Learning to love others the way Jesus loves us
Their gods, his god, the God, the LORD. There is a flow to the story of the sailors of the ship bound for Spain that is worth considering. When Jonah paid his fare and went below deck to take a nap, it was just another day at work. ( aside: How could Jonah sleep knowing… Continue reading Jonah: the sailors.
Jonah 1:1-16 If you want action, Jonah is the story for you. In the first 15 verses Jonah hears from God, runs from God, gets on a boat with sailors who served many gods, sleeps through a storm, gets caught in his disobedience, and gets tossed overboard. At the same time, God is also active.… Continue reading Jonah: Arise and go or arise and run?
Jonah Jonah opens with the Lord telling Jonah to "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me" (Jonah 1:2). What was so great about Nineveh and why was God interested in it in ~750 BCE? Archaeologist Henry Layard's image of Nineveh. Nineveh was… Continue reading Jonah: The setting.
2 Thessalonians 2:13- 3:17 Times were hard for the Thessalonian believers. To their credit, they loved each other and continued to do good, in spite of their confusion about the Day of the Lord. Paul commended them for their commitment to the Truth, reminding them that the Holy Spirit was working in and through them… Continue reading The Lord is faithful
2 Thessalonians 1:1-2:11 Second Thessalonians is a follow up letter to the believers who were still struggling with the return of Jesus and the judgement to come. Paul was not in Thessalonica long enough to establish a firm foundation of teaching and knowledge. They kept growing in abundant faith and increasing love for each other,… Continue reading Knowledge matters.
The Day of the Lord, Gospels and Epistles. The Day of the Lord is a sure thing. The prophets of both Old and New Testaments describe the utter destruction of evil and everything attached to it. The letters to the Church describe the precursors. Jesus Himself said that Sodom and Gomorrah got off easy by… Continue reading No one knows the time.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 5:11 So, this is the passage that brought me to 1 Thessalonians after reading Joel. The Day of the Lord is God's just wrath poured over the evil of the world (Joel 2). The Thessalonians knew about it, and worried about when it would happen and whether their fellow believers who… Continue reading The Day of the Lord
1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 The caption in my Bible for these 16 verses is "Final instructions and benediction." I don't think it is a good caption, considering the depth of what Paul wrote. Fortunately, the captions are not part of the Word, but were added by editors, supposedly to make reading easier. Sometimes they can be… Continue reading Love, Joy, Reason
1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 The Thessalonians acted on their beliefs, even though they didn't know as much as Paul would have liked them to know. He told them that they had been taught by God to love one another, and he encouraged them to not only continue in their love, but to increase it, loving each… Continue reading More and more
1 Thessalonians 3. The culture of Thessalonica did not make it easy for new believers to grow in faith. It was hostile to Paul and anyone associated with him because what he taught challenged the way of tolerance for worshiping whatever god people wanted to worship. Paul got run out of town before he could… Continue reading How to make your pastor happy.
Defaulting to Grace 