God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you…

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. —I Thessalonians 5:11              We are to encourage each other.  Encourage here is to be “offering up evidence that stands up in God’s court.”  However one is discouraged— the lack of courage— we are to encourage them— put courage back into them— and the way to do this is to do so from God’s perspective.  Whatever a person is discouraged with, we are to encourage them by thinking and understanding from God’s point of view and surely not from the world’s point of view.              So, are you discouraged today?  What are you discouraged…

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. —I Thessalonians 3:6  How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? —I Thessalonians 3:9  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…

Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. —I Thessalonians 1:10 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. —I Thessalonians 2:19-20              Jesus saved us, brothers and sisters, fellow followers/disciples of Jesus, not only from the coming wrath, but to allow Him to work through us to impact others.  Praise God that He saved us from the penalty and power of sin and to a new eternal life with Him!  But while we are living in this world— are we sharing what…

Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.” —Colossians 4:17              What is our Lord God Almighty saying to you and I through this verse?  It is very simple, isn’t it?  “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.”  So, the question is— What ministry have you and I received from our Lord to finish?              It is also clear, from Ephesians 2:10, that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  Wow, first, you and I are God’s handiwork.  So, God is…

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. —Colossians 1:9-12 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that…

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. —Philippians 3-20-21              Think about it.  This body we presently have, Jesus is going to “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”  Praise God!  This decaying body is, one day, going to be like the body our risen Lord Jesus presently has!  “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made…

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. —Philippians 1:3-6 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that…

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. —Ephesians 5:8-11 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. —Ephesians 5:15-17 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they…

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. —Ephesians 3:10-11 To grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. —Ephesians 3:18-19 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up… as each part…