Month: November 2015

Click Here to Read This Week’s Epistle: Ephesians 5:8-19

Light is critical to all life. No living things grow and flourish in darkness. Without Christ in our life, we walk in darkness. St. Paul tells the Ephesian people how important it is to live and walk as children of light. In this scripture, St. Paul tells us that all good fruit in life is a product of the light of Christ in our world. As such he encourages us to walk in ways that will grow good fruit; this is the heart of the gospel. Jesus says the world will know we are Christians by the fruit of our lives (Matt. 7:16).

Yesterday (Sunday) began the season of Advent on the Western Christian Calendar. The Eastern churches have been in Advent for a while longer. Advent is a time for celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ, the uncreated, eternal light, into our world at His nativity. Jesus’ first coming was not only to save the world, but to show us the way to a life of meaning and purpose, to shed His light upon those who will open their eyes and see. The Light of Jesus conquers all darkness; it brings us together so we don’t have to walk alone. St. John says if we walk in the light of Christ, because He is the light, then we have fellowship with one another and we are made clean by His blood (1 John 1:7).

But, what does it mean to “walk in the light”? One thing it means is to have eyes of faith that Jesus is present and working in our situation no matter how dark it looks. The psalmist says that even thought the light around us becomes dark, it isn’t dark to God, and there is nowhere we can escape His presence (Ps. 139). Sometimes, life gets so hard it appears all is darkness, but don’t give up. Jesus never leaves or forsakes us. He is at work in even through the dark times of life.

Just as darkness can seem to prevail even though the light of Christ is everywhere, it is also possible to perceive darkness as light. Our Epistle for this week tells us to discern what is pleasing to the Lord (Vs. 10). Not everything that looks like light is light. Some light is counterfeit. Satan masquerades as an Angel of light, according to scripture (2 Cor. 11:14), so we must learn what is pleasing to the Lord. One of the ways we learn is to spend time in scripture and prayer; Advent is a great time to grow in these spiritual  disciplines.

This Week:

As we begin Advent this week, ask yourself this question; am I walking in darkness? We must be able to discern the difference in true light from false light. If things appear dark around you, call out to Jesus; He is here for you.  Let’s take the great Apostle’s words seriously and learn to walk wisely (vs. 15) because the days are evil. I’m praying for an increase of light on my path, and I hope you will too. The first candle of Advent is the candle of Hope. Not matter what your life is like today, remember, there is always hope, and hope does not disappoint (Rom. 5:5).

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Brad

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Matt. 5:6

Click Here to Read This Week’s Gospel: Luke 12:16-21

Thanksgiving is this week. It is a time to be thankful for all we have and to remember from whom all our blessings flow. I wonder how many people will gather around a table Thursday and eat an extravagant meal without even realizing for what they should be truly thankful? It seems ironic to me that of all weeks the gospel for the Sunday before Thanksgiving speaks to the consequences of living a thankless life.

Some will be thankful. They will be thankful for living in freedom so they can gather as family to celebrate. Some will be thankful their employer hasn’t laid them off at work like so many others in recent years. Some will be thankful for the family that gathers around them. I suppose there may be a myriad of other things people will be thankful for this Thursday, all of them well and good, but how many will recognize the real source of their blessings?

Like the man of whom Jesus speaks in this week’s gospel lesson we all have much to be thankful for, but I fear many of us will gather without a clue of of just how blessed we really are. We will fail to see the true source of our blessings. The rich farmer was extremely satisfied with himself and all he had accomplished. His crops had a banner year, so much so that he thought he needed to build a bigger barn to hold them all. And, it appears his desire to store up his crops was to make certain he was secure well into the future. And, all of this was without even a thought of God who blessed the crops, the land, and the weather.

How many of us will go to the pantry this week to pull out all the trimmings to cook for our feast and it won’t put a dent in the stockpiles we have? And, on top of that, we will all go the grocery store and buy a bunch more to be sure we don’t run out of food over the holidays.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against celebrating holidays with feasts for our families. After all, God taught His children to hold feasts to celebrate the holy days of their faith. But, when we can live in a land of such plenty  that we no longer give a thought to the hard work and sacrifice it took someone to put the food on the market shelves and on our tables, let alone the God who made it all possible, then I have to wonder if we really are thankful for anything, or if we’re just getting together to pig out on turkey, potatoes and pie.

Thankfulness should be ingrained in our being. In a chapter of St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians that speaks mostly about death and hardships, he reminds those who are grieving that the hardships come that we may remember to give thanks to the glory of God that is being revealed: “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 4:15). 

This Week:

I hope you have someone to gather with this week around a big dinner table filled with all your favorite foods. If you feel alone, and have no family with whom to gather, I pray you can find a church ministry nearby that will be offering Thanksgiving dinner to those who are without.

I also want to challenge you to think about your blessings each day this week as you work your way toward that great feast. Try meditating on this verse from Psalm 95 each day this week: “Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.” (Ps. 95:2-3). The LORD our God is the source from whom all blessings flow. Let us praise him, Father, Son and Holy Ghost…Amen.

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Brad

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Matthew 5:6

Further thoughts on Luke 8…

Friday is my favorite day. I’m off work on Fridays, usually (that is if a pastor is ever really off work). When it comes to the end of a hard week, I really need to be reminded that Jesus is here to heal me, just as much as He was that day back when He healed the woman with the issue of blood. Sometimes, I think we believe Jesus was more likely to heal someone back then than He is now. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus is still in the miracle business as much as ever, perhaps even more. I recently listened to some testimonies of a Christian tribal leader in Africa where they regularly see miracles. In fact, he said they even see resurrections. That’s right, I said resurrections. The man said they are surprised when there is only one resurrection in a month; there are usually three or four.

Do we, in our 21^st century modern context, where we can put a man on the moon and cure many diseases, think miraculous healings are even possible? I wonder. When Jesus commissioned his disciples to go and minister, He told them to go and heal the sick, and even raise the dead (Matt. 10:8). There are two records where his Apostles, Peter and Paul did just that by raising Dorcas (Acts 9) and Eutyches (Acts 20) from the dead. Ancient Christian history is filled with many other such miracles.

But what about today? Do we live and minister in the church like we believe this is still possible? Perhaps such lack of faith is precisely why so many churches seem to be living below the power of the early church. I don’t know about you, but I believe God still does miracles. In fact, He never stopped.

We began this week looking at Luke 8 and two miraculous stories, one was Jesus’ raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. As I come to the end of the week, I know I believe Jesus still does miracles – because I am one. My life is nothing short of miraculous when I look back on all Jesus has done for me, and what He has kept from me. Today, after a long hard week, rather than feel sorry for myself and how hard a week I have had, I realize I don’t really need a miracle to rescue me from a tough week; that’s life. What I do need is to be thankful for His grace given to me to handle the many ups and downs of each day. I really need to spend some time thanking Jesus for all he has done for me.

What about you? What kind of week have you had? Perhaps you really do need a miracle to rescue you. If so, ask and believe; don’t doubt. My pastor, Brent Van Hook has a benediction prayer he often prays in services. The last line of the prayer says something like this, “Pray not for easy lives, but for strength equal to your task…so that you will become the miracle.”

I pray that through all the ups and downs you have probably encountered this week you can look at your life and say… “Thank you Jesus. I am a miracle!”

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Brad

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Matthew 5:6

Image credit:http://pleaseconvinceme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/miracles.jpg

Ever play the High-Low Game in life? No, not the card game. You know, the one where your day’s events take you from the heights of the splendor of the Himalayas all the way to the depths of the Dead Sea. Sometimes it happens all in one week, sometimes even all in one day.

I began this week concentrating on the miracles of Jesus. Even though things kept going low, I kept thinking about Jesus and His miracles. It’s just like Him to remind you of His great love by giving you a great High at the end of some pretty low lows.

How can we understand the depths of the Father’s love for us, when all we see is lows, gloom and despair? The days when we have real lows, the kind that leave us completely exhausted and praying for the day to end so we can just get past it, can leave us feeling as if we need a miracle in order to recover. These kind of lows knock us down so low, we know the only place left to go is up.

But, how do we get up? By believing in what seems impossible? Yes. By believing in miracles? Absolutely. Our Father in Heaven specializes in things thought impossible. When you are feeling lower than ever, get ready. God is going to rush in to you with good news, and you will be back up before you know it. Lows are inevitable in life, but it is important to remember that God’s plans are to bring you hope and a future, to prosper you and not to harm you (Jer. 29:11).

On Thursday, my day began with a worst possible scenario at work. In fact, the week had been filled with more than a few lows already, like family emergencies and strained relationships. However, knowing how low I felt, Jesus reminded me of hope, and hope never disappoints (Rom. 5:5). Just when I thought my week couldn’t get any worse, I went from what had to be the worst appointment in my career, to one of the best. Then to top it all off, a young couple came in to the church looking for someone to believe in them. With a marriage license in hand, and hope in their hearts, the couple was looking for a Pastor to marry them.

The young couple were friends of a friend. Like so many young people today, they don’t attend church. However, after a year of dating they knew they wanted a Pastor to marry them, not a judge. My friend told them, “Let’s go see Pastor Riley”. And so, a day that started so low it couldn’t get any worse, which came on top of a week already filled with a lot of lows, ended in the chapel celebrating in joy for a young couple just starting out in life together.

How has your week been? I hope it has not been filled with too much of the High-Low game. As I have thought about the gospel this week, and how Jesus brought such a high to a whole community by healing the demoniac (of whom the people were terrified),  I can’t imagine how they could ask Him to leave. Yes, life will always have low times, and yes some may be pretty bad. But, Jesus is faithful to always lift us up with highs; we just have to be open to His Spirit to recognize them when they come.

This Week:

Sunday is only two days away. No matter what your week has been like, or how low it has been, remember, Sunday is a “High” day! All that is good in our world is made possible because Jesus Christ conquered sin and death one Sunday about two thousand years ago. So, if you have made it to the weekend and your feeling TGIF, remember the real high is TGSC – “Thank God Sunday’s Coming!”

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Brad

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Matthew 5:6