🎩It’s Not Magic 🐇

 It’s not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.

1 Thessalonians 4:15 (KJV) For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

After The Apostle Paul says “others which have no hope” Then he says “For if we believe” he says here in verse 15 “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord” Where do you think Paul is getting all of his understanding? He tells us “by the word of the Lord” Now the reason many don’t know is because they know little or nothing about God’s Word. Acts 1:10 (KJV) And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

Acts 1:11 (KJV) Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

This same Jesus not another, not a look Like, not an imposter but this same Jesus “which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner”

The Jesus we read about in our Bibles is coming back. We hear that Jesus is coming; I know you have seen someone holding a sign that reads “Jesus is coming soon.” Maybe someone said the words “Jesus is coming soon.” Maybe you have heard the word “Rapture.” Maybe someone has told you that the word “Rapture” is not in the Bible. Well you heard right it’s not but what if I told you the principal of the word “Rapture” is. The word Rapture means  “A seizing by violence or by force.” 

1 Thessalonians 4:16 (KJV) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: The dead? Where are the dead? Many are 6 feet underground. If you have ever been to the cemetery and watched a casket being lowered into a concrete vault then a lid placed on the vault, then dirt packed on top of all that. Here we read that “the dead in Christ shall rise first” I don’t think it will be a quiet happening in the graveyard. Why do I say that? Because the Bible says this 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (KJV) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Afterwards people who are alive will follow suit. I think all those that are alive one minute and gone the next, well I believe it will be noticed by those left behind. You are talking to someone and then they are gone. An airplane pilot is suddenly gone, oh my! Don’t you think it’s going to be a notable event? I think so. 

🥷Hurt People, Hurt People 🤷🏼‍♂️🤷‍♀️

If you want the rainbow you gotta put up with the rain.

1 Thessalonians 4:14 (KJV) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Do you remember the last few words in verse 13? “others which have no hope” Now that word “hope” is not a word meaning maybe or not sure of. Oh no it carries a very positive meaning of  expectation and confidence. The Apostle Paul is saying I don’t want you to be unlearned neither do I want you to be uncomfortable about your loved one or   yourselves. Then Paul starts off the next verse with “For if we believe” I know we all know what the word “believe” means but I always like to refresh my mind so I look up those words that I know. Here is what Webster says: “To have a firm persuasion of any thing”  Jesus told His disciples this 

John 14:1 (KJV) Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. Could unbelief bring on a heart that is troubled? I think so. If all I had was this life to look forward to it would be easy to become missable and depressed. Now don’t get me wrong I love living this life with all of its heartbreaks. Because I can’t forget the joy it has brought me. Now my belief in the God that I serve must or has to go further than this life.  If I based Christianity on my Church life and the way others have treated me I would have a poor respect of Christianity. This I had to learn, I can not base God’s character on those who say they are God’s children. Neither can I follow or believe everything I hear. That's why I love my Bible and why I want to know what it teaches for myself.

1 Corinthians 15:19 (KJV) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Yes, our confidence has to go way beyond this life. Paul says don’t be ignorant for if we have confidence that Jesus died and rose again. The question is do we have that kind of confidence? Do we have confidence in Jesus? Do we have confidence that there is a real place called heaven? Do we believe? Do we have confidence? Oh if I were to write of the way I have been treated, just at Church you might say something to me like this “why even go.” My answer would be two fold 

#1~If I let hurt people hurt me then I’m being hurt when there are many other good people who are all around me.

#2~Am I going because of the people? No! I’m going because this is the place I will learn more about Jesus. Confused soldiers are in great danger of the enemy overtaking them.  

If you and I let hurt people hurt us then we might get confused. John 14:1 (KJV) Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. That means you are going to have to work at it. Never forget you have an enemy. 

🫶Reunion or Retirement 🛌🪟

 👁️The Jesus that men want to see is not the Jesus they really need to see.  👀 ~G. Campbell Morgan~

1 Thessalonians 4:13 (KJV) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

In this verse the Apostle Paul writes about an event that will take place. Paul doesn’t want his readers to be uninstructed, uninformed, untaught or unenlightened about this event. Now this event that Paul was writing about was the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This event which was a future event and still is a future event except for this event is much, much closer than it was when the Apostle Paul was writing. Why should I say such? You decide for yourself.  Matthew 24:3 (KJV) And as he (Jesus) sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?                                                   Matthew 24:4 (KJV) And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. The question of when, was followed by the warning of deception. Then in verse 10 there was hatred, in verse  11 there were false teachers, verse  12  sin is abounding and love becoming cold,  in verse 14 while all this is going on the Gospel is still being preached in all the world. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to see those things taking place now. People are more confused today than I have ever seen. They are confused about what makes them happy, confused about what real wealth is, confused in their thinking, about when life began, about who they are, about which Bible is correct, has or did God make a mistake for who am I really, about gender, sex, love and the list goes on and on. Who do we believe? Who do we trust? What will become of us? Why do I feel like this? We get up in the mornings so we can go to work, so we can come home, so we can go to bed, so we can get up and do it all again. One, oh yes one day I’ll be able to retire and rest and live comfortably. You think? Well that’s my plan. No, that's not your plan, that's someone else’s plan for you. God has a much better plan for you. The apostle Paul said I don’t want “you to be ignorant, brethren” I don’t want you to be hopeless “even as others which have no hope” as the song writer said long ago   “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness  on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” If our directions aren’t right can we say we are heading the right way? If our foundation isn’t solid then we may be on sinking sand. What are we looking forward to? Retirement or Reunion? 

🚫Don’t Do It‼️

 For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. 

1 Thessalonians 4:6 (KJV) That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

That word “defraud” caught my eye Webster said “obtaining something by deception or artifice, or by taking something wrongfully without the knowledge or consent of the owner; to cheat;” I’m sure at one time or another we have all been taken advantage of. Yesterday I got 5 phone calls of someone trying to wrongfully take advantage of me. Today I will get more calls and on and on and on it goes. I will get a call from A.I. and if I answer all the questions right then a real person comes on the line. Then that real person will try to draw information from me that they could use to hurt me financially. That my friend is being defrauded. Well this is nothing new, it's been going on for centuries. The Apostle Paul says don’t do it! Fornication, don’t do it “abstain” then Paul says “defraud” don’t do it! Paul goes on 1 Thessalonians 4:7 (KJV) For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. God hasn’t called us to be sexually immoral  but to be holy.  God has not called us to cheat others but to be truthful with others. The way we act toward God will come out in the way we act toward others. 1 Thessalonians 4:8 (KJV) He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit. The person that “despiseth”   Webster said this about Despise “to have the lowest opinion of ” oh you aren’t despising man but your opinion of God has come to the lowest point. One must ask themselves, is what I’m doing or getting worth the price I’m paying, Or will pay?

👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨RU A Product On A Shelf ⁉️

Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.

1 Thessalonians 4:4 (KJV) That every one of you should know  how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

Paul goes further on this matter of fornication. He teaches by saying this is not the way one will find a husband or wife. This way is not honorable. I found this which shows where we are as a society.

“Dr. Lawrence Finer director of domestic research at the Guttmacher Institute. The data clearly show that the majority of older teens and adults have already had sex before marriage, which calls into question the federal government’s funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for 12–29-year-olds. It would be more effective to provide young people with the skills and information they need to be safe once they become sexually active—which nearly everyone eventually will.”

No, the Apostle Paul says “Don’t Do It” abstain! 

1 Thessalonians 4:5 (KJV) Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

If there’s no difference then why pay more? Have you ever looked at a cheaper product at the store and saw it had the exact same thing as the named brand in it. Why pay more when I can get the same thing cheaper? That may be fine for a product on a shelf. The question is are you a product on a shelf?  Be careful about giving another’s gift away.  1 Corinthians 7:2 (KJV) Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:4 (KJV) The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.

Free love?? Really! 1 Corinthians 6:18 (KJV) Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. Too late you say? oh no it’s never too late. 

1 John 1:9 (KJV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If! maybe you will, maybe you won’t, but if you do confess, the promise is He (God) “forgive us our sins“ Wait, Wait it gets better “cleanse us from all unrighteousness”  now that’s better than a good bath! 

Look at it this way, you have come in from a long day. The dirt and filth as well as the smell being put off, what you need is a good bath. Now if you don’t personally decide that a bath is good for you, well you won’t take one even though a bathtub is very close. Well at that point you will just have yesterday's odors about you in the present. One has to decide to take a bath to wash away the odors and dirt of the day. So it is with the sin that gets in our lives. One must see them then confess them and then and only then will they be cleaned. It’s not that the dirt wasn’t there, it's gone by the soap and water down the drain and gone forever.  

Revelation 1:5 (KJV) And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

Revelation 7:14 (KJV) And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Hebrews 10:17 (KJV) And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now that is being clean.

 

👀Always Watching 🫵

"No man I ever met was my father's equal, and I never loved any other man as much."

~Hedy Lamarr~

Proverbs 2:1 (KJV) My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

These may have been words of Solomon to his son Rehoboam. Where do you think Solomon got this kind of thinking from? 

Has anyone ever said to you “how did you learn how to do that?” You may have said watching my dad. Solomon may have watched and saw and said “my dad always said that and I just learned how to do this by watching Dad.” 

We know what David said.  Psalms 119:11 (KJV) Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

 What we say is very important but if we don’t follow what we say then we are just talking. David passed this thinking down to his son Solomon. I think David’s love for the Lord was of this manner and I think David was doing just that. The enemy on the other hand was out to destroy David just like he is out to destroy you and me. David’s thinking, just as ours does get cloudy and the enemy took and made great advances at that point. Oh my, have I ever found myself in this place? I have!  

¿Who is our ENEMY?

1 Peter 5:8 (KJV) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

• Understand who the ENEMY is!               
• Understand what the ENEMY wants to do              
• Be clear minded                     
• Be Alert
• Because we have an ENEMY!
• That want to Destroy

Be careful what we say. Be careful what we do. Because little eyes are always watching you.  

🫣Let’s Talk About Sex 🤩

 "That scoreboard at the end of the field isn't the real story. What we've done to touch the lives of others and honor the Lord is the real headline.” Ken Sparks

1 Thessalonians 4:2 (KJV) For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (KJV) For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

For you know the commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. Then in the next verse it get more personal when these new believers are told to “abstain from fornication:” Solomon said it like this in 

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV) The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Whatever has happened before will happen again.

This big sex explosion that started back in the 1960’s wasn’t anything new. Matter a fact it had already been going on for years but it just exploded in the 60’s. People just like sex it’s not something we are not to do but there is a correct way and that is where people get off track. Paul says to “abstain” well what does that mean? Well it doesn’t mean take a break from it. Here is what Webster said “hold oneself off, that is, refrain: choose not to do or have something :” Paul is teaching one can’t be set apart and still do what God said is wrong no matter how society looks at it and accepts it. There are two things going on, there is the Internal and the external. We can say what we want too but it’s the outside people see. One can build their own house and finish the inside but take their time on the outside. If one were to look at the house from the outside they wouldn’t see much but if they were to walk inside they would have a much different view. If you and I keep our Christian life Internal and that Internal never gets to the External then all they will ever know is our External. We live in a day where fornication is ok. I mean you wouldn’t buy a car without trying it out first would you? If that’s the way you think then let’s look at it another way. How would you feel if someone else, a complete stranger, opened your birthday gift, oh a nice shirt or pair of pants. Now this complete stranger puts it on and wares it around and then goes back and puts it back in the box? Now when you open the gift let’s say it was a shirt.  Well it looks good except for the stain on the front pocket which can never be removed. It's there for life. God gave mankind a wedding gift which is only to be opened when a man and woman are married, that way there is no comparison, there is no stain. Wonder how many were married who’s gifts aren’t stained? Oh but this day and time that’s old school, others tell me. No, that's God’s School and God says that the marriage bed is undefiled. Hebrews 13:4 (KJV) Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

But wait a minute Paul isn’t saying not to do it he is teaching them to abstain, stop it. Don’t do what I have done for the cost will be greater than you want to pay. The Apostle Paul is teaching and telling what he knows for he has not always been a Child of God. We must learn to let the internal flow to the external. If others hear me use bad language then what makes me any different in my talk externally? If me and my girlfriend are living together then what are we saying externally?  That’s all some will ever see. 

🏈Receivers 📞

It’s the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the                     most lasting change.

 1 Thessalonians 4:1 (KJV) Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

In addition to what has already been said, be encouraged by the Lord Jesus that you received and are learning to live your lives pleasing to God. Doing  so you would abound more and more “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:”Roman 5 verse 20..

The Gospel of Jesus will go on and on and it will never diminish. There are many who still proclaim the death, burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ken Sparks was one of those men. A football coach at a college many have never heard of Carson-Newman. His goal wasn't to win games or championships but instead to build men for the glory of God. What is interesting is that God allowed him to do both for 46 years as a football coach at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City Tennessee. On a rainy day or a day you need some encouragement go to you tube and type in the search bar The Ken Sparks Story. Then sit back and watch a documentary of what God did with a man named Ken Sparks who  proclaimed to others Jesus Christ. 

exhort you by the Lord Jesus have a Blessed Day. 

👁️♥️U

 God does not begin by asking our ability, only our availability, and if we prove our dependability, He will increase our capability. ~Neal A. Maxwell~

1 Thessalonians 3:12 (KJV) And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

1 Thessalonians 3:13 (KJV) To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

God the Father was directing our way in V-11 now we read that the “the Lord make you to increase and abound” now who wouldn't be interested in that? Well many would as long as it were in the riches of this life but that is not what Paul is writing about. No he says increase and abound in “love one toward another” now that is different. The word love, like the word free has been misused; it’s free as long as you buy this that’s not free. Neither is the phrase “you’ll love this once you get it” that too puts a price tag on love. That is not what the Bible teaches about love. One can’t buy love it’s is freely given. A good definition for love is “giving not expecting anything in return.” 1 John 4:10 (KJV) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God loved us. We didn’t have to work nor did we have to  purchase, why we didn’t even have to love back. God first loved us. God offered us a Gift without it being a special day. Love is an amazing thing husbands are told to love their wife as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it. Wives are not told to love their husbands. Here is the principle: God loved us first and when you love you give. That is just what God did He gave His son to pay our sin debt and then what happened?

1 John 4:19 (KJV) We love him, because he first loved us.

I have seen that in my marriage, the more I love my wife the more she loves me back. I have never asked my wife to love me, I just love her and she loves me back. God never asked us to love Him; he just loves us. Be what you want to be, go where you want to go, say what you want to say, hang around with who you want and God will still love you and His gift is still there for you. Oh my refuse His love was, reject His gift, then you’ll pay the price and miss His real love. Paul is saying God loved me and therefore I love you at Thessalonica. So your love should abound for others and the more it abounds it will increase. Chapter 3 closes with Paul telling those at Thessalonica of the Lord's return “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” He’s coming without doubt.

⏳At The Present Time⌛️

 Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. ~Vince Lombardi~

1 Thessalonians 3:11 (KJV) Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.

I like that word “Now”  . It simply means at the present time. “Now God himself ” not someone else but our God in the present.   Now “our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ” what are they all doing? Well we are told  Paul is saying that “our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ” as we pray for you will direct our way to you. It’s strange that today I read this verse. Why? you may ask. Well as I was listening to the radio as I was about my business. I was listening to a preacher and he was teaching about praying about everything before he did it. I have a friend that does that if it’s a car he thinks he needs he asked his Heavenly Father about it. That’s what the Apostle Paul is saying: I need God my Father to direct my path at this present time. Just think our Heavenly Father is a “Now” God. Oh it’s great to read in our Bibles how God did things for His children just in the time of need. It’s much better to know that the same God will do the same in this day and time for His children. Have you ever experienced what God can do? I like to walk cemeteries and read the epitaphs on the gravestones. I like looking for our veterans, maybe because I’m one and know some of the heart aches they may have felt and the horrors that never leave that can only be known by a veteran. Well one day not long ago I was walking in a cemetery where my grandparents were buried and the strangest thing happened. In the neighborhood I was raised in, we knew everyone on the block. Our next door neighbor moved away after I left and went into the military and I had not seen them nor heard anything about them for many years. They had moved to this part of town where my grandparents were buried. I said to myself that maybe they were buried in this cemetery; I know it's strange but I remember people and think of them from time to time. I said Lord if they are buried here help find their grave. It 

were as if I was led to their grave. You may be thinking what a nut, I will agree I do some crazy things at times. That’s not the way I looked at it. I asked God to help me find their grave if they were buried here and God in the present time did. That is a small thing but nonetheless it reminds me that our God is concerned about the small things too.  Philippians 4:6 (KJV) Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. If God would answer that kind of prayer don’t you think that God would be just as concerned about the big prayers we need answers? 

💪Be Strong Stand Firm🇺🇸

 Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid 

1 Thessalonians 3:8 (KJV) For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 3:9 (KJV) For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;

1 Thessalonians 3:10 (KJV) Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

We live if “ye stand fast in the Lord.” Remember the football we wrote about? What was the principal that Coach Lombardi taught his players? He taught his players the fundamentals. Knowing the fundamentals, the Green Bay Packers began to win. Can I say it’s always better to win than to lose. Winner or Loser? In our Christian life we are one or the other.  The Apostle Paul said one of the fundamentals is to stand fast in the Lord. 

“stand fast in the Lord.” Stand Fast means to be FIRM, FIXED, SETTLED to MAINTAIN POSITION. The question is how are we doing as Christians standing fast in the Lord? How are we doing in standing fast in His Word? How are we doing standing fast in Prayer? How are we doing in standing fast in our Walk with the Lord? The questions could go on but it’s not questions, it’s are we Firm, Fixed and Settled in what we believe? So much so that if we were to die today that we aren’t worried about where we are going? If not then we must “might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?” Don’t let weak or non Christians influence you to the point that you yourself become weak in your faith. The fundamental fact is you and I are closer today than we were yesterday to our final day here on earth. Stand Firm one learns to do that by doing it. I go to Sunday school and worship services and sometimes it may seem like a big waste of time. The surgeon yesterday that was operating on that 10 year old little girl thought the same thing when he was going to college. On other days we both learned the things that helped us today. May I say it was all well worth our time. One becomes weak by not using their muscles. Staying home is not an option if we are going to stand firm and be strong in the Lord.