Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Imagine if we had some sort of a warning system that gave us a heads-up about incoming EVIL.  We'd be all primed and ready for the sneaky threats of evil so we'd be ready to respond right and immediately.  This is what Paul is calling for as he concludes his letter to the Thessalonians. 

We are to flee evil and not fool with it.  If you knew I had a vial of poison, would you open it and roll it around in your hands?

The faces of evil are disguised and not so disguised.  May we be more sensitive to it.  May we be more intolerant of it.  May we be quicker to see and respond to the evil within and the evil without.  Please share and send and subscribe.  bewithme.us  podcast addict, pandora, amazon echo, apple podcasts are some of our podcast directories.

To HOLD ON to something good means first to LET GO of the bad. That is the discernment process. It sometimes can be exhausting.  We are to test and discard all the bad stuff.  He's made most of it plain. Claiming ignorance doesn't go far.

There is so much that we already know is GOOD.  God has gone to great lengths in creation, common graces, implanting consciences, His history on earth with His chosen people, and then of course Him coming down personally to reveal Himself.  We might want to review all of that.  

The charge today is to HOLD ON to all the goodness that He's painstakingly given us.  We HAVE goodness.  HOLD ON to it, my brothers and sisters.  bewithme.us to subscribe.

Be careful here.  We can, just like in 50AD, DESPISE what God says.  The mechanisms of the revelations to us might be a little different, but the principle of our despising can be the same.  We both can say, "I don't know it. I don't want to know it. It cannot be known. Or, I am waiting for a new word, a new revelation."  This is all to say, "I just don't want to obey or follow anything or anybody. Nobody can tell me what to do. I don't like a God like that ." The Old Testament refers to that posture as being stiff necked.

There is enough spiritual meat to chew on in the book of 1st Thessalonians ALONE to keep us busy for a lifetime.  We don't need any new revelations, we need to obey and treasure the ones we already have. Let's not DESPISE the smorgasbord of revelation that we already have.  Join me for 7 minutes to treasure the Word we have before us today.  Then subscribe on bewithme.us or on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Spotify, Audible, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts. 

Rather than walking with...I choose to go ALONE
Rather than keeping in step with...I choose to find my own way
Rather than teaching...I choose ignorance
Rather than hearing...I choose silence
Rather than growth...I choose immaturity
Rather than advantage...I choose to DISADVANTAGE myself

Such is QUENCHING the Spirit.  

Please listen for 7 minutes as we consider shooting ourselves in the foot spiritually.  Please share subscribe and come back tomorrow. bewithme.us

The bar for Christian gratefulness is set very high. Grateful people are no accident. We are charged to push out stuff that isn't grateful, and to push in gratefulness to our hearts and then to our lips toward our God.

Here's the new part: in ALL circumstances. God is at work in moving the stubborn, sinful, hearts of men and women towards holiness. He wants us to be thankful in prosperity, sure. But the real test is being grateful when we are convicted, in hunger, in sickness, in correction, in seasons of endurance and long-suffering, when we are under His disciplining hand and when life, people and even church is difficult.  These are often the situations of the critical interior work of the Spirit. We will make particular effort today to be grateful for these.

Join me in 7 minutes of thankfulness today.  Subscribe and send and share and support in some way.  I'll be grateful, as long as it is hard. ;-) 

This might be a little heretical, but I think it is helpful to think about LOWERING the bar for prayer. We get our undies in a crumple about composing complex prayers overing confusing situations, and might tend to just not do it.  1 Thess encourages us to JUST DO IT.  Specifically, "I mention you before God...", or "I remember you before God..."  He'll figure out the rest.  I think God would rather have us mentioning everybody and everything before Him vs. waiting til I have time to compose a masterpiece of prayer before Him.  Let's just take a spiritual chill-pill and just start MENTIONING before Him the people and situations that are on our hearts. "I will pray for you" = "I will mention you before God".  "I am praying for you" = "I remember you before God."

Also, let's fight for joy.  The Thessalonians have a lot to NOT be joyful about.  Circumstances for them are bad.  Maybe yours are too.  Take heart! The answer is not to WAIT until the circumstances are better, but to rejoice anyway. Rejoice now. Rejoice always.

Listen 7 minutes. Come back tomorrow. Make this meditation a regular part of your day if you would. bewithme.us. Subscribe on your favorite podcast provider.

You will probably encounter EVIL today.
You won't be inclined to leave this evil for the ultimate justice of God
Your inclination will be to REPAY that evil for your evil thereby making the situation doubly evil.
You will have a hard time assessing your evil accurately
You have a way out of this situation before it starts
You can change your inclination to let God do the repaying if necessary
You can change your inclination to repay the evil you face not with evil, but with good.
It will be the hardest thing you do today. Listen 7 minutes for a little help.

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How might the church respond to the fainthearted and weak?  The old joke is that the church is the only place where we shoot our wounded.  This is exactly NOT what Paul is saying. 

Fainthearted people are those who are losing heart, and running on empty.  It may be from sickness, problems, consequences of sin, age, grief or conflict.  Our response is to ENCOURAGE.

Weak people just plain lack the capacity in relation to the task. For those who have a piano to move, literally or figuratively, the charge is to HELP.

Your life should be FULL of people like this.  If you can't name 5 people who are fainthearted or weak right this second, then you need to get into FELLOWSHIP.  Someday you too will be fainthearted and you are going to need those five people you helped and encouraged today.  

Share with the most fainthearted person you know.  bewithme.us 

Everybody in the church has a job.  Everybody in the church has a hard job.  

The Thessalonian church is just a few months old and apparently they needed to be reminded of the duties that a brother has to his leaders.  

Brothers should be IN FELLOWSHIP, at peace with their people, be respectful an esteeming highly their leaders. None of these things are easy. It is no fun to be admonished.

Leaders should be in fellowship, be doing their job of oversight and ruling, be laboring, be working and be admonishing. None of these things are easy. People can be prickly.

Let's give grace and honor and all the duties owed to others in the church who are trying to do their jobs well.  bewithme.us.  Listen 7 minutes a day on your favorite podcast provider like deezer or apple podcasts.

So a big day is coming up and we are supposed to be ready for it.  It is the Day of the Lord.
We are to BE SURE we are on the right team.  
We are to BE DRESSED like our Daddy. He's dressed as a warrior on that day and we should be too.  Our battle is a bit different than His.  He's got His battle taken care of against Sin, Death and Evil.  We need to be ready for our battle.
We are dressed with faith that He's got those big battles taken care of; Hope in the assurance that it is going to work out perfectly; and Love in the meantime for Him and His people.
We are to BE TOGETHER. As always, in the fellowship of believers
We are to BE ENCOURAGING one another; having enough courage to spill over to those people standing nearby
We are to BE BUILDing.  He's reminding us to Love More and More; to grow in it.

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