Transformers

I was having a talk with my oldest grandson this past weekend. He's 8 and I was trying to impress him with my knowledge of the Transformer movies and it's characters. Oh, by the way I love those movies! Anyway, this was just one way of me trying find ways to connect with him and when I had finished talking he began to rattle of the names of various Transformers I had never heard of and then he told just what role they played  in the different movies. Wow, was I way out of my league!
        Then today with the long Thanksgiving weekend behind me, I found myself on Monday morning in our sanctuary in prayer, as is my custom. And when I finished I looked around the church and saw an entirely different transformation in process going on all around me. The Thanksgiving decorations were down and strewn all over the front of the church and right beside them awaiting to bring new life to the Altar area and the rest of the Church were Christmas decorations, anxiously awaiting to be put into place. It was an Altar in limbo. But then that is what Advent is as well. A time of Transformation, of not just our churches and homes, but even more so, a transformation of our hearts and souls as God the Father sends to one and all His Child, the Christ, born anew once again in our hearts. Where there He takes my tired and weary life and He interjects renewal, He turns our doubts into renewed hope. He takes our pain and softens it with the coo of a baby.
      By the time Sunday rolls around the Church will look much different. It will have been Transformed. But then comes Advent our Transformation into the children of God that our Father longs to see. I am not there yet. Right now I feel a bit like "Bumble Bee", my shine is going on! I'm anxious to go as fast as I can, but I'm a little bit clumsy yet, and at times hard to understand! But then I am still in Transformation mode!
   Love Ya' All Rick Koch Dutchtown Church                

A Cornacopia of Thanksgiving

A Blessed Thanksgiving to you All!
       Over the last week or so I have been sending out to my Church, we affectionately call Dutchtown, a email each day about things that "I'm Thankful For..." Today, I want to widen the group I share with on this day before Thanksgiving, a wide variety of my Thankfulness. A Cornucopia of Thanksgiving! I sure hope I spelled Cornucopia right because spell check might not know that word!
   Anyway, on this day before Thanksgiving I am thankful for Jesus Christ and the salvation I know thru Him. There was a time in my life when I did not know Jesus and His saving grace. I am thankful to our Father in Heaven for giving us His Son.
      I am thankful for the strength of the Holy Spirit when it is hard to live out our faith. A few words from C.S. Lewis in his "Screwtape Letters: "Satan's cause is never more in danger then when a human being no longer desiring, but still intending to do God's will, looks around upon a world from which every trace of God seems to have vanished and asks why he has been forsaken, yet still obeys."  Thank you God for that kind of Faith & your Holy Spirit!
     I am thankful to God for noisy kids at church and grand kids at home this Thanksgiving.
 I am thankful for two loving daughters and the respect I have and am proud to give to my two son-in-laws.
I heard this one in Church on Sunday and I echo it as well, I am thankful for healing drugs. The person in church simply said that they were thankful for drugs. Which of course caused me to remember the song, "I Want a New Drug" by Hewie Lewis and the News in 1984, from the then cassette "Sports".
  I am thankful that I can remember such dumb trivia, but cannot remember what I wore yesterday!
  O.K. it's time to end this rambling. I am Thankful for those of you that read this and that from time to time it might bless you, challenge you or cause a smile to rest upon your face.
   Anyway, have a joyful Thanksgiving! Pastor Rick Koch Dutchtown Church       

Good coming from Bad

Hello All, I share with you first of all today this scripture from Romans 8:28. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose." A passage that at times has baffled many of us, including myself. A friend just finds out that they have Cancer and somehow we who call ourselves Christians are to understand that God will work for good amidst a situation like this. It takes a lot of Faith!
    Now a real life story. On Thursday, November 1st my little brother calls me to tell me that our Mom is having Surgery on Friday for she fell and broke her hip. She needs a hip replacement. To complicate maters mom has Fibromyalgia and is in early stage Dementia. To ccomplicate matters even more I had not talked to my Mom or step dad Phil for almost two years. Like some of you out there, I too live with a fractured family. Yes, I'm a Christian and a Pastor and I wish it were not this way, but this is a reality in my life and many of yours! 
    That same Thursday I called my step father with anxiousness to inquire about mom not knowing if he would take my call. Phil took my call and asked me and my Church to be in prayer for them. Ice broken, thank you God! In the weeks past Phil and I have spoken often and earlier this week I was able to finally talk to my mom with simple, "I Love yous" and "I miss yous" exchanged. Down the road I plan to visit them in Missouri.
     I wish it had not taken my mom breaking her hip to begin the healing process between us. But God has once again worked for the good amidst the physical pain my mom now deals with, not to mention Phil having to play nursemaid to her as he cares for her lovingly. A long way to go yet in re-building our relationships, but ice now broken.
   I share this with you today for I now that there are many of you out there reading this that are living amidst broken families of all kinds. You ache and you hurt over the anguish you feel. I write this to you who have families that experience little of this brokenness, that you wouldl truly cherish that! And that you would be in prayer for countless families that you know who wish their family was more like yours. Folks there is hope! And it comes in person called Jesus!  Never give up hope and always trust in Him.
     Your Brother in Christ, Rick Koch Dutchtown Church          
 

Rushing into Christmas

     Every year about this time I get this wild hair up my nose and I need to get on my soapbox and get this off of my chest! I know that this is a cliche, but it seems to me that the Christmas Season gets promoted earlier and earlier with each new year. Now I would not have any problem with this if the "True" reason we have Christmas got promoted earlier, that being the birth of Jesus. That would be great! But once again our stores have toy lands open earlier and earlier. Christmas music is now being played in many of the larger Box stores and I saw Christmas decorations up at a few homes before it was even Halloween! Slow down! It's not that I have anything against Christmas, I love it! I love to go shopping, I really do! I like putting up Christmas decorations or at least watching Beckie put them up. And I love Christmas music. But why does it have to come at the expense of Thanksgiving? A time of the year to pause and reflect on the goodness of God. Here at Dutchtown we have this time each week in worship to share about our blessings from the past week, to bless God with our praise. Yet as time goes by our sharing gets less and less. How is that if God is a glorious God, and He is. No instead it is simply a reflection upon us and our lack of thanksgiving to Him. Unfortunately this is happening all around our great country. We want and we want some more, but we often times fail to stop and give thanks. The Word of God tells us to Bless Him first and then He will bless our land. It's high time we get this right before it is too late! This Thanksgiving Season, take time out to tell God "Thank You" over and over again. He is worthy! Your brother in Christ Rick Koch      

VOTE

  I know that I am not supposed to talk about Politics from the pulpit as a Pastor or too share why you should vote for a certain candidate. So I will not do that! Instead a little story to tell you. An acquaintance of mine asked me the other day why am I going to the trouble of voting in the Presidential election come tomorrow seeing as I am going to vote for the Republican candidate. Because it's a "No Brainer" that the Democratic Candidate is going to win the state and it's Electoral delegates. Well for one, I never have liked the Electoral College, but more importantly voting is a "Right" that I am given in our great nation. A "Right" that many other nations wish they had, but do not. I get to vote without harassment or anyone looking over my shoulder. As a matter of fact, let's say you decide not to vote for whatever bad excuse you come up with. If you later on begin to engage me in conversation about the woes of our nation, I WILL turn a deaf ear towards you for you gave up that right to complain when you decided voting wasn't worth your time! Voting is just one way that we as Christians and Christ's Church can try to further God's Word in our nation. So come Tuesday, get out and exercise this precious right that you have. And never, ever let someone tell you that your vote does not count! Your Brother in Christ, Pastor Rick Koch