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Independence Day! – Psalm 126 By Pastor Lee Hemen July 1, 2007 AM I cannot imagine what it is like to live under oppression and suddenly find yourself free. I remember when the first families from Russia came here and they could not believe what Americans took for granted. The tremendous variety of food available in grocery stores, the ability to purchase clothes, to own their own home and buy land. Freedom to worship for may from the ex-Soviet Union was the ultimate freedom. For many it was like dying and waking up in heaven. Isaiah the prophet was directed by God to remind God’s people that they were to be “a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:6-7) In fact God’s people are told “to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’” (Isaiah 49:9) Independence day has come but few in this country hear of it anymore. Here in this Psalm, the writer ref...

How to Sleep Well – Psalm 4 by Pastor Lee Hemen June 24, 2007 AM The makers of the Serta mattress state that “Sleep is necessary for our bodies to build up energy reserves and regenerate body cells and tissues. During sleep, your heartbeat and breathing slow, growth hormones peak, muscles relax, and your body temperature lowers. Sleep is a sophisticated process carefully regulated by our brain with valuable restorative properties for our physical and mental health…. Sleep deprivation is thought to cause half of all traffic fatalities on U.S. highways. In fact, studies have shown that being forced to stay awake 17 to 19 hours can cause the same impaired abilities as having a 0.05 percent blood alcohol content. Irregular sleep patterns and lack of sleep can bring on short attention span, memory and vocabulary loss, and other symptoms. Complication can include obesity, premature aging, fatigue and increased risk for diabetes, infection, cardiovascular disease and gastrointestinal disease....

The Blessed Man – Psalm 128 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 17, 2007 AM “You decide if you are happy or not,” my father used to say to us when we were moping around. There are many in the world who do not understand this philosophy in life because they think that it is someone else’s responsibility to make them happy. Some folks place the responsibility on personal relationships and when these fail, they blame others. Some misguided people place it on things, and when these break or get lost, they blame their unhappiness on the product and not themselves. Still, others blame it on God and think of Him as a big genie in the sky who should grant their every wish because, after all, if He were a truly "loving God" He would give them everything they ever wanted! Happiness for these folks becomes elusive. The Psalmist relates for us where true happiness is found. In our world today we often find ourselves asking, “What’s in it for me?” Sadly it is a selfish narcissistic preoccupation tha...

The Nothing of the Nations – Psalm 2 June 10, 2007 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen Quick, name the most important thing President Millard Fillmore did during his administration. Okay, I’ll make it easier: What about Presidents Taft or Harding? Unless you are a history wonk you could not readily name even one important thing for any of these men. By the way, Fillmore took over the office of President when Taylor died. He was never elected. Taft not only served as President but he was also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Solicitor General of the United States, a federal judge, Governor-General of the Philippines, and Secretary of War before being nominated for President! However, President Harding was often quoted as saying, "I am not fit for this office and never should have been here." So much for great nation builders. The Bible makes it clear that great men or great nations are established by the will of God alone. Take for instance the Roman Emperor Diocletian (245-313 AD)....

The Man of God – Psalm 1 June 3, 2007 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen If you were to decide just how much modern Christianity has influenced today’s society in America what number would you give it on a scale of one to ten? The Barna Group reports that “Two-thirds of the nation’s adult population firmly embraces the idea that their most important purpose is to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. However, a deeper look at people’s full array of spiritual beliefs and behavior calls into question the sincerity of their commitment.” Only 37% of Christians believe Jesus was sinless, only 24% believe Satan is a real being, and Americans are less likely to volunteer at church and less likely to read the Bible. However, in kind of schizophrenic spirituality 45% of Americans interviewed by the Barna Group asserted “that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches.” It kind of makes you wonder where the men of God are today? I will never forget talking with a youth minister...

The LONG Goodbye! - Romans 16:1-27 May 20, 2007 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen Saying good-bye can either be a great experience or one that you wish would end quickly. When our youth group went to Nebraska on a mission trip several years ago, we visited Signature Rock near the Wyoming and Nebraska boarder. There, many settlers scratched their names into the soft rock to record their passing through the area on the Oregon Trail. What once would have been considered graffiti is now a National Historic Site. I guess everyone wants their names preserved in some way. Here in the last chapter of Romans we read a list of names that have become a part of Scripture for us today. I am sure these folks had no idea that their names, recorded by the Apostle Paul, would become famous and we would be reading about them 2,000 years later. Talk about a long good-bye! Nowhere else in all of Paul’s writing do we find such a long list of personal greetings. Yet in this list and in his final remarks we find Paul r...

The Comfort of Knowing God - Psalm 131 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 13, 2007 AM As loving parents we desire to raise our children with certain concepts of humility, peace, and hope that will be the guides for their lives. It is these essentials of character that will long outlive any of us as parents if they are found active in the lives of our children long after we are gone. While my mother and father were not necessarily “perfect” parents, they did try to instill in each of us the same kind of character qualities found in David’s Psalm. It is here, in the teaching of these characteristics, that true motherhood is found. It is found in David’s description in the comfort of knowing God. To paraphrase Martin Luther who wrote concerning this little Psalm of David, “It is one of the shortest Psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn.” It speaks to us if it were the voice of a young child, but it contains the experience of a man in Christ. Lowliness and humility are seen here in connect...

Paul’s Personal Plans - Romans 15:14-33 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 6, 2007 AM Have you ever met someone who was completely sold-out to what they were doing and had no question that it was their life’s calling? It can be hard for some of us in this day and age, where we often plan “escape routes” for jobs we do not like, relationships we are in, marriage, education, and other areas of our lives we may want out of. This is why many people today are not only surprised but embarrassed to find anyone who knows exactly what they believe and why. We have been sold a bill of goods wrapped up in the blanket of mediocrity where no one is to keep score, do better than the next person, or to be completely sure of what they believe in. However, Paul knew exactly what he believed and why. He reflected his core beliefs in how he personally planned his life. Life did not dictate for Paul how he would respond, rather what he knew about his relationship with Jesus did. We all would like to think we can pla...

Imitate Jesus! - Romans 15:1-13 April 29, 2007 AM by Pastor Lee Hemen In our day and age where people can remain intimately anonymous in cyber chat rooms and blog rings, they have submerged themselves into self-absorbed cocoons instead of servant churches. Encouraged into this kind of thinking, the local church is no longer a body of like-minded believers working together to build the kingdom of God. Instead, “herds” are ushered into spiritual slaughter houses, with the unsuspecting masses, to watch live video-fed messages projected onto a screen for spiritual entertainment. You can feel you are a part of something, while not really being a part of anything. Sadly, in many cases, the body of Christ in our world has become a prepackaged commodity and has ceased in being the loving intimate family of God it was meant to be. Paul relates to the Roman church that they were to first and foremost imitate Jesus Christ as a church. They were to be His body in the world. This cannot be done in ...