7-16-2026

Good Morning!

    2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

       I remember watching reruns of “Married with Children.”  I actually thought a lot of it was funny.  It satirized American life to the point of incredible exaggeration.  If you watched closely, you probably have known someone who matches one or more of the characters portrayed.  I must admit that I laughed the hardest at poor Al Bundy.  Looking at his present life and at his future life, he was so discouraged by those two prospects that he lived in the glory of his past. 

     Al “I scored four touchdowns in one game for Polk High” Bundy lives in the past glory of his high school days.  He often reminisces about his past greatness; at times, he relives them in an attempt to either prove he had potential or to correct some past errors.  He is always living in the past because he sees it as superior to his life either today or tomorrow.  To him, yesterday is far better than today.

    Do we live like that?  Do we look at the past and think that it is superior?  It rarely is.  We usually look at the past through “sentimental” tinted glasses.  We want the past to be better because it is what we create it to be.  We can make our past as pretty as we want.  Unfortunately, we sometimes miss the truth about what was missing in our life and continue to miss out on God’s blessings. 

   Sometimes we look at the past and think we have to live there because we can’t see any way out of it.  This can be the most painful of all.  Sometimes we look at our past and think that there is no way that anyone, God included, can love a person like that.  Perhaps you were alcohol or drug dependent and thus were completely non-dependable.  Perhaps you treated someone cruelly and now continue to punish yourself for past failures.  Sometimes we think the past is all we deserve.

    The wonderful thing is that God does not want you to live in the past.  He wants you to live in his present grace and, eventually, in his glory.  In order to accomplish this, God made you a new creation, cleansed with the blood of Jesus.  Our slate is clean because of what Christ has done for us.  We live in his grace heading toward his glory; it is full steam ahead and we need not look back.  If you feel that you are being pulled back, look at what it is, repent of the sin, try to make amends if possible and then let it go.  God has forgiven this sin and looks at the new you and not the old you.  You should do the same.

Gracious God, you have made me new so that I may live before you in perfection.  By being new, I can stand in your holy presence and live in your merciful kingdom.  Help those who are stuck in the past.  Bring them to the knowledge of your wonderful forgiveness.  Heal their pain and keep them safe from all the devil’s attacks.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-15-2026

Good Morning!

      Psalm 25: 14; “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”

       Most of us relish “being in the know.”  We like to have some of the inside information from and about the people who make decisions.  We like to sit and listen to the president of a corporation, or the superintendent of a school, or the head football coach or someone who makes the choices that impact things that are important to us.  We like to listen to what they think should be and how they plan on making their ideas work and then apply them.  We like to listen to the intrigue; we like to listen to how they are preparing for any events which may have an impact on their plans.  We get to listen to what the planned results are after the process is completed.  We like it when someone takes us into their confidence.  We like to feel important.

    We are important.  We are important to God and to his plans.  He includes those of us who fear him, have faith in his promises, trust in his Word and seek after him in his plans.  We are invited to listen to the plans for mankind.  He shows us what the results of the covenant will be.  God includes us because it is part of our calling into his kingdom of heaven.  God shares with us how the kingdom is to spread, what it means and where it is to occur.

    God includes us so that can know what we are to do.  We are to execute the plans that God has to move forward the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus gave us the example to follow.  He showed us and he told us how to do this.  He showed us to be a people, to be his people.  He showed us to be a compassionate people.  He showed us how to care for all of his creation.

    We are to feed the hungry, especially those who hunger to hear the words of forgiveness and the words of hope which God gives to us.  We are to give something to drink to those who thirst, especially those who thirst after righteousness.  We are to meet the physical needs of those around us.  We are to especially meet their spiritual needs.  God’s design is to bring all people to salvation, to living in his kingdom under his loving reign.

    Jesus began this process of reclaiming all to the kingdom when he came to earth to bring healing to all the broken and suffering.  He continued this through his death and resurrection and then passed on the task to his church, to his disciples, to you and to me.  It is a task of great importance.  It is also a task of great joy.  It is a task that gives us satisfaction.  It is a task that God has given to us that we might celebrate with him in the spreading of his kingdom, in the healing of those who are suffering.

    So, take God’s merciful kingdom and share with all you meet.  Share his love, spread his healing, and tell of his wondrous salvation.  God has revealed to us his plan; now let’s make it work.

Gracious Father, you have given us the task of calling the lost home.  Guide us by your Spirit to bring about the change that you desire.  Be with those who are suffering because of the pain of sin in this world.  Send your healing, use us to spread your wonderful kingdom.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

7-14-2026

Good Morning!

               Romans 15:13; “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

     It is the best of inventions and it is the worst of inventions.  I am talking about cell phones.  At times I cannot live without it.  It is always with me so the members of the church can get hold of me.  I don’t have to arrive home from a visit to the hospital to find out someone is heading back.  If winter is making a very gruff appearance, I know I can be in contact if I need some assistance along the way.  It is a very useful tool.  The problem is it always seems to have a low battery and about to lose power.  I need to take care or it might not work for me when I need it.

    In a number of ways our spiritual life is the same.  Notice how the Apostle Paul writes in our verse.  The God of hope fills you with joy and peace so that you may abound in hope.  The God of hope wants you to abound in hope.  We are fully charged and when we are fully charged, we abound in hope.  We can abound in hope because we are filled with joy and peace.  We are fully charged with God’s joy and peace.  We have his Spirit that allows us to abound in hope.  No matter what is going on in our life, no matter what the world throws at us; our hope can never be destroyed.

    Yet that hope, that certainty of God’s eternal grace and favor being actively given to us is something that we can and should hold onto.  This can aid us when a loved one is battling for existence and is somewhere between life and death while we can only watch and wonder; we can have hope.  We can have hope because we know that God is forever on our side and his grace will see us, and our loved one through.  This hope can aid us when relationships end and the pain seems beyond endurance; this hope can guide us to the one relationship that will never be ended by God and that is his redemptive love for us.  We have that hope and when life makes everything difficult and painful, hope will see us through.

   However, that hope needs to have a full charge and that charge is given to us by God when we listen to his words of comfort, promise, and hope.  We hear those words when we read his Scriptures and cling to those words of hope.  God also charges that hope by listening to our cries using them to bring us to the complete awareness that our only hope is in him and his mercy.  Nothing else will work.

   So, hope abides but it needs to be fully charged; charged by the hearing of God’s mercy and coming before his throne of grace with our cries of pain, of sorrow or of joy.  Keep the charge full; read God’s Word and study it often; pray often and the fully charged hope will see you through.

Gracious Father, you give us hope and fill us with peace and joy.  You give us the courage to face this world and all the demons that fill it knowing that in you we have total victory.  Keep us fully charged that we might forever know the certainty of your love and promise of life eternal that we may live forever as people of hope.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

7-13-2026

Good Morning!

     Job 19:25-26; “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.   And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”

     Confidence: that is what the “little engine that could” had; it had confidence.  As it climbed the mountain, its confidence grew until it knew that it could climb the mountain.  Confidence: that is what Babe Ruth had.  In Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe Ruth pointed out to centerfield and then hit the next pitch over the centerfield wall.  Confidence: that is what Michael Jordan had as he played professional basketball.  Many times, while shooting a foul shot, he would say to the opponent who fouled him, “watch this.”  He would close his eyes and, usually, make the free throw without looking.  Confidence is an amazing thing.

    When many people think of Job, they describe him as being patient, perhaps you have heard or even used the phrase “the patience of Job” to describe dealing with a tough or a perplexing problem.  Yet patience does not exist by itself; it needs a stronger counterpart to make patience work.  In order for patience to work you must have faith.  It is only by faith that we can have patience.  Faith gives us the strength and the courage to face the battles that we face.  Even if these battles seem insurmountable, we can be patient because we have faith that, in the end, we will succeed.  We will be victorious.

     It was faith that gave Job the courage to be patient.  It was faith that let him see past the horrific events of his life and to see his Savior.  Job had complete confidence that he would see his Redeemer, standing on the earth and the Job would see him in Job’s only flesh.  Job knew that his Redeemer would live and that he, Job, would live to see it, even after he was long dead.  So, no matter what happened, Job had faith that God would give to Job the victory; so, Job was patient because Job was confident.

    We can have the same confidence that Job had.  That confidence can give us patience because we know, in time, that our Redeemer (Jesus) will stand on the earth and we will see him in our flesh no matter how long it takes.  This simple fact is what gives us all of our hope, all of our confidence, all of our patience and all of our peace.  We know that Jesus lives.  The grave could not hold him; death could not defeat him.  So now the victory is ours.  No matter the pain, no matter the battle, no matter the sorrow, the victory is ours and we know that Jesus lives and because he lives, we will live also.  Confidence: it is what you and I should have when facing this life.  Confidence: that we will overcome whatever obstacles there are and move forward to eternal life with Jesus.

Father in heaven, give us the confidence to rely only on your grace and mercy for the needs of this life.  Help us to hold onto your loving arms that we might be strengthened.  Be with those who are feeling the full weight of life’s many struggles.  Send them your Spirit of comfort and peace that they may say, “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  In the precious name of Jesus, our living redeemer, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-12-2026

Good Morning!

     Matthew 22: 37-39; “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

     In 1976, a new group on the scene called “Boston” released a song entitled “More than a Feeling”.  It was a song about a guy who let his one true love get away.  There are old songs that remind him that this love for the long-lost love is more than just a feeling but rather a deep-seated response to the world around him.

    While it is a popular rock song from the 1970’s, it expresses an opinion about love that is contrary to the world’s view.  The world will tell you that you have to feel in love.  The world tells you if you feel it then you are in love but if you don’t feel it then you are not in love.  According to this thought, you could be in and out of love a dozen times a day.  The world tells you that love is what you feel and if you don’t feel it then, whatever.  This is not how Scriptures explains love.  In Scriptures, love is “more than a feeling!”

    Love is more than a feeling; love is an action.  In the world, love is more of an adjective, describing you as a person.  In Scriptures, love is a verb; love is an action.  Love is a definitive action that we do.  We must act in order to love.   Love is more than a feeling; it is an action.  Love is more than a feeling; it is motion or movement that makes itself known by doing something for another person.

   We see love in its purest form when see how God loves us.  God’s love for us is seen in Jesus dying for us.  The Apostle Paul tells us that “while we were yet sinners; Christ died for us.”  In other words, while we still hated God, he was dying for us to being us back into his family and to give us hope.  We see it when we look and see how Jesus went out and actively sought out the sick, the lame and the hurting.  We see true love in everything that God does for us.

    For us to love is to show action.  To say that we love God is to praise him, to thank him and to follow his will.  This type of love is more than a feeling; it is also a change in our lives that the world will see.  True love is seen by its actions; it is more than a feeling.

    Part of this love is seen in our response to others.  How we act toward and how we treat others will show as well.  It is not enough to “have good thoughts;” true love acts on behalf of another.  True love is an action that benefits the other person and not you.  True love makes the life of the other person better.  True love is what you do not what you feel.  It is deeper than a feeling; it is more than a feeling; it is an event for someone you know.

God of love, in you we see true love in action.  Move us by your Spirit to love as you have loved us.  Move us to act, to show your love though our actions to others.  Move us by your Spirit to make the lives of those around us to be easier, happier and more fulfilling.  Cause us to reach out to those who are especially in need of your love.  Act through our hands.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-11-2026

 Good Morning!

     Exodus 15: 26; “saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

    I remember watching a movie a few years back where the hero of the movie was a young man who couldn’t stand to be in sunlight.  He always wore clothes that covered his entire body.  He would wear long sleeves, a hat, gloves, and a scarf all in an attempt to keep the sunlight from hitting his skin.  He would get blistered burns wherever the sunlight would hit.  Because of this he was something of a recluse, shy and a little timid.

    What he possessed was the ability to heal living creatures, birds, animals, and people.  For the most part, he kept this talent hidden until one day he met a girl and fell in love.  Eventually, she falls ill and he must withstand the sunlight in order to get to her and heal her.  He suffers burns over his face and hands and arms and in the end; he dies from his wounds.  He died saving his girlfriend from death.  It was a sad movie.

    The ability to heal would be a remarkable gift.  If one could remove pain or suffering just by touching another person, you could do a lot of good for many, many people.  That is why our verse can be such a comforting verse for us.  God is our healer and he uses the name of Yahweh (LORD) here to show us that he does indeed get his hands dirty in our lives healing us from the spiritual devastation that sin causes.

    The people would have been used to shamans and other false healers who would have let the sick person down time after time.  For them to have a real healer who would cure them gave them great joy and comfort.  God was their comfort and. in a very real sense; he healed them of what they suffered from.

   We, too, have this great joy and comfort in our life.  God is our healer.  He heals us emotionally, spiritually, within a relationship and often times in a physical sense as well.  God heals us so that we may be whole.  We can have confidence that God will hear us and send us his Spirit of hope and compassion.  We can trust that God, who did not spare his Son, will give to us healing. God will make us whole, make us part of the kingdom of heaven restoring us, healing us, and making us whole again.   God is our healer and we can have faith that, through his grace we are being made perfect and whole.

Father of mercy, in your arms we have healing.  Send your Spirit upon your children that they may know the completeness of your mercy.  Be with those who are broken and are suffering.  Give them the certainty of your incredible grace and heal their hearts to know the love that you give them.  Heal their spirits that they may know peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.     

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

7-10-2026

Good Morning!

     Numbers 13:30; “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

      Our verse is part of an amazing story.  12 spies from the Israelites crossed over the Jordan to study their soon to be opponents.  These spies checked out the cities, the land, and the people of Canaan; the land that God had promised them.  The spies saw it.  They saw fertile land, bountiful vineyards, large cities, and people that they described as giants.  They returned and gave their report to Moses and the Children of Israel. 

    Ten of the spies went on and on about how they could never conquer this land or these people.  “We will die by the sword.”  They looked and saw the giants and knew they could never succeed.  There were two, however, who took a different view.  Two men, named Caleb and Joshua, told a different tale.

    Caleb and Joshua both said they should conquer the land.  They spoke of the fertile land; the bounty of the land was amazing; they spoke of the cities and the people who inhabited the land.  They saw the people as giants but they focused, not on the size of the task but on the size of God. 

   How do you face challenges?  Do you look at the size of the “giants” or do you look at the size of God?  It is easy to be overwhelmed by the size of the “giants” in our life.  Health issues look huge, financial strains can look humongous, cracks in a relationship can look gigantic.  The size of the troubles can be immense.  There is no denying it, even Caleb and Joshua in our story didn’t deny the size of the “giants” in Canaan.  We can look at the size of the struggles that this life will throw at us and realize that they are big; definitely bigger than we can handle on our own.  That is what the other ten spies did.  They looked at the size of the “giants” and could see no way for them to win against these great cities, armies of these “giants.”

    But Caleb and Joshua didn’t look at the size of the giants; they looked at the size of God and the promise that he had made to them.  Caleb and Joshua had faith that God was bigger than the giants that they were to face and trusted God to deliver them.  They knew that God was faithful to his promises; they had witnessed this throughout their entire life.  They trusted God and we should as well.

    God is faithful to his promises and he has promised to love you, to redeem you, to protect you from all harm that the devil will throw at you and he has promised to be with you every step of the way.  God is with us, giving us comfort and hope until we are reunited with him in his glorious kingdom.

Father, give me the strength to know that you have destroyed my giants.  Keep me safe in your holy kingdom.  Hold me in your arms.  Be with those who are facing their own giants at this time.  Send your Spirit of comfort and hope that they may be calmed by your grace and they may know your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret