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The bread of life! -- John 6:34-59 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 8, 2026 They say that a person's sense of smell is one of the most powerful memory trigger inducers. You can smell a certain scent and it will immediately remind you of a person, place, or time of your life. I know this is true because when I smell Aqua Velva, an aftershave lotion, it immediately reminds me of my father. the same is true for fresh baked bread. The smell instantly reminds me of my mother's kitchen when I was growing up and the smell of her wonderful bread. She made the best bread in the world. We could hardly wait to get a thick warm slice with melted butter or peanut butter. As I expressed before, bread was an important part of everyday life, especially during Jesus' day. It was how people survived and was the meal for even the poorest of folks. However, it was not like the bread we enjoy today. It was flat, chewy, small, round, thick, and kind of tasteless, but it sustained people for the day. It...

Matthew 13:1-9 - Scattering the Seed of the Gospel By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen May 22, 2022 We have always loved putting out birdseed for the wild birds in our yards. It’s fun to watch all of the different species that come to our feeders. Recently, a pair of birds called Evening Grosbeaks has been coming to our feeders, and they are pigs. They kind of force out other birds, scatter the seed everywhere, and remind me of uninvited relatives that show up for dinner. However, one of the things that they do by scattering the seed from the feeders is provide for the dozens of squirrels and smaller birds that hop around the base of the feeders searching for scattered seeds. And some of the seeds, being grass seeds, have made my lawn area thick and rich. We forget that when we scatter the seed of the gospel that it falls on many kinds of ground, and we never know who might benefit from the process. Like those Evening Grosbeaks we are not to be just about feeding ourselves the seeds of the gos...

Nothing in life is free! -- John 6:22-33 By Pastor Lee Hemen July 12, 2020 There is a tale that the great circus promoter P. T. Barnum once quipped, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” There is a lot of doubt as to whether he actually said this or not, but one thing I have heard over and over again is the old truism “nothing in life is free.” This is true of anyone who wants to sell you the latest get rich scheme, diet pill, or quick spiritual fix. Nothing in life is free. However, the Apostle Paul wrote, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24 NIV)” In other words, we receive the gift of salvation freely from God because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Nothing in life is free, except salvation from God through Jesus! And here in John’s gospel we find that ...

How We Can Encourage One Another! – 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 7, 2020 We’ve been talking a lot about encouraging one another lately and I think it is something we all need to hear. And with all that has been going on in the news recently many think that this is the forerunner of the end of days, but I assure you it is not. Rather it is the outcome of a world that has turned its back on the holy things of God. As Christians we need to focus on the One who holds the world in the palm of his hands. We need to encourage one another! Paul wrote a young church about the concerns he had for its future. They needed to focus on whom they had put their faith and trust in, how they should walk in him, and how they could encourage one another to live as God desired them to in a world that seemed to be destroying itself. Let’s learn this morning how we can encourage one another… READ: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 The death of a young man at the hands of those in society we...

The Word of God Instructs Those Who Love Him! -- Proverbs 15:12-16, 20-23 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 24, 2020 I remember well when I was in high school I developed pneumonia and had to miss over a week of school. When I got back I quickly caught up and studied hard in order to regain the ground I had lost. In a history class I had to take a midterm exam that I had missed. Afterwards I was accused by a classmate who took the exam with me of cheating. The teacher confronted me. I was shocked and hurt even though I was able to prove beyond any doubt that I had not done so. Her rebuke stung. Receiving a rebuke is never something we look forward to and most of us do not like going through one when it happens. Within the pithy statements of Proverbs we discover over and over both the rebuke of God and the wisdom of listening to him. In reading Proverbs we discover that the Word of God instructs those who love him, let’s discover how this morning… READ: Proverbs 15:12-16, 20-23 It is o...

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...

Why Worship Is so Special! -- Nehemiah 8:8-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 10, 2020 My mother was a character. She left home at an early age to seek her fame and future in the wilds of Alaska from the wilds of Wyoming! She was about 15 years old and it was right before WWII. She had a 7th grade education, could ride a horse, shoot a rifle, and roll a cigarette using the “fixings” with one hand. Now I am not commending that teenagers leave home at 15, smoke, and learn to ride a horse; but my mother like most Americans enjoyed her freedom and willingly went north. The Israelites had not enjoyed freedom for many years. They had been enslaved by the Persians and had only recently been allowed any kind of freedom. Ezra the Priest went to Jerusalem to try and get the people educated in the word of the Lord. Nehemiah came later to help rebuild. They both knew that with the Israelites new found freedom and not having temple worship they would soon stray from God. Here in Nehemiah we discover why wo...

Great Is the Lord! – Psalm 145:1-21 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 3, 2020 How do you tell someone that they are doing a great job? Do slap them on the back and give them an “attaboy”? A high five or perhaps bake them cookies or a cake? We are all told to give out positive reinforcement to those we work with, our kids, and others but what about the Lord? Of course we often do not think that God needs our praise but nothing could be further from the truth because we are commanded to praise him. Here in this Psalm of David we find him praising the Lord and telling him just how great he is. During this time when we are faced with what seem dire circumstances, it can become difficult to praise the Lord but it is specifically during such times we should do so. And this morning as we look at the words of David’s Psalm we will discover just how great is the Lord… READ: Psalm 145 In the 1970s people were encouraged to “find yourself”. The idea was that with personal introspection you could discover w...

God Hears Us When We Call to Him! -- Psalm 86:1-13 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 26, 2020 I can remember my mother asking me, “Young man, did you hear what I said?” Of course no matter if I did or not the correct answer was always “yes”. Being distracted is the profession of teenage boys and unfocused believers. It is good to know therefore that God is never distracted and always hears us when we call to him. David, in this Psalm, was crying out to the Lord and if we just read what David says we might think that perhaps God had been distracted. The reason we would think this is because we often are distracted ourselves in how we talk with God, listen to him, and how we follow through with what he asks. David comes to the Lord asking that God hear him when he calls to him, let’s discover what this means… READ: Psalm 86:1-13 It is a curious thing but when we all of sudden need help we are often willing to humble ourselves in order to get a quick response thinking that we can perhaps fool God...

We Can Confidently Trust In the Lord! -- Psalm 25:1-14 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 19, 2020 There are certain poets that I like; most are those who tell stories. Robert Service was called “The Bard of the Yukon” because he wrote a lot of poems about the north like “The Cremation of Sam McGee” or “The Shooting of Dan McGrew”. I also like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote such poems as “The Landlord’s Tale, Paul Revere’s Ride” but of course one of my favorites is “There Was A Little Girl”: “There was a little girl, Who had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, She was very good indeed, But when she was bad she was horrid.” David from the Bible is also one of my favorite poets. He wrote many of the Psalms. One of my favorite Psalms is the one we will look at today. David boldly turned to the Lord for divine instruction and forgiveness from his sin. David knew he could because of God’s grace for Israel. This psalm is a meditation on the character of God th...