are in a crowded area, or if we are having trouble understanding what is being said or meant, you might say it often.  If you forget you were going to pick up your spouse after work, you might say it real often.  If the planned outcome of an event fails miserably, you might say it often.  We can say the words, “I’m sorry” but do we mean it?

    For a lot of people, when it comes to confessing their sins, they say I’m sorry.  In one of our confession of sins we even use the phrase that we are “heartily sorry for them (our sins)”.  Yet is that enough? 

    It is a start.  To be sorry means to feel bad, to have a pain in our heart, something that causes us to squirm a little.  We feel in our stomach that something is amiss.  However, being sorry is usually a temporary condition.  We might feel guilty for quite a while but we may not feel sorry.  Sorry involves some empathy for the one who we sinned against.  Guilt is an internal emotion. 

    The thing to remember is that Jesus suffered and died for you.  He didn’t die so that you would feel sorry; he died that you might live a new life.  He died that you would be changed, made a new creation.  He died that you might change from the sinful creature that you were into the redeemed child that you are.  Part of this is being sorry for your sins, truly sorry; but the other part is being penitent, knowing that we need the Spirit to change us.  To be penitent means to “turn away from” or “turn around”.  When we sin, we have our backs to God.  When we are penitent, we turn back toward God and away from our sins. 

    This change frees us from our guilt; it frees us from the devil’s snide comments designed to make us feel bad.  As our verse says, godly grief, the kind of grief which we experience when are truly sorry for our sins, leads us to repentance.  Repentance is the turning away from sin by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit in our life in our heart.  We are changed by faith and have the gift of salvation. 

     For we receive God’s forgiveness because he loves us.  When we repent, we receive and experience that forgiveness in our hearts and lives.  This godly repentance shows us the way to salvation, which we have because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.

 Dear Father in heaven, often our hearts are heavy with sorrow but we lack true repentance.  Lead us into a life where we are penitent and longing to return to you.  Keep us in your arms and in your watchful eye.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

1-26-2018

Good Morning All,

    2 Timothy 4:3; “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,” 

      It is always interesting listening to some of the people who claim to be great thinkers.  It is strange how someone who has a gift to make you laugh or cry think they have all the answers to the world’s problems.  We see actors and actresses who seem to feel that their opinion is somehow superior to ours.  The really amazing thing is that everyone trots out his or hers “authority” to back up their opinion.

     A number of years ago, a famous politician told the person that he was debating with,” you can have your own set of opinions but you cannot have your own set of facts.”  Facts or truths are not subjective; they stand on their own merit.  The problem we see is that too many people like to have their own set of facts.

     We see this often today because in the world we live in; most people believe that all truths are relative and what you believe is fact may be different from what I believe is fact.  If you listen to the political ads, you will hear that over and over.  One side claims this is fact while the other side claims that something else is the fact.  They never try to see which one actually is the fact; they simply prefer their own.

      This is what Paul is warning young Timothy about in our verse.  People will have “itching ears” finding their own set of facts to live with and to suit their own passion.  This is even an accepted psychological truth.  After we have formed an opinion, we tend to accept and create evidence which supports or strengthens our view and we tend to discard or ignore the evidence which goes contrary to our belief.  For example, if you were to come to my house at 10:30 in the morning and wake me up, someone who likes me would perceive that I had been up late comforting or consoling someone.  Someone who doesn’t like me might assume I was just lazy.  How you perceive awakening me at 10:30 is based on your “facts” about me.

     Our world today seems to ignore facts and truths, mostly because our truths come from God and are immutable (unchangeable).  God’s Word is what we are to live by.  When that seems uncomfortable to some, God’s Word is ignored or it is “explained” as to what God “really meant.”  We might try to cloud the issue but God’s Word, His sound teachings, are solid.

      Yet our human nature will always have itching ears.  Our own strength will always fail us.  We need to trust in God, through faith in Jesus, to keep us in the true faith.  God’s Spirit guides us and guards us into his marvelous light.  It is in these sound teachings which we find comfort teachings like Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for our sins or our justification by grace alone for eternal life.  These are just two of the many truths which we can trust God to give us.  His promise is certain.

 Dear Father in heaven, your mercies are new to us every day.  We give you thanks for the certainty of our salvation because of Jesus.  Protect us from itching ears and keep us close to you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

 God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret