1 Thessalonians (Program #15) – Cooperation with the Divine Operation (1)
As we are caring for new believers, we likely often follow the pattern of the apostle Paul as he cared for the young Church in Thessalonica by giving them encouraging and hopeful passages from the Bible.
In the Thessalonians, it was Paul’s word concerning the coming rapture of the believers at the end of the age and the Lord Jesus promise return from the heavens to the earth that fill them with hope. But if we are fully faithful to the pattern of the apostle will also bring them to the words of warning and sobriety that Paul concluded the book of 1 Thesssalonians with Chapter 5. Listen to this lengthy passage at the beginning of Chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians 1-11:
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need for anything to be written to you; For you yourselves know perfectly well that like a thief in the night, so the day of the Lord comes. When they say, Peace and security, then sudden destruction comes upon them, just as birth pangs to a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you like a thief; For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. So then let us not asleep, as the rest do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep during the night, and those who get drunk are drunk during the night; But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us in order that whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore comfort one another, and build up each one the other, even as you also do.“
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Joshua (Program #9) – The Allotment of the Land (1)