Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 30 (September 11, 2025)

September 11, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Old Testament of Psalm 30

Blessings and Peace to you this morning. Please keep the family and fans of Charlie Kirk in your prayers. He was a conservative Christian man who was assassinated in Utah yesterday as he was in the midst of a college campus gathering of his fans. Please pray for his wife and young children, who are now without their husband and father. May the LORD hold them in His care and Comfort as they live with this terrible loss in their lives. No one should lose their life because of their political stance, or their faith. I must say that even one of my young adults in the house was following all of this. Today please also keep Steve in your prayers as he has a bladder tumor removed. Pray for the LORD'S guidance for the surgeon and staff as this surgery proceeds and pray for a quick recovery. Also pray for Larry and Joyce. Larry has been moved nearer to his attending doctor and is now housed near NW Hospital. His care in this new setting is going better. May God bless both Larry and Joyce in this unexpected journey following Larry's surgery.

Of all the things that we perhaps feel the least qualified to do, praying often seems to be a struggle. Am I doing it right? Will I offend God? What if God doesn't deem my prayer worthy of His ear? Can I pray for myself in addition to the others I pray for? When is the best time, and is there a particular form I should be using? Who am I to feel bold enough to have this conversation with God? In our Psalm for today, 30, we are led into the way that David found helpful. We technically have the first part in Psalm 16. David's choice is to always start with praise to God. Think about it, isn't that the way that the Lord's Prayer starts? And though we are a little uncertain about why David feels that he has been set aside in his relationship with God, what we really have is David's confession of sin and brokenness, and how deeply he has felt the distance between himself and God during those times.  So far, we have given praise to God for His immutable holiness in all of creation, and perhaps most especially, in the petitioner's life. Yes, that is the next step in prayer. I guess we can call it the asking section. It is the time and place in our prayers when we appeal to God for His inbreaking in life itself, both ours and others. In the Lord's prayer we have these parts too. We ask God to forgive us for our sins (trespasses), and to guide us away from the myriad of temptations which pull us away from God! And then, we ask! Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. David petitions too, are to not be set aside in his relationship with God, but instead to be brought back into the fold of all who give praise to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. David's prayer, and ours, ends with yet more words of praise and thanks, power and glory, letting our own hearts and minds end our prayer with the comfort of knowing that the God of all things Cares, and will answer! In some respects, prayer is like prophecy. It may, and usually does, take some amount of time for us to know how God has answered our asks. In prophecy, the only way to know if the words that have been spoken have been heard, is if the prophet's words come true at some time in the future. I have had many prayers answered over the years of my life, and some I am still waiting to see what God has in mind for me with regards to them. But, like David, and so many others of us, we come to discover that constant prayer means keeping at it until God's resolution for our prayer petitions takes place. I am certain that David got a few no answers to his petitions. I know that I had a few of those too. But I think they may have been halfhearted prayers, softening each part, watering it down, and then failing to maintain a prayer posture in my life until the answer has been given. In all of this we must know that God's answer, yes or no, is right and good and just, even when it seems to us that the answer is not what we wanted. When those unwanted answers come, our faith and trust in God must take over, because we must admit that God knows what He is doing, with us, with others, and with the future!

May this weekend be special and wonderful for you.

With Christ's love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 4:23-31 (September 9, 2025)

September 9, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 4:23-31

Good morning my dear friends in Christ.

Please offer prayers of thanksgiving for Sarah who spent some really good time with Larry and Joyce at the care center were Larry has been in rehab. Her visit, along with my phone calls, and all our prayers have truly given them faith and strength in this time of so much uncertainty for Larry after his back surgery. Please also add Kandice and Lisa to your prayers once again. Lisa is having circulation issues in her leg and is going through treatment for a difficult to heal lesion. She also appears to have some pulmonary health issues. Kandice has received word from her oncologist that she is growing more cancerous tumors and nodes. She, Lisa, and Alexis have been able to get out for wings a couple of times, which helps to keep things more normal as Kandice continues her battle with cancer. Pray for her to have relief from pain more days than not, and of course our every prayer should be for the LORD'S healing miracle to take away this cancer which has created so many issues in the lives of this family. Remember, that our October yard sale is to benefit our member family who is in Maui. They are most thankful for our continuing prayers and support.

