Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 (June 3, 2025)

June 17, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter – 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

Good morning, dear friends in Christ. Thanks for the break yesterday. Our family took the afternoon to go to a movie together. We saw the new How to Train Your Dragon. It was delightful and a great deal of fun to see how the movie adapted to the original animated version. Just a reminder that we will be showing the last Saturday movie at 2PM on Saturday afternoon. It is Studio Ghibli, G rated, great for any age. Snacks are free or bring your own. This will be the final movie event at church as the summer heats up, and hopefully the humidity will be too intense for us to gather at 2PM in July, August, and maybe even in September. If you are getting upset in your daily living by all the changes, acts of violence, or even the condoning of violence perpetrated by people who are of a different opinion than you may be, then please remember that God is ultimately, and always, in charge!  So, keep your cool, (not easy to do these days), and for your own safety as a desert dweller, stay cool! The temperatures this week are going to be high, so take the necessary precautions to hydrate, and spend as little time outside as you must.

I shared on Sunday at the service that I am a vivid dreamer. and sometimes my dreams are very active, and I have been known to throw myself out of bed during a dream like that, or far too often I awaken feeling frustrated after a dream, because in my dream I am unable to get someplace that I should know like the back of my hand.  I call this a frustrating dream, and it always feels like I have spent hours moving about to accomplish my end goal of arriving where I want, or need, to be. It would be so nice if during those dreams, that I have regularly, there would always be a group of people who prayed for me. That would be very comforting. I know that in my life, many of you continue to keep me in your prayers, and I thank God for your prayers every day. I pray for you too. In today's reading from II Thessalonians Paul asks the people of Thessalonica to pray for him in his own work, that the Word that is Jesus Christ the Savior, and Paul's own words, will bear the fruit of faith in our Savior's Kingdom on earth.  When we move to the Acts of the Apostle's we will discover how that went for Paul. It must have been frustrating for Paul, like me in those dreams where I just can't seem to get where I need to go to get done something that I know I need to do. Isn't this Paul? I think that sometimes we think that Paul's life was easy, as he reached out into brand new communities of people who had never even heard of the God of the Messiah and Savior. In fact, there lives of worship were about how their actions could manipulate a specific god to do their will, or to the self-proclaimed god, the emperor. Are your prayers, and communications with God more like that? We know that Paul is driven by faith in Jesus Christ, and that through him the Spirit moves to transform the hearts and minds of people to treasure the actions of the One True God for forgiveness of sin, God's promised presence in life and death, and the certainty for all believers that Salvation belongs to all who believe.  The prayers of the Thessalonian church are vital to Paul, as God acts through him bringing people to faith in Jesus. However, we know that Paul certainly experienced getting bogged down as others tried to persecute him for this message of Truth. It must certainly be frustrating, and that Paul saw it taking too long, or not happening at all in some communities, especially because Paul understood that he brought the only Truth of Christ to new community after new community. I love Paul's closing sentence in this passage. Once again, he gives thanks for the power of the Gospel in the lives of the of the people of Thessalonica, and he knows that it is that very same Gospel that propels him forward every day, even when the reception he receives is cold and violent.  Paul writes: "Direct your hearts toward the Love of God and the Patience of the Christ."  Paul knows, as do you and I, that life can get tough, and in fact, such difficulties are inevitable, yet people of faith in Jesus continue to walk forward each day, confident of Christ's Patience, Comfort, Strength, and Peace.  The people of Thessalonica have a treasure beyond measure, Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior!

Thank you for saying yes to the Spirit's guidance in taking part in the online studies that we have shared.

In the Love of Jesus Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: The absence of Monday Thessalonians Bible Study on the 16th of June

June 16, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to Thessalonians

My dear friends,

Just a note to let you know that I will begin the rest of the 2 Thessalonians study on Tuesday morning, June 17. A little note: the 15th was my Mom's official birth certificate birthday, but her mother always insisted that she was born on the 17th of June two days later. One guess which birthday my Mom liked to celebrate? I will be with you tomorrow. The next Bible Study will be on the Acts of the Apostles when we finish our current study.

God bless you all.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 (June 9, 2025)

June 9, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

Good morning, and may your day be filled with both small and big miracles through the love of Christ in your life. Today please keep Steve in your prayers as he goes through lung biopsy. Please pray for the results to be good. Also pray for Teri whose new hip parts (a newly developed replacement for Teri's joint needs) have arrived, and it is now looking like she will be able to have that surgery during July. The exact date has still not been determined. God needs a big thank you from all of us who have been praying for months for this opportunity to become a reality. Pray to for Vince, a former foster child of the Burts. He was in church Sunday and needs a great deal of encouragement and love right now. He is newly released from an 8-year prison term, and is now 25 years old, looking for work possibilities. He completed high school and took college courses while incarcerated. Please keep Vince in your special prayers so that he can move forward in his life now.

In Paul's second letter to the church in Thessalonica, he continues to encourage the new Christians in this young church to always be strong in their faith, and to rely on the power of God's Grace and Love for them, especially with all the persecution that they will face, and were already facing in their community.  He tells them to stand firm and to hold on tight. I am not sure how many of you have crossed the five-mile-long Mackinaw bridge that connects lower Michigan to the upper part of Michigan. But I can certainly tell you that if there is any wind at all, and there is usually a lot of wind, most passengers hold on tight trying to be firm in their safety. In its history, only one car has blown off the bridge, but the fear for others is real, especially if someone else is driving the car, truck, or van. Some of you may be thrill ride enthusiasts. I have never liked roller coasters. The security never seems good enough for me when I am secured with a leather strap on an old wooden frame coaster, or that metal bar across my lap. I promise you that when I have ridden one at the bidding of my children, I do everything possible to be firm and really hang on to the "little bit of security" by my assessment of that strap, bar, or over the shoulder harness.  It was important for these earliest of Christians to live with the strength of the Truth to which Paul had introduced them. History tells us what kinds of terrible things the Roman persecution could bring to their lives, and the hope and love of God shown to them in Paul's witness of our Risen Savior was what brought to them the strength and courage to face all of this. I know that over the centuries there have been plenty of Christians who think that if God loves them, they can coast in their faith lives, and God will just take care of all of it. Let's face it life is not easy, and there are always challenges to our faith that we allow to work us loose from the grace and power of God's promises for us in Jesus Christ. Isn't this the reason that we come to the Church? Our church is the place where we receive renewal of that strength and courage as we face the world's challenges all around us. However, like the Thessalonian Christians, we are always called to stand firm and hold on to the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have seen this reality repeatedly in the forty years of my ministry. I have witnessed suffering and death that might have defeated those who had to go through it, yet they found resolve and strength in the faith that sustained them in the good times, when learning about the Savior was preparing them for the times of life's difficult challenges.  That is what Paul is doing when he reminds the Thessalonians of what they have learned from him. This is why the faith of others is so important for us in the church. We learn and grow from one another. When we fail to offer that nurturing support, it can become tragic for those who do not have a sense for that encouragement from their sisters and brothers in the Church. We must always remember that God is powerful enough to take care of everything, and that includes death itself, so stand firm and hold on to the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer of Life. This admonition of Paul for this small community of new Christians is the same as if Paul was addressing you and me as members of a small, older congregation like American. We too are faced with the challenges of the world, like the Thessalonian church, resources are tight, challenges are always evident, and when we get to this place we are now in, we must stand firm and hold on to the faith of the whole Church that has sustained Christians for centuries.  To do so means that we too stand in the long line of Christians who the world has challenged, and the God of Grace and Power who loves us, will never be defeated. My friends stand firm and hold on, because the Christ of the LORD has saved us all!

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Note:  There will be no Bible studies for the rest of this week. I will be away for the Grand Canyon Synod Assembly in Las Vegas. I will be back with you next week.