Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 18:24-28 (June 23, 2026)

June 23, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 18:24-28

Good morning, and may God bless your day with abundant love. I have two quick comments about events this Friday and Sunday. The donut and coffee hour before worship will be held in the narthex. Call church if you have not already let us know that you are coming. Of course, fruit trays and veggie trays are great too. This Friday is the day for our lunch group, the Foodies of Faith, to go to Olive Garden on Broadway for an 11:30 lunch time. Once again, call the church 520-623-3661, if we don't know that you are coming. Right now, there are 8 on our reservation sign up from the last couple of Sundays. At this time, we have arranged rides for three people who will be coming.

Paul's third missionary journey really begins on the last verse of yesterday's reading, 18:23, so we will continue to follow him as he travels again. The Clif Notes version is as follows: Paul tours in Galatia and Phrygia to revisit the people who have already committed to Christ. Next, he heads to Ephesus where he remained for nearly three years. From that site, Paul goes to Macedonia and then sails to Troas, and then on to Miletus, Tyre, and Caesarea and finally back to Jerusalem. I still have questions about why Luke chose to offer us so little information about Paul's time in Jerusalem before his third missionary journey. What was going on in the conversations with the disciples, and what was the success, or failure in finances, that Paul spoke to the disciples about?

At any rate, we are now on to Paul's third missionary journey, and his meeting with Apollos, a man from Alexandria. In Apollos Paul found a man of faith who had already been instructed in the Way of the Lord! He was able to use Scripture to spread the word about Jesus, but his knowledge stopped at Christ's baptism by John in the Jordan River, and he knew little more about the "rest of the story". This lack of knowledge left Apollos at a great disadvantage when he taught in the synagogues. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him speak, they took him aside and spent time with Apollos teaching him about God's way, grace, and salvation through Jesus. Apollos' enthusiasm for the work and mission of the Church guided his choice to head to Achaea, where he would meet with the already established community of the faithful. He was sent on by Priscilla and Aquila with letters of introduction so that he would be welcomed into that community of believers. Apollos was gifted at speaking, so he debated and refuted the teaching of the Jews, and many people came to believe in Jesus because of Apollos' ministry.

Alexandria was a community which had one million Jews and was a center for scholarly teaching and learning. There, Old Testament scholars believed that everything about the Bible was true, and each story was meant to guide the reader to a special relationship with YHWH. It was in this setting the Apollos acquired his "chops" in debate and knowledge. With more complete knowledge about Christ, he became a great defender of the faith, teaching many the ways in which Jesus was foretold, and how the Old Testament guided the believer right to the Savior and God's purpose in sending Him to die for the forgiveness of sin. Though extraordinarily gifted, Apollos lacked the fullness of knowledge which would bring him to the service of Christ in his life. I have seen very often, the new convert to Christianity filled with joy and wonder at the stories and words of the New Testament, but these newest Christian's need to continue to grow immersed in God's grace and love, that they might have hearts for proclaiming their love for Christ and for all people.  We all need to be about this same thing in our own lives too! In the faith community we must do more than feel like we know what is important. Our faith life in Christ must result in our living as His children throughout our lives. We, like Christ, must live to be the presence of God's grace, with lives that are filled with belief, hope, and abundant love. It was when Apollos' learning was completed by Paul's followers and teachers, that he became a truly effective force in the face of Jewish denial and courage to stand for the Savior.

I will be with you next week on Monday and Tuesday. See you in church this week.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 18:18-23 (June 22, 2026)

June 22, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 18:18-23

Good morning my dear friends in Christ. I must admit that I continue to hope that this will be a summer in which we don't hit that 110-degree temperature, but it certainly seems like this week, for a couple of days, we could get close to it. Please be careful this week as you are out in the community and be sure to have plenty of water with you even if you are planning only a short drive to the grocery store. Over the years it has become clear to me that Father's Day, like Mother's Day, can be a time of painful memories that too many people have experienced in the reality of growing up. In our home, we had six of our eight children with us. Joshua lives in Colorado, and Melissa has never liked all the hub bub of so many people around her, but both she and her brother gave me a warm Father's Day contact. Oh yes, our 8 grandchildren were also with us yesterday. We celebrated with as little work as possible, and had pizza and soft drinks, and French silk pie and cheesecake for dessert. Yesterday was also our grandson Jonah's 22 birthday. We are really blessed that our grandchildren and their uncles get along so well when we are gathered. We also celebrated because Josiah completed his 50 blood draws in his program at Pima Medical this week. Now it is on to further studies and a practicum in an office somewhere in town before he gets his state certificate to practice. Just to let you know, church council will meet this coming Sunday after church for a meeting to continue their work to present viable options for the changes that we know lie ahead of us in the coming months. As members of our congregation, you will have full voice and vote in this process as decisions are made for our congregation's future ministry for the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This Friday we have the Foodies of Faith eating out, Dutch treat, at 11:30AM at the Olive Garden on Broadway, and this coming Sunday is Coffee and Donut fellowship at 9AM. Call to let us know that you will be with us. 520-623-3661

It must be that Paul lived in a time of many decisions too, because in today's brief reading, Acts 18:18-23, we discover that Paul is traveling again, but not to new places mostly to places where he has already been, and now, he is on his way back to Jerusalem and home.  It is interesting that this journey of some 1500 miles is given so little coverage by Luke in the Book of Acts, because this is a journey of major proportions for Paul. It is a time to offer continuing words of encouragement to the new Christians where he has been, and an opportunity to see his work, and that of Timothy and Silas, continue to move forward for our Lord's Gospel. I made a similar journey back to my first call setting in Ann Arbor, Michigan a few years ago, and I took James with me. My hope in being there for the 125th anniversary of Trinity Lutheran Church, was to see the people who I had treasured as co-workers in Christ for the six years that I had served the Gospel there. I think that is exactly what Paul was doing too. Like mine, his revisits were meant to offer continuing encouragement and joy for the life of the church at those sites across Asia minor and Greece. I hope that Paul traveled some of this time by boat, it would have saved many land bound miles of travel. I did the same thing. I could have visited Des Moines, Ia, St John's Lutheran there, and congregations in the Chicago area where I had completed graduate course work in what was called teaching parish, but I focused on my first ordained ministry in Michigan, and I flew over most of the drive cross country.  In every congregation where I have been, life continues in the service of the Gospel, and that means that there are plenty of changes that had moved along during my time out here in the desert. It is the way of our life in the church, and on behalf of Christ's Gospel, and the new life which it bestows on so many of the people who have come and gone over the years, and now, in the current time, those changes continue on, just as they did in Paul's absence and new work in other places.  My home congregation will always be Emanuel Lutheran in Ludington, MI. It too has been through so many changes, including the call of a part time Episcopal pastor to serve Emanuel now. I have such wonderful memories of worship there, youth group, and best of all, my wedding to Melody where I sang before the service, and from the altar during the wedding too. There, like Paul's love for the churches that he had helped to shape and begin, was the presence of the two great loves of my life, my Savior, and my lifelong partner in marriage. Little did I know how important and supporting my marriage would become when I finally realized Christ's call on my life to serve the Gospel. These years have been filled with changes and the powerful love of Christ in my ministry. Paul had some kind of vow which had been fulfilled in the work that he was doing, and it most likely had to do with the success of his two missionary journeys. That shearing of his head was definitely a Jewish thing! For me, the hair has just fallen out on its own! I would like to know so much more about this homeward journey that Paul took, which Luke just seems to gloss over. I understand. When the new begins, it is truly important and faithful for us to participate in it with the joy we have known in Christ in our own lives in the church. We must make the new that is coming be filled with the love and joy we have known as Christ's Body over our years of being moved by Christ's Gospel to be the same truths of His Love wherever His Church takes us.

Change is never easy, but it can be so right and good when we let Christ guide us.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 18:12-17 (June 16, 2026)

June 16, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 18:12-17

Good morning, dear friends. Today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles 18:12-17 is a quite different kind of picture of what Paul, Silas, and Timothy were facing every day. in our reading today we find ourselves in the judgement of Gallio, the proconsul of Asia. He is a Roman official with a great deal of power and authority when it came to the affairs of the communities and their conflicts. His job was to keep the Roman peace in the entire area which he was overseeing on behalf of the Roman government. At the time of Gallio's encounter with the Jews he has just apparently arrived to begin his work, but there is another important factor here. Depending on the kind of man that Gallio was, his response to the Jews, and his action against Paul, could have been very different, and would have been very violent against Paul and the others with him in the Christian communities in Asia. What we know about Gallio, is that he is a man who is very kind according to his brother Seneca. His brother's kindness, no matter the praise of the people with whom he was dealing, was always greater than their experience of him. Obviously, Gallio, was a fortunate appointment for Paul and the new Christian Cult which was taking shape in Asia. In fact, Gallio was so disgusted with what the Jews were attempting to do, manipulating him, and bringing Rome's wrath down on Paul, who only preached about the love of God for all people through His gift of Jesus Christ, and also about the Resurrection of God's Son which brought forgiveness, life, and salvation for all people, and for all of God's creation, that Gallio had the Jews who came to him driven away from the judgement seat with rods for the audacity of their request about Paul.  Perhaps Sosthenes, the president of the synagogue, received the worst of it as the representative of the Jews who came to Gallio. In this encounter, Gallio's fairness in his judgements is evident. He left the arguments of the Jews about Paul alone, for the religious community to work out on its own. Next Monday in our Bible Study Paul will be on his way again. Thanks for being with me today.

In Christ, for Christ, and with the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim