Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 13:4-12 (February 23, 2026)

February 23, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 13:4-12

Blessings and Peace be with you today.

Today we should all continue to pray for those who have been mistreated by the ICE troops, and the Border Patrol and others. Pray for those immigrants in our midst who are interred in terrible conditions, even when they have lived and worked in our communities for years with no criminal records. They are not the worst of the worst, but their families, including young children, have been locked away in less than humane conditions, inadequate food, dirty water, and sanitation that is far from adequate for the number of people who must use it. Pray too this morning for the people of Mexico as a large drug cartel has raged in our neighbor nation to the south after the government killed the head of their organization. Americans, and others from around the world who vacation in Mexico are told to shelter in place as the cartel members have set buses, cars, and buildings on fire in revenge for the death of their leader. Please pray for Annette as she awaits an opportunity to speak with her cardiologist over the results of her testing. Pray with thanksgiving that Lisa has been found to be cancer free after her surgery.

In our text for this morning, we find ourselves accompanying Paul and Barnabas to Cyprus. This is the first such trip that takes place after that three-year period when Paul is staying safe due to persecution by Jews and Romans alike. Why to an island? because it is the homeland of Barnabas, and apparently, he really wanted to carry the mission of Christ to his own people, but Paul didn't choose to go to the small community where Barnabas was born and raised. Instead, he took Barnabas into the most difficult community Paphos. the very center of the worship of Venus, the Goddess of "love", or perhaps we would be better off saying the center of loose morals in Cyprus. But that is not the only reputation of the island. It is also seen as the sweetest possible place to live in the Eastern Mediterranean. It had major shipbuilding industry, and a wide variety of resources. My guess is that it was a "plumb" for any Roman soldier who was stationed there. It is good for us to remember that this time in the world was a time of rampant superstition. Even the Roman leaders kept magicians and others around them so that they could feel well protected from whatever might threaten them. Sergius Paulus, an intelligent Roman leader in charge of the Cyprus kept such people around him to assure himself of his safety, or perhaps it was just a precaution against unseen, but believed in evil that surrounded all people. It was into this kind of beliefs that Barnabas and Paul bring their mission and message for Christ. Paul discovers that a particular magician, Elymas, was working to pull the pro-council away from coming to any belief in Jesus as the Savior, so Paul confronted the magician, and in the intensity of the Spirit moved to disable Elymas, so that he could no longer do his anti-Christian work on the island.  At Paul's command Elymas was struck blind. The text says that this was done to him for a season. I am not quite clear whether that means three months, or perhaps on an island with such glorious weather there was a cooler season and a warmer season of say six months each? Whatever its length this action of Paul left Elymas helpless to continue his work against the Truth of God's Word that was being presented by Paul and Barnabas. It is at this time that Saul, which was his Hebrew name, became, and continued to be known by Paul, which was the gentile and Roman name which Paul chose to use in his work for Christ in the world. In our world today, we don't often have a second translation of our names which becomes common for us to use. For instance, my name, Kim, in the East means King. Our daughter's name, Melissa, is translated as Honeybee, but we have never called her that other name, as cute as it might be. Our Joshua is generally translated as Jesus, and our James, if he lived in Scotland would likely be known as Hamish! However, in the time of Paul and Barnabas it was sometimes more that convenient to avoid problems with the truly powerful people in these early years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. We all know how important it is to share the Good News of our Savior with our family, friends, and people who we meet, so I pray that this passage today brings to us more desire, comfort, peace, and the Grace of God as we seek to share our lives of faith with others.  

With the Love of Christ, and certainty for the safety of all who accept Jesus as the Lord and Savior of their lives.

Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 48 (February 19, 2026)

February 19, 2026:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 48

Good morning, dear friends in Christ. I know that some of you who are doing these Bible Studies during the week are in much colder places than Tucson. However, today our high temperature is only going to be in the 50s. Up north that is spring weather, but here in Tucson it is cold (by our standards) and damp from light rain this morning. It is OK though, because next week, all week long we will be in the lower 80s during the day, and the 50s will be our nighttime lows. I hope that you get a chance to get some relief from the snow and winter weather where you live.

