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 Ramblings from Retirement – Trust By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen June 2, 2021 Sometimes we can become so myopic in our daily lives that we forget the people around us or the Lord who made us. Jesus reminded his listeners that the two greatest commandments were to love God totally and others like you love yourself. Fussing or fretting about things you have no control over can lead to anxiety and frustration with your circumstances. Yet when we focus on loving God as we should and loving others as he commanded the things we have no control over seem to fade into the background where they belong. I used to fret about family members who did not know the Lord and I began to wonder if God was actually listening to me when I prayed about my concern for them. I was gently reminded by a brother in Christ that perhaps my prayers were not really for the benefit of those I was praying for but to satisfy my selfish needs. Of course at first I was offended that he would claim I was being selfish w...

Ramblings from Retirement – Who Is Your Neighbor By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen May 29, 2021 Sitting here this morning I did what I always do, I prayed for my neighbors. I pray for them by name and street address. I use the Bless Every Home app. You can also go onto their website and do it that way. I like it because I can edit the names to keep them as up-to-date as possible. I also try to walk three to four times a week throughout my neighborhood with my grandkids or by myself, for exercise and to keep up with what is happening in my neighborhood. I’ve met more neighbors on my walks, waved to them, said “Hi.” or stopped to talk with them. I pick up concerns and blessings which I pray for when I pray for them and this brings me to one of my favorite passages of Scripture. In Luke’s gospel we find Jesus speaking to a very intelligent young man: “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in t...

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...

Praying! – Matthew 6:5-15 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 7, 2019 When asked what believers need to do the most the answer always is to “pray” and this is good advice. If one’s prayer life is nonexistent their relationship with God is basically nonexistent. As a new believer having been brought up in a faith that taught that prayer was by route, meaningless, and automatic to discover that it was actually speaking with God was amazing to me. It changed my life dramatically. Praying is the heart and life of a Christian’s faith walk with God. In Luke’s gospel we learn that “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ (Luke 11:1 NIV)” And here in Matthew’s gospel we discover the same prayer being offered by Jesus as part of his sermon. Jesus did not mean for his example to become a formula or a mantra we were to use until it became a mind-numbing chant. Let’s discover what Jesus tau...

Vows, revenge, and enemies! – Matthew 5:33-48 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 24, 2019 Foul language, disrespect, arrogance and revengeful attitudes have become a societal norm. So much so you have those who actually think that you can dictate through laws how to make people act respectful toward one another. The Washington State Legislature is considering a law that would enforce rules against bullying in schools. Believe me it will not stop the perceived problem they are trying to solve. Laws are a Band-Aid approach to a deeper problem. Remember Jesus was trying to get his audience to realize that it isn’t what comes out of a person that matters as much as what is inside a person. Jesus taught that “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45 NIV)” That which is “stored up” inside of us is what truly shows the world what w...

Persevere! - Jude 1:17-25 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 20, 2018 Recently a lesbian couple went on vacation with their six adopted children; the couple got drunk and drove off a California coastal highway into the Pacific Ocean at 90 miles an hour killing all of them. They left Minnesota when they claimed one of their children was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, and moved to Oregon, and finally Washington. Actually they fled Minnesota after bruises were discovered on a preschooler and the “mother” received a three-month suspended jail sentence and a year of probation. The Harts later moved to Oregon and began homeschooling their brood, but relocated to rural Woodland, Washington when Oregon began to suspect them of abuse. They fled their Woodland home after CPS workers tried to contact them about starving and neglecting their children. The warning signs were all over the place concerning this couple but few responded fast enough to rescue innocent children. Sadly many of us face warnings eve...

Pray for all people! -- 1 Timothy 2:1-7 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 15, 2017 As I’ve mentioned before, prayer is our conversation with the Creator of the universe. However I often wonder not only what should I pray for but whom should I pray for as well. Now there are few of us who would not think it beneficial to pray for politicians but this is what I mean; we are faced with the conundrum of what we should pray! Now Jesus never suggested who we should or should not pray for but rather his encouragement was that we simply pray as often as we should. Paul faced a lot of harassment for his faith. There were his old Jewish cronies who wanted to see him simply to shut up about his faith and then there were the kings, potentates, and pundits of his day that wanted him silenced as well. Yet Paul could not be quiet because he realized that the gospel message of Jesus was for all people everywhere. Paul however did not have the luxury of deciding who he should or shouldn’t pray for becaus...

The Humble Life! -- James 1:9-15 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 4, 2014 AM I was just wondering about how we have sold our souls to the societal notion of Christianity. We no longer have a clue what it means to be humble before the Lord. At Age 32, Elizabeth Gilbert faced a life crisis of personal conscience – she did not want to be married anymore to her devoted husband or to have his children. Locking herself in the bathroom of her upscale home she began to pray over and over, “I don’t want to be married anymore. I don’t want to be married anymore. I don’t want to live in this big house. I don’t want to have this baby.” A voice, her own, answers her and tells her to go back to bed. Thus, begins her own self-focused “spiritual” journey. She goes through a dreadful divorce, moves in with an uncaring lover, and begins a self-ingratiating spiritual quest. Her final theological epiphany ends the way it began, from hearing her own voice speaking to her she concludes her highest religious dogm...

Hebrews 13:18-25 – Vaya con dios! Pray! By Pastor Lee Hemen February 10, 2013 AM Saying “good-bye” is always tough with those you love and care about in life. Roger Ebert, the film critic, who has had multiple surgeries for cancer and was once declared dead agrees. He wrote in an e-mail interview that death scenes in movies put unrealistic pressure on the rest of us to be profound. “After all,” he wrote, “those scenes are well-written, directed, and performed by professionals.” Last words have an almost mystical significance in both Eastern and Western cultures, in part because they hold out the possibility of revealing a deep insight or lifting a veil on the meaning of life. Japanese poets wrote haiku at the moment of their death; Jesus related his forgiveness for those who murdered Him. What would you say if you knew the words you uttered could be the last thing the folks you are saying “good-bye” to were your last. We know the Bible tells us that, “The prayer of a righ...

The principles of a powerful prayer meeting, Part 2 By Pastor Lee Hemen’ October 23, 2011 AM Last time, we asked why Elijah, Moses, Joshua, Jesus and Paul were so filled with confidence when praying about the impossible that they often announced that it would take place even before they prayed! How could they be so sure that God would answer their prayers? I believe it was because they had paid the price of being alone with God. They had come to know the very heart and intent of God. They began to see life from his perspective instead of their own. Fervent focused prayer surged through their spiritual souls and it beat with the intense intimacy they shared with the Father. They sought the Lord until they knew what he was doing and joined him in doing it! Therefore, they saw the power of God displayed in response to their prayers. This is the very essence of what Jesus meant by abiding in him, without which we will not know what God’s will is or what to ask him. We find that...