Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 7:8-16 (October 21, 2025)

October 21, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 7:8-16

Good morning my dear friends. 

An urgent matter for prayer today is to keep our parish administrator Debbie, and her husband Jeff in your prayers.  Jeff is about to have a second surgery as he has developed complications from his first surgery.  Please keep them both in your prayers.  Also pray for Becky healing from weakness, and future testing to determine its cause.  Also continue to pray for Teri who is working to regain her mobility after major hip surgery.  She will have several more weeks in rehab before heading home.  Pray for Larry who is having a special throat cancer procedure to give him a better quality of life, and for another Larry who continues at home to heal after many complications with back surgery.  Kandice continues in hospice care and will soon join God's triumphant saints.  Lisa, her wife, and their good friend Alexis continue to need our prayers too.

If you are ever looking for a primer on the story of the Hebrew and Jewish people in the Old Testament, and its follow-up with the birth of Christ, His mission and ministry, and His suffering, death, and resurrection, you have it here in the book of the Acts of the Apostles as told by Stephen as he stands trial before the Sanhedrin.  I am certain that this undertaking by Stephen is not what the members of the ruling class in Jerusalem were expecting.  He takes us from the beginning of the Hebrew people with Abraham, and on to Joseph and his jealous brothers who sell him off to a camel train, the result of which is Joseph eventually ascending in power to become second only to the Pharaoh. But here, for Stephen, what is most important was how Joseph responded to his brothers when they came back to Egypt with his father Abraham.  In Genesis 50:20 Joseph speaks these words to his brothers who feared the potential of Joseph's revenge after Abraham's death.  "As for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good."  These words of Joseph certainly fit Stephen's circumstance before the Sanhedrin, and what's more, Stephen sums up Joseph's character in the following ways:

1. The word grace is a lovely word.  It reveals beauty, outward physical beauty, but more than that it addresses the beauty of Joseph's soul, his heart and head.  This is exactly who we see in Stephen as well.

2. Joseph held wisdom in his very being. This means being able to take the long view of what is happening, and even to have a sense of how it is the work of God whose direction is so often beyond comprehension.  Joseph lived his life with the long view and direction of God in his heart. 

It seems to have already begun here, as Stephen tries to make it clear that the Sanhedrin does not operate as Joseph did.  In next Monday's texts, Stephen will continue to cover the history of his people, revealing the truth of how he found himself in difficult circumstances before the Sanhedrin.

With prayers for your happiness and joy in this life with which God has blessed you. I will be back next Monday to share more of Stephen’s self-defense.

With love in Christ for you and all people, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 7:1-7 (October 20, 2025)

October 20, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 7:1-7

I pray that this beautiful desert morning has lifted your spirits, or no matter where you may be, that the witness of Stephen in our texts today, and for several studies of this part of the Acts of the Apostles, finds you comforted in your faith.

Please continue praying for Kandice, Lisa, and Alexis.  Kandice continues in hospice care at home, and is very near to her triumph in Christ, and her entry into His heavenly kingdom.  Pray too for Larry and his RN wife as he undergoes a procedure on Wednesday to remove cancer material from his esophagus so that his quality of life with terminal cancer might be improved.  Pray too please for Becky in Eagan, MN as she regains her strength after a battle with extreme weakness.  Cause yet unknown.   And one more today.  Please continue to pray for Teri as she regains strength and mobility after her surgery.  Our prayers span large areas of our city, state, nation, and world.  Please know that our prayers bring healing and hope for their recipients. 

Before my vacation last week, we met Stephen in the text of that study.  He is a man of grace and energy for the work to which the Gospel has called him.  But now, those who detest the good work that he does, and the positive things that he says, have lied about him, and he has been called, yet again, to trial before the Sanhedrin.  Of course, the Sanhedrin has been ready to condemn someone from this new Christian church in their midst.  I really think that Stephen would have been a man after the heart of Martin Luther in the 15 hundreds.  Stephen could easily say, "Here I stand, I can do no other."  What Stephen has to say before the Sanhedrin is the fullness of the truth of God's historic actions on behalf of the Jews throughout their history, and also to powerfully claim the story of the Christ of God, recently brought to trial, whose death was requested, in fact shouted out, before Pilate, so that Pilate would cause Jesus to receive punishment, even to the point of death on a cross.  So, as Stephen stands before the very first question from the judges of the Sanhedrin, "Is this so?" (that you have blasphemed about God?)  Stephen stands boldly and confidently before them all as he begins to recall the journey of the faithful ones, from Abraham forward.  It is a story which nearly immediately begins by talking about the ways in which the chosen ones have fallen away from God throughout history, and even right at the beginning of their relationship with God.  Though it was not Abraham who fostered such difficulty with God.  Instead, Stephen makes it clear bout Abraham's new relationship with YHWH.

1. Abraham came out of the land where he was living at the command of the Holy One.  At this very beginning Abraham was obedient to YHWH.  In combination with God's command, it must have certainly been true that Abram (his name before God renamed him) had a truly adventurous spirit.  And since he responded completely to God's request of him to relocate, he must also have had the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart.

   I can really find myself in touch with this after making a cross-country move to a city in which I had only had a few days’ experience.  I came with a spouse, children, pets, and belongings to a city in which both I, and a new parish, were filled with hope.

2. This was Abraham too.  He was a man filled with hope, just like so many people whose heritage we carry, came to this country filled with hope for a better life, and even more, that very same thing is the reason for the by far largest majority of immigrants who are looking to a new land with hope.

Even though Stephen would lose his life, he had the faith of the Spirit of God that everything that Christ had assured his disciples would come to be, including life, forgiveness, and salvation were already theirs.  Though Stephen was not going to see it happen in this life, he was about to discover its Holy Truth in the next life with Christ in Heaven.

Thanks for being with me today.   I will be back tomorrow morning as we move forward with Stephen’s brave and bold retelling of the real story of how everything in which he now believed had come to be in the Savior of the world.

Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 34 (October 17, 2025)

October 17, 2025:  Friday Bible Study on Old Testament of Psalm 34

Blessings and peace to you on Friday morning.  Oh, you noticed?  We have been busy at the church getting the yard sale put together, and I have been in and out around the property checking on the unsheltered group who has been causing problems around our property and the Mormon church across the street.  Yesterday, I did have the police come over to check during the day too.  And apparently last night they came late and moved the group from both properties.  They have also been impacting the neighborhood and the neighbors of the church.  Keep all of this in your prayers.  It is not that we don't support the unsheltered community, but this group is violent and leaving their waste of all kinds on the property.  Please keep the Prasek’s in your prayers as Becky is now hospitalized in Minnesota with extreme weakness.  Pray for Ron too.  This health issue may well delay them from arriving in Tucson this autumn.

Today we are in the 34th Psalm.  The lead in the commentaries states that this is King David making Abimelech think that David is less than competent, hiding his true nature, faith, and strength from Abimelech.  In some ways this was David escaping from a circumstance that could have been very troubling and dangerous for him.   Abimelech was the name of several Philistine kings that preceded David's time.  However, by David's time, the name was used to describe any Philistine king of a particular time period.  What we do know is that this king was powerful and dangerous, so it was wise of David to cover his true ability by faking his mental and physical strength.   In this kind of circumstance, we find a guide by David's behavior and faith.  You and I often find ourselves in situations in which we have little control from time to time.  We may get an illness, or lose a job, or have a serious car accident, or an unexpected loss, and the list goes on and on, doesn't it?  And rarely does a person get through their entire life without having at least a couple of these times.  So in the remainder of this Psalm we find David extoling the goodness of turning to God with Praise and Thanksgiving even when the situation would seem to not warrant such worship and joy in the relationship of a person of faith with God, having faith in the LORD'S constant care, even when we might feel like we have been abandoned.  David helps us understand that God always listens, perhaps most especially when it feels like He isn't listening.  The next part of this is that God always acts!   You and I can depend on the LORD'S inbreaking love and help as He responds to the needs of those who love Him.  David also indicates that those who are faithless and enemies of the faithful are likely to suffer due to the natural circumstances of their choices, and sometimes at the punishment of the LORD, but for those who are faithful, regardless of their economic circumstances, or their place in the society where they live, or if they are suffering at the hands of the faithless, the LORD will be with them.  Note that does not mean every answer that the faithful might like to have, or every gift from God blessing them with wealth and statis will come to them, but God's promises remain steadfast.  For we who are faithful that means forgiveness, life in the presence of God, and salvation. 

Thanks for being with me this morning. May the LORD keep you always in His Loving Care.   

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim.