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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...

The unrepentant will suffer! - Matthew 11:20-24 By Pastor Lee Hemen December 29, 2019 With the New Year coming there will be those who celebrate it by getting drunk, making silly resolutions that they cannot keep, or by thinking that it will give them a magical reboot on life. None of these make any sense nor do they solve any problems until one addresses what the real root of their personal problems are they will continue to rely on getting high, making faulty promises, and hoping for change that will not come. Jesus had just gotten through declaring that the unrepentant Jews would not listen to God’s prophets, John the Baptist, or the Messiah who was standing right in front of them! He now gives them the example of unrepentant cities that faced God’s wrath and how they would also face similar judgment unless they repented. Jesus tells them that unrepentant cities will suffer, let’s discover what he meant… READ: Matthew 11:20-24 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of...

Anger! – Matthew 5:21-26 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 10, 2019 Angry words can never be taken back. Society’s standard of foul and angry words has declined in recent years, but we don’t have to decline with it, we should think about how to honor God with our speech. We please the Lord with our tongue when we show discernment. Proverbs 10:19 reminds us that “He who restrains his lips is wise”. When we do speak, we are to filter the words that escape our lips: “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles” (Proverbs 21:23 NIV). Paul’s warns us to “let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth” (Ephesians 4:29 NIV). How can we keep our anger contained? How do we remain calm in a world that seems to be filled with hatred, evil, and ungodly behavior? Jesus in the Beatitudes sets an almost impossible situation where we are to speak right and think right all the time. Jesus did this to startle his listeners and to shock them into listening to what he was teaching about himsel...

Renewed by the Word! -- 2 Kings 22:8, 11-13a; 23:1-6 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 25, 2018 The English preacher G. Campbell Morgan was known as the “prince of expositors” in his day. When he was a young man, he went through a period of doubting the truthfulness of God’s Word. To find some answers for himself, he locked away all of his books and bought a new Bible. He committed himself to studying it until he knew if it was God’s Word or not. The result was clear. He said, “That Bible found me.” Morgan devoted the rest of his life to studying and preaching God’s Word. Hilkiah found the book of the law while making repairs to the temple. When the book was read to King Josiah, it “found him” and became the blueprint for his reign. His grandfather Manasseh worshipped Baal, Asherah, practiced the worship of stars, participated in sorcery, consulted mediums and spiritists, and sacrificed one of his own sons in the fire! Though he turned to the Lord at the end of his reign, Scripture blamed h...

Micah 1 – Judgment is coming! By Pastor Lee Hemen October 2, 2016 New York City tailor Hercules Mulligan had the singular distinction of saving George Washington's life—twice in fact. A Revolutionary War patriot and spy, Mulligan learned of two British plots to ambush the general and alerted him to the danger. Mulligan also persuaded founding father Alexander Hamilton--originally a supporter of British colonial rule--to promote the cause of American independence. (Huffington Post) In history it is often those who are not well-known who make a difference in the lives of those around them and for those who follow after them. The Minor Prophet Micah is such a person. Little is known about Micah. Micah is a shortened form of the name Micaiah which means “Who is like Yahweh?” In Jeremiah’s day the elders referred to Micah and quoted him in defense of Jeremiah’s message of judgment on the nation. Micah was from Moresheth, a tiny Judean town about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem nea...

Return to the Lord! - Joel 2 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 15, 2016 Coming home is often never easy, especially after you have left and wanted to make it on your own and then you have to return and make amends. A good example of this is the story of the Prodigal Son that Jesus related to his followers as found in Luke's Gospel. Yet each of us could probably recount tales from our own lives at how we ran away when we were young or left home as young adults only to return and have to make some kind of amends or correction with those we returned to. The Prophet Joel related to the Israelites that they had to return to the Lord whom they had forsaken. Whenever the Israelite people faced trials or threats the priests were to call the people out in order to gather them for whatever purpose was needed. Sometimes it was for battle, sometimes for a public announcement, and sometimes it was for spiritual purposes. Here, I believe it was for the later. The Israelites needed to return to the L...

Weep over your sin! - Joel 1 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 8, 2016 My mother was a small bundle of fire that one did not cross. She is the one who made us march out into the yard and cut a switch off the lilac bush for our own whoopin'. If you do not know what a "whoopin'" is then you do not understand punishment. Her philosophy that is sadly lacking in our day and age was the punishment should fit the crime. We were never sent to our room, given a time out, or restricted from watching TV. Our punishments were dealt with immediately and a spanking consisted of only a couple of swats. In fact, we were expected to take our punishment and not "carry on" about it. Mom would remind us to stop our crying or she would "give us something to cry about". She knew we had to weep over the wrong we had committed or we would not quit doing it. Being remorseful was part of what was expected. One had to weep over their sin. We live in a day and age where far too m...

Worship No Other! - Isaiah 44:16-22; 46:1-5, 8-9 By Pastor Lee Hemen    March 16, 2014 AM George leaned over to his wife and grumbled, “Will this sermon ever be over? We’ll never make it home in time to see the game!” Jena sat at her desk watching the clock. “Of all days to work late,” she thought to herself. “I usually spend time in prayer before working out, and I’m stuck here. I really need to go by the fitness center because I have not worked out all week. Looks like I’ll skip prayer tonight.” “I’m going go on vacation,” thought Matt. “I deserve a break. I won’t be able to give my tithe to church, but I think the church will survive without it.” Our worship of God is often reflected in how we invest our lives. Perhaps our worship is not where it needs to be and we are suffering the consequences of our lack of worship. The trials the Israelites were going through, was due to their inconsistent worship. However, God promised to restore His people. Only He possessed the ...

Am I a rebel? - Isaiah 1:2-5, 11-20 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 5, 2014 AM I have always wondered why the opposite sex has found those who are rebellious fascinating. Perhaps it has to do with the what I call the “Eve Gene.” There are those who are attracted to rebellion, thinking that in it they will find some kind of freedom. As a teenager, I found it downright humorous when many of my contemporaries wanted to be different yet often followed the same fads, dressed the same, and did many of the same things everyone else did! Kind of like tattoos and body piercings are today! Those who desired to be different soon were the same as everyone else! We may desire to think of ourselves as rebels without a cause when in fact we are just being disobedient. God’s people are never to desire to be part of the crowd. In fact, we find that we are to be in the world but not of the world! When a child of the King desires to appear or appease themselves at the sake of their life in Christ, they are n...