Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 14 (April 10, 2025)

April 10, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 14

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I am praying that this day is a really wonderful one for you as you join me in studying this 14th Psalm.  This week prayers can be offered for Tricia Don who is recovering from a surgery that will allow her oncologist to begin her radiation treatment for breast cancer.  Sue O'Kelley is recovering from cataract surgery earlier this week, and Gail Tucker has had her bandage removed from her knee replacement, and is doing well.  Continue to pray for Jeff Hovelson and Kandice Kartchner, both of whom are dealing with aggressive forms of cancer. Pray for care that will keep their quality of life as good as possible.  Palm Sunday is this coming Sunday on the 13th of April.  This is the Sunday when we begin our journey into Holy Week in the church.  On Thursday of this week, we will celebrate the mandate of Christ on the eve of His death, to receive and participate in the meal of Holy Communion.  Services that day will be at Noon and 7PM.  The very next day is Good Friday, the day on which we remember and grieve the death of our Savior.  We will have a noon service, and at 7PM we will worship using the traditional Tenebrae service of darkening light helping us to participate at the moment of our Savior's death on the cross.  On Holy Saturday, April 19 at 10AM we will gather to decorate the church for Easter and set up the parish hall for our 8:30AM to 9:45AM Easter Breakfast.  Please bring brunch type food to share by 8:30AM that morning.  Easter Festival worship will be at 10AM with special music by the Bell Choir, The Gospel Group who will support congregational singing, as well as solo music vocally and instrumentally, with both organ and piano supporting our hymn sings.  If you are bringing an Easter Lily for the memorial garden at the altar for Easter, let the office know not later than Maundy Thursday, and lilies need to be at the church not later than Holy Saturday for decorating.  I hope that you will be able to join us for these special High Holy Day celebrations.

Our Psalm for today is 14.  It is not a very long Psalm but it approaches the problems which are faced in Jerusalem and Israel during King David's reign.  It begins with a character who is called the rogue.  In Hebrew that word can mean either fool, or the more likely meaning, scoundrel.  This outsider who is seeing the failing nature of the people of Israel feels that God is an absent landlord, who watches His children, but chooses to no longer be involved in their day to day living, or in their faith lives either.  It would appear that God has, from the perspective of this scoundrel, found no one person of faith in the whole of His elect children.  Their lives are a total mess!  However, there will be recompense by God for the terrible actions of this people He calls His own.  When the people in power and authority, the corrupt ones and many others who are failing in so many ways, there will certainly still be a few who have remained faithful to the LORD, and He will act to defend and carry them in such terrible times.  In the final verses of this Psalm, we are able to see a closing similar to Psalm 12.  This outsider, the rogue, who is, in all likelihood, imposing his will on the people of Israel, knows that Zion (Jerusalem) is the place of the LORD'S stronghold where His children will return to worshiping, and faithfulness in the justice of the LORD, that the LORD will be their defense and stronghold in all things.  This Psalm makes it clear that those who choose to oppress God's elect people will meet with defeat and destruction by the LORD of Israel.  You and I must take a moment to think about how the times of David were filled with turbulence and difficulty.  This Psalm helps us to understand how outsiders might view the weakness of the people, but the strength of the LORD God who defends them!

Please remember that next Thursday there will be no Psalm Study due to the worship services at Noon and 7PM.  I will, however, be providing the Monday and Tuesday studies for each of those mornings during Holy Week.  When you come to church this week, take a few minutes to view and walk by the Stations of the Cross, and then revisit the Resurrection Station on Easter Sunday morning.  Let this be part of your discipline of faith during Holy Week.

With Love in Christ,   Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 (April 8, 2025)

April 8, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Dear Ones in Christ, 

Good morning this Tuesday before Palm Sunday.  I am about this study early today.  It is an unusual hour for me to be up, but there are a great many responsibilities today that must be fit into too few hours.  I am certain that you have the same times when your days are over-filled too.  In the hours of this day, remember to pray, confessing your sin, giving praise to God for all of His blessings, and petitioning God through Christ, to hear our needs and the needs of others this day.

Today we are in the second chapter of Paul's first letter to the new Christians at Thessalonica.  This passage is, in many ways, more about the nature of Paul's ministry in their midst than about the specifics of his ministry with them.  So why is Paul concerned to write this way when so much else of this book is about the amazing strength of faith, and the successes that came from the people's witness for Christ to the people around them.  It was genuine, and this passage tells us why.  In this time of Paul there were many itinerant traveling "salesmen", but they were always after sharing themselves in such a way that they were constantly taking advantage of the people they approached.   That was not the case for Paul and Silvanus, and Timothy.  Their message of Christ, His life, His choice to be killed for the sins of the world, and His Resurrection are offered as a generous gift of love for the people of Thessalonica, both by them, and most especially by God.  Paul asked no money, only the opportunity to share the message of God's compelling Love and forgiveness, and to show by his own genuine faith, his desire to have them know this truth of God for them all.  Obviously, Paul and his companions, had a much different experience in Philippi.  We can only image what happened to them.  Perhaps they were run out of town, or beaten, or stoned.  However, that did not make Paul any less bold about sharing his faith in his life with the people in Thessalonica.  In fact, such a rough experience in one place seems to have created in Paul a compassion for the people of Thessalonica, that they might experience the true faith that he carried in his own life.  It was most apparent that Paul and his companions were not looking for any personal benefit, rather they brought with them their hope in the Savior and shared their personal journeys of faith.  I am convinced that any pastor under call to serve the Gospel must be ready to do the same thing.  If a pastor preaches at the members of the congregation, that is not genuine.  The Gospel message must be offered through the transformative ways in which it brings a changed heart and mind for the shepherd of the congregation.  It is this true faith that calls all people to Christ.  If that is not present, and obvious, then a congregation needs to be aware that there must be something else going on in that pastor's faith experience.  Right now, in our modern world, the newest generations of people somehow see the church and her people as superfluous to their own spiritual journeys.  What will bring them back to understand that the Church is Christ's gift for all people, a place where the people who believe in Christ come to have their faith strengthened and nurtured?  The very same genuine lives of the faithful ones will succeed, just as Paul's ministry in Thessalonica succeeded.  Paul's heart for Christ was irresistible, and so is ours!

Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10 (April 7, 2025)

April 7, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10

Good morning after my break last week.  It is good to be back with you.  The best news is that I have a new computer, and it takes seconds to start, to move from item to item, and to open emails.  Prayers today for Sue who is having her first cataract surgery this week.  Please keep her in your prayers for good surgery, and a quick recovery.  Pray too for Annette who is having major dental work done this month.  Pray for our world, God's creation, to turn to the Risen Savior as His Church celebrates His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  I hope that you will be able to be with us for Easter on the 20th of April.  Our brunch starts at 8:30 with items brought in by our members, and our festival worship is at 10.  Our musicians are busy preparing for this special celebration.  Offer a prayer of Thanks to God for their devotion to their singing and playing and keep me in your prayers to as I prepare for this most special day. 

 Today as we move to Paul's first letter to the church in Thessalonica, we discover something quite unusual.  These new Christians had become energized with the message of the Gospel in such a way that the news of their new faith, and their devotion to the Risen LORD, had spread from north to south, and east to west, all around them, and even to the north into places where it would have been unheard of for anyone to bring a message other than the multiplicity of Roman deities, who under the right conditions could be convinced to do the worshiper's bidding.  I know that sounds a little like the way in which we speak about Christ, but its reality was not similar at all.   The gods of Rome, and the somewhat different Greek gods, perhaps mostly different by the names that Greeks used for them, were petty, back biting, waring with one another, and were often malevolent toward those who worshiped them.  At least that is what the worshipers believed about what they would do.  Paul teaches them about a very different faith.  Faith in God's only begotten Son, raised from the dead on the third day, and Savior of the world, a loving, compassionate, caring Son, who died for the sins of the world, making it possible for all people to be forgiven through faith in God's Son.  So, in all of this the newly faithful in Thessalonica were so changed in their faith and action that others also found their message of Christ to be compelling because of the energy and excitement in Jesus.  Indeed, such energy and excitement get caught by many others.

In 1964 I traveled through the western United States on a six-week trip with my parents.  There were many firsts on that trip.  We went to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.  If you remember your first trip to these spectacular national parks, then you probably also remember sharing your excitement at seeing Old Faithful erupt on the hour, or the vistas of the vastness and beauty of the Grand Canyon.  That excitement often causes others to plan a trip that includes both of these wonderful parks.  That is exactly what happened as the Thessalonians shared the Good News that had filled their lives.  As your pastor I have the privilege of sharing my excitement and faith every week as we gather for worship.   I am so thankful that God has blessed me with such a gift of speaking and working to live my life as an example of Christ's Love for everyone.  Let me explain a little further.  Another message both Melody and I share constantly as opportunity arises is how wonderful our lives have been because of our commitment to a large family.  Our children, whether biological or adopted, are a fulfillment of our desire to have a large family.  We knew that from the time that we were first married, and even before.  We were never put off by someone telling us that all of our children who were adopted would present all kinds of issues and would be extraordinarily difficult.  You all know the outcomes of these wonderful, now mostly young adults, who through our love for them, and the love of their brothers and sisters in Christ are making their way through life successfully.  Of course, our prayer has always been that others, through our witness, would consider doing foster care and adoption, allowing it to be a big part of their lives.  It is all about living our lives in Christ with the compassion that we have first learned from Him.  I hope that you can see how the Thessalonian's changed lives caused the news of their new faith to spread far and wide.  The message of their faith in Christ rocketed throughout the part of the world in which they lived.  This is especially important because Roman leaders were deemed to be a god at the time of their death, and even some living ones took that designation on as well.  The world in which these new Christians lived was full of opportunities to worship false gods, but the truth and power of Christ in His life, and in His Resurrection, filled the lives of these new Christians, and many who would come to faith in Christ after them.

I will be back with you tomorrow as we move forward with our texts.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim