Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 5:7-12 (March 3, 2025)

March 3, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 5:7-12

On this cool desert morning may our Lord Jesus Christ surround you with love and peace.

Yesterday we had a really good Gospel Music Sunday with a Spring Salad Luncheon afterward.  Attendance is up, and I hope that means for you if you are not attending, you will commit to getting out to worship on Sunday mornings. This Sunday we will have Sunday School at 9AM, Worship at 10AM, and our Church Council will meet after Church.  If you are not a member of the congregation, you will consider becoming a part of our community.  We believe that Christ, our Savior, means for us to be an affirming and inclusive congregation.  His Love is meant for you!  Belonging to a congregation is a wonderful way to find the support and encouragement that we all need in our lives today.  In our prayers today we need to pray for Tricia who has test results coming back this week as she deals with breast cancer.  Also pray for Teri who has another surgeon's appointment on Tuesday to determine if her hip is healing in a way that will allow for further treatment so that she is able to get out of the wheelchair she has used since the last surgery.  Please also continue prayers for Brandon as he continues healing in the hospital.  Please pray for Gail as she prepares for a much-needed knee replacement surgery in the middle of March.  Pray too for our nation and the nations of the world to come to understand the power of loving kindness in every word and deed!

Today in Galatians 5:7-12 we move to yet another means by which Paul reaches out with strength to pull the Galatians back from the brink of listening and acting on the guidance of some unnamed person in their midst who is trying to convince them all that the men of the community must be circumcised if they hope to be Christians in a top tier of the new church.  Let’s just say it plainly, Paul is really angry about all of this, not so much with the new gentile Christians, but certainly with the person or people who are causing this problem over following all of the Jewish rules for living in order to be true Christians.  In this part of Paul's letter, he moves quickly from point to point as his argument against this teaching impacts these new Christians. 

When I sit and watch TV in the evening, I often surf the channels between the things in which I have an interest.  Last night it was the new pre-history of the Lord of the Rings, the War of the Rohirrum, an NBA basketball game that the Suns were playing, the Weather Channel, and brief pops over to the Jewelry Television channel.  In each of those channels my attention is caught to bounce back to them from time to time to make certain that I am not missing anything important, especially the NBA game.  It seems apparent that Paul uses this kind of quick glances method of getting the gentiles in the new church to take notice of his own teaching as opposed to that other teaching that was going on.  First, Paul begins with the analogy that being a Christian is like running a race.  For Paul it was great to see their beginning when they were doing so well, but now it is as if someone has gotten in their way on the track preventing them from continuing the race which lies ahead, preventing the new Christians from completing and winning that race.  Next Paul switches to a more legalistic approach, like a court room.  At least in the most immediate time frame, the Galatians have been convinced that there is another way to achieve their goal.  This agitator in their midst has, at least for the moment, convinced them of the inadequacy of their justification through the Spirit's gift of faith, and instead worked to move them off the dime of Paul's teaching.  Here, Paul is clear that this persuasion is not coming from God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ's Truth and Love.  It is instead working to get them away from their initial way of seeing their relationship with the Savior, and the completeness of His action to bring to them life, forgiveness, and salvation.  This first way, in Paul' eyes is the only way because it has been God Himself who has called them to faith.  Next Paul's imagery jumps to the kitchen, where he lets the gentile community know that if they accept this one false teaching it will result in their being drawn away from Christ, the same as leaven in a ball of dough does.  The entirety of the dough, the wholeness of their faith, would become involved.  As evidenced by Paul, this would take place without the gentiles even knowing that it was happening before it was too late.  Once again Paul jumps back into the court room indicating that he has personally wrestled with this whole issue, and in his own relationship with Christ, he is absolutely convinced that this troublemaker in their midst is wrong, adding that Paul is confident that the Galatian Christians will know the Truth of Christ's Light for their faith journey.  Close to the end of this passage, Paul suggests that this interloper is so dangerous that perhaps this person should be castrated in addition to their circumcision.  This is pretty tough language to both hear and read!   However, it is an indication of Paul's anger with this whole situation.  Evidently Paul saw that there were times when discipline in the Church was necessary, but I think that is secondary to the other thing we learn here.  Sometimes it is best for the Church to use a wide variety of means by which to get the message of the Gospel into the world.  This actually fits with the way in which learning takes place, keeping a student's attention and using varied and different means for getting the message across.  That is exactly what Paul has done in this passage from his letter to the Galatian Christians.

Thank you for joining me this morning.  Every day that we are met with the Living Word of Christ is good for us.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 8 (February 27, 2025)

February 27, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 8

May Blessing and Peace, by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, fill your life today.

Please continue the prayers shared earlier in the week.  The good news is that Sharyn's foster son, now an adult, was found after several days, did not know who he was, and had been injured, apparently again after his first trip to the hospital, where he is now.  Please pray for healing, and health for this young man.  Pray too for employment for all who have been recently separated from their government jobs, as well as everyone who is seeking work.  There is a great deal of upheaval in their lives right now.  Pray too please for the people of the Gaza Strip in Israel, as a second round of peace talks is about to take place, to stop fighting in their communities, as well as praying for the people in the West Bank where Israel is once again on the attack against those communities as well.  Every nation has a right to defend itself, it does not have the right to move in any way toward genocide of whole populations of people.  Please pray for unaccompanied minor immigrants who may now be sent out of the country to whatever nations might be willing to receive them.  These children will be left in places where they know no one, without any family support, where they will, in all likelihood, be forced to become members of violent gangs to survive.  Remember, this is our nation committing these kinds of inhumane actions.  This is my seg way this morning into the content of Psalm 8.

In the content of this Psalm, we find David talking about crying infants.  This kind of concern is usually, in the Old Testament, speaking of the victims of conflict, famine, and disease.  Of course, we have seen this kind of reality for years in nations of Africa that have been torn by upheaval and war.  Young girls are kidnapped, raped and imprisoned as slaves, young boys become warriors who kill others before the age of 10, and then of course there have certainly been periods of drought and starvation from around the world.  I hope that you can see how this connects to the coming actions of our own nation.  The Psalm tells us that there is a point beyond which God will not go.  In other words, though you and I have been created as the pinnacle of God's creative work, the nature of sinfulness in our world, reaches a point beyond which God will not move.  Such brazen sin has its limits before the Creator.  We have been given the right as stewards to care for all of God's creation, and perhaps because people are the top of the order of God's creation, we often step way out of the bounds which God has made for all of his creation, thinking that it is our right to do so.  These atrocities, which include the abuse of children in our own culture, and in others cultures, including now a likely move to discontinue meal programs for school age children, and seniors, may well be reaching the point where God's consequences for all of us, even those of us who come to God through the merit of Jesus Christ, who work diligently to be the people who God desires us to be, who are full participants in the line of people who have served the Lord's Truth, and helped to move God's plans for His creation forward, will also suffer the consequences of this brutality toward others, perhaps most especially those who are least able to defend themselves, who must be seen as the LORD'S treasure too.  David, the likely author of this Psalm, knew these realities in the world of his time too.  We must all remember that the LORD Almighty is to be honored, respected, and finally, seen as the One who is always in charge of all things.  Let's face it, you and I do not know the fullness of God's plan for His Creation.  We live such a short time, and see only a tiny part of What God is doing through us, and by the power of Christ's Spirit, however we must remember that we too are a part of that plan, and when anything that humans do that gets in the way of this plan, God has established a barrier beyond which it may not go.  I know, that in my everyday life, I am so thankful for the forgiveness that I am given through the Spirit's faith gift in my life, because as hard I as try, I know that like the people of all times past, present, and future, God is protecting His faithful children with that barrier beyond which the brokenness of the world may not go.  We must know that God's majesty and might will have its way.  Do we acknowledge God as the ultimate authority, or do we continue to open the gate of our hearts to allow for permissiveness the committing of such heinous crimes and offensive acts against the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Next week we move into Psalm nine where David continues to offer praise to the one true God because that is God's due.

Thanks for sharing with me today.  I know what I have spoken about today is a part of the polarization of our nation, and of many nations around the world, and that you may not see things the way I do, but I want you to know that I have worked for 40 years of serving the Gospel of Jesus Christ, called to be prophet and priest, and though Luther didn't really say it, I can do no other than stand on the power and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In His love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 5:1-6 (February 25, 2025)

February 25, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 5:1-6

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ surround your life today, and may you bring Christ's Grace into the lives of all people with whom you have contact.

Please remember the prayers that we prayed yesterday.  They are all still needed.  A reminder today about Sunday's carry-in lunch after worship.  Our theme is Spring Salads and/or any other food to accompany the salads.  Thanks for being with us to participate in the Christ-fellowship which is always with us as come together around food. 

Today you and I are going to move into the 5th chapter of Paul's letter to the Galatian Christians.  It is in this chapter that Paul gets even more firm in the way in which he talks about there being no necessity for circumcision, or its being the measuring rod for escaping the inequality in the early church which the Jews have been teaching.  A good way of seeing this is to talk about people who come to the airport to take a plane to their destination in the Pacific Ocean, compared to people who have decided to drive their cars all the way.  The first group of people will certainly be rewarded with the completion of their journey when they arrive at their destination, however, the group who has decided to drive will only be able to sit at the ocean's shore thinking that their car will somehow get them there.  After all, the car seems to have supplied their travel needs in the past, but now it is completely inadequate for the travel task at hand.

The Jews, according to Paul, were like the people in their car.  The law was their means of being in a right relationship with God, but it was only right for the time of its use, but now completely inadequate for the work of getting them into God's Grace.   Now the people who stepped away from that traditional way of travel to accept and desire a new method of completing their journey, were the ones who came to trust in that new way for how their journey would be completed.  This group is the Gentiles the new Christians who come to God as He fulfills His promise to Abraham, giving faith in Jesus Christ as the only true way to come to the completion of being righteous before God.  No matter what a person may choose to do, trying to make a right way to God through the law is not possible.  Just like that car that sits at the ocean's shore, which is completely unable to complete the journey no matter how badly the driver might hope it could.  But those who choose to ride that passenger jet to their journey's end will succeed because this new means of travel is the only way to get there.  (I am aware that one might choose to travel by ship, but that is not an option that is available.  God did not give that method or make it available.) 

Next Paul takes the step to ensure that the Gentiles understand that you cannot be justified through works.  The works (the law) alone are not enough.  That means that when one comes to faith in Jesus as the Savior, it is by the love of Christ, that the work of the Savior gets done by the faithful.  It is Love that does the works of Christ, because Christ's gift of faith guides the faithful to let love guide the work to which all the Baptized are called.  To choose to live by the law alone isn't enough.  People of faith must live in, with, and surrounded by, the Love of Christ, and carry that Love to the LORD’S children.  I hope and pray that you are joining me in this journey in Jesus Christ so that lovingkindness might be how we live each day.

With love in Christ,   Pastor Kim