Thoughts From 2Thessalonians - Day 3

                                 2 Thessalonians 2:6-17

 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. Stand Firm. But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

       Having been a believer for so long, it's hard to think like an unbeliever. What makes them tick? Why would they reject the Gospel or Good News of salvation, not condemnation, of grace not wrath, of truth not lies, of God not Satan?

       The problem is not intellectual but spiritual. Satan has deceived them and they think that wickedness is more fun than Godliness. They think that lawlessness is freedom and obedience to teachings means rules or bondage. We see it playing out every 4 years where the left emphasizes rights to do whatever they want with their bodies even to the point of castration or the killing of a life inside them in the name of freedom. Lest the right go blame free, they see America first! Stop worrying about other country's affairs and stop accepting their refugees, especially if they don't contribute anything to us. Both sides are guilty of self seeking, self service, selfishness because Satan has convinced mankind, because he is a liar, that this is freedom. This is fun. This leads to self fulfillment. The antichrist will appeal to this and people will swallow it hook line and sinker.

       Paul teaches that people can break out of the matrix by swallowing a different colored pill. The pill that says freedom is found in submitting your life to Jesus Christ. Self dies and is replaced by the Spirit of God inside you who glorifies Himself through you by sanctifying you to start looking like Jesus. Freedom and fun and fulfillment comes in obedience to the Word of God.

       What are the results of submission to Jesus Christ? First of all, eternal glory. We get eternal life in Heaven. We have hope in this life and don't have to fear death but can embrace it. Second, isn't it nice to know you aren't being duped or brainwashed anymore? Do you really like being gaslit or living with the Stokholm Syndrome. No! You want to believe the truth not a lie. Three - we become loved by God. Satan doesn't love us. He's totally using us to get back at God and discards us when he is done. 

       Lastly, we have encouragement. I got to thinking about this whole topic because an unbeliever I know asked me to pray that they would get the job that they had applied for and I would know the results next week by whether they would be in for work or not. If they got turned down, they were going to take a day off because they would be too discouraged to work. I told them I would pray that they would get the job but now I'm thinking the best prayer is that they would know the Truth and if getting accepted leads to that- great. If getting rejected leads to that - great. Satan's ways in the end lead to discouragement but knowing Christ and having the Spirit inside us is a well spring of encouragement flowing up from inside of us.

        Truth or Lie? Which do you choose? Ask your heart because your brain is being deceived.

       

Thoughts From 2 Thessalonians - Day 2

             2Thessalonians 2:1-5

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?

              I remember coming home from school at a young age and no one was home. That could never happen now because at the age of 8 kids aren't even released from school without a preapproved credentialed guardian to escort them home. Of course, back then we just walked  down the sidewalk 3 blocks to my ranch styled middle class home. When I arrived, I entered the unlocked door and called out for my mom or my sister but no one answered. I had recently been scared to death at a YFC (Youth for Christ) meeting where they showed A Thief in the Night, a 50 year prequel to Left Behind, where the rapture occurs and a group of teens get saved during that post rapture time and it ended with a guillotine. I was concerned that my family had been raptured and I had been left behind, an 8 year old, to endure the wrath to come.

           So much for my psychotherapy, but this appears to be why 2 Thessalonians was written. A fake Pauline letter had arrived in Thessalonica saying the rapture had occurred and they missed it and the reason that they were having so much persecution was that they were already in the tribulation. Paul goes on to explain why this isn't true, although just to get a letter from Paul should be proof enough. He could have written, "Hey, I'm still here. Love, Paul.", and that should have been sufficient. However, just in case they thought it might be a forgery, he gives them reasons why they couldn't have missed it and that they aren't in the tribulation, namely if they were they would be seeing the antichrist on the scene.

         There has been a lot of debate about whether there even is a rapture among theologians, but to me, the existence of this letter along with the fact that Paul, spending only about 3 weeks there, then fleeing, felt the end times was essential doctrine to teach, shows me that this is true and a doctrine important enough to put in a church's doctrinal statement. Not to say it is essential for salvation and it's a doctrine we can agree to disagree on, but I think a church needs to unapologetically teach it from the pulpit.

        Maranatha! When's the last time you heard that? 

Thoughts From 2Thessalonians - Day 1

              2 Thessalonians 1

 Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

            In baseball, when you are a small market team, you keep players the allotted number of years that you can pay them the league minimum and then when those years are used up, they usually can go to free agency and the teams with lots of money acquire their services. This can be somewhat delayed by giving them a "large" contract early on in exchange for more years of service. It's a gamble from the team's perspective because they are paying a player before they have proven anything in the big leagues large sums of money, betting that they are going to be successful in the majors like they were in the minors. It is also a gamble for the player because 5 years from now, he may be so good that he could be making $25 million per year instead of $10 million he committed to as a wide-eyed newbie.

         What does this have to do with the passage? My mind went there when Paul talks about when the Day of the Lord comes, his prayer is that we may be found worthy. I remember when the Brewers signed Aaron Ashby, a pitcher, to one of those contracts. Instead of receiving $400,000 per year, he was getting  $7 million. His response was," I hope I can prove myself worthy of the cost they are paying for me." To be honest, up until this year, he hasn't. Now, 4 years later it has all come together and he "is worthy" and playing a big role in our playoff run. However, during those 4 years, he has been terrible. Imagine his shame around management, fans he'd see in public or even teammates in the minors bitter that he is getting so much money while they are doing so much better and making a pittance of what he is.

          God has paid a big price for you - his only son, and as He looks at you is He thinking, "What a waste."? When the angels see you are they thinking, "What did God ever see in them?" When fellow believers see you are they thinking, "(S)he is a waste of pew space."? Paul encourages the believers in Thessalonica, those "on the team", that they are to act on every good deed that has been prompted by the Holy Spirit and every desire for goodness that the spirit brings to their minds. He tells them that God's desire for them is to look like a bunch of little "Jesuses". His Son came to die in order to form His likeness in people all over the Earth who receive Him. If we are looking like Jesus, God is glorified. His investment was worth it. If we are not any different from the unsaved people in our life, you can almost sense His disappointment.

         When you stand before God someday, is He going to say "Well done, my good and faithful servant!" or will you be ashamed on that day?