2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5 What To Do With The Truth

Perfect for Thanksgiving Day – “Paul turned from warning to thanksgiving and prayer.”

“Every believer has four responsibilities to God’s truth:”

Believe it – that God loved us, chose us, set us apart, called us, and gave us glory.  “What begins with grace always leads to glory.”

Guard it – we are to guard the truth and not turn from it, standing fast and holding to it.  But “we must not embalm the truth so that it loses its life and power … and we must not think that we know it all … it’s good to let the Spirit teach us new truths from that Word.”

Practice it – It’s not just our “saying” the truth that’s important.  It’s also our “doing” … “It must be a steady practice, not an occasional one … It is good to be defenders of the faith, but we must not forget to be demonstrators of the faith.”

Share it – “We cannot share what we do not believe, and we can best share that which we have practiced ourselves…”

Father, help me to believe even more, to guard what You’ve already shown me, to practice what I’ve learned, and to share it with others so that they may know You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 What's Coming

Someone had tried to make these believers believe that they were already in the Tribulation.  Paul had to correct their thinking by telling them everything that must happen before then, including the rapture of the church.  It would sure shake up any Christian who thought he’d missed the Rapture!

My commentary spent a lot of time pulling in material from other books of the Bible regarding that time.  I saw several things of importance to consider:

“Paul taught a sobering truth:  a person can so resist the truth that he finally becomes deluded and has to believe a lie.  There can be no neutral ground:  either we believe the truth or we believe a lie.  To reject the truth means to receive the lie … What is the lie? … Satan first spoke it to Eve:  ‘You shall be as God!’ The lie is the idea that man is his own God and therefore can do whatever he pleases and better himself by his own human efforts … ‘Now you are somebody important!’ ‘Worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.’ This is Satan’s lie, and I fear it is what rules the world today.  God originally made man in His own image.  Today, man is making God in his own image.”

Many years ago, a friend introduced me to New Age material, and this is exactly what it is all about.  It appeals to an elitist, intellectual side of each of us, and tries to make us believe that we’ve discovered something that few others have.  It’s dangerous and can easily cause a Christian to lose his way.

Father, thank You for rescuing me from Satan’s lie.  Thank You for not giving up on me when I did not want to have a thing to do with You.  Your mercy and grace pulled me back into Your fold.  Thank You for enabling me to help others find their way to You as well.  I’ll never be able to do enough to thank You for Your love!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Thessalonians 1 -- What God Is Doing Through Our Trials

Paul’s follow-up letter to the Thessalonians showed that they’d done what he asked in his first letter – their faith was growing more and more and the love that every one of them had for each other was increasing.  Paul was praising God for what He was doing in that church.  My commentary said, “not only does prayer change people and situations, but so does praise.”

He also noted that their patience was increasing as they endured trouble.  My commentary said, “You don’t become patient and persevering by reading a book … You have to suffer …But God never wastes suffering.  Trials work for us, not against us.  If we trust God and yield to Him, then trials will produce patience and maturity in our lives.  If we rebel and fight our circumstances, then we will remain immature and impatient … Their sufferings were evidence that God was righteous, working out His great plan for them.  We are prone to think that suffering proves that God does not care, but just the opposite is true.  Furthermore, the way we act in times of trial proves to others that God is at work … Trials do not make a person; they reveal what a person is made of.”

Father, I know that You are at work in the trials my family has been through this year.  I thank You for increasing my faith.  Help me sons to see it all from Your perspective as well.  Let them let You show them they are made of strong stuff and that You are loving them by taking them through it.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 Wise Words To Churches

Paul’s last few paragraphs weren’t simply throwaway “don’t forget these” items.  In fact, they are timely for our church today.

He listed responsibilities for the local congregation to the ministers, pastors, deacons, and other leaders:  We are to accept them, appreciate them, love them, and obey them.  It’s very tempting to respond, “Yeah, but they’re human, too,” as I did.  To that, my commentary replied, “As the spiritual leaders of the church meet together, plan, pray, and seek and follow God’s will, we can be sure that God will rule and overrule in the decisions they make.”

Paul also saw the local congregation as a family partnership, my commentary said, and Paul gave us valuable guidance in dealing with difficult members of the family, including being patient, watching our own motives, and being joyful in everything. 

There were wise words in my commentary about our worship:  “When the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives and churches, we have a warmth of love in our hearts, light for our minds, and energy for our wills.  He ‘melts us together’ so that there is harmony and cooperation, and He purifies us so that we put away sin … The believer and the local assembly must avoid extremes:  the legalist and formalist would put the fire out, while the fanatic would permit the fire to burn everything up … the purpose of worship is that we might become more like Christ in character and conduct.  ‘For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open up the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.’”

Father, help our church to take this to heart.  Show us how to work together better, and to represent You in truth to the world.  As Paul said, help us “to appreciate those who work hard among you, who lead you in the Lord and teach you.  Respect them with a very special love because of the work they do.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Living Differently

Paul really wanted to encourage believers to live holy lives in the midst of the unbelievers in the world.  He contrasted the lives of believers and unbelievers.

Believers have knowledge of what’s coming.  Unbelievers do not.  The end times will begin suddenly and it is only by having knowledge of what’s coming that we can live lives that will glorify our Savior and point others to Him.

The world will be caught by surprise by Christ’s return.  Christians can expect His return without having a specific time set.  My commentary said there are no signs that must now be fulfilled before He can return for His church.

Paul said we are to be sober-minded, alert, and living with eyes wide open, not living as those who belong to the darkness.  In readying ourselves for that day, he tells us how to be ready – pulling on chest protection of faith in Christ and love for our fellow Christians and for unbelievers needing to discover Christ.  Our head is to be protected by “the hope of salvation”, which my commentary says means “the hope that salvation gives us.”  And there are three tenses to salvation:  “Past – I have been saved from the guilt and penalty of sin.  Present – I am being saved from the power and pollution of sin.  Future – I shall be saved from the very presence of sin when Christ returns … Unsaved people are without hope.”

Also, Paul says that believers don’t have to fear judgment, because it is not part of God’s appointed plan for us.  We won’t have to go through the Tribulation, for John 5:24 says we shall never taste any of God’s wrath.  Not so for unbelievers who mocked God and refused to believe and obey.  My commentary explained that if Christ didn’t return for us until after the Tribulation described so thoroughly in Revelation 6-19, then we’d know when He’d be returning due to that detailed timing given.  He would have to return before the Tribulation for it to be imminent.

Father, this makes it all the more apparent why You want us telling the world about You and Your Son right now.  Help me to tell others how You’ve impacted my life and lead them to saving faith in Your Son.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Not The End

Paul answered the questions every human has about the afterlife.  He did so because he’d received a special revelation from the Lord.  What he taught agreed with what Jesus had said in John 5 & 11.

Paul did not say that the soul went to sleep at death.  “It is not the soul that sleeps; it is the body,” my commentary said.  “The Bible definition of death is given in James 2:26:  ‘For as the body without the spirit is dead.’  At death, the spirit leaves the body, and the body goes to sleep and no longer functions.  The soul-spirit goes to be with the Lord, if the person has trusted Jesus Christ. ‘Absent from the body, and … present with the Lord.’”

Since we were not given a time of His returning, it is said to be imminent – it can happen at any moment.  “He will return in the air, and we’ll meet Him there.  “The dead in Christ shall rise first,” according to my commentary, means that they will receive their resurrection bodies first.  It emphasized that God will not put the elements of their original bodies together again, for that would be reconstruction, not resurrection.

“Death is not the end.  The grave is not the end.  The body goes to sleep, but the soul goes to be with the Lord.  When the Lord returns, He will bring the soul with Him, will raise the body in glory, and will unite body and soul into one being to share His glory forever,” my commentary summarized.

The Greek word from which we get “rapture” has several meanings, and when we consider all of them, according to my commentary, we get a better idea of what rapture means:

                To catch away speedily

                To seize by force

                To claim for one’s own self

                To move to a new place

                To rescue from danger.

According to the Bible, this resurrection of dead believers only will also be a time of reckoning called the Judgment Seat of Christ.  It will occur immediately after the Rapture, and it determines rewards for service, not the amount of judgment.  Judgment only occurs with unbelievers when they are raised at the White Throne judgment later.  There is no condemnation for believers. 

Father, thank You for these assurances.  Thank You for the possibility that we may not have to face death.  Thank You that we can look forward to Your Son’s return.  Thank You for saving me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 Living This Way Why?

Paul packed a lot into 12 verses!  He tells us that as Christians we are to walk in holiness, in harmony, and in honesty.  Immorality was rampant in the Roman Empire as it is now, and these Christians needed God’s instruction on how to live apart from it.  “Paul gave four reasons why they should live a holy life and abstain from sensual lusts:

                To please God

                To obey God

                To glorify God

                To escape the judgment of God”

according to my commentary.

“Pleasing God means much more than simply doing God’s will.  It is possible to obey God and yet not please Him.”  (Jonah was an example they cited.)  It involved “getting to know the heart of God, and this opens us up to the will of God.”

