Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 4:12-20 (February 18, 2025)

February 18, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 4:12-20

Good morning, all. This has been a very frustrating morning. It just took me an hour to restart my computer after having put it to sleep last night to speed up the start today. It didn't happen.  I had to close the computer anyway and then wait for it to reboot. This computer is four or five years old, never out of the box, but it has been difficult to work with, to say the least.

I am glad now that I can get our morning Bible Study started. For prayers today, give thanks that no one was killed in the plane crash in Canada. Pray for Christ to be in our hearts in such a way, that as our economy struggles, you and I will find ways to provide for those who have inadequate food and shelter and medical care in their lives. Continue the prayers from yesterday too.

This morning in Galatians 4:12-20 we discover a very different approach from Paul.  Prior to this part of his letter, Paul has been doing the hard work of helping the new Galatian Christians to understand the theology of how Christ has brought such amazing blessings and grace into the lives of His member-diverse new churches. While some try to put into place a two-level arrangement, with new uncircumcised members only being members in an outer circle, while Jews want to be the inner circle with the most privilege and power. So, how does Paul approach this new temptation for the gentile members of the new churches in Galatia? He gets personal! When he first came to Galatia Paul was evidently having some kind of major health crisis.  It wasn't the same thing as being blinded on the road to Damascus.  Perhaps he had run into getting beaten up in some community where preaching the truth of God's Son had been summarily rejected with violence.  Or perhaps Paul had come down with some diseases like malaria or had an illness that had been debilitating for him.  Regardless of what it was, The Galatians welcomed him and offered him care and compassion as he healed. So now Paul falls back to this first relationship with the Galatian community, reminding them of how their warmth and caring had restored his ability to preach and teach about Jesus. He tells the people there that they didn't care then about who he had been, or that he was a stranger with few resources.  No, they ignored any of those kinds of things to offer Paul the help that he needed at that time.  Now Paul says to them that none of these Jewish rules mattered then, and it certainly doesn't matter now as they deal with the Jews who have come to tell the Galatians that they will always be second tier Christians if they don't do things the way the Jews tell them they must. (like circumcision) For Paul his own example disproves the Jew's desire to claim a superior position in the new church. If a leader who teaches the theology of God's action through Jesus Christ does not establish and maintain an interpersonal relationship with those who are coming to Christ in bits and fits, (cause that is what we all do) then the community will never know that close relationship and truth of the theology because they have never seen it in their leader's life, and in the leader's relationship with them.  The warmth and love that we are each called to share with our brothers and sisters in Christ is really what helps the faith journey to continue and ultimately to be fulfilled.  Recently there was a fellow Christian who found themselves in a bind of needing to find a resource for two new tires on their car, or they would have to stop driving it, and the money they had saved was designated for medical care. These things are the reality of life, and so as pastor it was important for me to say I will help you get those tires you need, and you can pay me back some of it each month. Such care does not come from any excess money in our lives, but instead from the heart of Christ that Melody and I know is so important as we work together for the sake of the Gospel. This kind of reciprocal relationship is exactly what Paul is talking about here. The only rule for living in Christ Jesus is to meld together the heart and the mind for the glory of Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. There is nothing in this world that makes anyone more deserving of the gifts that Christ gives to the faithful, it is only all about making a friend, being a friend, and bringing that friend to Christ. (This is a saying from Via de Cristo.)  Paul could claim his new friends in Galatia, and they could claim his friendship too, and together, the Christ of God will be in, with, and around them, and us, in all things of this life, and on into the next.

Monday we will get back to the theology of Paul's teaching and preaching.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 4:8-11 (February 17, 2025)

February 17, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 4:8-11

Blessing and Peace be with you on this Monday morning.

We had a really wonderful worship service yesterday, zippy hymn tempos, as well as a hymn of the day, "When the Poor Ones" which held before us on the day when our Gospel reading was Luke 6:17 ff, Luke's beatitudes, which on a light reading feel like Matthew 5, but in reality, are very different.  Take some time today, and read both versions of Jesus' words to those gathered around Him, whether on Matthew's mountain side, or on Luke's plain, and you will find Luke's concern for those who are less fortunate in the culture of the day, sick, hungry, poor, and warnings to those who are rich, filled with constant adequate food, and good health.  In our reading from Paul's letter today, we see how Paul feels about his own responsibility for the Gospel Truth, and his warnings about sliding backward to the "no gods" who they had been trying to satisfy with few if any results from those "no gods".  Before I go further today, let us remember in our prayers, Jeff D who lost a friend unexpectedly who was a rock band member who Jeff knew. His friend died in his mid-60s. Also pray for Pastor Ron and Becky as they leave the bitter cold of Minnesota and begin their travel journey to Tucson. Continue your prayers for Lisa K whose sister Connie died in California this past week after a battle with pneumonia. Pray too for Tony's family on his death last Sunday morning. Please pray for our daughter Melissa who is battling bronchitis and flu, and our son Jeremiah who has been ill with the flu as well. Please keep Javier and Mackenzie, and their baby Oakley. They have been very busy with work and parenting over the past three weeks. Pray for them to be able to get back to church so that we can get baby Oakley Baptized. Please continue to pray for cancer victims – myself, Maddison's father, Jeff H, and Kandice K – that we are all able to maintain our quality of life as we deal with the ramifications of this disease.

As Paul writes his letter to the Galatian church, he sees that these newest Christians are struggling with the new freedom, which is theirs in Jesus Christ, the burdens of their sins are now carried to the cross by Jesus, and in His Resurrection, Jesus brings that wonderful hope and assurance of the new life which all believers will have in heaven.  The difficulty is that these new Christians are caught in that freedom having to make decisions about how to live in this new relationship of Grace and Love, when in the past they have been caught in the demands of the pantheon of "no gods", and how much it was easier to just do what was written and required in order to attain the "promise of that no god" for fertility of crops and partners, for wealth, for power, for all the parts of their lives.  In those relationships there was a kind of certainty that looked pretty good after the freedom and faith which were in their lives now through Jesus Christ, where they were faced with the freedom of choice in this new faith relationship. When we look back in the Bible, we see the Hebrews who have been brought into freedom from their slavery by the actions of God through Moses. Their food supply as they wander is uncertain. It was often abundant, if not boring, and then sometimes completely inadequate. At times, the Hebrews yearned for the certainty of the food that was provided by the slave masters. Like the "no god" worshipers in the Galatians church, the Hebrews found the certainty of requirements in Egypt for worshiping Egyptian gods attractive once again. They could see a false "no god" in the golden calf, created in an image they brought to the statue they had imagined out of their minds. All of this brought great concern to Paul that he had somehow failed to convey the truth of the Christ of God to these former "no god" worshipers. All the laws of the Jews, the certainty of following them, the certainty of circumcision's role in this relationship with God, But Paul must convince them that Christ has come to complete the law for all people, all of whom have sin, and fall short of being right with the One True God.  If they tried to enter into this new relationship with God through the laws of the Jews, they were, in reality, making the Jewish Law their "no god". It is not so important that we rest on knowing God, because our knowledge of God is feeble, sometimes weak, and at other times somewhat stronger. What is most important is that through Christ, Christ's Spirit's gift of faith that we are known by God! Paul stands strongly on Christ, knowing that the new Christians must worship the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the rest of this most important relationship of Grace and Love will naturally follow. Wanting to keep the Jewish body of laws, to honor the festivals, would be a return to believing that a person needed all of this "in between action of God", action God took until the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, who was the fulfillment of God's Grace for the World.  To go back to the body of law and the demand of honoring Jewish holidays, was as much as saying that you choose to ignore the consummate gift of the Savior, Messiah, God's New Covenant for all of His children.

Thanks for being with me today. Tomorrow we will move on to Galatians 4:12-20.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 7 (February 13, 2025)

February 13, 2024:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 7

Good morning my dear friends in Christ.

I am sorry for missing the Tuesday Galatians study. I have been down with a stomach virus which started on Monday evening and still continues today. I am hoping to be back in the office for a while tomorrow. I am going to make today's study a little brief. Just a reminder about the Saturday Free Movie at 2PM in the church sanctuary. Hope to see you there.

Today we are on the 7th Psalm. Its author is identified as David, who is praying to God about his enemies who hope to overcome David and destroy him. In this Psalm David proclaims to God (YHWH - the LORD) that he is not guilty of any of the things which his enemies think that he is. David speaks on of these things that I think you and I sometimes do with God ourselves.  David says that he is not guilty to the best of his knowledge, yet if he is not telling the truth, that he is prepared to suffer the consequences. It would appear that in the first section of this Psalm we could take the time to read II Samuel 16-20. This may give us a greater idea of what is going on here in this Psalm. It would appear that David's allies now feel that he has done something which breaks the agreement which they have lived by for quite a while, but now they believe that David has broken their agreement, and David feels that he is the target of their wrath over this severing of the commitment which they have been living by.

In the first part of this Psalm David appeals to the ultimate judge, God, appealing to Him to get upset about this situation and to judge the other party with righteous anger so that David will know God is on his side, which would be evident by God's action.  It seems bold of David to say that if he is guilty, he should be punished, but that boldness is backed by David's knowledge that he is indeed not guilty.

The second part of the Psalm for today is the part in which David sings of his strong faith in the righteousness of God. If David offered his understanding of the righteousness of the LORD, believing in his own integrity, uprightness, and faithfulness, then he knows he is not guilty, otherwise the LORD, who is all knowing, will search the heart and mind of David, as well as the hearts and minds of those who now seek to harm him.  David must be supremely confident in the ways in which he understands how God will respond to those who are guilty of trying to entrap. We call those results of taking either a good right action or taking one that is full of lies and lacks truth, consequences, and David, like we do, believes that this is the very action of our God. Consequences are metered out by the LORD! The Lord is certainly involved in every result of an action, both the bad consequences, and the good ones. The consequences between God and us are that He can move to punish, or move to reward, but like all things with God it may wait until the final judgement day, or the consequences may be just around the corner in just a few hours or days.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim