PastorBlastor

Who do you know? – Matthew 7:21-23 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 15, 2025 x 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 better...

The Sufficiency of the Insignificant Exodus 1:15-21 Pastor Lee Hemen, May 05, 2024 Have you ever heard of Henrietta Lacks? “Henrietta was a poor tobacco farmer from Virginia. Her death was remarked by no one except her children, her family, and her friends. However, Henrietta Lacks is the source of the HeLa cell line—her blood contained uniquely immortal cells that can live outside her body indefinitely. After the birth of her fifth child in 1951, Henrietta was admitted to Johns Hopkins University Hospital complaining of “a knot in her womb,” and doctors took a sample of tissue. It was soon noticed that, unlike normal cells, Henrietta’s cells did not die after a few days but rather continued to grow, doubling every 20 to 24 hours. Henrietta’s cells can be found in the trillions in laboratories around the world. They have been used by medical researchers studying not only cancer but also hemophilia, influenza, leukemia, and Parkinson’s disease. They were also used in developing the poli...

The Joy of a Father’s Heart By Pastor Lee Hemen December 12, 2021 I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart; I will enter His courts with praise! I will say this is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice for He has made me glad! The JOY of the Lord is my strength; it has to be especially now. This is both the happiest day and the saddest day of my life! But as you can see, I think I will focus on the happier part! Oh Lord, my Yahweh thank You for being the Lord You are. Thank You for my daughter, Miriam and of course Yoseph! A father knows this day will come but he never realizes just how fast it does come. Your daughter is one day playing with your beard, learning to walk, learning the Psalms and singing them sweetly around the house, and the next… she has growing into a fine young woman! Can it be that she is fourteen now? They grow up so fast! This last year she has learned to cook, sew, keep a household, and to manage affairs well like a good Jewish woman should. Just...

Ramblings from Retirement – Get Dressed! By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen April 9, 2021 Man it can be tough to try and get kids dressed, ready, and out the door on time. It can be especially if one of them is a preteenager (tweener) who moves at the pace of a snail or if one is so concerned about what she wears that it is impossible for her to make any decisions. Then there are the arguments about “why” “how come” and “where are we going”. I remember well when my father would come and tell us three kids to “Get dressed and ready to go. You’ve got five minutes!” My brother would grumble around bumping into things and looking for something clean to wear, my sister would gripe about that she didn’t have anything to wear, and I would just hop out of bed and get dressed and eat breakfast before the other two were dressed. I loved getting up and going places and you did not have to ask me twice. In Luke’s gospel he relates that Jesus told the crowds “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lam...

Ramblings from Retirement – Reconnect! By Lee Hemen, Retired Pastor March 18, 2021 There was a popular folk song out when I was in High School by Joni Mitchell called The Big Yellow Taxi. It was supposed to be a statement concerning how the world was paving over everything and destroying it with insecticides. It was kind of a silly song but one line states “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” This is true whether it concerns green spaces or relationships but it can be true of things we begin to depend on in life without ever thinking about them. Here’s something for you to try for a week: Go without your Wi-Fi or cell phone. Few could make it a day let alone a week, but what if these things were taken away from you for good? What would you do and how would you cope? We lost our Wi-Fi for about 20 hours the other day and I realized just how much we as a family had come to rely on something we often took for granted. We can do the same thing in...

How Good It Is to Sing to the Lord! -- Psalm 147:1-11 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 17, 2020 One of my favorite old time movies is “Singing in the Rain”. I like the simple storyline where boy meets girl, girl misunderstands, and boy finally gets the girl. Of course one of the iconic scenes in the movie is when Gene Kelly sings and dances in the rain outside of his girlfriend’s building. During this time all of us could do well to remember to not just sing in the rainstorm of life but rather how good it is to sing to the Lord! God’s grace and greatness is a couple of things all believers should be willing to sing to the Lord about. Singing to the Lord is a wonderful way of praising him. The Psalmist understood this and here in this song to the Lord we discover just how good it is to sing to the Lord. Let’s see how… READ: Psalm 147:1-11 We are not sure who wrote this Psalm but the verses are really good for us to remember. I have divided them by premise so that when we read them they...

Christ’s church is to be unified! – Ephesians 4:1-6 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 15, 2020 As a family we had one another’s back so-to-speak. Even though my brother and I would often try to wrestle one another to the death, tease, and bug each other we still stood up for and protected one another above anyone else. It was a matter of family unity. Families protect one another. There is a false notion that church unity means that if you disagree with one another about something then you are not in the will of God, nothing could be further from the truth. As the body of Christ we are his family, brothers and sisters in the Lord trying our best to do his work and will in a sinful world. Unity does not mean we agree on everything but that we protect, defend, and encourage each other in the Lord! How then is Christ’s church to be unified? I’m glad you asked… READ: Ephesians 4:1-6 Jesus and his disciples did not agree on everything but they were unified in him, except one who later betrayed him...

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...

Luke 24:1-8; 36-48 -- We have a risen Lord! By Pastor Lee Hemen April 1, 2018 AM The message of Easter is the resurrection of Jesus as an event that means much more than a historical fact. His victory over death brings peace and comfort to all who have trusted in him as Lord and Savior. Further, Jesus’ resurrection is the basis for the believers’ resurrection and living with him forever. Therefore, this is the beautiful truth of Easter: We have a risen Lord! After Jesus’ death, Joseph buried His body hastily in a nearby tomb. A large stone rolled in front of the entrance was meant to keep out marauders and wild animals as well as Jesus’ disciples (Matthew 27:62-66). All day Saturday Jesus’ followers grieved, but they could do nothing. The Fourth Commandment prohibited work, including preparations for burial, on the Sabbath. Finally, Sunday morning dawned, the first day of the week and some of the women who had followed Jesus went to visit his grave. They could not have imagined what th...

Do You Take Your Burdens to the Lord? - Isaiah 37:10-12, 14-20, 33-37 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 2, 2014 AM What do you do when you are faced with difficult situations? Do you run and hide, do you get angry, or do you depend upon the Lord and His guidance? You can tell a lot about an individual’s faith not just during the mundane ordinary times, but how they conduct themselves during bleak situations. She was young and not prepared to be a single mom but her life choices had brought her to this point. With a baby on the way, no support from the baby’s father, she had some tough decisions to make. She first began to work on her relationship with God, worked herself through college, got a better job after graduating, and raised her child. At a church gathering, she met a godly man who loves her and her child. Whom do you take your burdens to when faced with tough decisions? Sennacherib had left Lachish and was at Libnah, about five miles north of Lachish. Word had come that Tirhakah was c...

Hebrews 5:1-10 – Jesus our Melchizedek! By Pastor Lee Hemen August 12, 2012 AM There is a horrendous misunderstanding which borders on heresy in Christianity today. It is self-centeredness where worship is wrapped around the individual, commitment is based on our contentment, and our Savior and Lord is reduced to effeminate individual. Much of the church today fails to teach or comprehend just who Jesus is and what he has done for sinful man. Instead, we try to make the gospel relevant to the day and thereby Jesus into a means of living life for the moment. Ungodly sin is excused and Jesus made into our immoral image. Nothing could be further from the truth. The author of Hebrews set forth two key truths: 1) the exalted position of Jesus who is uniquely God’s King-Son and 2) the salvation-inheritance of those who trust him by faith. Included in these themes are solemn warnings not to neglect the inheritance that Jesus’ relationship makes possible. The Son’s kingship h...