Today we move on to Acts 4:23-31. This passage is really a message for all of us who are members of Christ's Church. Here in Jerusalem is this brand-new Christian community, Peter and John come back to tell them what was said and ordered from the Temple leaders, and the whole community offers their confession of faith in the Power and Love of the Lord to carry the faithful through the toughest of times.  This small church confesses their trust in Christ and God to do all that is promised, and indeed to continue to enfold the faithful who speak the LORD'S Truth in the world to be protected and even emboldened. Obviously, the evil of those who hold all the power and wealth in the Temple has not cowed the Disciples from acting through the name of the Savior and doing so with amazing confidence. The threat of those who bear their own words, which shows the powerful trying to prove to all who will hear them, that they are on God's right path. The faithful in Christ know otherwise. If you have any doubt about the power of Christ's Love and how it is to play out in the world, because you have listened to some self-centered, wealth desiring, devious "truth" bearer, I am confident that you might feel a bit squeamish, like what is being said does not fit with the Loving Son of God which you know so well, when that happens it is time to look more carefully at the who, the what, and the how of that individual's life.  The Word of God as shared by clergy across the globe, must hold on to the Love of Christ, and the desire of God for His goodness to surround the faithful with comfort, joy, and peace. (This is what God wants for all His Creation.) And when it doesn't do that, we must question if what we are hearing is the Truth according to Christ. Please note that the disciples and the early church reach out in everything to Christ, and to His Father, beseeching them to help the Disciples and those of new faith in Christ to speak with boldness, grace, and love. So maybe we need to see how we are doing. I will tell you right now that I believe that American is an amazing example of the faithful bearing the hope of Christ forward. We are not perfect, individually, or corporately. We must, as the new church in the Acts did, turn to the confession of our faith, and then act with confidence in the face of a world who still does not know God's truths for living. These Truths are ours today. Come and know forgiveness, life with God, and Salvation through Jesus Christ, our LORD, and Savior. The victory of Christ for us is not something that is coming, it is our victory TODAY! Today the abundant love of God through Christ and the Spirit is ours. We need to live it to show others the power of Christ which is in us all the time.

I pray that the joy of knowing Christ will fill your life today.

With the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 4:13-22 (September 8, 2025)

September 8, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 4:13-22

Good morning my dear friends in Christ. Over the weekend we had several members who experienced the severe weather on the far west side of Tucson on the west side of the Tucson Mountains. They did have some damage to outdoor furniture and shade covers, and one lost windowpane. Prayers of thanksgiving that they were OK as this moved through their areas of the west side. Please keep Larry and Joyce in your prayers as Larry recovers from back surgery, and post operative complications with medications. It’s been a difficult time for them. Larry is now in recuperative care.

Today we continue with our study of the Acts of the Apostles. We know that Peter and John have been brought before the Sanhedrin for a hearing. I am not sure that we could call it a trial yet. Obviously, this group of high power and wealthy Jews thought that this problem had been solved when they murdered Jesus, but here it is again, the same kind of miracle healing, and the same messages about Jesus the Messiah. The big difference here in this passage is that the Sanhedrin has no popular support in the actions that they might choose to take, and Peter and John are not claiming Messiahship for themselves. The two of them are just people who were known to accompany Jesus who the leaders killed. The Sanhedrin could find no reason to destroy them, and yet they had to do something. So, they brought Peter and John back before them, and told them they were to no longer speak of, or mention, the name of Jesus to anyone. But even at this Peter and John claim that they cannot contain the things that they have been talking about! They are moved to speak with a power that is beyond themselves, and to do the works of Christ which continue through their actions of healing and preaching. Both Peter and John, and perhaps the other disciples, had come to understand that no matter what the danger and threats of the Sanhedrin, such danger and its consequences would only be temporary, short lived compared to the eternal promises of the Savior to bring them to Himself when their lives ended.  Those very same promises belong to you and me. I know that none of us want suffering and pain in our lives, but like these disciples, we should know that compared to the love of Christ and His promises in eternity, worldly difficulties hold no power over our Christ Promised Eternal Life and Salvation.  You and I know that holding on to this promise becomes more difficult when we are not gathered with the Body of Christ, the Church, and the people of faith who are part of our faith family. What are we really admitting when our response to attending Sunday worship, or other Festival Services during the year? We believe that we are too committed in other places, too busy with our families or with work, or we are just tired and need to recover on Sunday separated from the Church with which Christ has gifted all of us. All too often we look at this gift as just another commitment that we are too busy, too tired, or too frustrated to take on. Peter and John really had every reason to stay away from speaking about Jesus, and every reason to be in the shadows, yet they knew they must speak and act with the power of the Savior in their lives. They had given their hearts to their Master and Savior and were compelled to continue forward with the ministry which Jesus had begun, revealing God's Truth and Love for His children. Their personal experience of Christ while they were able to be with Him transformed their living and their thinking, moving their lives to devotion which transcended their fear of any threat which they might have to meet head on.

Today, if the church seems less significant in the world, it is not the church that is less important, but it is those of us who have lost our way and forgotten the sacrifice and Love of Christ for our lives which has made us think that we don't need Christ's Church.  The Church is Christ's gift for all people.

Thanks for being with me today. May the riches of Christ's Love call you home to His Church. With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim