I know who is chosen!

This morning in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 God told me who the elect are! "...from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel."

There you go. There's no need to thank me or send a check. We know whom God has chosen because they are the ones who believe the gospel. I wonder, if we all proclaimed the gospel more would we find there are more chosen people than we thought there were?

Evidence of God's Good Judgment

Sometimes in the midst of trials I tend to question the goodness of God's intentions. In 2 Thessalonians 1:5 Paul writes to the church, "all this is evidence that God's judgment is right". He wrote this one verse after writing about the "persecutions and trials you are enduring". So what was it about being attacked by their enemies and going through major difficulties that showed them God knew what He was doing? In the midst of it all he could say of them, "your faith is growing more and more, and the love everyone of you has for each other is increasing."

The rightness of God's judment is not displayed through a lack of persecution and difficulty, but by our trust in Him and love for others in the midst of them. Our hearts are not consumed by the trials, but are instead turned outward to loving others and trusting that God is making us worthy of His kingdom and will one day set everything straight.

Finding it hard to love people?

"Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other." 1 Thessalonians 4:9

That's an amazing truth to make mine in prayer. May God Himself teach me to love. When I teach, may God Himself be the teacher. If He doesn't do the teaching, I will never really learn to love.

The Family on Mission

For about 24 years Ray & Marti Williams have been on the mission field, and Grace Bible Church has supported them for all of those years. They were at Grace yesterday and during the Sunday School hour they described a family on mission.

• The family must be on mission together. Dad is courageous in his leadership and sacrificial in his servanthood. Mom's attitude sets the tone of the home.
• Knowing the mission will not happen by accident, there is purpose and intentionality. Someone else will give the family an agenda if it's agenda is not clear.
• Dad & Mom live the mission and are verbal in their faith, so the kids see their example and hear the Biblical principles behind what they do.
• Hospitality is crucial to the mission.

Ray gave me some food for thought with this: "The church will evangelize as well as our families do."

A Ministry That Is Not a Failure

According to 1 Thessalonians 2:1-6, Paul's ministry to the church at Thessalonica was not a failure because he -

• ministered with God's help
• told God's gospel
• did it all for God's pleasure

It would have been a failure if he had -

• made his appeal based on error and impure motives
• flattered people as a mask for greed
• labored for man's pleasure