SHARING YOUR SELF FOR CHRIST’S SAKE
Scripture Reference:1 Thessalonians 2:8
” We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so close to us “. (1)
This heart warming salutation of Paul acknowledging the arrival of Thessalonians desiring to learn of the way and the teachings of Jesus Christ, is exemplary for all who desire to promote the Mission of Jesus Christ.
The following brief excerpt of Pauline’s history reveals much about humankind’s creation and the ‘tie that binds the heart in Christian love”.
The spiritual differences between the Thessalonians, Paul and his Gospel team, appear stringent and distinctive.
Not that the Thessalonians are devoid of any religious thought or practices but they are worshippers of idols. An idol is ‘ representative of a god used as an object of worship’. Meanwhile, Paul and his missioners represent worshippers of the living God. Thus, two distinct ideologies share a common goal: to establish communication with Someone or something outside themselves in this world.
Humans are, then, creatures with dual citizenship!
Before we become residents of Earth, we are residents in Our Heavenly Father’s Home. Here, in our primal Home, God created and equipped us to become residents of this world. Consequently, in the deep recesses of every being there remains an unquenchable thirst for the true and living God.
Hear the poet William Wordsworth’s expression of this belief :
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere it’s setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy”. (lines 58–70). (2)
Paul identifies two critical facts for the successful dispensation of this Heaven-appointed Mission to help others to own faith in the living God.
The Scripture under present discussion celebrates Paul’s success in inspiring Thessalonians to become living witnesses for God, through Jesus Christ,His chosen son. That success demonstrates Paul’s sincere commitment to keep his communication lines between Heaven and Earth ready for immediate action, when God was ready to commission him to action!
irrefutably, this is the avenue God chooses to reveal to us in turn our commission to be His co-creators in this life. On the day of your creation, God equipped you for the special task you are to address in this needy world ! Paul’s private communication link between the two realms of citizenship, Heaven and Earth was always on stand-by and so must ours be.
God longs for this to become the identifying feature of everyone created ‘ in His Image’. Subsequently, God reveals one’s appointed place as His co-creator and equips them for the particular station in this world’s citizenry. God prepares His children for living as citizens of the world by instilling in them the same Spirit Jesus exemplified in the flesh. It was the same Holy Spirit in Paul and his cohorts as they toiled among the Thessalonians. There is a second ingredient in Paul’s success story of enlisting the Thessalonians in Christ’s ongoing Mission in the world. It was the emanating evidence of the presence and the undeniable power of the indwelling Christ in the lives of the missioners.
” We loved you so much that we delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so close to us “
In this critical time of diminished faith when church steeples that silently announced with pride, the sacrifice and determination of our forebears to weave into their community’s fabric, the stories of life-giving trust in the eternal, are falling in disrepair, and the doors that have swung wide in welcome, for generations, are now being shuttered and barred!
It is never enough merely to tell the story. We must ‘ BE THE STORY!’ Be everything that encourages another in sunshine and shadow to keep looking up! Such must be preserved at any cost.
” Not only in the words you say,
Not only, in the deeds confessed,
But in the most unconscious way, is Christ expressed!
Is it a beatific smile?
A holy light upon your brow?
Oh, no! I felt His Presence when you laughed just now.
For me ’twas not the truth you taught, to you so plain, to me so dim. But when you came to me, you brought a sense of Him.
So, from your heart, He beckons me; from your eyes, His love is shed
’til I lose sight of you and, see, Christ instead! (3)
A Prayer To Follow This Meditation
O God, You revealed Yourself to the world in Your Son Jesus. Grant that today’s world will reveal our conscientious effort to build the Kingdom of God Jesus demonstrated.
Father, the world has become more interested in developing technological skills than promoting the transforming power of Brotherly Love. Hear us pray for Your forgiveness, and grant us anew the power of Your Holy Spirit:
To seek You more powerlessly
To speak Your Truth more forcefully,
To BE THE Indwelling CHRIST
to all you meet.
In His Name, we make our prayer. Amen
TEXT NOTES
- The Scripture quotes in the text are from the NIV translation.
- ” Ode: Intimations of Immortality” by
William Wordsworth
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3 Author unknown