- Rev. Kim Taylor
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
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