Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 7:1-7 (October 20, 2025)

October 20, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 7:1-7

I pray that this beautiful desert morning has lifted your spirits, or no matter where you may be, that the witness of Stephen in our texts today, and for several studies of this part of the Acts of the Apostles, finds you comforted in your faith.

Please continue praying for Kandice, Lisa, and Alexis.  Kandice continues in hospice care at home, and is very near to her triumph in Christ, and her entry into His heavenly kingdom.  Pray too for Larry and his RN wife as he undergoes a procedure on Wednesday to remove cancer material from his esophagus so that his quality of life with terminal cancer might be improved.  Pray too please for Becky in Eagan, MN as she regains her strength after a battle with extreme weakness.  Cause yet unknown.   And one more today.  Please continue to pray for Teri as she regains strength and mobility after her surgery.  Our prayers span large areas of our city, state, nation, and world.  Please know that our prayers bring healing and hope for their recipients. 

Before my vacation last week, we met Stephen in the text of that study.  He is a man of grace and energy for the work to which the Gospel has called him.  But now, those who detest the good work that he does, and the positive things that he says, have lied about him, and he has been called, yet again, to trial before the Sanhedrin.  Of course, the Sanhedrin has been ready to condemn someone from this new Christian church in their midst.  I really think that Stephen would have been a man after the heart of Martin Luther in the 15 hundreds.  Stephen could easily say, "Here I stand, I can do no other."  What Stephen has to say before the Sanhedrin is the fullness of the truth of God's historic actions on behalf of the Jews throughout their history, and also to powerfully claim the story of the Christ of God, recently brought to trial, whose death was requested, in fact shouted out, before Pilate, so that Pilate would cause Jesus to receive punishment, even to the point of death on a cross.  So, as Stephen stands before the very first question from the judges of the Sanhedrin, "Is this so?" (that you have blasphemed about God?)  Stephen stands boldly and confidently before them all as he begins to recall the journey of the faithful ones, from Abraham forward.  It is a story which nearly immediately begins by talking about the ways in which the chosen ones have fallen away from God throughout history, and even right at the beginning of their relationship with God.  Though it was not Abraham who fostered such difficulty with God.  Instead, Stephen makes it clear bout Abraham's new relationship with YHWH.

1. Abraham came out of the land where he was living at the command of the Holy One.  At this very beginning Abraham was obedient to YHWH.  In combination with God's command, it must have certainly been true that Abram (his name before God renamed him) had a truly adventurous spirit.  And since he responded completely to God's request of him to relocate, he must also have had the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart.

   I can really find myself in touch with this after making a cross-country move to a city in which I had only had a few days’ experience.  I came with a spouse, children, pets, and belongings to a city in which both I, and a new parish, were filled with hope.

2. This was Abraham too.  He was a man filled with hope, just like so many people whose heritage we carry, came to this country filled with hope for a better life, and even more, that very same thing is the reason for the by far largest majority of immigrants who are looking to a new land with hope.

Even though Stephen would lose his life, he had the faith of the Spirit of God that everything that Christ had assured his disciples would come to be, including life, forgiveness, and salvation were already theirs.  Though Stephen was not going to see it happen in this life, he was about to discover its Holy Truth in the next life with Christ in Heaven.

Thanks for being with me today.   I will be back tomorrow morning as we move forward with Stephen’s brave and bold retelling of the real story of how everything in which he now believed had come to be in the Savior of the world.

Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 34 (October 17, 2025)

October 17, 2025:  Friday Bible Study on Old Testament of Psalm 34

Blessings and peace to you on Friday morning.  Oh, you noticed?  We have been busy at the church getting the yard sale put together, and I have been in and out around the property checking on the unsheltered group who has been causing problems around our property and the Mormon church across the street.  Yesterday, I did have the police come over to check during the day too.  And apparently last night they came late and moved the group from both properties.  They have also been impacting the neighborhood and the neighbors of the church.  Keep all of this in your prayers.  It is not that we don't support the unsheltered community, but this group is violent and leaving their waste of all kinds on the property.  Please keep the Prasek’s in your prayers as Becky is now hospitalized in Minnesota with extreme weakness.  Pray for Ron too.  This health issue may well delay them from arriving in Tucson this autumn.

Today we are in the 34th Psalm.  The lead in the commentaries states that this is King David making Abimelech think that David is less than competent, hiding his true nature, faith, and strength from Abimelech.  In some ways this was David escaping from a circumstance that could have been very troubling and dangerous for him.   Abimelech was the name of several Philistine kings that preceded David's time.  However, by David's time, the name was used to describe any Philistine king of a particular time period.  What we do know is that this king was powerful and dangerous, so it was wise of David to cover his true ability by faking his mental and physical strength.   In this kind of circumstance, we find a guide by David's behavior and faith.  You and I often find ourselves in situations in which we have little control from time to time.  We may get an illness, or lose a job, or have a serious car accident, or an unexpected loss, and the list goes on and on, doesn't it?  And rarely does a person get through their entire life without having at least a couple of these times.  So in the remainder of this Psalm we find David extoling the goodness of turning to God with Praise and Thanksgiving even when the situation would seem to not warrant such worship and joy in the relationship of a person of faith with God, having faith in the LORD'S constant care, even when we might feel like we have been abandoned.  David helps us understand that God always listens, perhaps most especially when it feels like He isn't listening.  The next part of this is that God always acts!   You and I can depend on the LORD'S inbreaking love and help as He responds to the needs of those who love Him.  David also indicates that those who are faithless and enemies of the faithful are likely to suffer due to the natural circumstances of their choices, and sometimes at the punishment of the LORD, but for those who are faithful, regardless of their economic circumstances, or their place in the society where they live, or if they are suffering at the hands of the faithless, the LORD will be with them.  Note that does not mean every answer that the faithful might like to have, or every gift from God blessing them with wealth and statis will come to them, but God's promises remain steadfast.  For we who are faithful that means forgiveness, life in the presence of God, and salvation. 

Thanks for being with me this morning. May the LORD keep you always in His Loving Care.   

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim.

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 6:8-15 (October 14, 2025)

October 14, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 6:8-15

Good morning in the Name, and by the Power and Love, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I would like to ask for your prayers for my sleep patterns. Of late I have been having many dreams, none of them frightening, but they cause me to talk in my sleep, and thrash around. Last night I woke up to having gone over my side guard and was almost on the floor. Thankfully, I was able to get back up without a fall. I don't feel stressed before bed, but this pattern started on our vacation to Colorado last week. I thank God for your prayers, and I am certainly praying about this too. Good news about the unsheltered situation at the church. I have been there every morning before nine, afternoons after school at 3:45PM, and at night after sunset at about 7PM. Everything has been quiet over the last two days. Our property chairperson has ordered a fence to be erected on the north side of the parish hall which will only open from the inside as an emergency exit. We are hopeful that this will take care of anyone hiding for the night along the Parish Hall north wall.

Today's study on Acts begins a long section about Stephen. We may already be familiar with part of his story, but in the content of this chapter and the next we are able to read a complete telling of how Stephen got to the place of being stoned at the hands of the Sanhedrin and Saul.  We have just finished a section on the growth of problems over the equal sharing of support for the less fortunate in the new Christian community. The answer was to bring on board men of strong character and strong faith to administer that distribution. It is in the process of this taking place that Stephen, who is an extraordinary person of faith and courage, whose life is guided by his hope in Christ, and the LORD'S call on his life to serve in the capacity of a leader by word and deed.  What you and I know about his end is that he was stoned for the distribution of food on the Sabbath, which was a deep offense to the Jews who were in power as leaders in the Temple. However, in this reading today, and in the coming readings for the next couple of weeks, we discover that there was far more involved that that simplistic explanation about his death. We start at the beginning of Stephen's story in our text for today.

The very first things that we find out from Luke are about Stephen's character and faith. To say that his work was Holy on behalf of Christ's kingdom seems hardly enough. Stephen is the man who we would all like to get to know, a man to whom we could turn in any circumstance in our lives, no matter how difficult or troubling it might be. Though miracles of healing are not specifically mentioned, it seems clear that Stephen was capable of, and willing to do, such miracles since he was filled with the LORD'S Grace and Power. He was just the right man to take care of the aid distribution each week, and he would be the one who would be certain that no one was being treated with distain or being shorted on the help they received. How wonderful this all was, and to know Stephen was a great and special blessing. But then the naysayers came on the scene. They are from a wide variety of places, nearly as many as are mentioned in Acts 2. and Pentecost. These men could find no way to intervene in Stephen's grace filled ministry. Instead, they plotted against Stephen, telling lies about the things that Stephen had said. They said that he uttered blasphemous words against Moses and God, and they became witnesses through these lies before the Sanhedrin, telling those in authority that Stephen constantly said that Jesus would act to destroy their power (which for the Sanhedrin members was their wealth, and source of power in the Temple).  Some things never seem to change, the uber wealthy tend to think that their money and resources grant them privilege over everyone else. The same thing was true in Jerusalem in Stephen's time in the new Christian church too. So here we are in this passage today. Another trial before the most powerful men in Jerusalem. But at the end of our passage today, we discover that Stephen appears to not be troubled by the trial. Despite the lies, the anger, and the threats, this passage ends by telling us about the countenance of Stephen. As they looked on him with derision, they only saw the face of a man which looked as if he held the countenance of an angel. The confidence of Stephen's faith, and his trust in Jesus kept him calm and filled with the blessing of the Spirit's presence. This must have been a real surprise to the powerful men who were gathered there. They were accustomed to people quaking in their boots when they were called up before them, but this was not Stephen in any way. I know that this ending to this passage feels incomplete, but there is so much more as the revelation of God's compassion and frustration gets revealed by Stephen as he witnesses on behalf of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! This is what's coming next, as Stephen offers a telling of the Jews from the time of Abraham until their present time in their own relationship with God, and of course, what they had done to the Messiah Himself. There are times in the lives of the faithful people in Christ, when the only true thing to do is to once again tell the truth of God's Will, and Love, even when it is rejected by those who hear it, who are willing to come in anger as so many have done, filled with wrath and no understanding of God's Love for them.  So, God sends those who can repeat and repeat this message, with the expectation that the Spirit's work is still being done, no matter the outcome of that anger and hostility towards those who have the courage to live immersed in God's truth for His Children.

As for me and my house, we will love the LORD and cherish His only begotten Son every day of our lives!

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim