Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 13 (April 3, 2025)

April 3, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 13

Good morning my dear friends in Christ. Today we’re moving on in the Psalms to #13.

But before we begin, let's consider prayers for our members and friends once again.  Please pray for Kandice, Lisa, and Alexis in Hawaii as Kandice now needs to recertify for her disability assistance as a result of US government changes. Please pray for our members Larry and Joyce who are battling a pretty serious identity theft situation.  Please pray for Tricia, as she begins treatments after a biopsy this week. All of this is keeping her in Tucson from a planned trip to see her grandchild in Philadelphia. Pray for our Jesse as he starts a new job on Saturday at Park Place Mall. It is a temporary full-time job for a couple of weeks. Please pray for Josiah as he goes to a job fair on the 8th to apply for part time employment while he attends college.  Pray for Chris too who is looking for work that fits his skill set. Please pray for our seniors who are worried about their support for housing, medical, and social security from the federal government since all of the changes are still quite uncertain.

Now on to Psalm 13. If I were to give this Psalm a title it would simply be "How long LORD?"  Here we have David questioning the LORD'S response time to his requests for assistance with his enemies. In his pride as the king, he is also apparently a bit worried about how it all looks to those on the outside, and yet after all of his complaining, David offers words of confident faith, letting God know that he has not lost his way.  We really haven't changed much over 2500 years, have we?  When we find ourselves in really difficult times, it is the very same question as David's frustration with the LORD, that you and I think and speak as well. I can think of any number of circumstances when people would say this. For a loving couple who want to have children but have been unable to conceive, I know that this question to the LORD is on their minds if not on their lips. Why do I know this? This was Melody and my situation when we wanted a large family and could not over a 6-year period succeed in getting our family started. To say the least we were impatient over the whole situation. We were even at the point where a baby we would adopt had been born, and then we got pregnant having to give up the adoption of the child for which we had worked so long to get approval. We had one great gain in joy, and one great painful loss all at the same time. In all of this though we gave thanks for the blessing which was then coming our way. This Psalm of David makes great sense to us. As people of faith, we too live it in our lives from time to time. A wayward adult child may also have us asking this question, especially in today's world, where beginning life as a young adult is so difficult. Mom and Dad cannot always be there with every answer, so both they and their newly young adult are asking that question from their own perspectives as well. This is a short Psalm unlike some that are coming up that are literally pages long, and yet it speaks to our hearts, especially when our faith seems to falter, stumbling while we wonder if God will respond to our fervent prayers.  David shows us that even in circumstances that seem too difficult and even embarrassing, we must have confidence that the LORD of all things is with us, and sometimes that means having faith for a lifetime as we wait for God's ultimate answer through Jesus Christ. May God bless you this day and hold you in His care throughout your life.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 12 (March 29, 2025)

March 29, 2025:  Thursday (Saturday) Bible Study on Psalm 12

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ on this beautiful Saturday morning. Yes, I know that it is Saturday and not Thursday. This past week my computer has really been struggling to load and keep the internet running in a constant stream. The computer takes 20 minutes or more just to open to the point that I am able to use the internet, and then another 15 minutes to download the internet, and then the internet is intermittent at best. I am using it today, but I am not certain that it will continue to work smoothly. The internet just went off on this computer for a minute. All of this makes working really interesting. Thanks for understanding - There is a new computer on the way! Please keep everyone who is impacted by all of the changes in the Government and the benefits that our citizens depend on. Our member Kandice is having to recertify her status and illness level with the state and federal program that have been giving her disability coverage for her stage four cancer. It puts a great deal of pressure on Lisa too. Teri's news is that a new orthopedist is now seeking to do her necessary surgery, but it is entirely dependent on her insurance company paying its share, and Banner hospital's willingness to cover the now $20,000 additional cost. If approved, it will move forward, taking several months for the newly developed replacement to be custom built to fit Teri's hip.  So, please continue to hold her in your prayers every day. I know that these folks who are our sisters in Christ truly give thanks to God for your prayers on their behalf. Please keep Regina in your prayers for issues she is having with her eyes, which require special medical care. Pray too for Tricia, who is awaiting decisions about treatment options for breast cancer. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving that Gail's knee replacement surgery was successful, and that she is doing well at home.

Our Psalm today is the 12th. This text begins with the claim that there is an extreme absence of people of faith, good people, who know and do right in the land. The Psalmist tells us that people cover their true nature and are false in their devotion and faithfulness for the good of their nation and communities. These faithless people believe that their false words will cover their intent and believe that through their thinking and speaking they will have everything they need to remain in power just because they have everybody fooled. Next the Psalmist moves on to tell his readers that there are signs of the truth of this reality in his nation. The lowly are being destroyed, and the needy are crying out for someone to help them in their circumstances, and it is in the face of this unholy injustice that the LORD will choose to rise up and will take the action for which the faithful have been waiting.  Because of the Psalmist's certainly of the LORD'S action to deal with this situation, words from the writer of this Psalm, who may well be David, offer praise to God for the power of His actions on behalf of the downtrodden, but even at that, tells us that the faithless people will always be in the midst of the community, that they will never be fully defeated, and that is because of their sin and brokenness (worthlessness)  that will always be a part of people’s lives.  In this battle of good and evil, God will always remain to carry out His justice. I know that this Psalm leaves some unanswered questions for us, but ultimately, God's answer will be the coming Messiah who will judge both the faithful and the unfaithful, who will establish for the LORD a kingdom of the faithful people.  When we move to Psalm 13 next week, we will see that question HOW LONG will it be? That is the question that may have been on your mind as we moved through this Psalm of David.

Thank you so much for your patience this week. I am looking forward to a new computer soon.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: New Bible Study on Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians (March 24, 2025)

March 25, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians

Good morning my dear friends in Christ. As I write this morning, Gail is in her knee surgery. Please keep her and her doctors in your prayers for success as they work to replace and repair her knee. And please remember Teri as she awaits her appointment with a new Orthopedic surgeon on Friday. Please pray that they have good news for her about the hip replacement surgery and that the cost for this new surgery will be covered. In times of continued division in our nation, pray for peace, fairness, and kept promises that social security, low-income aid for housing and medical care, and SSI coverage will continue to provide stability in the lives of so many people in our nation. In the midst of all of this stress, anger, and frustration, pray that our center in Christ will sustain us and fill us with the hope that is ours through His powerful love for all of His children. Firebombings of car dealerships in our nation are not the action of those of us who love Christ as our Savior, but our fervent prayers are indeed the action of truly faithful people who seek fairness and justice. Christ has already made it clear that He is the only one who rightfully judges His creation and all of its children. Guided by His Spirit we shall know how to move in the face of sin and brokenness, and faithlessness. May we all begin by seeing the model for the fullness of life which the LORD desires for all of us, in the person and in the Living Word, Jesus Christ.

Today we begin our study of Thessalonians. From the beginning of this letter, we get the feeling that the people in Thessalonica must really be together. What Paul often encounters in his journeys is that there are only a few in each community which he visits who find themselves moved by the strange message of a man who died and came back to life, and that, in combination with the Jewish history and traditions.  Evidently, in this community about 200 miles north of Athens, a bustling sea port, there really only are a few who are moved by Paul's presentation of the Gospel message, but by the power of the Holy Spirit they are really moved to not only hear, but to have their lives filled with hearts and minds which are transformed in ways that few of them would have thought possible.  The power of the Spirit is immense, fully God and fully Spirit at the same time. All of this is in much the same way as we speak of the divinity and humanity of Jesus, fully divine and fully human at the same time. I have had that same experience a number of times in my life, just as Thessalonians did, and it is powerful and emotionally potent, moving me to tears of joy and wonder when the Spirit's action comes to me at unexpected times and in unexpected ways.  Yesterday, as I practiced piano at home on our Yamaha Studio piano, I happened to pull out a Spring compilation of Christian Music book in which I have spent little time in the past years. The music in it is from 2008, and I have many other books that I usually work from to prepare preludes. I began to play a piece that I played back then, and in the center is a most complicated part of the music, with full cords and difficult parts, my hands and skill fells back into place, and I was deeply moved that through the Spirit, I was able to play, hear, and respond emotionally to what, and how, my fingers and vision moved together so powerfully after all of this time.  As I ended the piece I wept and gave thanks to God for such an unusual and powerful Spirit led experience. You should know that often happens to me when I sit and page by page go through the Hymnals and other music that we use at worship, songs that I have played for years move my heart in new and special ways. When I stop playing it is not out of frustration, but instead out of joy and wonder, knowing that text writers and composers knew Christ in the same way, and I understand exactly what Paul is speaking of here in these early verses of chapter one of First Thessalonians that these newest Christians have experienced in their lives.  For me it is the same way that the Spirit is so alive in my preaching. Guided in my early reading of the Sundays Scriptures that are ahead in the coming weeks, and perhaps even a month or two in advance, l am guided to a part of the passages that sets me to focus on a particular part or verse as it relates to the themes for that particular Sunday.  At that I await the arrival of the sermon title, and from there I let the Spirit guide me to shape a message that speaks the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, and His love for us, and in all of that happening, I must trust with awe and wonder at how the Spirit shapes my experiences as all of this continues to move my heart allowing the Gospel to speak to my need and the needs of all of us in the church, and beyond, filling the hearts of all who hear with that very same powerful Spirit-presence that has first moved me, and moves my words as I preach about His Love for us all. I know that this was the experience of this new community of Christians in Thessalonica too, and it was Paul's life, transformed by the Holy Spirit, through whom Paul's message transformed those who were Spirit-moved to receive it. This made all the difference in the lives of these new Christians, and today, it happens to the new in faith, and for us long timers in our faith journeys, who can still be, and often are, moved by such loving power. The story of Paul's imprisonment before his journey to Thessalonica is told in the Acts of the Apostles 16 and 17.  But his much more powerful story happens in the greeting and joy in the new faith of these people in Thessalonica whose changed lives and faith will now continue to do the work of the Gospel no matter where they are.  Though Paul was not long in Thessalonica, having heard the Christ's message from Paul for their lives, they were called to faith, love, and hope, in all of the places in which they might be challenged, and in the places where the mutuality of their strong faith strengthened their sisters and brothers whose lives had also been moved by the Spirit.  Like Paul, I too have found the power of joy, love, and hope in the Spirit's service in which our congregation has journeyed. Do not tire of service for the sake of the Gospel in all of the good things to which the Gospel and Spirit guides us.

With Love in Christ, and joy in the work of His Spirit, Pastor Kim

I am taking next Monday and Tuesday off to take care of our taxes for last year. I will be back with you for the Psalm Study on Thursdays as scheduled.