Last day! Tomorrow we start Challenged #4! Stick with me guys! It's going great. If you are going to invite someone to the challenge...please let me know! 1 Thessalonians! (Five day commitment)! 2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. 3 Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. 4 Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.
THIS IS INCREDIBLE! Do you guys ever notice that Paul doesn't ask people to pray for him to escape from jail? That is very interesting. What does he ask his brothers and sisters? HE asks for them to pray for him...that God will give him and his servants an opportunity to speak about Christ!! And that the message will be proclaimed as clearly as possible! What are we asking for in prayer...are we asking God to take us out of a situation or a place in our lives that really seems like an imprisonment, instead of asking God how can he use us while we are in that place? Paul sets such a high example of what it means to live for Christ! Let's follow that!
5 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractivet so that you will have the right response for everyone.
This is awesome! We need to be wise in our friendships with non-believers...it is very evident that those friendships can be fragile and we need to have wisdom so that when we interact and speak to them...they will have the right response for everyone! Make the most of every opportunity! And that is to represent and proclaim Christ!
18 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
ReplyDelete"Remember my chains" is an incredible statement for Paul to make and it reveals his utter dependence on Christ to be the sole source of his joy, peace, comfort, and identity. Therefore, being imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel does not become a burden/suffering but a blessing. Paul wants us to remember his imprisonment not so that we would loose hope, but so that we would gain hope. Gain hope in the sovereign plans of God that cannot and will not be thwarted. This statement is meant to be an encouragement for the believers.
Ephesians 4:1 "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called..."
Giving up all things, even our freedom, is the very thing to which we are called and that is how we can join Paul in rejoicing.
6 Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
ReplyDeleteBasically: speak as though you are men of Christ. In the previous chapter he talks about profanity and speaking our of anger and how this is not acceptable for God's children, but in this chapter Paul talks about the other side of it. That we should not only not say things that dishonor our Lord, but that we should fill our speech with grace. That the only things our mouth should speak should be that of glorifying Jesus. We can exert our Christian influence on campus by just the way we speak. Others are listening, even though we don't always think they are. So if you are in an intramural game, sitting in the student center eating lunch, working out at the CRC, or talking to a friend in class be conscious of what you are saying. That it should be glorifying and full of grace because nonbelievers are listening and seeing the power Christian men's conversations can have may be their first step towards salvation.
12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
ReplyDeleteI see this as an example that Paul is describing to us of somebody who is fully committed to Christ. Paul writes that he is 'always wrestling in prayer' Being in constant prayer for gods people that they would stand firm in Christ. That we should always work to better those fellow believers around us, constantly praying to advance the work of Christ in us.
5 "Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity."
ReplyDeleteHere Paul gives us a directive of how to deal with our association with others. Often times, these interactions are a hesitant dance of testing the waters on our parts, trying to feel out whether they would be open towards discussions on religion and faith. In contradiction to that, I feel that Paul directs us to not be afraid when he says to "make the most of every opportunity."Alongside that, though, he cautions us to "be wary". It is often forgotten how powerful our actions speak for the Kingdom, both negatively and positively. It may only take one bad experience with a "Christian" to turn a non-believer away from God. This is a travesty that occurs as a product of human nature as we fail to fulfill our calling from God. Such a bad experience may turn our friends away from God towards a life of sin all because we might have let something get in the way of being a true representative of the gospel, things like pride or lust or efforts to "fit in" to crowds we have no business fitting in to. I encourage everyone to take this to heart and be more aware of your interactions with others. You never know, something you may do may plant the seed of salvation in someones heart.
Verse 2 (again):
ReplyDelete"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."
This is a simple command that i find hard to keep. i am not always devoted to prayer nor am i watchful. But i do love prayer. i chose this verse because it is a call to action to me. There is not a whole lot to misinterpret here.
I am loving verse two also.
ReplyDelete2Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. 3Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. 4Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.
This is the prayer that we have been proclaiming over the campus for the last week and a half. Through community and personal passion we are attempting to devote ourselves to prayer. Also I have heard at each meeting for doors to be opened into the hearts of the broken. That the Lord can make cause the brokenness of the world to cry out for Christ to fill and heal the void. This is an amazing prayer to raise to the Lord of Lord
All if Good in Christ
I don't mean to repeat Tito or Travis or Paul, but....
ReplyDelete2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
As basic as that may be to the Christian "routine," I think we forget the power of prayer. If you've ever been on a mission trip to a foreign country, you may have experienced something similar to what I have experienced: it seems like the rest of the Christian world, outside of America, puts a lot more emphasis on the power of prayer. While I was in Guatemala, my mission team joined the people of a small town around an old lady's bed literally in the last minutes of her life. I have never experienced anything like the intensity of the prayer that was going on in the room around me. In Luke 11:9 Jesus says "And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Do you realize the potential in that? It is unbelievably huge because we have an unbelievably huge God.
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
ReplyDeleteI look at this and I say, man I want to be like Epaphras and always be in prayer for my brothers. And this is true, I do desire this. But then I think even further that Epaphras is modeling how Jesus prayed for His disciples, friends, and us. So let me fix my eyes on Jesus who prayed for me. It is so important that we would struggle with one another in our prayers. "Father, I ask that your kingdom would be realized within the lives of my friends here at Theta Xi and elsewhere. Would You bring each of them into a deeper knowledge of You, of Your love for them, and of Your glorious grace."
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I'm not always very good at and am trying to work on. But Paul writes that we should watch the things we say because we are always on display as a witness for Christ.
1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an applicable verse for anyone who has any type of leadership position. Even if we hold a position of authority, we should still treat our inferiors with fairness and respect. We should extend kindness, fairness, and righteousness to those over whom we have power because God has shown the same things to us. Even if we have a position of some level of power, God will always remain supreme.
2: "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."
ReplyDeleteDevoting oneself to prayer is often a difficult task as the business of the day often catches up to us. We must not let it be so, but also remember to be in constant prayer; praying that we might do the bidding of the Lord, praying for others spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, or whatever is on our hearts. By being in constant prayer, we will not only increase our relationship with God but also our dependance on Him.
5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst things we could do is misrepresent our great God to those who do not yet know him. During every encounter with nonbelievers, we should act with grace and love in order to make the teaching of God and the prospect of a life spent serving God all the more attractive. I also sense undertones hinting at the importance of discipleship in the phrase "make the most of every opportunity."
Colossians 4:12
ReplyDeleteEpaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
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Wouldn't it be something if we were all like Epaphras, who was so passionate about the maturity of his fellow believers that he constantly "struggled in prayer" on their behalf.
Why are we not like this?
If Jesus is all sufficient, then shouldn't our hearts break to see our brothers chasing lesser things? The fact that we do not struggle in prayer for the sake of our brothers shows that we are not living a life consistent with our beliefs.
If you believe in the supreme value of having a mature walk with Christ, then it should be one of the greatest desires of your heart to see your brothers come to have that same walk.
Pray for your brothers, both in your hearts and in your actions. Pray without ceasing.