Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 1:7b-12 (June 2, 2025)

June 2, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 1:7b-12

Good morning my dear friends who are taking a few minutes today to study the text of 2 Thessalonians 1:7b-12.

Today we are giving thanks to God that our grandson Caleb and his girlfriend were not seriously injured on I-10 on Saturday afternoon when a car in front of them blew a tire causing other drivers to swerve to avoid a collision, but Kiki was unable to avoid that car and her car was totaled.  Caleb broke a finger when the air bag was deployed, and Kiki, who is quite petite, had serious bruising on her face from the air bag, but both are OK. We are so thankful that they are doing fine. Please pray for Steve who will have a lung biopsy on Thursday, and for JD, Reno, Wolf, and DJ who are homeless in our community. Let us all give thanks to God for the rain in yesterday's storm. I apologize for being late today. We have a new internet system installed in the house, and now we are busy connecting phones, computers, TVs, and more to the new system.

In our world today, as I believe it has been for thousands of years, we struggle to strike a balance between seeking justice and trying instead to get revenge. Most of the time the balance scales weigh heavily toward getting revenge, and nearly all of us struggle with this in our lives. Shortly after Melody and I and the first 4 children moved to Tucson, during a Bible Study held in the White House, and during Gem Show, Melody was rear ended while sitting stopped on 22 street. The driver of the other car checked on her, she was seriously injured in her neck and shoulders, no air bag deployment, and then the man said that he could not stay and fled the scene on foot carrying a package. He ran into the riverbed. His car was totaled, and ours, though repairable, was never the same. Back then we sued for her immediate medical expenses, thinking that the young man had car seat age children. Later we discovered He was running drugs using his car, and the outcome has been that Melody has suffered for years with her neck and back injuries from the accident. But, even at that, we tried to do what was right by our faith, and we wondered how different our lives would have been if we had the money for better care for Melody rather than paying for it ourselves. It is easy to see the problem we all face when we must deal with something like this. To do what is right is not always easy, and to do what is revenge just seems wrong when we consider our faith. This is what Paul is speaking about here. He is telling us that it is up to God who will make all these choices at the time of Christ's return. Believers will be saved, but those who are unbelievers and unrepentant sinners will not be saved. It must be that the Thessalonians were beginning to think about how they should handle their persecutors, and there were plenty of them. It is God who brings justice to all His creation. He is not getting revenge! Some translations of this second letter use the word revenge or vengeful. This is a misappropriation of who God is. We see the fullness of God's justice when we believe in Jesus. God desires the safety of all His children; not all respond to this relationship with the Creator. If we must live in a world where there is no fear of justice, and revenge was always the goal, that place would be a living hell. Through Jesus we all come to know the Grace of the Father who is just, good, merciful, and the ultimate truth. If someone chooses to live like none of the Grace of Christ matters, and they live their lives filled with lies, evil, harm, and hatred, then for the God of Grace there is no other choice when they reject His answer in Christ, than to judge them, and send them away from His presence.  The Thessalonians have understood the Christ's Grace filled message that Paul has brought. They may not be large in numbers, but they are committed to God's truth with their very lives. The Grace with which they live and offer as an example of their faith, tells the full truth of the LORD'S Son Jesus Christ. To reject this Truth will result in God's justice being wielded with fairness and a passion for all who have heard, and listened, like the new Christians in Thessalonica.

Thanks for being with me today. Sorry for the delay. In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 19 (May 29, 2025)

May 29, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 19

Good morning, dear friends in Christ. It is a rare cloudy morning, which always seems to make it easier to sleep in when the sun isn't beating through the house windows. I am excited about Sunday's meal after the Gospel Music service. We will have over 40 people with us for hamburgers, bratwurst, veggie burgers, and hot dogs. This will be one of our largest after-service meals in a long time. I know that it is supposed to be rainy, but I have contingency plans for getting the meat all BBQed and ready for Sunday's meal. You can pay at the table you sit at or put it in an envelope marked BBQ during the offering. See you there.

Today we are in the 19th Psalm as we continue to move through the Book of Songs which encompass all the emotions, both joys and struggles, while giving praise to God, or lamenting a broken relationship with God, and of course, much more. David begins this Psalm with a section of praises to God and His creation. Indicating that the way that God has put things in place, they will inevitably run the course for which they have been created, that is, everyone but people. who know the importance of their relationship with God but often don't live with the inevitability of living only to please God. Yes, we are talking about sin! If we follow Psalm 18 as we read 19, we discover that unfaithfulness is part of every one of our lives at one time or another, sometimes every day. But there is something else that happens in all of this. As Christians we often try to rationalize what we have done or are doing. Probably the most common of these kinds of things, is when a spouse, who have promised one another, and have promised God to live lives of commitment and devotion to one another from the time that their wedding vows are spoken. In my first parish I had a husband who came to me, confessing his unfaithfulness to his wife. He had a very loving spouse, two beautiful children who were as sweet as they could be, but for some reason he was really struggling with ending this extra marital relationship. I told him that he really needed to get this situation taken care of in his life, giving up the outside relationship and recommitting to his wife and family. Continuing to maintain this outside of marriage relationship might well place him in jeopardy with God, especially since he was unrepentant about it. To this day, now some 36+ years later, I do not know how that all turned out in his life. However, every person of faith in Jesus Christ knows the price Christ paid for our sin and brokenness, and that in all that His purpose was to give every child of God an opportunity for forgiveness, life with God, and Salvation. Yet, we still find it very difficult to leave our sin, and to renew our relationship of righteousness with God through Christ. We can't do it on our own, we must have the Holy Spirit working in us to help us come around to where we belong. This Psalm helps us to see the great difference between God's commitments to all His creation, and our, all too often, lack of commitment and failure to find the strength and courage to turn to God rather than away from God. David knows all about this. He took this journey with Bathsheba and paid the price for his forbidden love in the loss of their child. But like us, the Spirit of God informed David too, charging him to know his place in the face of God's righteousness and judgement. This is a good Psalm for us to read many times in our lives. It is filled with praise for God and His right ways, challenging its author, David, and us, to struggle with choices that go against God's right ways, and ultimately coming home to God and doing what is right, and good, and just in this two-way relationship between God the creator and His children.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to guide you through the Psalms, and to do this study for the first time in my 40-year ministry for the Gospel.

With the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-7a (May 27, 2025)

May 27, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-7a

May the comfort of Christ's love fill your life today, and may you remember that He is with you in everything that happens, in the tough stuff, and in the joyous stuff too. A reminder for you that Pastor Ron and Becky are home safe and sound as of this past Saturday. This coming Sunday is Gospel Music Sunday at church, and our meal for the day is grilled burgers, both beef and veggie, bratwurst, or two hotdogs for $3 dollars cost which will include buns, condiments, and cheese. I will be up at home at the crack of dawn preparing the meat on our home grill, and it will come into church fully cooked and kept in the warmer in the church kitchen until the mealtime after worship. It you haven't signed up yet, please call the church office this week no later than Thursday to do so. We are also asking that you bring a dish to share for that meal. Money can be placed in the offering in your regular offering envelope, or a pew envelope, or paid at the meal by placing it in the center of the table where you sit.

Today, lets pray for all people in our nation whose lives have been deeply impacted by the current government cuts and changes, and for people who are living with uncertainty about their health care or the financial support which underwrites care for those who are unable to work, and for those who live in subsidized housing as senior citizens.  There are many who are living with all this uncertainty every day. At church our insurance carrier, Church Mutual, is increasing our liability coverage on our building to $10,000 a year, and it will likely go up again next year, as well as placing a $25,000 deductible on any storm damage to the roof of our buildings. I am certain that you are facing these same challenges on your home, just as we are at our home too.

When we begin to read Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, we need to be reminded that they too faced what seemed to be overwhelming challenges. But in the face of all of it, they continued to love one another, and to love the people around them, all who are amazed by their resiliency in the face of what we know to be severe and constant persecution. These new Christians, faced with hardship, had found the abundance of God's Grace to give them the courage and kindness they needed to live lives of thankfulness and love in the face of their troubles. For Paul, his leadership, his thankfulness for the Gospel centered people of Thessalonica, and his own tender love for all of them, had to first be centered in thanksgiving to God for God's own work to seek out, and transform the hearts of the Thessalonian Christians, and like Paul we need to understand that it is God who works in and through us, who transforms hearts and minds, convincing people to receive Him through Christ, His Spirit, and His Church.  Perhaps the biggest problem when we see diminishing attendance and membership is that we have not been thankful enough to God for all His Grace-filled work in our lives and the lives of people who He places in our own Gospel care. Paul's thanksgiving to God needs to be ours as well. Let's face it, in our lives we all have many alliances, and dare I say gods like money, power, property, and even friends with power and money who may mean a benefit for us. In Paul's time there were many cults, may religious beliefs, many opportunities to be drawn away from the true message of God's judgement for those who reject His washing of all of creation with His love through Jesus Christ. We know that this judgement is true in the face of the world's unbelief and that at the end of all things, God's judgement will be given against that worldly rejection. This is why it is so important for us to not get in the way of those unbelievers as God works to move their hearts to be filled with His Grace. This is exactly what the Thessalonians have not done. Instead, the Thessalonians have become the bearers of the news that says there is only One God, who reveals as God the Father Creator, God the Son and Redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier, and this God is the fullness of Grace, and only True God.   Is it any wonder that Paul boasts in the Thessalonian Christians? They have become, as have we, the living presence of God's Love for all people. This is some especially important food for thought as the Christian Nationalist of our nation seek power and wealth, and spew judgement on unbelievers and believers alike. As I have said many times, God is the only rightful judge! Before that end time judgement, you and I are meant to be Christ's love for all people.

Thanks for being with me today. In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim