Urging

Urging

1 Thessalonians 2: ¹⁰ You are our witnesses, and so is God, that our conduct toward you who believe was pure, right, and without fault. ¹¹ You know that we treated each one of you just as parents treat their own children. ¹² We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we kept urging you to live the kind of life that pleases God, who calls you to share in his own Kingdom and glory.

 

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“You should do it!” was the message of the dare. As more people joined in, the dare became more appealing. “I bet you won’t” were the words of the final straw! There was no turning back!

 

• I had to do what people were urging me to do.
• I did not want to be embarrassed so I did it.
• Now that I did it, people urged me to do some other dare that made no sense.

 

Paul, Silas and Timothy spent a tremendous amount of time with the people of Thessalonica. They made sure their conduct and motives were pure, right and without fault. They were very careful with the people, just like parents are with their children.

 

My Observations

• GOD wants me to treat HIS children carefully.
• Encouragement is a gift GOD wants me to give in generous doses.
• Comfort is needed when GOD delivers someone to me who is going through things.

 

Sharing in GOD’s Kingdom is the goal. HE has better stuff, a better place and no worries. HE wants everyone to have a better life. Unfortunately there are times when I think that life can be obtained here on earth. I try to scrape as much money together to pretend I am living a great life. BUT GOD has a better way.

 

HE wants me to live my life with HIS purpose. This means I should govern myself in a way that is pleasing to HIM. Encouragement and comfort should not be held back from anyone, friend or foe. I am glad GOD calls me and you to share in HIS kingdom.

 

Challenge

• How did the writers treat the people?
• How would you like to be treated?
• Will you seek to share GOD’s kingdom with everyone and live a life that is pleasing to HIM today?

Wake Up

Wake Up

Romans 13: ¹¹ You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed. ¹² The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light. ¹³ Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day—no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. ¹⁴ But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

 

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Seeing the huge stack of paper, my work was cut out for me. I was supposed to look at surveys and input customer responses. I started out with high energy, but as the day went on I started getting tired so I took a “quick” nap during lunch.  I woke up well after I was supposed to and now I was behind in my work.

 

• There have been many times when I started out strong, but soon became tired.
• There have been many times when I fell asleep on something I was supposed to be doing.
• There have been many times when I woke up and still had the responsibilities, but only a shorter time to do what I should have been doing all along.

 

“Wake up from your sleep” Paul says. The sleep he is referring to is a lulled sense of security from doing hidden things. He mentions two serious topics, “dark’ and “light.” The day is almost here and the night is almost over. But what am I getting prepared for? What must I do?

 

• GOD wants me to know JESUS is going to return.
• GOD wants me to prepare the world for HIS return.
• GOD wants me to take up HIS “weapons’ starting with the most powerful one called love.

 

Blindness has made me fall asleep. I mean, when I get lost in the concerns of the world, I get worried, doubt GOD and slip into sin for comfort which steals my joy and feeds mu sin nature. Afterwards, I feel hurt, lost and wandering.  My fighting increases and I grab the world’s weapons.

 

Human weapons hurt, kill and destroy, just as Satan wants us to do. BUT GOD has more powerful weapons, one being love. Love heals, protects, grows and raises people up. It was love that raised JESUS from the dead. GOD said “You must do this” and I accept HIS statement.

 

• Do you have a sense of urgency regarding the return of CHRIST?
• Are you so focused on you own sins that CHRIST is not your focus?
• Will you wake up and take up the weapon of love JESUS so generously poured out on you so you can stop paying attention to your sinful desires today?

Weather Report

Luke 12: ⁵⁴ Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is.⁵⁵ And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. ⁵⁶ Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

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Looking outside I practiced predicting the weather. After a while I could smell rain coming or I could see a storm from miles off. I used the same discernment with people. I could see that group of thugs trying to rob me. Discernment was pretty useful.

• I have used discernment to avoid traffic.
• I have used discernment to avoid getting soaked by rain.
• I have used discernment to avoid robberies, political assassinations and slander.

JESUS talks to the crowd about their ability to read the clouds when it came to weather, but their inability to read the spiritual climate when it came to their Savior. HE saw through their desire to appoint a political leader instead of following the living GOD.

• GOD wants me to focus on HIS imminent return.
• GOD wants me to point people to HIM with urgency.
• GOD wants me to understand that everyday is a gift that should not be wasted.

Focusing incessantly on the news can get me in trouble. I will eventually only see what is told to me as being the truth . BUT GOD wants me to use discernment to see through the garbage and see HIM as my only answer. HE solves problems on a mass scale and on the minute.

HIS love for me stretches beyond my borders as HE tries to reach my family, neighbors and people I have not met yet. HE ants me to discern the time and prepare people for HIS return.

• What are you using your discernment for?
• Are you mostly trying to protect yourself?
• Will you stop trying to predict the future without using GOD as your guide?

Search While I Can

Amos 7: ¹¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
    “when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
    but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹² People will stagger from sea to sea
    and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
    but they will not find it.

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Nervous about “street witnessing” I went out into the neighborhood. “What will I say?”, “Who will listen?” were a couple of questions that came to mind. We came to the door of a man who showed me he was wearing a probation ankle bracelet. He did this in response to my question “Would you like to come to our church?”

Suddenly I was thrust into having to share the message of CHRIST’s salvation to a stranger. We talked for a while and he said “I believe that CHRIST died for my sins. I have a lot of ‘em.” A couple of weeks later I went to check back on him. His neighbors told me he had been shot and killed.

• Sometimes I think I have all the time in the world.
• Sometimes I think I can simply point people to church instead of opening my mouth.
• Sometimes I think GOD is taking HIS time so I do not have to act with a sense of urgency.

When I pass neighbors and strangers on my way to church, I fail to wonder if someone on my route needs to hear a special message about GOD. In fact I have worked in crowded places and talked to hundreds of people in a single day without talking about GOD. What should I be doing?

• GOD wants me to take some time out to speak about HIM.
• GOD wants me to tell people about HIS SON’s voluntary sacrifice that saved me eternally.
• GOD wants me to act with a sense of urgency on a daily basis because I may never see “that” person who I am arguing with again.

There will come a day where the earth will long for the messages of GOD. It is up to me to take the message to those who need to hear it. GOD says to me “The harvest is plenty but the laborers are few.” My mind needs to be focused on GOD as much as possible because the days are short.

• Are you nervous about speaking about GOD?
• Do you find yourself asking GOD for money, yet have not spoken about HIS SON’s gift to you?
• Will you act with a sense of urgency and speak to people about CHRIST today?

Act with Immediacy

Joel 1: ¹⁴ Declare a holy fast;
    call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
    and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

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Floating through life, I allowed things to ‘happen” to me. As the final approached, I figured I would pick up the book at the last minute and learn the concepts. Of course I failed the class. I had not reacted fast enough.

• There were times when I did not react fast enough.
• There were times when I did not do things in a timely fashion.
• There were times when I did not grab hold of the rapid pace and things did not go so well.

Speed sometimes gets in the way of my desire to do something. The faster things are going, the more I need to slow down so I can speed up. But sometimes I slowed down too much, maybe to the point of giving up for a while then I realize in a moment of panic this thing is important! Sometimes I realized it too late. The same goes for GOD sometimes.

• GOD wants me to declare a holy fast while I still can.
• GOD wants me to call a sacred assembly before it is too late.
• GOD wants me to summon the elders and all who live in the land while there is still time.
• GOD wants me to cry out to HIM before time runs out.

Putting GOD on the back burner is a very bad idea. I mean once I “got my life together” I figured I would consult HIM and maybe even serve HIM. The problem is, I can never get “my life together” because “my” life is not “mine”, it’s GOD’s. HE wants me to act with a sense of urgency towards HIS kingdom because HIS return is imminent.

It does not matter what the day or year is, GOD wants me to seek HIS lost people and turn their face towards HIM daily. HE wants me to act like there is a blazing fire burning down the whole town and HE is the only road out. My sense of urgency in the LORD can begin today!

• Are you treating GOD like HE will never return?
• Do you think you have to “get your life together” before you serve HIM?
• Will you stop putting GOD on a lower priority and place HIM above everything?
• Can you act with a sense of urgency and cry out to the LORD today?

A Sense of Urgency

Esther 8: ⁵ “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. ⁶ For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”

⁷ King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have impaled him on the pole he set up. ⁸ Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”

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¹⁰ Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes, sealed the dispatches with the king’s signet ring, and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king.

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“You’d better get busy calling people” one of my friends at work told me. This was going to be one of the worst reorganizations the company would face. It was Friday and I urgently called my network and one person said “We need you out in the West Coast Monday.” I had hours to decide whether or not to pick up and move my entire life, family and all to a new place.

• Sometimes life comes at me very fast.
• Sometimes things change for me in a moment.
• Sometimes a fire gets lit and I have to do something about it immediately.

“Why me” can’t even be uttered when life happens. The smoke clears and suddenly I am in a new chapter of this journey, confused and bewildered. How should I act when change is thrust upon me?

• GOD says to me “I will be with you always even unto the end of this age.”
• GOD says to me “No man can pluck you out of my hand.”
• GOD says to me “My grace is sufficient.”

When things happen quickly, my mind starts racing with plans and steps toward action. BUT GOD wants me to stop for a moment and communicate with HIM. HE desires that I act with a sense of urgency in helping people stay on HIS path and remain encouraged. In every emergence HE wants me to bring HIM along with me.

• Has life happened to you?
• Did some emergency change your life quickly?
• Can you stop for a moment to ask GOD to enter into your plans?
• Will you start acting with a sense of urgency to reach the people GOD wants you to speak with?