PastorBlastor

Ramblings from Retirement – Meditating On God’s Word By Pastor (Retired) Lee Hemen April 1, 2022 I was thinking about a notion that I have heard my entire Christian life, namely that we are better believers if we hide God’s Work in our hearts by memorizing it perfectly. Mainly this teaching comes from the words of the Psalmist who wrote, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you (Psalms 119:11 NIV84).” Except this is total balderdash. Now do not get me wrong because if you want to memorize the Bible verse by verse, go ahead and do so. It might be good for you to do so but this isn’t what the Psalmist meant. In fact, nowhere in the pages of our Bibles did the original authors want you to be able to quote a specific passage at any given time in order to be a better Believer in God. Certainly they encourage us to know the words of the Lord but what did they really mean? First and foremost we often forget in our haste to impose certain spiritual concepts that we...

 Ramblings from Retirement: The most important time is now. By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor) November 2, 2020 I went out to lunch the other day because I had been working at church trying to get our live video feed working properly. (It is still a work in progress.) I stopped by and got something and in the fast food place was a young man sitting there reading his Bible. Curious, I asked him which book he was reading from and he related it was Genesis. We had a short discussion about the Scriptures and I got my order and ate. This got me to thinking though about the words of Psalm 119:11 where the Psalmist tells God: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalms 119:11 NIV)” These are good thoughts and I remembered how I was encouraged to do just that as a young Christian. In thinking about this however I realized that few looked at the words before this verse or those afterwards as well. So let’s take a quick look at what the Psalmist writes: “How can...

The return of the promise! - Ephesians 2:1-10 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 22, 2017 A promise is simply empty words if it isn’t kept. This is why my Father would remind us to “Never make a promise you cannot keep.” He understood that a promise is only as good as the one who keeps it. A man is only as good as his word. Throughout Scripture we discover that God makes promises to his people and that he always keeps his promises. If he did not then we could not trust him to be who he is: always holy, always loving, always truthful, always faithful and so on. So we know that when he makes a promise, he keeps his word. Jesus promised eternal life and salvation to anyone who believed in him. Paul teaches the Ephesians just what this promise means for them and future generations. Many thought that God had left them but he had not; his promise had returned, had been fulfilled! Let’s discover what this means… READ: Ephesians 2:1-10 We forget our condition as it concerns ourselves and God. God is...

What do you know about God? -- John 5:39-47 by Pastor Lee Hemen January 11, 2015 I have known a lot of folks who were penny-wise but pound foolish. They knew a lot about a lot of stuff but did not have wisdom. Wisdom and knowledge are two different things. Kind of like those who say they know God, but what they think they know and what they actually know are two very different things. And what many actually think they know about God is what they actually feel about God rather than the real truth of who God is. So, let me ask you, what do you know about God? The Jewish people thought they knew a lot about God, but what they thought they knew was not true! They forgot what God had actually said and promised them and how he works within his creation and with his people. Jesus had just gotten through accusing his detractors that they had "never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor [did] his word dwell in [them], and the reason for this was simply that they did "not believ...

The Light! -- John 1:1-5 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 31, 2014 In the strictest sense this Gospel has no author named like Paul’s letters do. It is anonymous. In fact, none of the four Gospel authors identify themselves by name. There is a good reason for this, they are not meant to be private letters to specific churches or individuals, except perhaps Luke’s Gospel. Yet we discover that often the writer reveals himself through his writing and we discover that church history can often reveal who the authors were. Putting all of these facts together makes a good case for the author of the Fourth Gospel having been John, one of the sons of a fisherman named Zebedee. The date for the writing of the Gospel of John was probably between 85 and 95 AD, however, there is good evidence that it could have been written as early as 45 and 65 AD before the destruction of the Temple. And, John himself tells us why he wrote his gospel, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ...

The Holy Life! -- James 1:22-27 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 18, 2014 Some believe that global warming is the biggest threat to the world today. In fact, many of the major news organizations came out on Monday saying that the Antarctic is losing its ice sheet and “there is nothing we can do about it!” Yet, according to the National Snow and Ice Data, Antarctic ice is growing at a rapid pace never seen before. Some thought, in the 1970’s, that the greatest risk we faced was global cooling! Some thought we would all starve to death by the 1990’s and yet there are more crops being grown than ever in the history of mankind. Every year brings dire warnings of MERS, SARS, AIDS, the Nile Virus or some other disease that is going to wipe us off the face of the earth. Yet, as I look at mankind and especially the life of Christians today, I believe that the greatest global threat we face is ungodliness seen as a normal part of the Christian faith. The holy life is no longer seen as hip or something o...

The Servant Life! – James 1:1-8 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 27, 2014 AM I have discovered that those who often have personal problems with fellow believers or with their churches are usually the ones who all of sudden have been confronted with their insincerity of faith. What many American’s think is biblical and scriptural concerning how to deal with fellow believers or a church that suddenly does not meet their needs has absolutely no basis in correct theology. Far too many do not read and study their Bibles but rather use them to justify their sin, their immaturity of faith, or to excuse their disobedience. Sound harsh? Then you will fit right in with those who have had problems with the “right strawy epistle” of the Book of James. As the Bible Knowledge Commentary states, “Few books of the Bible have been more maligned than the little Book of James. Controversy has waged over its authorship, its date, its recipients, its canonicity, and its unity.” Yet, there is no denying that James...