Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 6:8-15 (October 14, 2025)

October 14, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 6:8-15

Good morning in the Name, and by the Power and Love, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I would like to ask for your prayers for my sleep patterns. Of late I have been having many dreams, none of them frightening, but they cause me to talk in my sleep, and thrash around. Last night I woke up to having gone over my side guard and was almost on the floor. Thankfully, I was able to get back up without a fall. I don't feel stressed before bed, but this pattern started on our vacation to Colorado last week. I thank God for your prayers, and I am certainly praying about this too. Good news about the unsheltered situation at the church. I have been there every morning before nine, afternoons after school at 3:45PM, and at night after sunset at about 7PM. Everything has been quiet over the last two days. Our property chairperson has ordered a fence to be erected on the north side of the parish hall which will only open from the inside as an emergency exit. We are hopeful that this will take care of anyone hiding for the night along the Parish Hall north wall.

Today's study on Acts begins a long section about Stephen. We may already be familiar with part of his story, but in the content of this chapter and the next we are able to read a complete telling of how Stephen got to the place of being stoned at the hands of the Sanhedrin and Saul.  We have just finished a section on the growth of problems over the equal sharing of support for the less fortunate in the new Christian community. The answer was to bring on board men of strong character and strong faith to administer that distribution. It is in the process of this taking place that Stephen, who is an extraordinary person of faith and courage, whose life is guided by his hope in Christ, and the LORD'S call on his life to serve in the capacity of a leader by word and deed.  What you and I know about his end is that he was stoned for the distribution of food on the Sabbath, which was a deep offense to the Jews who were in power as leaders in the Temple. However, in this reading today, and in the coming readings for the next couple of weeks, we discover that there was far more involved that that simplistic explanation about his death. We start at the beginning of Stephen's story in our text for today.

The very first things that we find out from Luke are about Stephen's character and faith. To say that his work was Holy on behalf of Christ's kingdom seems hardly enough. Stephen is the man who we would all like to get to know, a man to whom we could turn in any circumstance in our lives, no matter how difficult or troubling it might be. Though miracles of healing are not specifically mentioned, it seems clear that Stephen was capable of, and willing to do, such miracles since he was filled with the LORD'S Grace and Power. He was just the right man to take care of the aid distribution each week, and he would be the one who would be certain that no one was being treated with distain or being shorted on the help they received. How wonderful this all was, and to know Stephen was a great and special blessing. But then the naysayers came on the scene. They are from a wide variety of places, nearly as many as are mentioned in Acts 2. and Pentecost. These men could find no way to intervene in Stephen's grace filled ministry. Instead, they plotted against Stephen, telling lies about the things that Stephen had said. They said that he uttered blasphemous words against Moses and God, and they became witnesses through these lies before the Sanhedrin, telling those in authority that Stephen constantly said that Jesus would act to destroy their power (which for the Sanhedrin members was their wealth, and source of power in the Temple).  Some things never seem to change, the uber wealthy tend to think that their money and resources grant them privilege over everyone else. The same thing was true in Jerusalem in Stephen's time in the new Christian church too. So here we are in this passage today. Another trial before the most powerful men in Jerusalem. But at the end of our passage today, we discover that Stephen appears to not be troubled by the trial. Despite the lies, the anger, and the threats, this passage ends by telling us about the countenance of Stephen. As they looked on him with derision, they only saw the face of a man which looked as if he held the countenance of an angel. The confidence of Stephen's faith, and his trust in Jesus kept him calm and filled with the blessing of the Spirit's presence. This must have been a real surprise to the powerful men who were gathered there. They were accustomed to people quaking in their boots when they were called up before them, but this was not Stephen in any way. I know that this ending to this passage feels incomplete, but there is so much more as the revelation of God's compassion and frustration gets revealed by Stephen as he witnesses on behalf of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! This is what's coming next, as Stephen offers a telling of the Jews from the time of Abraham until their present time in their own relationship with God, and of course, what they had done to the Messiah Himself. There are times in the lives of the faithful people in Christ, when the only true thing to do is to once again tell the truth of God's Will, and Love, even when it is rejected by those who hear it, who are willing to come in anger as so many have done, filled with wrath and no understanding of God's Love for them.  So, God sends those who can repeat and repeat this message, with the expectation that the Spirit's work is still being done, no matter the outcome of that anger and hostility towards those who have the courage to live immersed in God's truth for His Children.

As for me and my house, we will love the LORD and cherish His only begotten Son every day of our lives!

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7 (October 13, 2025)

October 13, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 6:1-7

May the Grace and Love of our Savior give you comfort and peace and strength for this, and all coming days.

Good morning my dear friends! Our church council met yesterday at American, and one of our business items had to do with homeless people around our building at night, and disturbances which they are causing in the neighborhood. The church property has been trashed, and human waste has had to be cleaned up. I started last night to make evening rounds of the property close to 7PM, and I was back again this morning making certain that no one is having any problems with this group of approximately 10 unhoused people. We will be working to make our property more secure. This is a real problem for us because we are called to be Christ for all people, but we are also called to be stewards of the church property, creating a safe atmosphere for members and building use communities who are on our site during the day and the night.  Please keep this situation in your prayers. Please also pray for Kandice Kartchner and her wife Lisa as Kandice is now in the final stages of her cancer taking her life. Offer prayers of support and love for this family in this difficult time. We are having a yard sale this Saturday to help support their family as many unplanned expenses will come to them soon. Hours are 8AM - 2PM on October 18, Saturday, at American Ev. Lutheran Church on Tucson Blvd. All proceeds will be sent to the Kartchner family in Hawaii. I know that there is plenty of "bad" in the world today, but our good news is that Teri Hardy has had her special hip replacement surgery and is now in rehab to regain strength and learning how to move with this new prosthetic. Please pray for her continued healing. Thanks for your patience in my absence during my vacation to Colorado. We had a wonderful time with our son and his wife, and friends that we have known for 25 years who now live there too with their new baby girl.

Today we are in Acts 6:1-7 in our Bible Study. In our passage for today we encounter the normal everyday issues which happen in businesses and organizations. There are no perfect places to work, worship, and live. Of course, the same was true for the new Christian community in Jerusalem. At this time in the new church, her members were from a wide variety of backgrounds. Those who believed were gentiles, radically conservative Jews, moderate Jews, as well as others from a variety of mid-eastern locations, gathered in Jerusalem for business and life. The problem that arises in this passage is that there was a historic dislike for the gentiles by the conservative Jews, and this group of Jews was not happy with the other Jews who had become members either. So, the complaint in this passage has to do with the distribution of aid to those families and homes where there just weren’t enough available resources to live from day to day. In the Jewish traditional faith home, there was a Friday offering made to aid those in need in their community. It could be food, money, or clothing. This happened every Friday, and it seems obvious that the new Christian community had chosen to continue this program as a good way to provide equity for their own members. BUT THERE WAS A PROBLEM! There were conservative Jews helping to run this distribution, and they tended to leave out the same level of aid that have been given to their own conservative Jewish Christian community. Of course, this could become an issue of division for lack of care in this new community. So, the disciples step in and select people of faith from the community who would then handle the fair distribution of aid. The Apostles were busy in the faith community doing the important work of prayer, healing, and proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to try to manage this issue on their own. So, they selected men of strong character and faith to handle this on their behalf. This passage is a great source of information for us. The variety of Spiritual Gifts that are in our communities is meant to be identified and called into service to take on the issues for which their Spiritual Gifts are suited. Just stop and think for a few moments about your gifts, not just the ones you think you know about yourself, but more specifically the gifts which others identify in you. The men who were called to handle the issue of irregular distribution because of bias and dislike, had truly important work to do in their community in Christ. Please know that your gifts are important too!

Thank you for being with me this morning. I will be back to share with you again tomorrow.

With Love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 33 (October 2, 2025)

October 2, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Old Testament of Psalm 33

Good morning. I am really happy to indicate that people we have been praying for are seeing the result of our prayers support in their lives. Larry, who had a tough time over back surgery, and an extended rehab stay, is now home. Jeff, who had surgery on this shoulder which involved some nerve bundles, had good surgery and is now recovering at home. Teri, who has been waiting for months to have a new type of hip replacement surgery, had successful surgery yesterday, and will be home in a couple of days to continue her recovery. Lisa in Hawaii has also had some really good news about one of her health concerns. Tests have shown health for her in this first round. So, we have plenty to thank God for this week, but of course we now need to pray for our federal workers who are jobless or working with no pay while congress and the president try to find some common ground on health care. Peace is a massive concern, with it looking like the Ukraine/Russian war may well expand in the Europe, with incursions over sovereign boundaries by Russia may cause tensions to get worse than they are already. Pray to for peace between the nation of Israel and the Palestinians. 66000 deaths in Gaza is too much! In fact, peace could have come at a much less costly past. Thank you for your prayers. They really help.

Today's Psalm study in chapter 33. This is a Psalm filled with praise for God, confidence in God's will to sustain and hold the Hebrews protected from their enemies, and God's power and might to deal with any enemy of David's. It seems a rather long Psalm for this small amount of information, but it is in this Psalm that we can begin to see a guide for how to give praise to God, and how to trust God when things are not going as Israel had hoped they would.  Like David we usually do a really good job of worshiping with joy and the celebration of God's benefits and victories that have already happened. The tougher one is to remember that same joy when things get tough remembering His faithfulness. Falling away from God is easy to do, in our world it seems easier to depend on money and power for our help, but these really do fail when we are not centered in Christ's presence. All those other "gods" cannot ultimately hold our physical issues as we near death. David knew that there was only one source of that kind of protection, and it is God. When everything seems out of control, we must remember that God is always in control, even when we think that God has done something less that necessary to keep safe. The simple fact is that God knows what's coming, and choices today, that we are guided through, or the ones that we make on our own, all must be made to fit into God's plan for His whole creation. God loves us, and He stays in control out of His love for us. You and I do not know how God will choose to move His creation closer its fulfillment. What we do know, along with David and the faithful Hebrews, is that God remains steadfast throughout this life, and into the next. How trusting are we today? We always need to allow God into every situation and circumstance.

Thanks for being with me this morning. With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

There will be no Psalm Study next week. I am on vacation with my family. This Sunday is Gospel Music Sunday, and our Mexican carry-in dinner after worship.