Thoughts from a long week...
I got sick this last Monday and it's now Thursday. I have lost almost 4 or 5 pounds since Monday night and just have no energy or strength. I was supposed to go back to the barrios today, but decided one more day of rest would be a good idea. I am so ready to feel better. I hate being sick to begin with. But being sick a continent away from my house and my family is the worst thing anyone could ask for. It's been a very long week and I am just hoping that I get better soon.
With being sick this week, I have spent a lot of time reading and sleeping. I have been reading Little Women and my Bible. In my Bible I have been reading the Psalms (one a day) and the letters to the Thessalonians. I am on chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians. Now anyone who knows me well from my time at LCU (or my family) knows that I am not the biggest fan of the Apostle Paul. I don't enjoy reading his letters in Scripture and I detested having to take the class on Pauline Epistles my junior year at LCU. People laugh at me since Paul wrote most of the NT and was one of the leading apostles. But I can't help it. He just irritates me (if you really want to know why... let me know and I'll write about that some other day). But I read his letters anyway because I know that I can't just pick and choose what I read and learn from in the Scriptures. So that's why I've been in the letters to the Thessalonians.
As I have been reading, I have noticed how much fatherly pride Paul took in the church at Thessalonica. He saw in them something specific. Something special. Something different. He saw in them true growth. He saw in them a true love and faith. He saw in them the living Spirit of God. He was proud of them because they were standing firm in the face of persecution and trial. He was proud of them because they were learning to truly love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. He was proud of them because they were allowing themselves to be changed and used by the work of God. There was something different about the church at Thessalonica. They weren't like the Corinthians who were being divided, getting drunk on the communion wine or having issues of adultery. They weren't like the people on Crete who were known as liars and cheaters. The church at Thessalonica was truly a changed group of people. A group of people living the way God meant for people to live. Yes, they were human. Yes, they were still sinners. But they got it. They understood and grasped what it meant to live for Christ and Christ alone. They understood what it meant to live in a way different from the world around them. They got it.
Some churches today have gotten it like the Thessalonians. Some churches today haven't. Some churches today are still stuck on Crete or in Corinth. While others have found Thessalonica. I want to be a church member in Thessalonica. I want to be a disciple and church member that the Apostle Paul (if he were alive) could be proud of. I want to be a Christian who truly loves others as my brothers and sisters. I want to be a Christian who has a true faith and a true life in Christ. I want to be a Christian whose life and actions testifies to that more than words. I know that I have been a Christian since I was 9 years old. And I know that I have had my times of wrestling with God in trying to make my faith my own rather than that of my parents or as a result of the preacher's kid glass box I grew up in. But I want it to be more real, more alive, more contagious now than it ever has before. I want to be like the church in Thessalonica. I want the Church in the world today to be like the church in Thessalonica. May we, may I, strive for it.
This is a picture from the ruins of Thessalonica. I want to go there one day. My daddy's been there. Maybe he'll go again with me.
With being sick this week, I have spent a lot of time reading and sleeping. I have been reading Little Women and my Bible. In my Bible I have been reading the Psalms (one a day) and the letters to the Thessalonians. I am on chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians. Now anyone who knows me well from my time at LCU (or my family) knows that I am not the biggest fan of the Apostle Paul. I don't enjoy reading his letters in Scripture and I detested having to take the class on Pauline Epistles my junior year at LCU. People laugh at me since Paul wrote most of the NT and was one of the leading apostles. But I can't help it. He just irritates me (if you really want to know why... let me know and I'll write about that some other day). But I read his letters anyway because I know that I can't just pick and choose what I read and learn from in the Scriptures. So that's why I've been in the letters to the Thessalonians.
As I have been reading, I have noticed how much fatherly pride Paul took in the church at Thessalonica. He saw in them something specific. Something special. Something different. He saw in them true growth. He saw in them a true love and faith. He saw in them the living Spirit of God. He was proud of them because they were standing firm in the face of persecution and trial. He was proud of them because they were learning to truly love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. He was proud of them because they were allowing themselves to be changed and used by the work of God. There was something different about the church at Thessalonica. They weren't like the Corinthians who were being divided, getting drunk on the communion wine or having issues of adultery. They weren't like the people on Crete who were known as liars and cheaters. The church at Thessalonica was truly a changed group of people. A group of people living the way God meant for people to live. Yes, they were human. Yes, they were still sinners. But they got it. They understood and grasped what it meant to live for Christ and Christ alone. They understood what it meant to live in a way different from the world around them. They got it.
Some churches today have gotten it like the Thessalonians. Some churches today haven't. Some churches today are still stuck on Crete or in Corinth. While others have found Thessalonica. I want to be a church member in Thessalonica. I want to be a disciple and church member that the Apostle Paul (if he were alive) could be proud of. I want to be a Christian who truly loves others as my brothers and sisters. I want to be a Christian who has a true faith and a true life in Christ. I want to be a Christian whose life and actions testifies to that more than words. I know that I have been a Christian since I was 9 years old. And I know that I have had my times of wrestling with God in trying to make my faith my own rather than that of my parents or as a result of the preacher's kid glass box I grew up in. But I want it to be more real, more alive, more contagious now than it ever has before. I want to be like the church in Thessalonica. I want the Church in the world today to be like the church in Thessalonica. May we, may I, strive for it.
This is a picture from the ruins of Thessalonica. I want to go there one day. My daddy's been there. Maybe he'll go again with me.
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