the end

As I have been studying 1 Thessalonians this week in preparation for Sunday School, I have been struck by how much Paul references the coming of Christ. Four out of the five chapters mention the idea. Chapters 4 and 5 are almost explicitly dealing with the idea.

Now, to be clear, it can negatively affect your life to live completely in the future; waiting for Christ to return and not living for him here and now. However, I think I fail in the other aspect.

I think to little of the great coming of Jesus. We are to encourage one another with the thought. And so, I encourage you to look to the great coming of Christ that will be the end of the age and the beginning of life in the presence of God for many. It is a great thing. It will happen. He is coming and his coming will be magnificent.

Brothers, God has destined us for salvation. Be reassured and invigorated to live righteous and holy lives because one day we will obtain an inheritance so great that we can scarcely conceive it.

Amen.

-joe

an encouragment

Today in Sunday School I taught of the necessity of Christian encouragement through the Gospel. So, tonight/today I'm giving you some encouragement. Here is where your hope lies:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created thorough him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Colossians 1:15-20

May the God of peace be with you and give you comfort and wisdom today.

-joe

my sister...and some encouragement

For anyone who doesn't know, my older sister Amy, is a missionary in Honduras. She was down for 10 months last year and is returning after 7 months back in the states raising support. She goes down to Indy tomorrow (monday) and will fly out early (6am) on Tuesday. Thanks to Rachel and her roommates for housing her and getting her there early.

Please pray for my sister and the entire team down at Escuela El Sembrador. Pray that God would be magnified and the lives of the boys and the mission teams would be radically altered by the love of Christ and that He would redeem them for Himself.

And, on a completely unrelated note, I got some great encouragement tonight after youth group.

We just started a few week series on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and I asked for any questions after my intro to the topic. I got a couple of responses and one of them read like this:

Hey Joe...
I don't have a question, but I just wanted to say this is amazing...I feel so blessed to be a part of this youth group and I'm pretty sure this is changing my life so wonderfully!!.
Thanks...dude!

It was good to hear that the at least one of the kids in my group is knowing Christ more.

Hope the weekend went well,

-joe