Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (May 12, 2025)

May 12, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Blessing and Peace in Jesus Christ be with you this morning!

I hope that this day will be filled with joy in your life as you move through Monday. Please be careful of the heat if you are going to be outside, be certain that you are well hydrated and have water with you. This week in our prayers we are going to give thanks for the stability in treatment that has occurred for Kandice, which has really assisted her and Lisa with some relief from the heavy treatment, and oft changing choices for treatment that have been a part of their lives.  Please Pray for Tricia, who has begun her journey of treatment for breast cancer and will begin chemo in early June. Pray for the success of her treatment and the eradication of the cancer. Please also pray for Annette's husband Steve who has a growing dark spot on his lung. Pray for rapid care, diagnosis, and successful treatment for Steve. in addition, please pray for lasting peace in our world every day. God bless you for your prayer life.

In this morning's reading from 1st Thessalonians Paul is writing/speaking about a topic which must be on the hearts and minds of these newest of Christians. What happens when we die? And when the dead are raised imperishable at the end of things, what does that means for the Christians who have not yet died? Paul's purpose here is not to stop grief, but to surround the grief for a partner, or family member, or friend with the joy and confidence, with the very Peace of the LORD of all things, so that faith may abound even in the hardest of circumstances, including death.  Paul helps these new Christians to understand that a person who has died in faith is already in Christ's care. There is no time in our lives, or in our deaths, when Christ does not hold us and fulfill His promise to always be with us. I am confident that the very same kinds of questions about what happens to us in death still surround our own grieving process, and, dare I say it, fears about what is next for us all when we believe in the Savior. Let's face it, there have been volumes written about the second coming of Christ, and the "Rapture". I will say to you that the "rapture" believers have it wrong! One of our issues is that we have several different ideas about what is coming for the dead, punishment? maybe, Salvations for believers? Absolutely! But then, since the very beginning of the Church, people have wondered what all that means. Jesus says He will be with us to the end of the age. Daniel has thinking about how the son of man will be snatched up into the clouds as he is vindicated by God after his suffering. Is this prophetic? Or is it imagery in which Daniel sees something which he is trying to understand? Honestly, it's unclear. It might be best if you and I think about heaven as a companion dimension to the one in which we all live. If you and I believe the promise of Christ to always be with us, then this may make the best sense, better than Heaven and Christ coming down from some outer space, or skyward place that we cannot see. Doesn't it make better sense, in all honesty, to think about the nature of the ever-present Heaven and the Trinity surrounding us all the time? When Jesus returns, He might just step into a backyard, or a church, or a beautiful park somewhere. It might be anywhere, especially when we come to understand the always present Heaven to which Christ went in His Ascension, and yes, I know, it might be the other way in which the people of faith have usually believed too.  We could have protracted conversations about this for the rest of our lives, but that is not really what Paul is trying to accomplish here in 1st Thessalonians. He is looking to bring comfort in the face of grief, and joy in the Savior's presence at all times in the lives of the Thessalonians. What I do know for certain is that God will establish a new and perfect world in which all His children in Christ will join Him when we die, and if we are alive when Christ arrives to enfold His faithful ones, they will be there too.  We need to remember that Paul is the first, and earliest, of the New Testament writers trying to define and understand what is so new and completely different in Christ. Jesus loves His children with such passion that it would never be the time to leave them in the grave, asleep, separated from Him at any time. The God of Heaven and earth, the Redeeming Son, and the constant companion Spirit are never far away in some distant heaven at any time.

Thanks for letting me share with you this morning. Pastor Kim