Pastor's Ponderings: Final Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 6:11-18 (March 24, 2025)

March 24, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 6:11-18

Good Monday Morning my dear friends in Christ. It was an interesting start this morning as I headed to the post office after dropping the boys at school. There was a serious accident on the bridge on south Kino that goes over the rail yard. One car was heavily damaged in the front lying on its side on the road. Two other cars had minor damage, and of course the police were there.  I can only wonder how it is that someone could have such a bad accident in the forty mile an hour speed zone on top of the bridge. What I know for sure is that everyone involved deserves the prayers of the passersby who saw the severe damage to that overturned car. In prayers for today, please pray for Teri Hardy who is awaiting an appointment with a new orthopedic doctor on Friday, where she hopes that the news will be good for the new procedure that can restore her mobility, for Tricia as she discovers the results of the testing for her breast cancer treatments, for Gail who will have her knee replaced on Tuesday morning, for Gail's neighbors whose premature twin died in the NICU, a brother is still there, for safe travel for Mark and Linda as they head home to Wisconsin via a visit to their son in California, for Wanda who is recovering from an aortic bleed and the subsequent surgery to do the repair.  As you pray, please begin with confession of sin, and then joyfully receive Christ's forgiveness. Next offer praise and thanksgiving to Christ for the abundance of His blessings, both seen and unseen, and then move on to petition Him for yourself, and others for whom you are praying. I missed asking for prayers for all who feel like the stability in their lives may go away as the government makes major changes to the support on which they have been living, and through which they receive their medical care.

Today we are at the end of Paul's letter to the Galatians. At its beginning we encounter a statement by Paul that makes this letter an intimate personal expression of Paul for both his love, and his concern for these new Christians. What kind of difference does it make to you when you receive a handwritten Christmas letter, rather than one that has been processed on a computer. Handwriting is becoming a lost art. Most schools do not even teach it today. When someone takes the time to express their care for us in their own hand, it really does make a difference. That is exactly what Paul tells the Galatian church, "Look at the large size of my letters."  Paul is not using some scribe to record his thoughts; no, he is writing his passion for this new community in Christ. This may move these new Christians, both gentile and Jew, that in this very personal way Paul has a deep concern for this new creation in Christ which God has begun. No longer are the acts of circumcision or non-circumcision important. The truly only important thing is what God has done for all of His creation through Jesus Christ. In this new order of all things which God has begun, the only thing that counts is faith in the Savior. Here Paul talks about the marks he wears for Christ. He is not talking about what the Jewish Law requires. Instead he is referring to the marks of sacrifice, stewardship, setting aside his own ego needs ( though they do show up from time to time), the marks of loving kindness, gentleness, hospitality, generosity, constant prayer, loving the LORD above all else, and yes even the marks of being whipped and stoned as Paul was being rejected in some communities. 

You and I must remember that the old way of keeping the law has been set aside permanently in Christ, who is the only one who can truly fulfill the law of God, and now our participation with Christ, believing in His power to save us from our sin and brokenness, bringing to us His powerful gifts of forgiveness, life with God today and always, and Salvation, are the new creation which the LORD has brought through His Son and the Spirit which are certainly bold proof of the overarching love of God for us and for His whole creation.  At the end of Paul's letter, he offers a benediction and blessing to the whole of the Galatian Community. As we complete this book of Scripture please be blessed in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Together we live in God's New Creation through our Savior Jesus Christ!

Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 11 (March 20, 2025)

March 20, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 11

Good morning to you all on this beautiful Thursday in Tucson. I pray for you that God's richest blessings will abound in your life, and more, that your faith will remain as the greatest strength of your life.

Please continue to pray for our members and friends who are battling health issues. Hold Tricia. Kandice, me, Maddison's father, Jeff, and anyone else who you may know who is battling cancer. Pray for Regina who has some complicated eye issues, and for Della who has regular care for her eyes as well. Give thanks for all of the little ones who have come into our congregation with their parents and grandparents. "Yo-yo", Oliver, Oakley and her parents, Alice's other grands, twins and a toddler of Christian's and Elody’s, Jesus tells us they are a great treasure in the Church. Pray for the disarray of job losses with the government, that the people who have lost their jobs will soon be able to find employment and good jobs that fit their skills. Pray that with this downsizing, the work of these departments will still be able to serve the citizens of our nation. Pray for Pastor Ron and Becky who are flying today to attend the funeral of a good friend and be with Mark and Linda as they prepare to begin their journey home after visiting their son. There are always enough circumstances which need our prayers, both the difficult ones, and the ones that bring joy and comfort.

Today we are in Psalm 11. This is another Psalm which is believed to have been written by David. Its themes remain similar to the ones which came before it. We must always remember that the times in which David was shepherd and king were extraordinarily difficult. There was inter-tribal conflict (war) always going on, or just on the horizon, and the nations of the East were constantly faced with nation-to-nation war too! There were certainly plenty of good reasons for David to hold the themes steady in these early Psalms. This one is no exception. For David there is the threat of many enemies, and we see his desire to be able to depend on the LORD. (This word is used instead of the attempt to verbalize God's name, YHWH, which was, and still is today, to holy to be pronounced. To do so is to claim understanding of the Holy One of the Heavens and the whole universe.) Today we use LORD instead out of respect for people of faith in the LORD who are not Christian. If there was one thing that David did not do, it was to become too familiar with God. Throughout the Psalms that we have covered so far, David tells those who will hear, or read, these song-poems that God chooses to do things in His own way, and in His own time, and sometimes David, along with us, wonders why God chooses to not respond in the way, or in the time frame, that we would like Him too.  With David we have to allow God to be God yet have faith with thanksgiving for all of the ways that the LORD has acted before, and will act again in the future, and that occasionally God will act now, in just the way that our prayers have asked. 

David speaks the truth of God in this first part of Psalm 11 that his enemies are not known, they lurk in the shadows, out of sight, and attack without warning. Perhaps you have someone in your family or "friends?" who is trying behind your back to take advantage of you in your life.  We often find these things out when it comes time for a will to be read, or a loved one’s belongings to be divided. Sometimes we encounter this reality in the church too. It often happens when a group of people who we have believed to be faithful brothers and sisters to everyone in the community begin to gossip and quietly complain about something which they have a problem over. It is probably one of the greatest reasons why a pastor chooses to leave a congregation after only a few short years.   It seems too often like Pastors leave before we really get to know them as people and understand the power of the Gospel's presence in their lives. David makes it clear that those who work against the members who follow the LORD'S path, will be destroyed by God at some point in their lives, or perhaps at their Judgement before our Savior.  According to David's song-poem 11, God will act against those who are the enemies of the faithful people, whose hearts have never really been transformed by the Spirit's work in their lives, while those who are faithful can depend on the judgement of the LORD in all things.  God is steadfast in His promise to hold all of us faithful ones in His care. We all just need to trust in His promise all of the time. Thanks for spending time with me today.

With trust in the power of the LORD'S Love for all of us in Jesus Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 6:6-10 (March 18, 2025)

March 18, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 6:6-10

Blessing and Peace be with you this morning. Every day you and I get into the texts of Scripture, we discover the Truth of our God who wants us to live lives of lovingkindness, forgiveness, grace, and confidence in the promise of Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Please continue to pray for the prayer requests that you received on Monday in my online study of Galatians.

In this brief passage from chapter six of Galatians, Paul continues to be a truth teller for God with the Galatian Christians. Once again how a community lives together is at the center of this passage, and Paul takes the reader of this letter right back to the issue surrounding putting faith in Jewish Law if one chooses to be circumcised. Paul tells us that such an action when a person has faith in Christ is a conflict. Paul uses that very familiar phrase, "You will reap what you sow"! When it comes to those actions under the law, at their end, they bring death. Remember that Paul understands the Law of the Jews as an interim provision of God for His people, so that they might be prepared for the Son of God who comes to move everyone beyond obedience to the law, to faith in the Savior and the gifts that sharing life with the Son will move the faithful beyond the limits of the law, to a life which not only completes the law through the Messiah, but brings even more, Eternal Life!  So if we reap what we sow, if the church is to move forward throughout its history, then her members must sow lovingkindness, forgiveness, generosity with those who have brought them to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and with fellow Christians and with those outside of the Christian Community, compassion, and the promise of life now with God, and faith and hope in the promise of Jesus for always being with His children, even in the face of death.  For all of us who live by faith there are times when we snub our noses at God, when we fail in any of these people of faith responsibilities. I know that we all have forgiveness for doing that to God, but if we are persistent and unrepentant, that is telling God a great deal about our real trust in this relationship of covenant that we share with Him. If you find yourself in one of these situations where you just can't deal with someone in the faith community, then, by all means, confess and pray for the Spirit to be your guide, to bring you back into the righteousness which is Christ's promise for all of us.  It really can become an afterthought about our words and deeds being sourced out of our real joy and love for God, and when that happens the work of the Kingdom doesn't get done very well.  When a new person comes into the midst of the Christian Community, we must ask ourselves what it is that Christ hopes they will see. Will it be that all-consuming joy, and the peace which passes all understanding, and will hospitality be seen and experienced, or will that new person see gossip, a lack of caring, or hear anger and frustration in our voices? It only takes a small amount of that before a new person gets the sense that the church is not the place they ever want to be. Instead, the Voice of God's Grace should be in every word spoken, and in every deed offered. I must admit that American Lutheran does a pretty good job at this most of the time, but there is always room for work as we try to be the living presence of God's Grace in the lives of others. We are, just as the Galatians were, members of God's Team,

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Good (Tuesday) afternoon. This morning, I was having issues with intermittent internet at home. Apparently, it cut off the completion of the last sentence.  I have searched for the last complete copy but am unable to find it. The first part of the sentence is the subject of the incomplete sentence followed by my closing and name. Sorry. I hope that it works better on Thursday.