8-28-2018

 Good Morning All,

       Luke 19:10; “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

      I was reading an article in an advice column on the internet the other day.  A woman writer was complaining, she was aghast, that she had gone to a church and the pastor had said some things about “sinners!” and he pretty much stated that, in fact, she was a sinner.  She said she felt humiliated and would have stormed out but “didn’t want to make a scene.”  The advice columnist went on about how incredibly insensitive the pastor was and she was a fabulous person for not storming out and of course she was under no obligation to ever go back or even speak to this person again.  (Big sigh!!)

    This woman was offended to be called a sinner; sorry but you are.  Now to clarify a little, there has been an attempt by some to alter the definition of “sinner.”  These people imply that a sinner is someone who murders, or abuses children, or steals things; stuff like that.  So if this woman was offended to be called a murderer or child abuser or thief; I can see her offense.  But while these people are sinners so are those who gossip, who speak poorly of others, who fail to help those in need and any one of a whole host of actions which are sins.  So maybe she should look at sin a little differently.  Instead of seeing sin as an action, she should see it as a condition.

    Being a sinner is not so much about what you do, it is more about being lost.  It is more about not knowing where you are or where you are going.  Imagine that you are driving in a city in which you are unfamiliar.  As you are driving along, you miss your turn off.  You don’t even realize that you are lost so you continue to drive.  Now you are not only lost and going the wrong way but you are getting farther and farther from where you want to be.  That is what sin is.  It is missing the turn off and getting farther and farther away.

    Since we are no longer on the pathway to God, we do things which are not according to God’s will.  Since we are our own navigator, we follow our own set of directions.  This path is designed to provide us with our own personal, selfish and self-centered desires.  Deep down, we only worry about us.  We help others because we want to be able to use them later on.  Our only real worry is “what is in it for me.”  This selfish way takes us farther and farther from God and, ultimately; causes us to become unhappy, to lack contentment and to lose a sense of true purpose.

    That is what sin does to us.  It makes us lost and keeps us lost so thus we are not content or happy in any way, shape, or form.  We become more and more frustrated as we become more and more lost.  We have no way to deal with problems or struggles.  We may even turn to false helps.  Yet Jesus came to find us and put us back on the right path.  It is by his grace that we have peace, contentment, hope and security.  God’s grace finds the sinner; God’s grace finds you.

Father of mercy, you sent Jesus to find me, a poor, miserable sinner.  I am found by your tender love and given hope.  Guide me that I may stay on your path.  Help those who are especially lost.  In the name of Jesus our risen Savior, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-27-2018

Good Morning All,

       Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God.  I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

         I feel very blessed.  The Lord has given me a wonderful gift.  I am a “baby whisperer.”  From the time I got to be involved with babies, I have had the knack for getting them to quiet down and to settle down.  It is really a neat gift from God.  Some of you probably also have this gift. It is a real blessing to be able to comfort a child in this manner.

    It seems that the greatest part of this is to be able to quietly whisper into the ear of the child.  The movement and holding the child close to your chest is important as well but the soothing sound of a quiet voice helps.  Probably the first order though is to get the child to stop fighting and wrestling around.  Once you can get the child to quit squirming, the process goes a little easier.  It can be frustrating for a while, you want to yell “BE STILL” but you know you have whisper “be still;” that is the only way that you can calm them down.  You need a gentle voice in order to bring a calm to the child.

     This is exactly how we should view God’s Word to us.  His Word comes to us gently to still and calm us.  It comes to give us peace.  This is exactly what the psalmist is saying in this verse.  The directive “Be still,” is better viewed as “quit fighting” or “quit struggling”.  That is what we do when we focus on our self and our own abilities and work.  We keep waging our own battles against the devil and his lies and we get nowhere.  We struggle and struggle and we get nowhere.  All we do is exhaust ourselves and lose our ability to truly rest.

    In all this, God is holding us in his arms and quietly whispering into our ear, “shhh, be still.”  “Stop fighting against my grace.  Rest in my grace, have peace in my arms.”  This is what our loving God is really saying to us.  He is quietly and lovingly calling us back into his arms.  His peace and grace awaits us.

    Yet we keep fighting, we keep battling against God.  We think we know better so we fight on and yet we get more and more tired and we get less and less rest.  We are never content.  We battle and battle yet we continue to lose ground.  So into this life god tells us to be still; quit fighting, it only makes things worse.  Stay with me and be still.  Rest in my grace and take comfort in my arms.  This is what he tells us over and over, all we need to do is listen.  All we need to do is listen, stop fighting, stop running from his love and cling to him and soon we will be at rest. 

    We need to listen to God’s words of mercy, his words of forgiveness and to his words of gentle comfort.  God offers this to us, all we need to do is to stop, stop fighting and rest in his arms.

Father of all mercy, in you we have rest.  Guide us by your Spirit to stop fighting and to cling to you instead.  In you we have peace.  Be with those who are especially struggling against your grace.  Keep whispering to them to be still and to trust in your mercy, in the precious name of our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

8-26-2018

Good Morning All,

           Matthew 8:7; “And he (Jesus) said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

      You already know I am a movie addict.  One of my favorites is the movie ”Jaws”.  This is a classic from the mid 1970’s and starred Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss.  I liked it because it has some really good dialog in it.  This is one of those movies where you can say a line from it and a lot of people will recognize it.  The line when Brody (Scheider) sees the shark and says, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” is or at least was pretty popular.

   There is a scene in the movie where the three leads are in the boat, drinking more than they should, and they start to compare scars.  One shows a scar from a moray eel and one shows a scar from a thresher shark one shows a scar from his appendectomy.  Quint (Shaw) shows a scar on his arm where he had a tattoo removed and that was a fairly poignant moment in the movie. 

    We all have scars.  I have one on my left wrist where I put my hand through the window of a door.  I have one on my right leg where I landed on a fence post wrong.  I have a couple of little ones here and there.  You probably do as well.  Perhaps from a surgery or some accident or something in your life that left that mark on you.  The funny thing about a scar.  They don’t seem to tan as dark so in the summer time they are more apparent.  They seem to be more sensitive to the touch.  I have been told that if you cut the skin of a scar that it takes longer for this to heal a second time.

    Many of us have scars that cannot be seen.  It might be from the pain of growing up in a house that provided little love and mostly anger.  It might be from the shattered relationship that you thought was good until one day it wasn’t.  It might be from the cruel comments made or the repeated rejections that you experience.  We all have scars.  Scars that cause us to doubt our self-worth and our value.  Scars that cause us to think we are of no use to anyone.

    Yet Christ came to heal you.  He came to heal your scars.  He came to remove those scars which cause you to believe you are worthless.  You are the apple of God’s eye.  You have value far beyond your understanding.  God loves you.  He sent Jesus to die for you to remove those scars.  Those scars do not define who you are; they only show what you have experienced.  God’s grace for you defines you and it defines you as precious and valuable, loved and redeemed.  It defines you as one of his eternal children.

    The devil will try to convince you that scars remove any value you have but God loves you and removes any scars that matter and heals over the ones that don’t.  He gives us life and gives us the hope for battling life’s struggles.  He comes to heal you.

Gracious Father, in you we have healing.  In you we have hope.  We thank you for sending Jesus to be our savior and to give us health and hope.  Be with those who are especially scarred at this time.  Give them the assurance of your love and the comfort of your mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus our Risen savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret