Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 (June 23, 2025)

June 23, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Paul’s letter – 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

May our God of all hopefulness surround us all with his comfort, peace, and love today, and always.

Please pray for our members who have had pet incidents over the weekend. Pray for Sharyn and her family as her long-time pit bull, who grew up with her miniature dachshund, for some reason went after the dachshund causing her to need 16 stitches. Thankfully, this was all a skin wound. Pray too for Teri whose little dog went out at night before going to bed and on her outing was bitten by a rattler. She has been in emergency vet care since, and is supposed to be coming home today, and please pray for Sue whose eye surgery is slow in its recovery, and not at all what she expected for improvement of her vision quality. Of course, other prayers are needed as our government continues to make decisions about involvement in the war between Israel and Iran. Pray for clear thinking, and for safety for the men and women of our military who are on bases in the surrounding area. In all this worldly military action let us pray for the heart of Christ to be present in our decision makers, and for the faithful in other communities of world faith to be guided by the hope for peace that their religions call for in their own lives. 

Today we continue in Paul's second letter to the church in Thessalonica. In our passage for today 3:1-5, Paul requests prayer support from the new Christians there, indicating that not every community in which he has visited has been receptive to the Good News about the Savior of the world. It is obvious that Paul's journeys have not been as easy as we might be led to believe from other studies, but what really shines through for the letter recipients, and us, is that Paul places his full trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who has chosen in Paul's time to bring His Son to  pay the price for the sins of the world.  We have all had frustrating dreams, in fact they are a nightly occurrence for me. I find myself somewhere where I have been in the past, but things have changed, and I am unable to get to where I need to be. Imagine if in all our dreams we were unburdened by that "getting lost" feeling and set free to move about with confidence. In Paul's request for prayers in this passage, he is really asking that others who have yet to have the Word of God, and the teaching about His Son, set their hearts free from the burden of their sin, bringing newfound joy to their lives because the God of all things truly loves them beyond belief.  In fact, here in this request for Thessalonian prayers we discover that the conversion or these new Christians has been wonderful, surprising, and joyful beyond Paul's dream of spreading this great Good News. Obviously, in this passage Paul has been, and will be, faced with persecutors, the ones that he names as evil people, so his prayer request is that God keep him safe from the enemies of the Gospel. In our small congregation it is too easy to focus on attendance, budget, and property issues, just like it was easier for the new church to focus on persecution and staying quiet about the life-giving presence of Jesus. Paul tells us that we must always, first and foremost, focus on Jesus, knowing that His Love will always carry us, even in the most difficult times. Thanks for being with me today.

With the Love of Christ behind, before, and around us at all times, Pastor Kim