Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-28 (May 20, 2025)

May 20, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul’s letter, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-28

Conclusion of the first letter Paul writes to the Thessalonians.

Blessings, Peace, and Joy on this wonderful Tuesday Morning. Now it is afternoon. I just finished a couple of hours arranging for the delegate stay in Las Vegas on the 11th through the 14 of June. We were able to get two nice rooms at a Hilton hotel off the strip, near NLV.  Sharyn and Jesse are our delegates, and of course I am also a voting delegate for the assembly. Keep us in your prayers for travel. Continue to pray for the people in the mid-south, and mid-west as they face another day of likely storms. Please remember to join us after church this Sunday for a graduation reception for Logan and Caleb, and come early for donuts, juice, and coffee at 9AM for a time of fellowship on this last Sunday of the month.

Today we are in the last few verses of Chapter 5 in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonian Christians. Yesterday we read and considered Paul's guidance for how to live as a holy person, both the do’s and the don'ts. Today we have Paul's closing for this first letter, and as he began the first part of this letter with prayer, we find him offering prayers again in these last verses.

Paul commonly wrote about the faithfulness of the one who sent him, and that very same faithfulness of God for every believer. I suspect that we don't start our day giving thanks to God for His faithfulness that goes with each of us through the days of our lives. Perhaps this would be a good addition for our morning and evening prayers! Many of us who are believers find our peace, courage, strength, and abiding love in the Church, where our faith is strengthened every time we gather to be encouraged in the Gospel, and fed with the living presence of Christ in, with, and around our lives in Holy Communion.  Having said all of this, every one of us who are churched must remember that the church is not moved forward by the will of people, that's us, it is moved forward by the all-powerful faithfulness of God Who has sent His Son and provided us with a daily Holy Spirit presence in our every day.  Continuing, when Paul says, and encourages, the Thessalonian Christians to live holy lives, we must understand that such living is only possible because the God who sees us as His greatest treasure, has brought holiness to us through His Son. While still sinners, we are holy through the merit and perfection of Jesus Christ. In Paul's conclusion to this first letter, he looks forward with hope. You and I should always be looking forward with hope too. We can do that because our God who is faithful has a plan for each and every one of us, both as we live this life, and as we come to the glory of God's Heaven when our bodies can no longer carry us in this world.  In the face of all things, we are surrounded by God's faithful love and compassion, which moves us day by day into the hope which is ours in Jesus Christ. In this journey of hope, it may take a lifetime to live in the Peace of Christ which passes all the understanding of this world in which we live. Next week we move on to Paul's second letter to these new Christians in Thessalonica.

With love and hope in all things because of the unsurpassed Grace of God!

Pastor Kim