PastorBlastor

Lepers gotta love ‘em! – Matthew 8:1-4 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 30, 2019 There are folks in our lives that are just tough to love. You know what I mean; those who have nothing good to say about anyone else, those who are constantly jealous over others and what they have or do, or those folks who constantly gripe about almost everyone and anything. Then there are those folks who just have to gain attention by constantly gripping over their latest ailment, sickness, or hypochondria. It can be difficult to be around such folks in life and they can become or be seen as the “lepers” of our day and age. In Jesus’ day there were skin ailments that were often seen as leprosy but actually were not, however, I believe that Jesus and his followers knew the difference between minor skin diseases and actual leprosy. After Jesus was finished speaking to the crowds he heads back down the hillside and meets up with a man who is a leper. How Jesus interacts with and has compassion on him displays for u...

It’s all about foundations! – Matthew 7:24-29 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 23, 2019 Sometimes you can listen to what is being spoken to you but not understand a single word, not because of the language barrier but because you do not understand what the speaker is talking about. I had a seminary professor that was that way. You could sit there and hear every word he spoke but not understand a single word he said. It was literally Greek to me! Kind of like the adults in those Charlie Brown cartoons on TV: “Wah! Wah! Wah! Wah…” Jesus however spoke plainly and often used terms and words his listeners would immediately understand. Jesus’ words are more than pity sayings to put on a refrigerator door or memes on a Facebook post, they are words of life if you hear them and follow them. Hearing what Jesus said was more than just listening to his words, you had to live by them and for him it was how his followers built a basis for their lives. Let’s discover what Jesus meant when he taught it’s all...

Who do you know? – Matthew 7:21-23 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 16, 2019 There are those who think they are Christian because they were born in America; there are those who think they are Christian because they are nice people and do nice things; and there are those who think they are Christian because they have a relative who was a believer, a pastor, or a deacon in a church -- yet, none of these beliefs makes one a Christian! And like my father used to say, “It’s not who you think you know, it’s who you actually are that matters.” Jesus understood this as well. Jesus knew that there were those in the crowd that day and perhaps his own disciples who thought that those who expressed piety or those who regularly observed all the festivals, ate the right foods, and kept their selves pure were God’s people. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Jesus knew that even being part of the High Priest’s family did not guarantee your relationship with God! We discover here that the be...

You produce what you grow! – Matthew 7:15-20 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 9, 2019 We have a garden that I plant every spring. We usually grow tomatoes and green beans. We keep it pretty simple. One year I planted a variety of tomato that we really liked but a different one grew instead. I went back to the place where I had bought the plant and the clerk said that we were not the first to complain but what evidently had happened was kids had switched the tags on the young plants thinking that it was funny. Needless to say, that although the tomatoes were okay, they were not what we expected. People during Jesus’ day were dependent upon what they planted and there were a lot of factors that could be beneficial or detrimental to their future harvest. Weather, water, animals, and other things could influence the harvest. Jesus now uses familiar language about planting so that his listeners would fully understand what he meant about their spiritual growth as well. Let’s discover what Jesus taug...

The rule to end all rules! – Matthew 7:12-14 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 2, 2019 In Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy they try to take back a special ring called the One Ring. It contained an inscription that read: “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them!” There are times when we all wish that life was simpler and long for one simple rule to guide us. The Hebrews had enslaved their people by interpreting over 600 volumes expanding on the Ten Commandments of God! President Obama on his last day in office signed into law over 30,000 pages of new laws! Is it any wonder we long for one rule to end all rules! Jesus understood that his people and all people had been subjected to self-imposed rules that were heavy burdens for them to bear. He desired to simplify their lives. In this he gave all of us the rule to end all rules. Let’s discover what it means for us today… READ: Matthew 7:12-14 In continuing on in his te...