Pastor's Ponderings: Monday/Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 8:26-40 (November 24/25, 2025)

November 24, 2025:  Monday Bible Study

There will be no Bible Study today. After a night of no sleep due to a painful back molar, I spent the morning with the dentist. The tooth has been extracted. However, I finally have no pain in my face like last night, so I will be with you tomorrow for the Tuesday Bible Study in the morning. Thanks for your understanding.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

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November 25, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 8:26-40

Blessings and peace be with you this morning. Thank you so much for your prayers for healing. This morning, minus the molar that kept me awake all night on Sunday, I mostly have pain from anesthetic in my mouth. The dental work was quick and painless, and I am doing much better now that I have had a good night's sleep. I sure hope that I am able to eat solid food on Thursday! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

This year Jesse has asked that I teach him how to prepare, stuff, and bake the turkey. I will really enjoy getting the chance to share this with him. He is going to be a special partner whenever that happens in his life.

Today we are in chapter 8:26-40 in the Acts of the Apostle's. There should be several questions that we have about this passage. This road that Philip is on travels south from Jerusalem to Gaza and is connected with the road down into Egypt which would, of course, give the Ethiopian Eunuch a fairly direct route to his own country. Gaza had been destroyed several times and isn't it interesting that it appears once again to have happened there in our lifetime. In 93 Before the Common Era Gaza was destroyed in war, and again in 57 BCE. If you have seen any pictures of Gaza today, it borders on the waters of the Mediterranean. It is beautiful there. However, its value was always that it was on the main trade route. The Eunuch was in Jerusalem to worship, all the way from Ethiopia. It appears that in the years before the coming of Christ many people in that area of the world were in search of a religion that offered them greater reliance upon faith and provided guides for living one's life that respected the relationship between their god and themselves.  Many from Africa ended up coming to Jerusalem and discovered Judaism. That is the reason that Philip and this man from outside of his country could share in a common language, though it becomes clear that the Eunuch is still learning about the prophets of his new religion. So, Philip joins the party of travelers which includes the Eunuch who is thirsty for more information, especially for information about the person Isaiah is saying in his message. The opportunity is ripe for Philip, so he witnesses to the Eunuch about the Savior who has died on the cross for the sin of the world, and who brings to faith the promises of life, forgiveness, and Salvation. It is at this point in the passage when the two men arrive at water, perhaps the Mediterranean along the south bound Gaza road, and the Eunuch is Baptized by Philip. In his Baptism the Eunuch is filled with joy and excitement, and Philip slips away in another direction to go and share his own faith with even more people. This is an early example of Baptism in the period after the Resurrection of Christ in the new Christian Church, and from what we know, it was often adults who were Baptized into this new faith community. However, we will discover later that whole families were also Baptized, which obviously included children. The great joy which the Ethiopian Eunuch experienced came because he knew that he had been united with the Christ of God, and given a new life, entering into this relationship of freedom from the burden of sin and brokenness, discovering for the very first time the joy of this Holy relationship.

In our faith tradition in the Lutheran Church, we Baptize people of all ages, from infants to old age adults, bringing them into the redeeming relationship with Christ that we who have already been Baptized have known throughout our lives. We will come to more passages about Spirit gifted faith, and Baptism as we continue through the Acts of the Apostle's texts. It is a time of joy for us all when a newly Baptized individual, regardless of age, comes into this relationship of Holy, forgiving, life giving forgiveness, which is our new life through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thanks for being with me today, and once again, I pray that you have a joyful day of giving thanks to God for the abundant blessings of our lives.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

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November 27, 2025:  NO Thursday Bible Study

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 38 (November 20, 2025)

November 20, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Old Testament of Psalm 38

Blessings, Peace, and staying warm on this November rainy morning my dear friends.

In your prayers, please hold up Vincente who was in a bad car accident as a passenger. He has had several head surgeries since and has more to go at Banner UMC. Pray too for Caesar who suffered first time seizures at work this week, who is hospitalized in an induced coma. Also, pray for Lisa whose tests for cancer can now be completed, and for her wife Kandice as she continues near death in hospice care at home.

Psalm 38 gives us yet another look at how David sees himself in his relationship with YHWH. David spends the early part of this Psalm in confession, singing not only about his many errors, but also letting the listener know that there are many consequences for poor decision making which He sees as YHWH's in-breaking action due to David's stupidity. In the Psalm text it is clear that David, who is likely the author of this song, sees that suffering is linked to sin. You and I know all about that in the lives of people around this earth, and I am always telling my sons that making poor choices will have many consequences, many of which they will be unaware as possibilities for their actions and words, and in David's case they have implications for international relationships, as well as, directly within his own nation state, Israel.  In a more modern interpretation of the Psalm, there is a use of words with which you and I are probably much more familiar in verse 16, " They (my enemies) must not rejoice in relation to me, when my foot faltered, they acted big over me."  However, even in this, what is so amazing is that David's faith is not shattered by the activity of his enemies, at home, or in other nations. This is so because David's faith would seem to be unshakable. He always trusts that eventually, when the time is right, YHWH will respond on his behalf, to protect him and save him from all who would harm him. The reality of this is that David understands that God is God, and though you ask, His response will be in His time, in His way, and will always come!

I think that today we forget this too often. I know that through our prayer chain many prayers are answered in ways that we feel are really timely and good, but we must never stop being aware that God is God. He tells Moses that He is to be called I Am. What this means, is that sometimes God answers in ways that we may not understand or even want. YHWH's action will always be perfect for the movement of His plan for all of creation, including the day to day lives of His faithful children. In this Psalm I think David gets it! We should too! David's strong faith takes care of him in the toughest of times, and he knows that God is coming to save him from himself, and others too.

Thanks for being with me today. Next week we will have our Monday and Tuesday studies on the Acts of the Apostles, but there will no Psalm study due to the national holiday Thanksgiving. Please come and join us as we celebrate Christ the King this coming Sunday. The bells will ring as part of our thanks and praise for Christ's kingship in our lives.

In Christ's love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 8:14-25 (November 18, 2025)

November 18, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 8:14-25

Blessings and Peace to you on this Tuesday morning. Yesterday's study did not happen as I continued to recover from an illness over the weekend, including Sunday, and I spent much of yesterday sleeping. I want to thank you for your prayers. Please pray for Lisa who is having testing and surgery for a possible pre-cancer condition, or for an existing cancer, that the surgery results will be good. Continue your prayers for Teri also, as she continues her long recovery from her major hip replacement surgery. It was a new type of replacement that needed much more extensive surgery. Give thanks for Teri's progress so far. This coming Sunday is the last Sunday of the Church Year. We will celebrate Christ's Kingship in all creation and prepare to begin the Church Year season of Advent on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. What really happens in the transition at the end of the Church Year, is that we move to a new set of Gospel passages which we have not used for the last two years. Starting with Advent 1, we will be in lectionary series A. If you haven't been able to get to church regularly, Advent is a great time to get started again. Please take that into consideration as you deal with your personal schedule on Sundays. Bell choir will be playing a new festival piece this Sunday for Christ the King. Your presence at worship is important for your relationship with Christ. So please get started once again and become a person whose life is fed with Grace, Forgiveness, and the certain Promise of Eternal Life. The comfort, courage, and this peace of Christ's is an amazing gift for our everyday lives.

Today we are continuing in chapter 8 of the Acts. Luke, who is the likely author of the Acts of the Apostles, helps us to see how the Life of the Gospel story was spread throughout Judea, and as our passage today shows, its close neighbor to the north, Samaria. This is an amazing reality and meant to inform the whole of we who are faithful, that there are, and will be, unexpected successes when we speak of our own faith, and the power of God's Love for His people and His creation.  But as we might suspect, there were also problems with those who felt the gift of Grace that the Apostles and witnesses brought could be bought, rather than the conferring of the Holy Spirit that came to that changed heart and mind that had responded to the Good News about Jesus Christ that was being proclaimed in, and around, the towns and village of Samaria.  There is one issue about which I would like to speak with you. The disciples felt that people claiming their belief in Jesus as the Savior, was not enough. They looked for outward signs like speaking in tongues. However, Scripture makes it noticeably clear that it is only by the presence of the Spirit that belief can exist. So, the people who heard the witnesses and came to believe, were indeed moved by the Holy Spirit of Christ, and the Baptism and laying on of hands and signs which the disciples saw as so necessary, were more importantly, the outward sign of that inward conversion.  I think that we would be naive to think that Baptism can occur in only one way, though certainly the most common which we saw many times in the letters of Paul, and which were initiated at least in its form from the ritual washing that John the Baptist did in the Jordan River for the confession of Sin.  In Christ, coming to be Baptized by the Spirit's encouragement and gift of faith, or converted by the Spirit in heart and mind, all brought new believers into the community of the faithful in the new church. However, what could not happen was a person buying their way into the community. It could only happen by the Spirit's gift of belief. Throughout the history of the Church, there have been uber rich and powerful people who have felt that they have a right to be a part of the Community of Christ in the world, but unlike those who entered by the Spirit's action in life, those hearts and minds were really only trying to manipulate their way into the good graces of God's Son, rather than to confess and atone for their brokenness, escaping having to do any of that because of the money they had paid.  Giving must always be a gift of thanksgiving for all that Christ has done for us. He is the one who paid the price for sin, and though some try, no one can cover the price by anything that they can do. We are saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ alone! The Simons of this world are still trying to escape conversion and change of heart, so that they may continue to live in their sinfulness without worry. In fact, the name Simon has evolved a new word which is not particularly good. Simony is the illicit buying of ecclesiastical offices!

Thanks for being with me today. May God hold us in His Care.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim