Thankful, Sanctified, and Spirit-Filled

The Thanksgiving season is upon us! It seems like only last week that the family dusted off their swimsuits and headed for our neighbor’s pool. However, today, one week before Turkey Day, it is 50 degrees with a blustery 30mph North wind. Burrrr!!!

For many of us, Thanksgiving brings back a host of wonderful memories or family gatherings, incredible food and treats, lazy afternoons of football and card games – only to be followed up with even more good food! Yes, Thanksgiving is a time when we say “thanks” to God for his bounty of blessings, both physical and emotional.

But have you ever spent time thanking God for the gift of His Spirit? Few can argue the incredible power that comes to a Christian by way of the Spirit that indwells all who claim Jesus as Lord, but even far fewer, it seems, can give an accurate detail as to just what the Spirit does for/with/through us everyday.

As Paul closes out his first correspondence to the to the church in Thessalonica, he has one prayer in particular for the young, zealous church – that the Spirit’s fire would not be extinguished. All of us have felt at one time or another in our lives the fire of the Spirit. That fire may have carried us into deeper levels of devotion, granted us courage to share our faith with a perfect stranger, or even to face the most dangerous of temptations with fervor and commitment. All of these activities and many more are the direct work of God’s Spirit living in us. However, for as many times as we’ve felt that holy urge, we’ve also suppressed and quenched that flame until a bonfire became an ember.

In regard to keeping the Spirit’s fire alive within us, F.C. Williamson had this to say:

The sea can only be kept heaped up in waves by the constant pressure of the wind. Take away the pressure and it soon flows back into its old level. If we want, therefore, to get water to keep a higher level, we must do it by filling up underneath. Apply this to our hearts. If we want the tone of our hearts and lives to rise to a really higher level, to be more Christ-like, more peaceful, more holy, it must be done by filling up, not merely agitating the surface by excitements and emotions. We may get great waves in this way, but we shall have great hollows between them if we do, and a great commotion perhaps, but no real gain. For it is God's grace in the heart, the gradual filling up of all our needs and deficiencies by the Holy Spirit of God, which can alone raise our hearts and lives to a higher level of purity and holiness. As we cast off bad habits, we need to be acquiring good ones in their places; as we are stirred up by sermons and services to wish to live more holy lives, we need to be acting as well as wishing rightly if we want to get on. And this is no hopeless, heartless task, for the Lord's promises are ever sure.

In your worship this week, meditate on Paul’s admonition to keep the Spirit’s fire alive in your hearts. Contemplate on ways you can point to in your life that Holy Spirit has had direct control and intervention. And with the Thanksgiving week upon us, spend ample time thanking God for the outpouring of His Spirit and that the Spirit would serve as wind upon the waves of your heart.

Resounding Themes:

Thankfulness
God’s Faithfulness
Power of God’s SpiritSanctification

Getting READY to Worship

Ready, Set, READ

1 Thessalonians 5:19-24

Ready, Set, MEDITATE

- Paul’s statement is quite clear…”Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” Why do you think he is so direct in his charge to the Thessalonians? What effect is the Spirit exerting in the life of this young church? What might happen if that effect dwindled or went away entirely? Have you ever felt the flame of the Holy Spirit flicker or even extinguish in your own life?

- Paul also instructs them to use the Spirit to test prophecies of men? Why would they even give any time to man’s prophecies? On the other hand, why would they be tempted to accept them all whole-heartedly? Have you ever been faced with something that someone said, and tempted to accept it as a word from God? What did you do? What can you do?

- What does it mean to be sanctified? Why does Paul decide to use that phrase here, and ask that it happen, “through and through?” Have you been sanctified, through and through? If not, what hold you back from receiving the full cleansing of Jesus?

Ready, Set, PRAY

Lord God, we ask that Your Holy Spirit rain down. Oh, Comforter and Friend, how we need Your touch again! Holy Spirit rain down. Let Your power fall. Let Your voice be heard. Come and change our hearts as we stand on Your Word. Holy Spirit, rain down!!

God, we thank You for the deposit of Your Spirit into our lives. It is the mark and seal of our inheritance in You. It serves as our conduit of constant communication to Your very heart. The Spirit leads our footsteps and retells Your will into our souls. It is our comfort, our companion, and our courage.

Father, would You once again, sanctify us through and through so that Your Spirit might find a comfortable place in the temple of our bodies. And Great Shepherd, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One that we might be pure and blameless unto the day of Christ Jesus. For we ask it in His most precious name. AMEN.

Ready, Set, WORSHIP!

Is Your Hair Combed?

Don Hussong shares this story:

After church, where she had been taught about the Christ’s reutrn, a little girl was quizzing her mother.

"Mommy, do you believe Jesus will come back?"

"Yes,” the mother replied.

"Today?" inquired the girl.

"Yes,” loving replied the mother.

"In a few minutes?" the girl insisted impatiently.

"Yes, dear," the mother answered.

The little girl screwed up her face and began to think. After a few moments, her expression gave way to joy as the little exclaimed, "Mommy, would you comb my hair?"

Cute story, but where are you when it comes to thinking about the Second Coming? As our live bustle on, moving faster and faster, I confess, it is very easy for me to lose sight of Jesus’ return to claim his own. It’s not that I don’t believe it will happen, or even that I shouldn’t concern myself with it; rather, it has more to do with the fact that I have my eyes fixed on the now rather than forever.

As Paul writes to his beloved church in Thessalonica, he has many things on his heart – not the least of which was to remind them to keep their eyes on the prize of eternal life. Many who lived in those days believed whole-heartedly that Christ would return in their lifetime. To that end, they lived their lives in such a way as to portray expectation and anticipation. And to increase their faith and restore their hope, Paul tells them that we will “rise to meet the Lord in the air, and so, we will be with the Lord forever!” Paul told them to keep the message of Christ’s return on their lips that they might be constantly encouraged, no matter what trail lay ahead.

As we live our lives of worship this week, remind yourself about the Second Coming, and what it means that Christ will return. Enumerate the emotions that surround this thought and what you imagine it will be like. Contemplate the fullness of an eternity with the risen Christ, and the futility of a life focused only on the now. Finally, just as the little girl decided upon hearing of the Second Coming, get your hair combed!

Resounding Themes:

Maranatha! Lord Come Quickly!Christ’s Death for Us
Speaking Encouragement

Getting READY to Worship

Ready, Set, READ

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Ready, Set, MEDITATE

What is Paul’s tone throughout this letter to the Thessalonians? In the opening parts of vvs. 13 ff? What seems to be going on in the community? Why does Paul seem intent on giving those are experiencing death a word of instruction? What is that message?

What place will those who have died in the Lord before he returns have on Judgment Day? Why does Paul emphasize that we will not precede them? As persecution of the church continues, why is a message of hope so powerful and timely for the Thessalonians to hear?

What can we infer from the words Paul uses to describe Christ’s return? Is it realistic to be constantly excited about Jesus coming back to claim his Church? Why or Why not? Paul implores the people to have this conversation on their lips as a constant reminder and encouragement. Would your day be any different if you always thought about the joy of Jesus’ return? What hope might come to you in an already hectic world?

Ready, Set, PRAY

O Lord, our Lord – how majestic is Your Name in all the earth! For Yours is the Name above all names…that at the very speaking of it, all the nations tremble and bow low in Your presence. And it is also at the name of Jesus that we bow, as we confess that He is Lord of lords and King of kings! He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and He is coming again!

Jehovah who is quick to save, may our lives be a living testimony of the reality we hold so dear – that Christ Jesus is raised from the dead, He sits at the right hand of the Father, and that He’s coming back to claim His own…we who are cleansed in the whelming stream of His blood. Lord, take our gaze off of this world which is temporal, and fix them on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. May we never lose sight of the coming, victorious Christ!

Maranatha! Lord, come quickly!! Amen.

Ready, Set, WORSHIP!

The Power of Hope

Have you ever thought how powerful hope can be?

On Chuck Smith's radio broadcast, "The Word for Today,” a story was told about an interesting Scientific experiment. For means of testing, a group of behavioral Scientists set out to find quantitative data on the emotion of hope and its effects on the psyche. In order to accomplish their mission, they placed a designation of wharf rats in a tank of water, and observed them to see how long they would survive before drowning (NOTE – this experiment was done many years ago, well before any popularized animal cruelty laws were established – do not try this at home!).

The average rat lasted only 17 minutes.

Even though these animals were very familiar with swimming and tides, when faced with the prospect that every possible escape from the tank was non-existent, they simply gave up and took their own lives.

Perplexed, the scientists repeated the experiment; however, this time, as it appeared the point of drowning was near, they "rescued" the rats from the tank, dried them off and returned them to their cages. Here, they fed them well, let them play for a few days, and then decided to repeat the drowning experiment.

To their astonishment, the experiment went much differently, as the average survival time for these rats increased from 17 minutes to 36 hours!

At the end of the experiment, the behavioral scientists explained that the only explanation for the phenomenon the second time around, was that the group of rats that had been saved survived much longer because of hope. In short, because they had been saved before, they had hope that allowed them to endure.

In your worship this week, think about these three concepts: faith, hope, and love. Meditate on how each one serves as a motivator to do/achieve certain things. Contemplate a life without these three things…especially hope, and what it might look like. Celebrate the joy of the Lord and speak aloud the great things he has done and continues to do for you and yours. Entreat the Lord for a blessing on this fine church and ask that we might all have the endurance of hope necessary to navigate the coming changes.


Resounding Themes:

Celebration
God’s Grace, Christ’s Peace
Faith, Hope, and Love
Endurance

Getting READY to Worship

Ready, Set, READ

1 Thessalonians 1:1-3

Ready, Set, MEDITATE

From the opening words of this letter, what parties are introduced? Why do you think there are three people mentioned as addressers rather than just Paul himself? What mouthful does Paul convey by calling them a church “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ?”

Paul finishes this introduction with a simple phrase: Grace and Peace to you. Is that just a slogan for Paul, or does it mean something much more? In Paul’s life alone, how has grace and peace played a vital role? Have you experienced grace and peace in your own life? How has it changed the way you live?

Does Paul and his trio seem to have affection or revulsion for this church? How is that evident in these few verses? Why does Paul remind them that they are constantly in his prayers? How do you react when you find out someone has been fervently prating for you?

Paul commends them for acts of faith, labors of love, and the endurance of hope? Can you think of another time when Paul uses these three concepts in a letter to a church? Which does he say is the greatest? Even so, why is hope so powerful? What had the endurance of hope given Paul the ability to do/survive? Can you think of a time in your own life when hope pulled you through or lifted you to a higher place? Explain?

Ready, Set, PRAY

God, we celebrate Your majesty this day! As the seasons change around us, are eyes bear witness to an everlasting truth…You are God alone! And just as the leaves submit to the shift of the weather, so too, our hearts bow low in full view of Your awesomeness.

Lord, we profess that our hope is in You. You grant us grace and peace beyond what we could possibly deserve, and renew us for Your work and Your purpose.

From early in the morning, until late at night, our only hope is in You.

We rest comfortably in this truth. We labor dutifully in this faith. We serve joyfully in this love. We endure any hardship because of this hope.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Ready, Set, WORSHIP!