Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47 (August 12, 2025)

August 12, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47

Blessings, Joy, and Peace be with you on this beautiful desert morning.

I am still praying for some rain in our area of town. I got the car washed this morning after dropping the boys off for school. Sometimes that seems to tempt the rain! Please keep Mark and Linda in your prayers. They are home in Wisconsin where there has been a great deal of heavy rain. For them let's pray that they and their family and friends, as well as their church congregation are all doing OK in that inclement weather. Prayers for Pastor Ron and Becky as they spend their summer in Minnesota. That area of the country has also had some rough weather. Please pray too for Steve and Annette who are on their belated honeymoon. Steve will be coming home to some surgery and likely further tests for his lung health. Please remember that we have last Sunday of the month coffee and donut hour before church at 9AM on the 31st. We will also be doing a HOTDOG picnic for our Gospel Music first Sunday of the month carry-in. The cost will be $1 per person, and the hotdogs will be all beef dinner franks from Costco. Please sign up at church, and bring a picnic dish to share, side dish or dessert. The hot dogs will be grilled on Saturday and warmed at church for the meal. If you need chicken franks instead, please let Pastor know, and add it to the sign-up sheet. Meals like this are part of being the church.

Let's look now in our passage for today at how the earliest church began in Jerusalem.

First, we are told of the great joy which filled the hearts and minds of the newly Baptized, and that the numbers of people who participated grew as the days and months passed. Everyone chipped in, and all were happy to have the opportunity to do so. Some even chose to loosen their lives from the bonds of possessions, using the money from the sale of their belongings to support the new church. The members ate many of their meals together, with everyone helping to bring enough for people to share. You and I see this all the time at our carry-in meals. Goodness, the food is always abundant, and tasty. In fact, it is so good that we all really look forward to sitting down in fellowship, taking time to eat and having wonderful conversations too. The model for these meals is found in the miracles of Christ, and in the Holy Meal of Communion as well. Meals bring us all together in both simple and profound ways, and the health of any congregation is to be found in the simple meal of bread and wine in communion, and in the meal events of the congregation. In both situations we are truly blessed through the living presence of our Savior. Jesus had told Peter that he would be the Rock on which the Church would be built. With few instructions for the physical shape of the Church, it was the content, the joy, the peace, the freedom of being welcomed and loved without judgement that drew people in to become believers. Our invitations for others to come and know the Christ of God who has saved all people, and then to really experience the Holy Hospitality of the believing community, these are the ways in which the Church continues to move forward in its growth.  So often these things are present in a mission congregation. There is the excitement for what is happening through the Spirit and Christ creates a sustaining energy which draws others in. But, every church, new, middle aged, or old should have that very same energy when members gather to celebrate the Living Christ amid His people. Isn't it always easier to be with people who are excited about their lives who are immersed in the Love of the Lord, and whose love isn't some fake on the surface experience, but it is the Love of Christ which fills lives with truly amazing energy, bringing others to know the fullness and power of the presence of the Lord in every moment of every day.  This is what powers the joy we all know. We are set free from the burden of our sin, because Christ has lifted it from our very being, making us right with His Father in Heaven. I can tell you that Melody and I have experienced the greatest Love of Christ through the friends we have known in Christ. And yes, every one of you, are a part of that community, and we have lived having the joy of being the very same kind of people, filled with the compassion and generosity and kindness and love which we have known in Him, and through the hearts of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are together, the Body of Christ, the Church! Let's live every day confident in the Savior who calls us to be His people today.

1. In the church it is the Cross of Christ, who has lifted the burdens of everyone through His willing sacrifice for our sin and brokenness.

2. Praying every day is critical in the life of Christ's people in the church.

3. In the church we are caught up in awe and wonder for God's acts of Love for us.

4. The church is where the signs and wonders of Christ's Love are seen and experienced, EVEN TODAY!

5. The church is a community of sharing, where loving assistance is freely given.

6. The church is a worshipping community, gathered often to give praise and thanksgiving to God.

7. The church is a community of happiness and joy; it is our persona in Christ.

8. No matter how well we do in the world, when we live in Christ, and gather in His Name in worship, others discover that there is something about us that they are missing in their own lives! That is because we are the church!

Thank you for letting me share with you this morning. God bless you and hold you in His care.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim