Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 9:19-22 (December 8, 2025)

December 8, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 9:19-22

In this Advent season of the church year may your days be filled with anticipation for the joy which we all know in our lives because of Christ's birthday. It is a remarkably busy time in the life of the church. This coming Sunday we will have worship at 10AM followed by time to decorate the Sanctuary for Christmas. This includes getting the tree ready, filling our electric candles for the tree with new batteries, and placing garlands and more throughout the worship space and Narthex. I hope that you will be able to join us for this annual Advent fellowship opportunity. Bell Choir will rehearse afterward. Before the 10 am service we will share a special animated version of the Nativity of Christ. This will start at 9AM sharp on the big screen in the Sanctuary. I hope that you will be able to join us for this both funny and serious retelling of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Part one will be this week, and the last part will be on Sunday the 21st. After church on the 21st we will have a Christmas cookie exchange, and of course, Christmas Eve worship will be at 7PM on December 24th.

Today we continue with Acts and the life of the man now called Paul, whose direction for the destruction of the new Christian Cult was filled with determination and power. However, now Paul has a new direction in his life after his transformation on the road to Damascus, and the later restoration of his eyesight. His care by Ananias, and the Word of Christ Himself, have now filled his life with new possibilities and direction as he begins his witness for the Risen Son of God in a city where there were many Jews just waiting for him to arrive and literally destroy that new Christian Church.  Though the new Christians were people of integrity and gentleness, the Jews found them to be a threat, and chose instead to name them as blasphemers, who under Jewish religious law must be tried for heresy. OF course it was not only converted Jews, there were others from other faith traditions who worshiped a bunch of different gods who also came to be converted, especially after they became aware of Paul's own conversion. When the period of conversion had taken place with the aid of Ananias and others, Paul was ready to get out into the community, and where was the first places that he went, to the synagogues in Damascus to present himself as a changes person, no longer ready to condemn the followers of Christ, but having become one himself ready to witness to his fellow Jews from his personal experience with Christ, and his new-found faith in the Messiah, the Son of God.  Just so we all know, Luke's version of Paul's conversion and ministry of witnessing about it is the "Cliff Notes Version”. It probably is a good thing that Luke presents it in such a precise way, because the long version comes from a variety of places and from Paul himself. See: Galatians 1:15-24, and then onto an even more complete story:

1. Paul is converted on the road to Damascus.

2. He preaches in Damascus.

3. He goes away into Arabia (Galatians 1:17)

4. He returns and preaches in Damascus for three years (Galatians 1:18)

5. He goes up to Jerusalem.

6. He escapes from Jerusalem to Caesarea

7. He returns to the area of Syria and Cilicia (Galatians 1:21)

When we put together these two narratives of Paul's conversion and ministry immediately after his conversion, we discover that there are two things which Paul found necessary to do.

1. He immediately bore witness to the Jews in Damascus This was an immense act of moral courage! He was known here in a totally different way, as the enforcer of Jewish Law against heretics. During this time, he also claims no shame in his life for his conversion.

2. He needed space for his conversion in Christ to be pondered and honed. So, he traveled to Arabia to find the quiet that he needed to help that happen, because now before him stretched a new and different life. He looked to God for guidance and comfort as this new life unfolded before him, and he needed strength to take on the challenges that would unfold before him in his new life and ministry for Christ.

How often do we need to do that very same thing as Paul? It is so often difficult in our busy lives to take the time to be with God in prayer and worship. We even find it hard to get to church to receive the living gift of Christ in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, or even to contact the pastor to say, "Can you bring us home communion?"  Though we may often fail to search for God's ways in our lives, we all need to know that God never stops searching for the entries into our hearts and minds. God bless you today and always.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim