The Pastor’s Piece
FCFI
June 4, 2023

It’s June. This is what we’ve been waiting for – long, warm days and pleasant summer nights. In my humble opinion – this is the best month of the year. All the promise of life comes in June. School is out as are the leaves on the trees. The garden is growing. The grass is green and the farmers have already brought in the first of the summer harvest (hay). You can go outside without a jacket.
A couple weeks ago, my wife and I did something we have never done before. For the first time, we decorated our dad’s graves at the cemetery. Up till now, I didn’t have a deceased parent so I didn’t have the need to decorate a grave. My wife’s dad passed away several years ago, but someone has always decorated his grave every year to honor his life. But this year, it seemed appropriate for us to accomplish those tasks. My dad died in January so we don’t even have a headstone yet. So a week ago last Sunday, the day before Memorial Day, we planted an Iris from my mom’s flower garden on Dad’s grave in Gratiot, WI. Then we did the same at my father-in-law’s gravesite outside of Browntown, WI and thanked the Lord for our dads and their influence on us. It was a bit emotional, but we also find ourselves anticipating a joyful reunion in heaven one day and we are looking forward to that day!

I have two friends who lost sons in the Iraq War. Some of my uncles on my mom’s side fought in WWII and several in the Korean Conflict. My dad spent two years in the Army but did not have to serve overseas. A friend of ours fought in combat in Vietnam and a friend of his died in his arms on the battlefield. He told me he made a deal with God after that – “You leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone.” We became friends, I invited him to church one Sunday and he came. He gave his heart to Christ. Afterward he said it was the first time in 53 years he’d been in church. He grew up in Chicago, later he worked for Allis Chalmers and lived in Wisconsin most of his life.
Speaking of inviting people to church – last Sunday we had three visitors at MCC who came because of “random” encounters the week earlier. One guy was there because a couple from our church got to talking to him in the Walmart Garden Center while looking at landscaping blocks. Next thing you know the Lord comes up in the conversation and they extend an invitation to church. Same thing with another lady, she was at a garage sale and was talking to one of the homeowners, and the next thing you know the Lord comes up in the conversation and they get invited to church. And lo and behold, they all showed up on Sunday morning.
As I write this, it’s a little on the dry side. I hope between now and when this column goes to print, we will have gotten some good soaking rains. Last year I planted some trees out by the barn which is kind of out in the field. There is no running water nearby so that means I have to haul water. I have a 250 gallon plastic tote that works great for this. Last year I kept everything watered up all summer long. This summer I decided the trees were mature enough to take care of themselves. Then one day when I was out checking on them, I noticed how the leaves were curled trying to deflect the sun so I decided I needed to water them again. So I got the tote out and have been watering them. It makes a person feel pretty good after he’s done with that three times a week – knowing that you’re giving life-giving resources to something that probably would die without it.
Of course, there is a spiritual application to the above. There’s actually a spiritual application to everything that happens to us in the physical realm. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:14: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Church is a good thing. The mantra of our time is: “Forget everything anybody’s ever told you.” Forget about what the Bible teaches about sexuality. Forget about what your parents taught you. Scrub your mind clean of traditions and truths passed down through the generations and over the centuries. Why? Because we have a better way, they say. In the last 50 years, we have come up with a better way than anybody before us ever has. Thousands of years of truth and tradition mean nothing, our way is better. It is yet unproven, but we know it’s better.
But you can’t say, “Well, I don’t believe the Bible,” unless you know what you don’t believe. You have to search the Scriptures before you can say you don’t believe them. That’s fair. And Jesus said that if you do search the Scriptures, you’ll find Him because He is in the Scriptures. I believe His exact words were: “Seek and you shall find.”

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).