Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 11:19-21 (February 2, 2026)

February 2, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 11:19-21

We are all living in the warmth and light of our Savior Jesus Christ.

May our hope and trust in Christ fill our lives and truly create in us a desire to offer invitations for others to join us surrounded by God's Grace and Love. That is called evangelism. We seem to often be afraid of it, but as we look at our passage from the Acts of the Apostles today, this is exactly the means by which the early church grew and expanded its ministry for the Gospel. Please keep Lisa in your prayers as she has surgery tomorrow to remove cancer from her body. Our prayer support is vital for her peace of mind and healing. At worship yesterday I made a decision to bring together an Easter offering for Tucson's Community Food Bank. It has become much more difficult for them to provide supplementary food. So please start giving now for that offering. Collect your loose change, a few dollars, or more if you are able, every week, to build our offering in this difficult time for food support in our nations.

In our passage today, we see one of the true miracles of the spread of the Gospel. After Stephen was killed, the Christians did not run and hide, in face they moved out away from Damascus, and began sharing the Word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ first with Jews, and eventually with gentiles. Initially, like Peter, those early evangelists felt that the message of the Messiah was meant only for the Jewish community, but after traveling and evangelizing the Jews in Phoenicia and Cyprus. It was then that the men who were sharing this message departed for Antioch and began sharing the Good News with gentiles who lived there, and according to our text, "great" numbers of converts became members of the early church, turning to the LORD. This amazing early growth in the Church happened because of the courage of those traveling men who came to share what they had learned and even share from their experience with persecution in Damascus. It is difficult for us to understand for ourselves how they found the courage to do it. They really felt the Spirit's presence in their prayers for their teaching and preaching, in their confidence that they would be guided with words and deeds that would convince the gentiles of the power of the Christ of God who had been killed and then resurrected for the sake of all people. In our time in the via de Cristo lay renewal movement we learned a good way to remember what all of this takes. We said, "Make a friend. Be a Friend. Bring a friend to Christ."  Within each one of us, and around us, is the living Spirit of Christ. We can know with confidence that She is always there, helping us to be friends with people through our joy in living without the burden of our sin any longer now that we know Christ is always with us too. We can be praying for them in their need, we can offer kindness and gentleness when we are in their presence, we can be present supportive people in their lives, and ultimately, the Spirit will give us opportunities to share our faith journey as our friendship grows and blossoms with the fruit of loving kindness that is truly the living presence of the Savior in us that is meant to be shared.  This is the warmth and light of Christ that is always in, with, and around us. The message that the believers in the Savior share is filled with the Spirit of Christ. And here in Acts we see its outcome for the life of the Church on into the future of God's gifts for His much-loved children. Outside of Antioch there was an orchard of laurel trees, that the religion of the area held were there because of the great love of Daphne and Apollo. She had been changed into a laurel tree to preserve her life. Both lovers, a god, and a woman, were worshipped in that grove. It was into this setting that the Christian evangelists came, and here, the power of the Gospel spread in amazing ways. What it tells us, is that we are never without hope when we allow Christ and His Spirit to accompany us when we become the people who bring the message of God's Love to others we meet in our lives.

It is uncanny how today's passage from Act speaks to our need in our own congregation. We are always called to make a friend, be a friend, and to bring a friend to Christ. Getting surprised by the Word is such a wonderful part of our life journey together with Jesus.

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 45 (January 29, 2026)

January 29, 2026:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 45

Blessings and Peace be yours today and always.

I am not certain if you have noticed the uptick in Tucson traffic, however, no matter where you drive you are going to encounter heavy traffic. I implore you to drive carefully when you are out because there are a few additional crazy people out there. In the last two days on the early morning drive, I have had 6 cars drive by me in excess of 80 miles an hour in a 45-speed zone. Please be diligent about the vehicles that are around you and approaching you whenever you are driving. Thanks, and be careful.

Our members Joyce and Larry had to care for their aged pit bull Alabama this past week by letting her go due to her extensive health issues. Please keep them in your prayers for comfort and peace as they grieve their beloved pet's death. I visited Alabama at their home, and she was a wonderful blessing in their lives.

Today we are studying the 45th Psalm. As you begin it seems to be a bit confusing. It is apparently a Psalm written on the occasion of someone's wedding. So, what is important is to take a few minutes and think back to your wedding day. Our date was Dec 11th. Quite a cold time in western Michigan, but there was no snow on the ground yet, and it had rained quite heavily the day before. For me, the wedding was a wonderful opportunity to speak from my heart, the sincere words of my commitment, promise, and love for Melody. I sang at the beginning of the service what was then a new wedding song by Paul Stucky, "The Wedding Song. It began with the words, "He (God) is now to be among you at the calling of your life."  For me, after six years of going steady through High School, and through my last year of college study, it had reached its fulfillment on this evening at the church that I grew up in. I greeted nearly every one of the nearly 500 guests in the Narthex as they entered. I sang the Lord's Prayer while we kneeled at the Altar, our marriage complete, we headed off to our church reception to cut the wedding cake and to share the first moments of our married life with our family and friends. I will always remember the joy I knew that evening many years ago, and through the ups and downs of 8 children, changing careers and moving from our 10 acre historic farm to Chicago, then on for a long year in Des Moines with our then two children, and then one more semester of study back in Chicago, synod oral exams, call interviews, and our first call in Ann Arbor.  The evening of our wedding I felt like the groom in our Psalm, that I could sit on the throne of God and wield His Power, while my love for my bride filled my heart.

Of course, not every wedding day is so happy, there can be family divisions, too much money spent on tuxedos, wedding gowns, attendant's gifts, and that reception when we still had nearly 100 miles to drive to get to our apartment where we would live.

What we find in our Psalm for today that is most important for us is the very positive character of the groom. (note that we often talk about Christ as the groom)  In fact, it was to be to such a presence of God's justice and mercy and love, that the bride would know that she was in the hands of a husband who would care for her with great love, patience, and strength in the face of any trouble the couple might face.  I know. In the 21st century we, of course, might find this way of thinking archaic. Today we see both partners needing to bring into their marriage the kind of compassion and love that our Psalm indicates is primarily the responsibility of the groom. The specific character of the Psalm groom includes faithfulness, truthfulness, uprightness, lowliness (being humble and not haughty), and more. And the groom must be willing to fight against unfaithfulness, all the while placing his bride as the highest priority, only lower than his commitment to God. When any of these characteristics are missing in a partner, then marriages often fail. It seems to me that marriage must be patient and kind too. No wonder Scripture from Paul says Faith, Hope, and Love abide (they are all so important), but the greatest of these is Love. Christ is the model for what we mean when we talk about Love. Our world today thinks of only one thing when it addresses the issues of love, and that is not at all what this Psalm is about. Intimacy can only happen when partners in a relationship carry the characteristics which today's Psalm lifts up.

Thanks for being with me this morning.

In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 11:11-18 (January 27, 2026)

January 27, 2026:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 11:11-18

Good morning, dear friends in Christ. I pray that this is a day filled with calm for you, our entire community at American, here in Tucson, and across our country. In the events of the last several days in Minnesota, there have been troubling videos of the killing of a VA ICU nurse. I am certain that you might like to know where I stand on all this immigration enforcement that has been taking place under the President. I will tell you that I have very strong feelings personally, which I struggle to give up to the judgement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. However, my call is to serve the Gospel, and to proclaim its power in the face of the brokenness and sin of God's creation and world. My call to serve the Gospel means that I cannot, nor will I, allow my own struggles with the current national situation to shadow my love for God's children, or to become the pastor who turned away people because politics bled into my preaching and teaching.  I have always said that we all have a responsibility to vote our conscience as Christians who are saved by the LORD. What higher calling could be greater than this? Yet, like many of us, I suspect that right now you are having personal struggles to know how to move forward in such times as we have seen recently in our cities, states, and nation. I pray that the Lord's Spirit who brought you to your Baptism, will restore your trust and faith in God's justice for all people. Please pray for a change of heart for those determined to commit violence and upheaval in any of our cities and pray too for God's justice to always be on people's heart and minds as we live in the world, filled with the Love of Jesus Christ for all people.

Today, we find Peter defending himself against those new Christians who were still so deeply connected to Jewish law, even though they had accepted Jesus as their Savior. However, Peter knew that he had done all of this by the call of the Holy Spirt, and he even brought 6 witnesses to share the veracity of his actions while he was with Cornelius, his family, household servants, and other gentile visitors who came to see what this Roman Centurion was about to do.  On one side of this miraculous event, we have Cornelius and all who gathered at his home accustomed to worshiping a multiplicity of gods, including their own Caesar, with at least his gentile visitors unaware of who was going to break into their lives turning their hearts for good, and on the other side you have Peter and his 6 witnesses, all of whom were tied to the One True God, un-nameable (too Holy to be spoken), all powerful, giver of the immutable Law of Moses.  But Peter did not need to worry, the Spirit broke into these situations, which meant that Peter would not have to battle. The change in Cornelius and all who were gathered with in, was undeniably the act of God's Spirit, and the vision which Peter shared helped the new heavily Jewish influenced Christians to find their way through to welcome the Gentile Christians who would previously have been claimed unclean and deserving of condemnation for just being who they were!  But through the Spirit, everything that had been previously thought to be important was found instead needing to be set aside, and the Gospel story of Jesus' Life, Punishment, Death, and Resurrection, and the change of heart that comes from receiving Jesus as the Savior became hope, joy, and forgiveness and love.

God bless you all, in all that you think, speak, and do! It flows from our love of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ!

With Love and Peace in Christ, Pastor Kim