Good morning to all on this 2nd day of August. I was looking back over my blog entries and saw that the last one was June 21. Boy that seems like a long time ago. So much has happened. Waine and I spent July 2-24 traveling first to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. It was a wonderful trip; full of sea iguanas, blue and red footed bobbies, sea turtles and the giant land turtles. The trip consisted of a cruise through all of the islands that Charles Darwin visited and then put pen to paper to theorize his treaties on the origin of the species. Then it was on to Lima, Peru and Macchu Picchu in the Andes Mountains. This was a MAGNIFICENT trip in the clouds. We mostly lived out of suitcases so its good to be back home. My siblings, Velma ad Koichi, had a mini-family reunion at Michele's house with their respective families and the pictures would indicate that a good time was had by all. Freddie and Aleron represented Waine and I.
I am continuing my journey in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 1- 18 "As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you His Holy Spirit.
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to 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.
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s Word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words." Amen and may the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word.
Paul is providing practical instruction and hope to the Christians in Thessalonica. These early Christians had to leave their old life and begin a new one with a Deity they had never met. Which is no different for us as Christians today. We first believe by faith and accept Christ AND THEN He is revealed to us. Then the journey begins as we walk each day in faith. Each day we have to renew are minds with God's Word as we suppress and kill the old person so that the new person, the person of God can come forth. It doesn't matter at what age you accept Christ, that sin nature is born with us and is as old as the original sin. Each little innocent baby has the seed of sin within them. The seed of sin wants to make each of us the master and commander of our lives as opposed to letting Christ sit on the throne of our lives. I have to suppress my old way of thinking minute by minute. When I am confronted by challenges Christ is maturing me not to react but to wait. Reactions just allows Satan to get busy through me and I know from experience that no good will come out of it.
As we die to our selves daily others will come to know Christ through our sacrifice. To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to serve Him. To serve Him is to love one another. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
Stephanie
