Troubling News or Good News?

A couple of weeks ago we received troubling news Conference wide.  The belt of our budget needs tightening this year.  We are praying for our personnel in the ministry field who are facing tough decisions right now.

Troubling news unceasingly swirls today.  That's hardly a headline.  We expect it because it never seems to stop.  Researchers say up to 70% of our thoughts are negative ones that swirl in our mind most of the time.  Negative news grabs most of the headlines and is an easy way to capture attention.

I prefer good news, however.  How about you?  The Good News today is the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  He has conquered every obstacle against us, defeating our worst enemy of all - death!  This is worthwhile news - news to build a life around sharing.  This news has the power to invigorate lives.  It shines a bright light on any situation.  What do we have to fear now?  2 Timonthy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  With the Gospel of Jesus Christ we not only have forgiveness, we have power for living today!

What can we do with troubling news when we receive it?  2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”   We can't stop troubling news, but we can demolish it each time by taking it captive to Jesus Christ.  Bring all our troubling thoughts before our Savior.  He Who can set any captive free, can help set our minds free from each negative headline that might captivate our mind for a time.

Soon, it's all going to be good news.  No more troubling news will ever be reported again.  How great will that be?  Let's start practicing now.  I want to think more about Jesus today and in the days to come.  He is everything good.  And He is an overwhelmingly good future in store for you and for me.

Pastor Michael Brackett

Sinful Pride - Is There a Cure?

In the 1970’s singer/songwriter Mac Davis wrote a song that talked about how hard it was for him to be humble because he was perfect in every way.   We can’t help but chuckle when we hear such absurdity, but in honesty humility doesn’t come easy for any of us.  Pride is at the core of sin.  Since the fall of man, pride is in our DNA. 

Thankfully, God the Father offered the cure for our sinful pride in His Son, and it is by trusting and following Jesus’ example that we can be changed.  Listen to how Paul put it in Philippians 2:5-8. “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”

Think about it.  Jesus, our Creator and Redeemer, loved us enough to humble Himself for us to become one of us, lived a righteous life we couldn’t for us, died our death for us, rose for us in victory over sin and the grave, and has given us this promise; that if we believe in Him, His grace is sufficient for our salvation, our justification, our sanctification, and our glorification.  What a God, what a Savior what a friend!

If we desire to be healed from the disease of a sinful heart, we must humble ourselves and trust God completely, with everything about us so that we can be obedient to His will. God knows best how to handle our rebellion, heal our brokenness, and restore our hope. The good news is that God never fails.  Whenever I wonder if God can be trusted with control of my life I’m reminded of the words of Martin Luther and found them to be true. “I have held many things and lost them all. But that which I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”   

Remember, God loves you and I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Pastor Jim Bollin

Valuing the Undervalued & Appreciating the Underappreciated

John 4:39-42 says, "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, 'He told me everything I ever did.'  So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.  And because of his words many more became believers.  They said to the woman, 'We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.'"

I imagine for two days, the Samaritans in that town of Sychar experienced heaven on earth.  Jesus touched the heart of the woman at the well and through her testimony many came to Jesus.  Jesus must have spoken the same way to them because they said they have "heard for themselves."  They heard so much from Jesus they understood His true mission - to save the world.  He would save not just the Jews but the Samaritans and many others also.

This unexpected town of undervalued and underappreciated people now had great value and felt undeniably appreciated because they spent time with the Savior.  Father in Heaven, who can I show value and appreciation to today for Your kingdom's sake?  I want to be about Your awesome work today and every day.

Pastor Michael Brackett

There’s Room

Luke 5:27 says, “After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.”

Tax collectors in the gospels were hated people. They were Jews working for the Romans collecting taxes from their fellow brothers and sisters. Many times, they would collect more taxes than were needed, to enrich themselves. They were seen as thieves, liars, and traitors.

In his painting above, Pieter Brueghel captures well how tax collectors enriched themselves at the expense of others. You will notice that one woman is paying with eggs, another person with a paper slip, most likely a deed to his land. Another man is paying with a bag of money, which is contrasted with the multiple bags of money hanging on the walls. When we look at the faces of the people, we can see frustration, anxiety, and grief. 

I imagine that this was not too far off from what it was like in the gospels. And yet, it's a Levi, a tax collector, who Jesus invites to follow him. As I reflect on this story, and this painting, I am reminded that the invitation and welcome of Jesus is wider than I expected. This story reminds me that if there’s room for Levi, there’s room for me. There’s room for you. There’s room for us all in the kingdom of God.[1]

-Pastor Evan Davies

[1] I have adapted this devotional from https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-5-27-32-2022/.

Conquering Mountains with Faith

“He replied, ‘...Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move. Nothing is impossible for you.’” Matthew 17:20 (NIV)

Mountains have been seen throughout generations as a barrier, a trial. Snow capped giants made of jagged cliffs and sharp rock, the things that countries point to and say, “This is our border.” The largest tactile obstacle on Earth, that is what God says we will be able to move with faith.

But that is the point, is it not? With faith. We can’t do it on our own. We can’t shove our  backs against the mountain side and scooch Everest out of our path. No, we are too weak. By ourselves we would be forced to climb until our legs gave out and our lips froze. But we are not alone – not if we have faith. 

With God by our side we can scale our biggest obstacles, cross barriers and climb the cliffs of struggle without fear of falling. We can step out onto icy paths knowing that He will be there to catch us. At times we will falter in the face of fear and doubt, God never said any of this was easy, but He did say that it was possible to get through.

Though the mountains of trial seem insurmountable, faith gives us the strength to shove through and come out victorious. Victorious with God. Sanding tall, staring evil in the eye and smiling because we are backed by the strongest being in the world. 

So, don’t be afraid to step up when you are called. Instead of doubting yourself, saying that you are not good enough, not talented enough, not tough enough, trust that God knows all your shortcomings even more than you do. Despite all of them, nothing is impossible. God is standing with you, giving you the strength you don’t have on your own. Through Him you can move mountains.

Janelle Clouse (Junior - Columbia Adventist Academy)

2024 - The Year for More

What do you want more of this year?  Today's culture gears us up for getting more.  It's hard to turn down anyone who offers us more of anything!  We especially want more of the good things of life.  We want things that bring fulfillment and peace and lasting happiness.  I want more in 2024!  How about you?

I believe Jesus is offering us more of everything we never knew we always wanted.  He is unique, counter-cultural, and wonderfully surprising.  I believe Jesus gives us more than we ever bargained for in ways we might initially believe would bring us less.  Here are just a few examples of what He can go:

• Greater happiness from serving instead of being served.

• Greater happiness through humility instead of self-exaltation.

• Greater happiness from sacrifice instead of abundance.

After Jesus warned His disciples of the hardships He was about to endure with the cross He gave a principle for all His followers to be ready to do the same.  He said in Matthew 16:24-26 says, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?"

Jesus prescribes more of Himself for our greatest gain.  This past Sabbath we started a new sermon series entitled "Less Us; More Jesus."  If we really want more, let's go find it!  No one offers more than Jesus.  It may initially seem like more of Jesus will bring us a more difficult life, but Jesus is always full of awesome surprises.  Ultimately with Him we will experience eternity.  And forever with Jesus will be a forever that is absolutely worth everything!

Let's make 2024 the year for more Jesus.

Pastor Michael Brackett

New Beginnings from God's Perspective

Here we are at the beginning of another calendar year—2024! What will this new year bring? It will bring good things, new discoveries, and experiences, and it will bring challenges and difficulties. But when we look at 2024 from God’s Perspective, it will enable us to step forward into this year with confidence in Him because He knows the future and has promised to journey with us through all the ups and downs of 2024.

Isaiah 43:18-19 says: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

God is inviting us to perceive the new things that He is going to be accomplishing for us in 2024. You may be facing health circumstances that seem impossible to overcome, or financial difficulties that seem like they have no solution. But God says that He can make “a way” where there is no way. He can bring flowing rivers of water into the desert, so we need not fear the future, when have God with us making 2024 a year of new possibilities for faith to grow and hope to carry us through to the end of this new year.

Our little church in Ellensburg, Washington was built during the difficult years following the depression and there was very little money to build a proper church building. But God somehow provided materials from other church building projects around the Upper Columbia Conference and volunteers were available to provide the manpower to raise up a little church building for God.

But by the early 1980’s the little church was very inadequate for the purpose of being an attractive place of worship. The women’s bathroom that was built under the exterior concrete landing of the upper main floor over the daylight basement, would leak and drip through the concrete into the bathroom whenever it rained, or the snow and ice would melt on the landing above. Also, the classrooms were small, and the pews were built from pew kits, and they were very uncomfortable. What could we do to have a new church?

So, at prayer meeting, the two or three people who attended, began praying that God would provide a miracle for a new church. One day, the pastor’s wife of the church our church rented to, told us of a very nice newer church that had been sold to a man who was going to remodel it into four rental apartments to provide income for his daughter’s college education. This pastor’s wife said to us, “That church was dedicated to God to be a church, not an apartment building. Why don’t you go and talk to the new owner of the building and see if he would be willing to trade his church building for your church building plus whatever cash you have saved for a new church and maybe borrow some extra funds to close the deal.” And that is what we did. We traded buildings and by the summer of that year, God had provided a nicer, larger, and more modern church building for our congregation to worship in.

God’s perspective of the future had plans in it we didn’t even know was a possibility. But He prepared our hearts to see His power, and He worked a miracle for us to have this new church.

In this new year, 2024, God has new beginnings for you, too. Trust Him to provide a new thing for you to experience and your faith will grow as you allow Him to lead you successfully through 2024!

--Pastor Ben Moor