In our study for today we encounter the claims that God has chosen Jerusalem as His Home on earth. And, indeed, even today, though ridden with the remnants of battles, the Temple Mount remains a bright shining natural outcropping of white cliffs. In the time of our Psalmist, Jerusalem is the example of the natural work of the Creator, and God's presence there with David the Jews who live there, makes it a sight to behold through faith and vision. This Psalm addresses for us the faithfulness of God who has stuck by His chosen people through both obedience and disobedience, but the faithfulness of God Himself never fails. Though I have never traveled to the East and Jerusalem, the pictures which are widely available reveal it as a beautiful hilltop city, where many generations of Jews have lived and thrived, on this small hill on which God has chosen to anchor His Home, and to make it clear that failure to remember who He is can, and certainly does later in 70CE, cause God to allow the natural consequences of that lost faith, and the sense of the value of being God's People has withered away, to suffer the consequences of defeat and loss.  The shining city on the hill is obliterated by the Romans, leaving only the beauty of the natural rock hill to stand! I understand that pride is in one's hometown. Melody and I grew up in a small Lake Michigan community. As you drive into the city of Ludington on the lake, you are immediately immersed in mansion after mansion, beautiful Victorian homes, and Romanesque massive portico columns, left from the boom of the lumbering era, but still maintained today,  Ahead in the main section of downtown you can see the blue waters, or icebergs this time of the year, of Lake Michigan.  Main street ends in the harbor where there is a massive city beach, playground for children, golden sandy beaches, and verdant green grass in the park area, and along Lake Shore Drive you are taken to area lakes, and miles of sand dunes along the big lake to a state park where you can hike for hours along wooded paths and small bridges over clear water that eventually take you to massive dunes at the end of Hamlin Lake.  Unlike the people of Israel and Jerusalem, growing up there was a little slow with not a lot to do except cruising the main street back and forth on Friday night. Unlike the obliterated city of Jerusalem, Ludington remains vibrant, cold this time of the year, and a most lovely community. There you can still drink the city water without concern. It is fresh from the bottom of Lake Michigan some distance from the shoreline. As God chose Jerusalem for his earthly home, it is good for us to know that David was a pretty smart guy. He settled on a pretty defensible outcropping of rock, and even better, when enemies assailed this city, its people had an endless supply of spring water that came from a cave below the city. Out of the boasting in this Psalm, it is good for us to note that bigger is not necessarily better! That is often true for small congregations too. Jerusalem was a powerful resilient force to be reckoned with in its day, and so are many small congregations who really make a difference for their members, the community in which they live, and even impact God's world in which they exist. Like those people so long ago in Jerusalem, we too have joy in God's election of us through Baptism and Holy Communion in the Church today. And like the folks in Jerusalem, we must trust that God's promise to be with us, and has been kept for all the years of the ministry for the Gospel that has taken place on Tucson Blvd. On into our future, we too must trust the faithfulness of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier of Life as we live faithfully in our life's journey with Christ.

Thank you for allowing me to guide you through the study of Psalms.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles Acts 13:1-3 (February 17, 2026)

February 17, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 13:1-3

Good morning on this rainy blessing for our desert. This winter really reminds me of winters when we first arrived in Tucson, and the call to serve Gospel of Jesus Christ at American Lutheran. Winter mornings were usually quite a bit colder than this winter has been, but it was the winter rain that was always so wonderful. We had great generous showers on the southeast side of town today. I want to remind you this morning of the opportunity to begin Lent tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. We have services at noon and 7pm with imposition of ashes and the Eucharist (communion). This ashen cross on our foreheads reminds us of the frailty every one of us faces as we age or become more infirm. It also is an acknowledgement of God's creative power which is filled with His love in this life, and in the next with our Savior. And it is certainly a physical way to remember the One to whom we belong. Besides that, it is a good way to begin our Lenten journey for this year. I hope that you will try to come to worship tomorrow. On Sundays in Lent, we will use setting 3 of the 10 settings in our ELW hymnal, and we will have two Gospel Music Sundays, one on the first of March and one on the twenty-ninth of March (Palm Sunday). Easter this year is on the first Sunday of April, the fifth of the month. Another guide for us is that we should all be praying constantly with confession, appeals to God for His help, for the health of our church, and Christ's Church, for our own needs, and for the needs of others, and in all things, offer praise to God with thanksgiving for His Grace in our lives.

This morning, we have a small passage from the 13th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. But as we have learned before, a small passage does not mean an insignificant passage in the Word. Today our passage takes us to the process in the early Church of how leaders, prophets, teachers, and preachers were selected. If your text has Saul named in it, please just substitute the name Paul in its place. When we name him, it doesn't take us long to think about the prolific writings of Paul in our New Testament, and that should be a clue for us that others with other significant gifts of the Spirit will respond to the call of the Spirit to use their gifts too. Those names are Barnabas who we have already met earlier in the book of Acts, Simeon who is also named Niger (like the river), Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen, and Paul. At a time in worship these men were moved the Holy Spirit to become the people who would bear their Spirit given gifts into what would be a very unfriendly and dangerous journey for the sake of Jesus Christ, His life, His suffering, His death, and His Resurrection. This is the beginning of the first journey for the sake of the Gospel, and for the sake of all people. A truth that we must recognize is that compelling force of the Holy Spirit which called them to this service of sharing the Good News throughout Asia Minor and beyond. And just who were these men? Barnabas was a Jew from Cyprus. Lucius came from Cyrene in North Africa, Simeon was also a Jew, but his other name was given, Niger, and had connections to the Romans, Manaen was a man of wealth whose status was aristocratic giving him access to many who would only listen to a man of wealth and status.  Here we see the diversity of the people in the early Church, consisting of men from a variety of places, coming together, unified by their faith in the Savior they were able to work through their differences of birthplace, and their life's identity. Of course, we cannot forget Paul, a former Rabbi, steeped in Jewish Law, and a first-class debater in any circumstance. This group of men is no different than any congregation going through a call process to find a new pastor. Each person submitted to the congregation is different from the others, but it is their common unity in Christ which makes it possible for the selected Pastor to come and serve the Gospel's Truth in the Name of Christ. And in any process like this in the Church, it is a matter of the people who are calling a new person to serve the Gospel, being led by the Spirit as their choice is made for that call. It is the Spirit's way to guide congregations and pastors who must come together for the sake of the Mission of the Gospel, and both have need for the unity they share with one another, supporting and nurturing each other in the work to which they have been called. There is some thinking that Simeon of Cyrene, may be the same person as Simon of Cyrene who was called to carry Christ's cross as He was approaching Golgotha and His crucifixion. Out of that difficult order to help carry Christ's cross, Simon/Simeon, came to believe in the Savior, and would later be appointed by the early Church to carry the Gospel.

On Thursday we will venture into the Psalms again.

With Love in Christ our Lord, Pastor Kim