Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Hopeful Endurance" – Friday, 7 November 2014 - Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Hopeful Endurance" – Friday, 7 November 2014 - Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:1 I, Paul, together here with Silas and Timothy, send greetings to the church at Thessalonica, Christians assembled by God the Father and by the Master, Jesus Christ. God’s amazing grace be with you! God’s robust peace!
Convictions of Steel
2-5 Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.
5-6 You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.
7-10 Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.
"Hopeful Endurance" by Stan Toler
Some of the Christians in Thessalonica were expectant almost to a fault. They had heard preaching about the second coming of Christ and mistakenly thought they should stop their earthly work and wait for it to happen. While they waited, they worried. One of the things they worried about was the fate of the believers who had died before Christ returned. What would happen to them?
In response, Paul reminded them that to avoid returning to their immoral lifestyles, they needed to make the most of their time on earth while they waited for Christ’s return. He also gave them encouraging news: the believers who had died prior to Christ’s return would rise to meet them and Him at the second coming. Meanwhile, those who remained alive should develop patient endurance. He commended those who already had “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 3).
Author Barbara Johnson once said, “Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.”* Do you ever feel that way? There is no need to strip your gears. Trust God with hopeful endurance.
* Barbara Johnson, The Best Devotions of Barbara Johnson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001).
Hymn for Today:

"O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee" by Washington Gladden
1. O Master, let me walk with thee 
in lowly paths of service free; 
tell me thy secret; help me bear 
the strain of toil, the fret of care. 
2. Help me the slow of heart to move 
by some clear, winning word of love; 
teach me the wayward feet to stay, 
and guide them in the homeward way. 
3. Teach me thy patience; still with thee 
in closer, dearer company, 
in work that keeps faith sweet and strong, 
in trust that triumphs over wrong; 
4. In hope that sends a shining ray 
far down the future's broadening way, 
in peace that only thou canst give, 

with thee, O Master, let me live.

Thought for Today:

“7-8 Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time."(James 5:7-8).
Prayer Needs:
That many people in the Turks and Caicos Islands will come to know Jesus the Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, and receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
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