Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 5:12-16 (September 23, 2025)

September 23, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 5:12-16

Good morning and may the blessings of Jesus Christ hold you in His care today and always.

First and foremost. There was no Bible Study yesterday. I was going to let you know via email yesterday morning, and that got away from me. In my reading of the latest newsletter from the Grand Canyon Synod, I discovered that this year's Boundary training for clergy was on the docket to be done online before I left on vacation. It has often been done in person, but not this year. So, I signed up yesterday and did the workshop online. It took seven hours to complete, and I still must do a zoom meeting with the synod tomorrow morning as a completion of this workshop. Every pastor in the synod must do this before October 8. Please accept my apologies for not getting the notice to you that Bible Study would not happen yesterday.

Prayers continue to be needed for Larry and Joyce. It looks like Larry may be able to get home today after his lengthy recuperative stay after his surgery. Pray for continued healing and rest for them both. Also pray for Sharyn's sister Sonya as she nears her journey to become one of God's triumphant saints.

In our passage today from the Acts of the Apostles we discover that Peter continues to offer healing with confidence in the power of Christ to fill his words, and his touch. It is no wonder that people from Jerusalem and the surrounding communities came bringing their sick and disabled family and friends to experience the miracle of Peter's faith in Jesus Christ. What we may find unusual after Christ's death and Resurrection, is that the new converts to the Church met at the Temple in Jerusalem as had been their custom before coming to know Christ and the power of God's Words through Peter, James, and John.  What we then can learn about the early Church and its members, is that we know where the Church met. At Solomon's colonnade which surrounded the Temple area. The Church was visible to everyone entering the Temple in that area. The second thing we can gather is that the new Church MET! In fact, the people were together constantly in that place, and only went to their homes to share food, probably at the end of the day. The new Church was truly effective. People were presented with God's Word, with Christ being proclaimed as the Messiah and Savior, and miracles were taking place too. According to this text miracles happened just by people being close to Peter.

Our response to all of this might be Wow! What happened to all of that today in the Church? I want to assure you that the presence of the Word, the healing of Christ in our lives, and the change of hearts that comes from claiming Christ as the Savior in our lives, all still happen in Christ's Church on earth today.  And like this time after Christ's death, it all happens when Christ's Body, the Church, (that's you and me) steps up to bring His hope and help to the world of brokenness and sin. Yes, miracles continue to be present in the midst of the Body of Christ, the Church. I watch it all the time in our congregation. When people who are feeling alone and distant from others come, they find that our congregation is the place where loneliness comes to join other's hearts and lives for each other, and for the Christ of God. We have become, and are, a caring community. We pray for one another too. Some days the phone is busy throughout the day letting me know of specific prayers that are needed, but we are also called to regularly pray for one another, to do it every day! I find such strength in the prayers of the members of the congregation when I am told that I am being prayed for every day. You are too. You are on my bedtime prayer list daily. I also know the healing power that you all bring to worship. Laying on of hands is not just church ritual. It is our acknowledgement of the power of Christ to bring His healing to us every day. When people, who are not members, who may be first time visitors come to be with us in fellowship and worship, I know that they leave changed by the powerful presence of the Spirit, because She has guided us to meet these people by offering to them the gentleness of our hearts of faith, by which you and I become the living Christ for their lives too.  I don't know about you, but I am always amazed at the miracle of donuts before church (that's this Sunday), and the carry-in meals that are incredible, and enough to feed way more people than we have attending! Another way in which I see Christ's Spirit presence is in the Gospel Music Group. At our rehearsals, voices sound timid, sometimes uncertain, but when our singers arrive on Gospel Music Sunday, their voices, their very spirituality resounds in their music. For me the presence of Christ is in all these places, and yes, I know that the very same spirit-energy enters my preaching on Sunday mornings too. When we can acknowledge that the living Christ is always present with His children, then we too will be able to see and feel what the people of the earliest congregation saw, new life, new hope, new victory over death, and the comforting presence of God's Son, our Savior.  

Thanks for letting me in your homes and hearts today.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim