Pastor's Ponderings: Ephesians 1:1-4 Bible Study (October 12, 2026)

October 13, 2026: Ephesians 1:1-2

Blessings and peace be with you this partly cloudy morning here in the desert.  Yesterday we celebrated the life of Joyce's son Andrew.  His family, co-workers, and friends gathered to remember Andrew.  It was a very wonderful afternoon with music, video, and service, as well as a reception in the parish hall.   Though we are a small congregation, there is always more to do as we work to proclaim God's grace for all who come into our midst.

Today we begin our study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.  Normally, we will have Bible Study on this book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, with some changes for vacations, holidays, and other unplanned reasons like illness.  Let's get started with some thinking of scholars which surround the letter to the church in Ephesus.  This letter may indeed be a circular letter, meant to go out to a number of churches in which Paul had begun the new communities and reached out to as a missionary for Christ, itinerant, and preaching the Gospel.  This letter, whether it was meant only for Ephesus or for many new churches in Asia Minor, has a central theme.  Its intent was to proclaim the gathering of all things together in Christ, which included all of creation, and most especially, people.  It is only in Christ in which all things come together.  Christ is the true center of all things.  This letter speaks to the duality of people; we are all simultaneously saints and sinners.  In every one of us there is a kind of battle going on between our two natures.  In our world there is no unity without Christ. When we get back to some Bible study programs which were popular about 50 years ago, like Bethel Bible, we hear the language of the harmony of creation which God always intended, from the garden until today, and beyond.  Christ came and continues to surround us with the restoration of the harmony God created us all to have.  Of course, we need to realize that the letter may have been written to a specific church, and ultimately was shared around, lost its recipient name, and ended up eventually going to Ephesus.  We will probably never know for sure.

I know that this seems like a very small passage to start and finish with today, but in its earliest words and greeting we discover that Paul only carries two claims to fame for himself.  First: he was an apostle of Christ.  Paul admits, and rightly so, that he was not his own person.  His life and work were controlled by the Savior.  Paul, as a former, highly educated Pharisee had plenty of reason to feel pride in his knowledge, but that learning seemed distant and unimportant to the grace and love of Jesus Christ in his life, and compassion to which he had been called.  For Paul the word of God had a brand-new unifying binding presence in his life, not old judgements, but new compassion and the Word's authority and grace in Christ for all things.  Second: He meant that he was commissioned and sent out by Christ himself!  I can certainly identify with that claim of Paul.  My call to serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been to two very different settings, and now, there will be something even newer, filled with the hope of Christ-filled possibilities.  I understand at 76 years of age, that Christ's call doesn't quit!  I believe if Paul had lived to my age, he too would still have been proclaiming Christ crucified and raised from the dead.  Little did I know, but I would know, that starting in youth group leadership in church, and as the president of my school's National Honor Society, and using my voice both at school, and in the church, while taking a break from God's call through Christ, and finding my way back as the choir director for 9 years because of a school teacher friend's invitation, and ultimately in that congregation to come to understand the identity in my life of my Lord who had been seeking me out for years, having a wife whose faith was strong and resilient even when we were nearly starving in theological graduate school, from gifts of support to pay bills we could not pay, my internship found me in an Iowa congregation of 3000 members, studying under a wonderful supervisor, finding the grace of church members who assisted our family along the way, receiving a first call interview, and call, in a congregation of 1350 members in a university community filled with auto industry executives, discovering a need for our then youngest, to leave behind everything that was growing and green, interviewing and being called to serve the Gospel at American, where it is obvious that sometimes we are simultaneously saints and sinners who may struggle to live our lives as our Lord's Holy Children, (By the way this is a long Pauline est sentence) but who know the power of the Gospel to move us to Christ and evermore holy living.  Though my ministry calls may come from congregations, they are, and will always be, the beckoning call of Jesus Himself!  There must never be a time when our pride creates what we believe to be the work of the Gospel.  All the credit for the successes of our work for Christ must always be given to God Himself, who fills our lives with the Spirit who is our guide and shepherd in all things.  A good sermon is a reason to thank God for His care in the message, and to thank the Spirit for her constant care, and it is she who surrounds us with Christ's Love and Compassion.  Is it any wonder that from time to time we utter these words, "May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you O Lord." 

Whew, that long sentence and thought are over!  Well maybe.  I want you to know that I believe that each of us has two addresses right now.  One address is our human address, and the other, (can you guess?) is our divine address, where we are when we reside in the fullness of Jesus Christ.  Last Sunday in my message I spoke about Grace.  It is ours in all its fullness through Jesus Christ.   It is a gift which you and I can only receive from God, our Savior.  It is the loveliness and light, the warmth of being held gently in the arms of One who cares, and the certainty that no matter what comes, that grace will always surround us with understanding and compassion.  Of course, you and I need to turn our lives over to Christ in all things for grace to fill us, and flow from us to all people who are around us.  Paul almost always uses the word grace in his greetings for the new churches.  Another of Paul's words in greeting is the word peace.  There is only one place to receive this, and that is from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is in Him where that peace that passes all understanding comes to us all.  I think that every one of us seeks that kind of peace in our lives, often in places where it cannot be found.  Turn to Christ, and there that peace will always be, no matter the circumstances.  It is ONLY in the Will of GOD that PEACE can be found in this life.

Thanks for letting me share with you today.  Tomorrow we will move into chapter 1:3,4. May the Lord's grace surround you throughout this day.  

In Christ's love Pastor Kim

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October 14, 2026: Ephesians 1:3-4

It is a beautiful morning.  May our Lord in Heaven fill your life with His Light, and Truth, and Love.  Yesterday we prayed on the Prayer Chain for a family whose son-in-law, husband, son, and father, was wounded in the head by a gun shot.  Yesterday Gordo was removed from life support.  Please pray for his family.  We also need to remember the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo, who has now had surgery to remove a portion of his cancerous lung.  Pray for healing, and with comfort, in this time of uncertainty in their churches. 

Today we have a short two verses in the English translation from the Greek, but in the original Greek this reading is a long Pauline sentence running from verse 3 through verse 14.  I can understand this completely.  Paul would be caught up in the wonder of God's Grace in Jesus Christ, in the power and promise of God's Word, finding at every turn another thought to continue to unpack the glory and power of Christ's election of humans to save us from our sin, even as difficult as that would all be for Him, because we are His loved beyond measure treasure in all of His creation.  However, in the English translation this section of the first chapter is divided into much smaller sections, hence we have only verses 3 and 4 for today's study. 

In our passage for today we find Paul thinking, as we might expect, in somewhat Jewish thought, about Christians being God's elect, and of course, Paul, understanding the sinful nature of people, is in awe that the LORD of all things has chosen people!  But for Paul it is even more than that.  We are only a little bit lower than the angels of heaven in the order of God's choosing, and that includes all of the beauty and life of all of God's amazing creation, because we know that in all of the creative power that God wielded, He saw that everything was just as He had intended it to be, so here we are, perhaps the most difficult part of His creation due to our sinful nature, but certainly blessed again and again by the Lord's unsurpassed love for us above nearly everything else on earth and in heaven.  So, in his own thinking, Paul sees himself, and all humankind as God's choice, and that in itself is a wonder beyond belief.  Of course, people might choose God for His goodness and mercy, though there seems in our world today, or even in our own nation, many who do not choose His Light and Truth and Love by seeking the One who offers it, so perhaps it becomes even more extraordinary that God chooses you and me.  Paul finds in God's choice a bounty that is beyond measure, only to be found in heaven!  People are certainly able to attain a certain high level of knowledge and wealth, but there is nothing that a person can do to even begin to approach the bounty of God's blessings which are showered upon us as if we deserve to receive them and will come to acknowledge the One who has given them, but that only happens when we receive the Christ through its being given to us in the Spirit's gift of faith.  So here you and I are.  God does it all!  Martin Luther had it right, the only way we can come to receive such amazing blessings is by Word Alone, Faith Alone, and perhaps the greatest, Grace Alone.  These are the blessings that can only come from Heaven, and our Father.  However, that is not the fullness of Paul's thinking about these things Paul is also pondering.  He is thinking about the purpose of God's choosing.   As Christians, in Paul's time, and in ours, the Living Word, Jesus Christ, comes to us, in, with, and around us, that God's elect will be holy!  Paul understands that Christian people are meant to be a part of this world but separate from it in so many other ways.  Christian lives are meant to be the graceful presence of God so that all people can see His nature and understand that He chooses to make all people His own through faith.  In Paul's time, Christians knew that they were very different from the Roman world, though they lived in it, they were God’s presence.  Today, that difference has been blurred.  Our faith life, and being a part of the body of Christ, the Church, have become less significant.  The place where reception and growing faith have happened for two thousand years, is, and will always be, the heart of growing faith, and the home for moving one's life into the living presence of the Savior.  Today, many other things draw people away from their faith life to live in and of the world.  That is not who we are meant to be.  We have been chosen by God to be immersed in His bounty of Grace through Jesus Christ.  Today we cower to think that we might be persecuted for this difference, but that evil, which often calls itself a part of the Church is out there trying to take power and wealth, and to then judge those of us who continue to walk in Christ's way, to task, or even worse, to seek to punish the True Church who does not live in the world like that.  There is, today, a powerful religious group who advertise in the political arena with proven lies, to continue to seek their accumulation of worldly power and wealth.  That is not the True Church!

Our lives are meant to be an offering to God, and that means that as we live in this world, others will know that we, indeed, are the children of the living Christ.

Thanks for being with me today for this study.  Next week, we will have four days of this study, Monday through Thursday, but tomorrow I am on vacation with my family, this week is Fall break from school.  Reminder, Saturday, 1PM, is our free movie.  It is a great movie, recommended by everyone who I know who has seen it.  I thought it was a really good view.    With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 27:39-28:31 (October 6, 2026)

October 5, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 27:39-28:10

Good morning. I was out getting our son to work, and it was beautiful at 72 degrees at that time of the morning. I hope that you have had a wonderful weekend, especially with the great U of A win over an undefeated Ohio team. Sunday at church was wonderful too. we had a small Gospel group, but the music was uplifting and wonderful. Carson brought us some wonderful surprises on the organ and piano, especially with the last hymn, "When the Saints Go Marching In". Please continue the prayers that have been requested for members and friends of the congregation. I am not certain that we have prayed with our Bible Study Group for Pastor Ron and Becky, whose home in Tucson was flooded this summer when a ceiling water pipe broke. The work required to restore the home and repair the damage is substantial. They may have to come early this year to be present as repairs move forward.

I had thought that we would be able to finish through Acts this morning, but now I think that it will be better to finish tomorrow with Paul's getting to Rome as we come the end of the Acts of the Apostles. Today however, we find Paul and the ship that he is on having held during a severe storm by putting four anchors down, dropping the single square sail, hoping that through the night the ship will survive, the anchors will hold, and the 200 plus people on board will not be lost as the ship flounders onto the rocks along the coastline. As we start this morning, we find that the ship, its crew, its passengers, and the Roman prisoners have all survived the storm, and in the clearing morning, a sandy beach is sighted on the shoreline, so anchors are cut free, sail up, steering paddles unlashed, and the ship heads to be beached so that they might find safety on the island that is before them. We need to remember how great a part Paul played in the saving of the ship and the people on board, and as we find the ship being beached, we once again find the honor and dignity of the Roman Centurion who is responsible for Paul's safe transport to Rome for his hearing before the emperor. As the ship is beached the only way to get people off is for them to swim or float on boards to shore. As the ship is being torn apart in the stern by the storm which continues to rage, the other soldiers believe that it would be prudent just to kill the prisoners, including Paul, because they might swim away and escape. The centurion forbids that kind of action against their charges. Once again Paul's life is spared, so that he might reach Rome to offer his witness for Christ to the most powerful people of his time in the world. Coming ashore they discover that they are on the island of Malta. Your text might indicate that the people of Malta are barbaric. A much better use of that word in the text would be to understand its use by the Maltese people there. Barbarous does not mean that the people are cruel, mean, barbaric, and unworthy of consideration by Paul. It means that they may be people who do not speak the language of the island but have little to do with their willingness to offer their hospitality to the people whose ship has just beached on the shoreline, barely surviving the storm. Upon their arrival on shore, a fire is built to warm them (a fire to warm over two hundred people?). Paul joins in by collecting wood which can be used in a bundle to be burned for warmth. Here Luke lets us know that Paul is not a person who ever stands around doing nothing. He knows that he has a limited time on earth, just like us, to do the work to which all believers in Christ are called. As he lights the bundle of wood in his hand, a snake, awakened from the cold rain, comes out of that bundle of wood and bites Paul. The people from Malta and the ship believe that this happening is an act of the fates, those who control death, and cannot be escaped. (Malta has never had poisonous snakes) Their belief is that Paul must have done some great crime, and now the fates have sent the snakes to finally get him. However, as they watch Paul waiting for death to come to him, they are shocked that he is indeed not dying, and lives without illness, so they become convinced that Paul is a god. Now in Malta, word comes to Paul that Publius' father is ill with what you and I might know as food poisoning or perhaps the flu. The passage tells us that Paul speaks with Publius' father, and he is cured of his malady. In a place like Malta such healing would have been quite rare, and the cause of superstitious beliefs. The word used in the original Greek for his healing is more likely to be understood as medical treatment. Such a use of that word should not surprise us since Luke is the writer of acts, and he was a doctor. However, we cannot dismiss the possibility that Paul's prayers and laying on of hands did indeed bring a miraculous healing through Paul's faith and trust in Christ. When the word gets around about Paul's gift for healing, it would be obvious that others on the island of Malta would seek him out for healing too. So, whether it was a miracle, or medical care which brought healing, the reality is that Paul continued to bring honor to the Savior through the actions of his life. I know that there are people in the faith communities of Christianity who truly have the gift of healing illness, yet every one of us has a miracle to bring to other people. On Sunday I spoke about our own ministry of healing, by being certain that we never allow an unsheltered person who we may choose to help to go without our knowing their name and helping them to understand that they are named to us and before God. Our doing so means that they are not left to feel abandoned in a world that doesn't care that they were even born. We probably never understood ourselves to be medical missionaries of the same ilk as Paul, and some, like Luke, can go even farther in caring and healing!

Tomorrow we will finish Acts with Paul's finally arriving in Rome.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

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October 6, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 28:11-31

Good morning members of American, and friends of our Bible Study. Starting next week, we will be starting our study of the letters which Paul wrote while he was imprisoned in Rome awaiting his trial before Caesar. Each week we will cover three days, starting with Monday. We have a new email bible study group which includes only those who have asked to receive the studies. It will still be accessible on the church website, godsplaceforgrace.org. If you did not sign up to be in the Bible Study group, you can call the church office at 520-623-3661 and leave a message with your name and email address so that you can be added. On Monday of this next week, we will begin our study of Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. A reminder for you all that we will bless pets again on October 18 at the 10AM worship service. We found that too many folks needed to be at church for too long to have their animals with them, so we have scheduled another opportunity for the blessings to be done.

In our first reading for today, Acts 28:11-15, we find Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus finally arriving at Rome after a lengthy winter stay on Malta, about three months, and then finding another corn ship from Egypt to finish their trip. This time the journey was successful and not burdened with danger. From Malta it took 6 more days for them to journey to Puteoli, the main harbor that received the goods for Rome. In Puteoli, a group of Christians met Paul and hosted him, with his Roman guard for 7 days prior to his departing for Rome once again. Then just outside of Rome Paul was met by another group of Christians. Though we see Paul as a mighty witness for Jesus with Jews and Gentiles, Rome presented the power of the world of Paul's time, and was so much larger than any other community Paul had been in. He thanked God for the presence of the members of the church who greeted him and found courage and strength for the coming task and hearing. Paul was received by the early Roman Christians as if he was a king coming into the midst of those who loved his reign and caring. First, Paul must certainly have come to experience the great cloud of unseen witnesses who had become Christians throughout the Roman empire. Second, Paul now sees the fruition of his 30 plus years of witnessing for Christ and knows that he is surrounded by other witnesses throughout his world. Third, Paul comes to confidence in God's control of every part of the believer's life. Fourth, Paul grows in his faith in the risen Lord, being with him in the midst of so many believers.

When we think about the trials of Paul, bring rejected by his own people the Jews, threatened with stoning, being chased from city to city in Asia Minor, and now facing the trial of his life's work before those who are not yet believers, it is important for us too to know that God is in everything in our lives, both the good and the bad. There is a holy plan for our lives and service for the Savior, but when we go astray, our loving God nudges His plan so that it can compensate for the failure of believers to walk the path of faith with which He has blessed them, all the while calling the faithful, and pursuing them by the power of the Holy Spirit. In times of stress and overwhelming odds, we always need to remember that our God loves us and has promised to be with us through everything in our lives. As I finished my seminary course work, and needed to be approved to be ordained, on one weekend I first interviews with Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler executives in the parish that were interviewing me for a call to be their associate pastor, the very next day I met with a synod bishop, and pastors from around the synod for the oral examination of my qualifications and knowledge, including questions about my moral and ethical thinking. It was intimidating, but like Paul, I found courage and resolve to face this tough beginning for parish ministry because I trusted Christ to be with me through it all. My entire career hung on the presence of Christ in, with, and around me. I received my first call before the synod oral exam, which in my case was not unusual.

In the larger next reading for today, we revisit once again Paul's sincere witness. The important thing to find here is that it has been Paul's pattern throughout his life to seek out the Jews first, to offer his witness, through which some come to Christ, but like so many other places, Paul's message about the messiah is rejected,, so then Paul moves back to the Jews own  prophets,  indicating that it has already been spoken by the prophets that the love of Christ will turn to the gentiles when the Jews are unable to received God's truth about the fulfilling of this promise to send the Savior.  Christ Himself speaks these words to the unbelieving Jewish leaders.

Finally, in the last few verses of Luke's telling Paul's story, we have questions. Why did Luke not tell us about what happened to Paul? This was a part of Paul's story which Luke chose not to share. Paul's life and ministry, of course, the life, ministry, and sacrifice of Christ in Luke's Gospel, were at the heart of Dr. Luke the gentile, who found in Paul a man who could speak to his faith and courage, and medical work with the least, the last, and the lost in the world of Paul. We know that Paul continued to support himself with his work as a tent maker, and I think we must assume that he received generous gifts from the Roman Christians too. It is after two years in Rome that Luke shares no more of Paul's experience. But in the book of Acts, we come to know how the story of that child born in a manger in the cold of winter, who grew and learned to be a carpenter, and who carried God's Word, its living presence in the world, was the King of Kings the Savior of the whole of God's creation.

I will be back with you Monday through Wednesday as we begin our study of Ephesians.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 26:12-27:38 (September 29, 2026)

September 28, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 26:12-31

I hope that you are planning your time away from home carefully today and tomorrow. It appears that we could have some heavy rain if the hurricane moves the way that forecasters are predicting. So, on this day of getting ready, may our Lord Jesus Christ surround your life with His Holy Spirit for your safety, your growth in faith, and the abundant life which our Savior promises.

Please continue to pray for the outcome of Camille treatment to be good with complete healing. Pray too for Regina who continues to work through her vision issues, that the further treatments that she is going through right now will succeed in restoring her vision.

I will start my push right now to be certain that you are registered to vote in the November election, and if you are going to vote by mail that your ballot arrives to your home in a timely way in the next two weeks. Thank you so much for fulfilling the work of being a citizen of our nation by casting your ballot in the election.

In our readings for today we are going to listen to Paul lay claim to the call on his life from the day that he was struck down in a storm on his way to Damascus to persecute the Jews who had joined the Christian Cult in that city. Remember that he is now presenting his case to King Agrippa and his wife Bernice, in addition to the presence of the Governor, Festus, and the others from Jerusalem who had come to prove their case against Paul. At the outset, we need to know that the leaders who are there, both Roman and the Jewish King and his wife really do listen to Paul's witness, and there is a definite shift on the part of the leaders to how they feel about Paul's situation, and the charges against him. Paul defends himself by telling the story of how he came to be committed to Jesus and those who claimed Him as the Messiah sent from God. This is a story with which you and I are quite familiar. We all need to know that we too have a story of God's action in our lives which has brought us to live lives that are immersed in God's Grace and Light. In my own life I have looked back amazed at how I was brought to a place through my birth and Baptism, to my music, called to serve in church, to my marriage to Melody in which her faith and trust in God would give her the courage to support and encourage my own call to serve the Gospel, to head off to four years of graduate theological training, living in a rough apartment, poor as "church mice" with two little children and then to be at my side in my first call, and even yet, another call to move cross country to a place where she had never been before, and in all of this to be a very important part of my openness to the Spirit's presence and guidance.  In Tucson God gave is the opportunity for our gifts to be used for the Gospel, and for us to grow our large family that we had always wanted from the time we talked about it in our early marriage, and before. Now, in my senior years I have grown in wisdom and faith and have come to know how imperfect I can be, having to bring God's grace to my brokenness and life. This is what Paul undertakes in his conversations with Agrippa. He shares his detailed story of his Call in a storm by Christ Himself, to the healing of his vision so that he might begin to understand the power of Christ's Love for all people, his travels around Asia Minor and Greece, and his journey to bring aide to the poor and destitute in Jerusalem, while at the same time bringing resources to support the ministry there. As part of this Paul appeals to Agrippa as a Jew who understands the power and presence of God for those who honor Him with their lives and service, and as a leader who knows about the prophets’ time after time messages about the coming One, the Light of God, the Messiah. In the last passage that we are using for today's study, we come to realize that Paul's defense has been successful. He does not deserve the charges laid against him, but there is an issue which cannot be resolved. As a born Roman citizen who requested the judgement of Caesar in Rome, neither Agrippa nor Festus have the authority to give Paul his freedom, he must now stand before the greatest judge in the Roman Empire, and once again claim his innocence.

Starting Tomorrow, we will travel with Paul on his final journey and hoped for opportunity to share the Good News in Rome!

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

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September 29, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 27:1-38

Good morning on this cloudy, rainy, and unusual September day. Please be safe as you are out today. Please remember that this coming Sunday is the Blessing of the Animals Sunday during worship, it is a Gospel Music Sunday with a carry-in meal after worship. That is a lot to do on one Sunday, but I know that we can manage it. Please be sure to join us. The Gospel Music group also rehearses at 9AM. There will be donuts for our singers who didn't have time to catch breakfast.

Today we are going to be moving through most of chapter 27. It shares with us the blessings and difficulties of Paul's journey toward Rome. I think when we all create a picture of sailing on a ship, it is one of generous food, wonderful cabins for relaxing and sleeping, and adequate personal space. That was not the circumstance for Paul, his companion Aristarchus, the Roman centurion Julius, the other passengers, or the crew. Paul set sail from Sidon on a ship from Adramyttium. Just to get started, we need to take note of the treatment of Paul and Aristarchus. They were both treated well, with compassion for their circumstances, kindness, and freedom to visit friends along the port-to-port journey. As we consider that Paul has a friend with him, we need to ask how that was possible. Likely, Aristarchus had to become Paul's slave for him to make the journey at Paul's side. The centurion, who had authority over Paul, Julius, was probably an older, well respected military person who had been given authority to function as Rome's intermediary between their conquered lands and the presence of the authority of Caesar. Obviously, he did not see Paul, or his "slave" as any kind of a threat to this journey. In the autumn of the year, the sea was not particularly friendly for those attempting to move along its coasts from east to west, which was the route that was being taken. Small, port hopping travel days were necessary to combat the strong autumn westerlies. In fact, it was taking so long that Julius decided to change boats to a much larger, Egyptian corn ship. Of course, the best path to sail would be to round the end of Greece, and to sale much more directly to Italy, but it was not to be. The Egyptian ship was massive, laden with corn to sell to Roman. This ship was 140 feet long, 36 feet wide, and had a draught of 33 feet. It also held over twelve hundred crew and passengers. And the description gets worse. This ship, low in the water and hard to handle because it had no rudder, but instead had two massive stern paddles which in the best of conditions made it nearly impossible to maneuver this very large, heavily loaded boat, but the west wind and its added winter wind from Europe meant that the ship was going to have to stop for the winter, if indeed, it did not founder in the shallows and rocks surrounding some island or head land first. The crew of this ship spent 14 days without food, working hard to keep the ship safe, and indeed, some made plans to try to escape the boat in a small dingy. Paul notified Julius of their plot, and the centurion cut the dingy loose, so that no one could leave. The ship also had just one center square mast and in this wind, the sail was useless. Now let’s get back to Paul. He had already attempted to guide the choice of the centurion to stop where they would be able to winter until the much safer spring breeze returned. However, he was determined to continue to Rome. In doing so he placed everyone at risk and risked the loss of the boat and its grain cargo. We can only imagine fourteen days without food, rough seas, danger on every possible landing site, and then the ship being driven back across the sea to North Africa's shoreline, which was notorious as a place where ships foundered and sank. The crew was ready to revolt, there was little food, and apparently the ship's captain was useless in these circumstances. So, Paul had been in prayer over this circumstance, and God had answered him and told him that there would be no loss of life on this ship, but that the loss of the ship was probable. He guided the crew to eat to gain strength for what lay ahead, hoping to give them courage which Paul himself carried because of his faith in God's promise and message about this journey. In this instance we see Paul chastising the crew for not listening to his guidance. That is an unusual action for a prisoner to take, but Paul knew that the crew had given up trying to control the steerage and had just left the boat to go wherever the wind carried it. It was Paul's courage which compelled the sailors to throw four anchors to hold the boat in the face of the storm, waiting for the morning to come so that they might be able to see where they were, and how best to continue. Paul was a man of great courage and resolve, who's great faith and trust in God and Christ made it possible for him to accomplish what others saw as folly.

So many times, Paul had to draw on Christ's gift of faith and find the courage to move forward. This time it was no different, and the sailors responded.

Of course we are stopping today without finding out what happened. You CAN read ahead! Next Monday we will finish the Acts of the Apostles. It will be a long study on Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday of next week we will begin Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. God bless you with courage and peace.

With the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim