Thought for 20 March

1 Thessalonians 5:22-24 NIVUK

…. reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Speaking of Jesus, the Christ:

"What is uncertain is not the “coming” of Christ but our own reception of him, our own response to him, our own readiness and capacity to “go forth to meet him.”        Quote from Thomas MOur own reception of Christ will depend on how we have prepared for His coming. If we have not been living as we have been taught, then we will not be prepared. It is simple, if we are loving others and treating them as Jesus would.... well, we are partly there.

When Jesus told His disciples to go out and make other disciples He was not talking only to His followers of that time. He was talking to all His followers. To me that means we should also be making followers, at least doing our best because we know that without Jesus it will be a losing battle.

This, in turn, means sincere commitment to prayer, reading of the word of God, living as we have been taught by Jesus and rejecting Satan’s temptations. The lessons Jesus left to be passed on to us by the many committed followers who followed Jesus and His original disciples were not suggestions passed from generation to generation. The words of Jesus were commands!

We are commanded to do our utmost to bring the Good News of Jesus the Christ to all people. Jesus is not coming back until every corner of the world has heard His name and knows who He is.

I don’t know about you but the events happening in the world today make me think I do not relish waiting too much longer for our Lord to return.

I watched a short video of an American school board meeting where the mayor of a city called out the board for allowing child pornography in classes of 8-year-olds. I know the internet cannot always be trusted but when these items show up time after time in a lot of different platforms, including those which agree with this type of curriculum, I think there must be an iota of truth among them.

Be vigilant and obey the Lord’s words and be steeped in the teachings of the bible and in prayer.

When He comes will we be running to greet Him or trying to hide from Him?

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus, help us to follow all You taught when You were on earth. You know how hard it is as a human in this fallen world. Be with us as we speak about You, especially to those who don’t want to know You. Many of them do believe You and the Father exist but do not want to know anything about You so they deny Your existence. With those people we especially need Your help to reach their hearts. Bless those who are being persecuted because of their belief and dedication to You and thank You that, so far, we have the freedom to worship You. Amen