II Thessalonians 1 – Memo: what God likes, and what he doesn’t; pennant race reflections

The first chapter of II Thessalonians reads like a note from God to every religious person: here’s what God likes and doesn’t like.

First, the Good News. What He likes is growing faith in Him and growing love for each other. Especially in the midst of trials and persecution. So I need to hang on to Him and to my brothers and sisters, no matter what. Let trials press me into Him and them, and not pull me apart.

Now, the Bad News. The people who don’t know Him, who don’t obey the gospel of Jesus, and who persecute those who do - “they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.” That’s word verbatim, as my old Navigator friend Bob Minor used to say.

All season long the Red Sox have been in the playoff run, they have been the “winners”. All season long the Tampa Bay Rays (they dropped “devil” from their name a few years ago, hmmm……) have been the “losers”. Until the last four minutes of the season, sometime shortly after midnight. The Sox lost to the lowly Baltimore Orioles. The Rays beat the New York Yankees. The Rays are going to Playoff Heaven, the Sox are Shut Out of the Post-Season.

In the pennant race of life, God bats last. That tricky devil on the mound can throw any curveball he likes, but it (and he) will be CRUSHED. It ain’t over till it’s over. 

I Thessalonians 5: my thoughts on holy kisses, reader thoughts on purity, "Courageous"

Received interesting comment from a brother on yesterday's entry -

"An inner purity check that has helped me to  "flee fornication" is how dare I be responsible to help another being along the road to hell when, instead, I should be showing them the Way to heaven. I know I can be forgiven for my personal failure, but how shall I stand before God for a soul, for which he died, lost, even if in small part, because of my putting appetite before his work?"

And received this comment about "Courageous", which opens this weekend at Essex Cinemas, from our a missionary friend:

"I would like to add an emphatic encouragement to Guy's announcement about the movie which will be showing in Essex on Friday. I want to encourage all of you to pray for people (yourselves included) to attend and for hearts to be moved. 

Guy's friend is right that people MUST see the movie on the first weekend and even as many as possible the first day. The cinema should be full. We work with enough people in the movie industry here in France and have learned that the first weekend is all that counts as far as success. We'd heard that before but we know it for certain now. 

I believe that all of us believers who go see movies long and pray for purer movies with Christian values, ones that tell the truth in a wholesome way. In our work with artists we encourage dreams of talented people who want to use their talents for God's glory. That is what Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA has been doing for a few years. We can confirm that their motives are to honor the Lord.

We as fellow believers understand that Christians often wait for reviews before seeing a movie. Of course we do it for reasons of purity, and also we are sometimes unwilling to spend our money on weak movies that proclaim to have a Christian message. We don't want to waste our money--period. We pass the word around and take our time to see movies. Many of us wait to buy the DVD and we share them not wanting to spend too much money. I am sad to say that our patterns will never help movies that have good values and pure messages become successes. Movies have to be successful to be able to make more of a particular genre. The quality will improve as more movies are made...And the cycle continues.

So PLEASE do go see the movie on Friday and even again during the weekend. That is what counts. It may not be your favorite movie. You may want to see different types of movies with a Christian message but this is the best way to start!

And finally, a thoughtful reflection of my own on Paul's encouragement (I cannot say "command") for the brothers to greet one another with a holy kiss:

Blecch! Blleecchh! I know it's cultural and not sexual but BLECCHHH!!

I Thessalonians 4: Sex, work and heaven

Paul continues to speak as father to children to this young church - not only young in the faith, apparently, but just plain young. He tells them three things:

1) Sexual immorality - avoid it. Learn to control your body so that you won't harm a brother or sister. If you don't, God will punish you. (Yes, that is the word my Bible uses. Maybe some wimpy translation says "correct" I don't know, but the staid, mainstream NIV says "punish". Punish, how? Not sure - but some just response to willfully harming others, profaning the temple, and insulting the Spirit of God that lives within me.)

2) MYOB. Love others but without nosy meddling. When Paul writes, "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody" I think of our brothers and sisters the Mennonites in Lamoille County, who work with their hands, are not dependent on anybody, mind their own business, and have won the respect of outsiders.

3) Some people we love (by God's grace without meddling or impurity) will die before we do. Paul says do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. Christ will return, raising the dead in Christ with Him, then raising us, and we will all be with Him in heaven. A couple of days ago Tim and I were encouraging one another with these words. Is it okay to think that Diane might be praying for us in heaven? Yes, we agreed, it might be happening. The important thing of course is that she is "there" and in a little while, we will be "there" too. 

So as a son of God I choose to walk in His Spirit today: to love the sisters with purity, to love the sisters AND brothers without being a meddling burden, and to grieve their deaths yet celebrate their homecoming. Peace be still, all is well.

Thessalonians 3: the non-complaining parent

 Sometimes the kids just need to know they are loved. Paul reassures them in a dozen different ways at the end of Chapter 2 and all through Chapter 3 that they are the apple of his eye, the delight of his prayers, the object of his thoughts, and the destination for his next trip. He is so concerned about them that his only discussion of his severe trials (persecution, prison) is to let them know that he's okay and God is in control, and that really it's all working out for the best. He's not glossing, he's speaking truth from a Kingdom perspective.

My father suffered from Parkinson's Disease since I was about five years old until his death in 1996. I never heard him complain about it - never. Not once. The man who had won a national intercollegiate debating championship reduced to inaudible whispering. This amazes me. For that matter he hardly ever complained about anything, at all, to any of us. Self-pity just didn't seem to be in his makeup. There are some who might say he was "in denial" or "not in touch with his emotions." Maybe. Or maybe he had just decided that come what may, he wasn't going to dump his troubles on his children. He wasn't going to "teach" his kids by example to make excuses, or enjoy feeling sorry about themselves.

I love Paul's three-part blessing at the conclusion of chapter three: may God clear the way for us to come to you, may he make your love increase and overflow, and may he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless when Christ returns. For any parent on behalf of their children, a good prayer of blessing.

I Thessalonians 2: "Courageous"

Paul talks about courage here. He doesn't use the actual word, maybe because courageous men don't describe themselves as courageous. Courage is something that just happens when you choose to obey God no matter what. Paul wrote (2:2) "we had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition." Paul does like the word "encourage" though (vs. 11) - "For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God." The word encourage means literally "to fill with courage," and it is passed from father to child, even if (as in the movie "The Help") it sometimes skips a generation.

And speaking not coincidentally of movies and courage, there is a local theater owner who is showing some of his own. Dale Chapman of Essex Cinemas - one of the finest men I know and a real source of encouragement to Diane and now to us - has convinced the movie distributor of the film "Courageous" to allow him to show it in Vermont. These distributors rather firmly told him "forget it" there aren't enough Christians in Vermont to make it worth their while. But Dale insisted, taking a big chance financially - and now he needs the Christians to come through. He told me a couple weeks ago that it is CRUCIAL that Christians come on the FIRST WEEKEND, preferably the FIRST NIGHT. If they wait - forget it.

"Courageous" was made by the folks who brought us "Fireproof" and "Facing the Giants". Now I am generally not a huge Christian movie fan, but I will say this about all three of these movies: they are about guys and they are about courage and faith in the real world of work, school and families. So please pass along this note to any friends who a) want to see a good movie and b) want to encourage local businesses that take a "courageous" stand for doing something good.

Below is the info on the movie -

Essex Cinemas is excited to bring you EXCLUSIVE SHOWINGS of the movie Courageous, from the writers of Fireproof and Facing The Giants. Courageous opens Friday, September 30th with showtimes of 12:45, 3:45, 6:45, and 9:30!


Courageous is the story about four law enforcement officers whose lives are deeply tested as they embrace their calling to serve and to protect. As crime fighters, they must face danger every day. Yet when tragedy hits close to home, they are left wrestling with their hopes, their faith, and their priorities as men. Like iron sharpening iron, the power of their friendship invites them to face their hidden struggles as fathers. It is out of this honesty that comes a life-altering decision. With action, drama, and humor, the fourth film from Sherwood Pictures embraces God's promise to "turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers". Your soul will be stirred and your heart will be challenged to be...Courageous!

It's September 24, we must be in Thessalonica

Like tourists on the budget tour of Asia Minor, it's another day, another pile of ruins. Ruins amid Greece's second largest city (Salonika) now, but back in Paul's day it was an Aegean seaport AND a crossroads on the east-west 19-ft. wide Egnatian Way that led from Constantinople to the Danube River. Imagine Burlington in the late 1800's, where the railroad and the inland waterway of Lake Champlain intersected and fortunes were made in sheep and lumber. The mighty orator and Roman senator and proconsul Cicero said: “Thessalonica is in the bosom of the empire.”

An ancient inscription found in Thessalonica reads: “after death no reviving, after the grave no meeting again.” Had Paul been familiar with that inscription, no doubt he would have improv'ed on it to the crowds, as he did just down the seacoast in Athens with the statue to the Unknown God. Indeed both letters to the Thessalonians contain prophecy of Christ's return. Paul had stayed there but briefly on one of his missionary journeys recorded in Acts, and First Thessalonians is believed to be the earliest Pauline letter, written from Corinth in about 50 AD. Again, how amazing that less than two decades after being crucified by the Romans, the seeds of the gospel story of God's "Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (v. 10)." After death - reviving! After the grave - a great rescue and reunion!

Most of the rest of the first chapter reads like many of his other opening chapters: greetings, I always thank God for you, I pray for you, I remember your work, faith and love, I know you are chosen because the Spirit came in power among you, you are a model to the other believers, others praise you, too. Like the Evangelist in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress", Paul knew by God's grace how to love, affirm and encourage.


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Colossians 4: Paul's friends, my friends

I love the Body of Christ.

As I often say I write this blog for me and to me.  But I also enjoy sharing it with my brothers and sisters. After yesterday's post I received one big "Preach It!" from our dear Nazarene sister, Merilyn Clinger of Cambridge (or is it Waterville?) who also loves Paul's exhortation to choose obedience. I could almost hear her singing "Holiness Unto the Lord Is Our Watchword and Song"! I also heard from two brothers who played important roles in the two Christian bodies influential to my decision for Christ in 1973: Rev. Dick Lawson, at North Avenue Alliance Church, and Tim Steiner, at Bethel Christian Fellowship (the Jesus People commune just a block down College Street from City Hall Park, with the giant second-story sign that read "Jesus Saves!"). And last but not least, I heard from our sister Becky Graeter, Marmalade Maker. A lay preacher, she said about being mentioned yesterday as condiment provider for my gravity-prone breakfast:

"I wrote a message about toast falling off tables and the high percentage that it would land buttered side down.  Murphy's Law.  There was an physicist who conducted experiments about Murphy's law.  "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong"  and its corollary "in the worst possible way or at the worst possible time".   So the odds are high (over 62%) that they land buttered side down.  Tables are built 29-30 inches and there isn't enough room for  tipped piece of toast to make a full rotation before it hits the floor. This physicist AJ Matthews(he conducted experiments) says :The universe is designed against us.  Even when they took away the weight of the butter and just made a B with magic marker, toast land B side down. The article was written by Jason Zweig in the July 2002 issue of Money Magazine.  Anyway the scripture I used was Matthew11:16-19, 25-30.and Romans 7:15-25.  The message was we are living in an imperfect world but God will protect us, that we will be rescued from the body of death by God giving his only son. The title was "My Protector, My God"  It was well received."

 

Paul loved the Body of Christ, too (and presumably still does!). Colossians Four is one of his typical "Final Greetings" passage. Like Tennyson's Brook, it runneth on and on. (Q: What does it mean when a Baptist preacher says, "And now finally, brethren"? A: Absolutely nothing.) Like me, Paul has so many rich relationships in ministry and worship with believers of very different backgrounds that he has to recognize and recommend them to others. There is Tychicus, one of Paul's oft-mentioned messengers. Onesimus, surrendered from slavery by his master Philemon to serve with Paul in the ministry of freedom. Mark, the quitter whose failure drove a wedge between Type A Paul and Barnabas the Encourager, is now someone to be welcomed by the churches. And dear friend and doctor Luke, the blessed companion on Paul's missionary journeys and as the elegant, factually fastidious author of Luke-Acts, perhaps the greatest chronicler of the Greatest Story Ever Told.  And then finally, sadly, Demas, who later would desert the ministry "because he loved the world" (2 Timothy 4:10). We can only hope that Demas, like Mark, found restoration.

 

Paul being Paul, his friends aren't just a social club, they are co-laboring evangelists: "Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders, make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." The goal of THIS not-a-social club is to make the outsiders insiders.