Peace Lutheran Church

06/20/2023

The Straight and Narrow!
A train can only go in two directions, it has limits! They load up and head to the destination, engine in the front and caboose in the back, or at least that was how it used to be (dating myself a little here). Now however, much of the time it is engine in the front and engine in the back; a quicker switch up once they have unloaded at the destination, very quickly they are able to return the same way from which they came. There and back!!

We don’t travel much anymore on trains, we like our roads, preferably two or three lanes. If we are in a hurry we can take the left lane, if we are having a relaxed day or we are simply slow moving we can take the right lane, on that three lane road the middle can be quite nice. If we want we can get off on any overpass, break in the highway or roundabout. The options are many! We are seemingly in control of our destiny from the minute we jump into the car or the truck or the bus! Anywhere we want to go!!

Jesus said to His disciples “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 (NIV)

Tracks or roads, Jesus or the world, straight and narrow or crooked and broad? As professed Christians is there really a choice?

Almighty God, if we have wandered from the narrow road that leads to life, please forgive us. And Father, if you find us wandering on the broad road that leads to destruction, please redirect us. Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer, Amen

Grace & Peace
Pastor Donna

06/06/2023

The patience of Job!

This pup endures much for the sake of his boy child!

Listen carefully to the word of the Lord before us this morning;

“… the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

“The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

“Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.” Job 1:8-12 (NIV)

True to form, Satan would strike out and Job would lose everything near and dear to him, except his wife and in a sense he lost her as well. Everything was taken from him including his own health and even the loyalty of his dearest friends, everything!!

God’s faith in Job to withstand was not without merit, for this man of God though he cursed the day he was born, Job never cursed the One who gave him life.

The patience of Job!

That we too might endure much for the sake of our God!

Almighty God, the battle rages on between good and evil, Satan still roars around looking for someone to devour, yet our strength is in you LORD, for you have already won the battle. Remind us that the enduring we do in this lifetime, matters to those who have yet to know Jesus, those who have yet to believe in Him as their Saviour and LORD. That our lives might bear witness to a God who would give His one and only Son over to death that we might have life and have it abundantly and have it eternally. Lord give us grace to endure, Amen

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Donna

05/23/2023

“LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.” Psalm 143:1 (NIV)

How many tears will this little man cry in his lifetime? How many tears have we cried?

These tears that are tearing at your heart this morning are tears of fear. Before him, what you can’t see is our first baby calf that was in the corral with its momma. His parents and his granddad were excited to take Kelby out for a look see. He loved that newborn baby…….. till it moved and stood up! We just never quite know what will bring on the tears.

The above Psalm is of King David, who was brought to his knees before the God of heaven and earth in fear, a God he knew so well! So well in fact that in another Psalm he trusts that God has an actual inventory of his tears “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll – are they not in your record?” Psalm 56:8

No matter the reason our tears tumble out of our eyes and roll like thunder down our cheeks, we must trust, just as that mighty King did that every single tear is not only noticed by our God but recorded by our God, not one tear escapes His sight. God doesn’t just take notice when they come; He knew they were coming before the first one fell!

Mighty God, it is overwhelming to know that you know, to know that a God who doesn’t need us, cares that we need Him. So many tears fall in our lifetime but that you see, and that you care, and that you comfort us in all of our sorrows, makes if possible for us to wipe them away and carry on with our day even if we know there are more are on the way. God of our sorrows, we praise your Holy name. Amen

Peace be with you,
Pastor Donna

05/09/2023

“Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” Psalm 62:1-2 (NIV)

Mighty God, humble our childish hearts this morning that awaken with the thought that life is ours to conquer. Lord that the little child in us might come to know the enormity of your presence with us, that rock of salvation upon which we stand and your protection over us, the unquestionable fortress you are in the lives of us your children. Lord that our soul might find rest in you! Teach us to daily sit with you and to look out over all that you have blessed us with, even the sufferings, which only serve to teach and equip us to withstand and to endure until the Day of the Lord. That our lives might show forth in a state of constant thanksgiving and praise for the salvation you have bought for us with the precious blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. In His name and for His sake we pray, Amen

Peace be with you,
Pastor Donna

04/25/2023

“… being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,…” Colossians 1:11 (NIV)

POWER!!

Power out!! That was my morning, 6:00 am and suddenly the power flickers and then it disappears! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! I have determined I must be a princess of some sort to have been so bothered by this outage, I had plans don’t they know! Plans that included hot water from an electric kettle, then a leisurely shower, followed by my need for a hair dryer and of course water to brush my teeth!

We take things so for granted don’t we? I managed to get to work this morning in spite of my short comings, in spite of no power, thanks be to God!

It made me reminisce about just how often we forget God’s power in the crunch of our day, digressing to our sinful selves rather quickly. We forge ahead on our own power, which is really no power at all and then we are dumbfounded by the problems that arise!

The sun poking through the dense fog in this photo should remind us all of our Creator God, who thought of everything! There is nothing that can prevent the sun from rising, setting or shining intensely, with enough power, (just enough power yet not too much),necessary to warm the earth and anything the earth might throw in its way, and yet not destroy the life God created, you and I.

Precious Lord, May your power gently nudge our impatience this day. And that whatever it is we are in the midst of, help us to trust that you, by the power of your Holy Spirit that is within each of us as believers are with us, leading and guiding as you see fit. Lord, power down the “me” in all of us to where we won’t ever attempt to run solely on our own flickering power supply but that empowered by you O Lord, we might be enabled beyond anything we could ever ask for or imagine. Lord in your mercy … hear our prayer.
Amen

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Donna

04/11/2023

Christ is Risen… He is Risen indeed!

You may want to go back and read my last devotion if you hadn’t, in order to unearth why on earth I would have chosen this picture for today’s devotion! But this is the lost baby of Ms. Red; I thought you might like to see the happy family (it took a couple of tries to get them to stand still long enough for this picture)!

In the Gospel of Matthew, the women who went to the tomb early on that first day of the week were not looking to find a resurrected Jesus, but simply to mourn! They went to the place where He was laid, their crucified Lord. The pain of loss must have been excruciating, for the horror of that Friday and the earthquake that followed had swallowed more than their Lord, it had swallowed every hope and dream they had of living in the presence of this man Jesus!

Ms. Red found her baby alive and well, likely napping in a bush along the bank of Trout Creek. She would have been more than elated to see her calf alive, mostly because a momma cow's bag, some twelve hours plus of not being sucked out would have been bursting at the seams.

These women found their Lord and Saviour also, but not dead in the tomb! An angel of the Lord proclaiming to them “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Matthew 28:5-6 (NIV)

What a moment of confusion, bewilderment, doubt, a sudden infilling of hope, dreams flickering in and out! ‘Surely this can’t be’! Yet given what they knew of this man Jesus, maybe it could?

This is often what faith is for us; a flickering in the midst of our uncertainties. We look for Him expecting not to find Him and then suddenly there He is; a knock at the door, the heart of a neighbour who just knows we need an ear to chew on today. How did they know, no one knows what we've been going through, no one!!

No one but Jesus!

Hallelujah, Christ has Risen! Our lives are filled with the hope of glory for He has Risen indeed! Praise be to you O Christ! Amen

Peace be with you,
Pastor Donna

03/28/2023

Lost!

My family put me in charge of calving last Monday, pretty safe to turn me loose at the start of calving when there isn’t a whole lot of calves coming! Since ministry, being a rancher has taken a back seat and I have gotten a little (lot) rusty. That being said they do know that I am pretty dependable.

We calve in a big field that has a creek running through it and a whole lot of buck brush and willows. Before my family left for the day, they fed the cows and noted that Ms. Red here, had come for breakfast but then seemed panicked having forgotten where she had left her calf. I promised to take care of it!

“… suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin’. In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:8-10 (NIV)

Well, me and Ms. Red here swept the field many times over that day and by the end of it, still no baby! Now I can tell you, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack out there! Her and I are having a tailgate meeting at the end of this day, comparing notes you might say. I am going to have one more look around and I give her a little pep talk, “don’t you stop looking momma, your baby is here somewhere”!

We rejoiced in the morning as they both came to breakfast – WHEW~~ I can only imagine what heaven must sound like at the return of one who was lost but now is found! Hallelujah~~

Heavenly Father, there are panicked hearts out there for the many loved ones who have seemingly been lost to the world. Hearts that have been sweeping and sweeping without the joy of having yet found their lost! We pray that you rally us all to be vigilant in our searching's Lord, we know the hounds of heaven don’t rest, you O Lord do not rest until every corner has been thoroughly swept. We entrust our lost to you Father, we thank you for never giving up on them and we pray that we never do either. Lord in your mercy…

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Donna

03/14/2023

Time change!

This Sunday morning my heart was grumbling that it had to force itself one hour sooner, out the door!! GRRRRRRRRRR!

God has a way of making His point, doesn’t He; and humbling even the proudest of hearts. Glen and I would not have been recipients of this beautiful painting had time not changed!

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Psalm 100:4 (NIV)

This Psalmist cherishes the Creator “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3

Izaak Walton writes “I will tell you, I have heard… God has two dwellings, one in heaven and the other in the meek and thankful heart.”

Let me begin our morning prayer, but please feel free to extend it the length of this day as you too enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. As you too receive, just like me, what you haven’t deserved; thank Him with endless praise!

Heavenly Father, humble us by your Amazing Grace, give us a meek and thankful heart that we might see our blessings, count our blessings and give thanks for our blessings every minute of this blessed day! Lord, as we travel through your gate on our way into your day, open wide our hearts to all that is about to happen as you have ordained it. Settle on us the understandings of this Psalmist that we too may “Know that the LORD is God.” Amen

Peace,
Pastor Donna

02/28/2023

Holding Jo’s head above water!

This was an incredibly hot summer day and we were out on our Canada Day ride. The dogs put on sooooooo many more miles than we do and Jo just needed to cool off! This trough was inviting and in she jumped; Katie provided for her safety and for her way out!

God does the same for us! “We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:3b-7(NIV)

Merciful God, in this Season of Lent, may our eyes be on no one except Jesus. You gave us love without measure that we might have hope without limits. We humble ourselves in your presence and we praise your Holy name, a name above all names “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10-11 Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer, Amen

Peace be with you,
Pastor Donna

02/23/2023

02/14/2023

A day to love!

The history we have with this good neighbor goes back a long way and it made my heart come apart at the seams watching this picture unfold before my eyes! The kindness of the horse reflects unequivocally the kindness of the man, it always does!

Scripture declares “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14 (NIV)

We have watched this good neighbor grow from little to big, just as he will now watch our next generation grow from little to big – Such a gift from God!

Heavenly Father, the gift of neighbor's is often taken for granted! Lord, I am writing this devotion on the night before Valentines Day, February 13th, a day that is hard for our family Lord, you know my heart! You called our dad home some fifty six years ago now, we were all littles then, in need of some bigs and you surrounded us with them and their kindness and love changed some of our sorrows to joys and we are who we are to this day because of their love. We can’t thank you enough Father for all of those good neighbours!! When we wonder LORD, what you most want from us, usually it is only a few steps to the left or maybe a few steps to the right where you have placed before us, a neighbour to love. Lord bless us this day with hearts of love for our neighbours as ourself. Amen

Much love,
Pastor Donna