God’s commandments concerning sex are clear, and since “He created sex, He had the authority to govern its use.”  So living a life according to those commandments results in obedience.

For God to be glorified, we must live a holy life, and “to make us holy, that entails first of all a clean break with sexual immorality… The Christian who commits sexual sin is sinning against his own body, and he is robbing God of the glory He should receive through a believer’s way of life.”

Finally, in regard to judgment, “God is no respecter of persons:  He must deal with His children when they sin … While it is true that the Christian is not under condemnation, it is also true that he is not free of the harvest of sorrow that comes when we sow to the flesh.  God forgives, but God cannot change the consequences.”

Father, help me in my singleness to continue to seek Your will for my life – to not simply seek to obey You, but to seek to please You by conforming my heart to Yours.  Don’t let me try to rationalize anything regarding sexual sin.  Strengthen me and help me to be pure for You and because You know what’s best for me better than I ever will.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Thessalonians 3 -- Helping New Christians

Paul gives us lots of information for helping new Christians in this chapter.  One of the first things he mentioned dealt with the “helper” himself.  According to my commentary,  “It is a demanding thing to establish new Christians.  They have many problems and often do not grow as fast as we think they should.  Teaching them requires love and patience.”

Often, new Christians get sidelined by trials and testings, but they need to see them not as accidents, but as appointments.  God uses them to grow our faith.  “We must expect to suffer for His sake.  Persecution is not foreign to the believer, but a normal part of the Christian life … Satan will use any means to attack the Christian and weaken his faith in God.”  Trials grow our faith when we see them from this perspective.

My commentary mentioned the importance of continually praying for new Christians, and cited something Samuel said:  “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.”

Testing of our faith comes for a reason, and new Christians need to understand that.  “God tries our faith, not to destroy it, but to develop it.  Faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted.”

Paul also wanted love to abound in new Christians.  The testing plus the suffering would require growing love.  “Nothing reveals the true inner man like the furnace of affliction.  Some people build walls in times of trial and shut themselves off.  Others build bridges and draw closer to the Lord and His people.”

Paul also wanted them to have holiness of life, and my commentary noted how Christ’s return is a source of stability for us, and that stability allows sanctity which builds assurance.  That’s something all new believers need.

Father, thank You for this timely reminder about trials building faith, and about how I can help new Christians.  I’ve got one on my mind right now.  Help me to help him with what You’ve shown me today.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Thessalonians 1-2 Ministry Almost Orphaned

There was so much I read in my commentary today that focused on how Paul pastured the Christians in this church.  But what really spoke to me this morning was what was written about the last 4 verses of chapter 2.

“Paul felt as though he had be orphaned from the Thessalonian Christians, since he was their spiritual mother and father.  Paul wanted to remain there longer to help ground them in the faith, but the enemy drove him out.  However, his absence was only physical; he was still with them in heart.  Paul made every effort possible to return to them, though Satan was ‘breaking up the road and pulling up obstacles.’  Paul had the same kind of deep desire to be with them as Jesus had to be with His disciples before His death.  But Paul did not look back and give in to regret and remorse.  Instead, he looked ahead and rejoiced … Paul looked ahead by faith and saw his friends in the presence of Jesus Christ in glory … this ought to motivate us to be faithful in spite of difficulties.  We must remember that faithfulness is the important thing.”

Father, this so describes how I’ve been feeling about what’s been going on in my ministry to these kids I so love.  I feel orphaned from them, too.  Thank You that they are still with me in my heart, even when I don’t get to teach them in church.  Thank You for giving me the desire to interact with them in their lives, as Paul did, when I’m limited at church.  Help me to make every effort to keep loving them in this way, despite all of the obstacles.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Habakkuk 1-3 Trusting God Through Doubt

Habakkuk had some doubts about what God was doing.  He felt that God was ignoring his fervent prayers for his nation.  Suddenly, God answered him!  He said, “ …. Be amazed and shocked.  I will do something in your lifetime that you won’t believe even when you are told about it.”  God told Habakkuk what He was up to, but not why.  “He doesn’t owe us any explanations, but He does graciously reveal Himself and His work to those who seek Him,” my commentary said.

Habakkuk worried that he was seeing inconsistency on the part of God.  After all, He was using wicked people to punish His own people for their sins.  “If you believe in God, you sometimes wonder why He allows certain things to happen.  But keep in mind that there’s a difference between doubt and unbelief.  Like Habakkuk, the doubter questions God and may even debate with God, but the doubter doesn’t abandon God.  But unbelief is rebellion against God, a refusal to accept what He says and does.  Unbelief is an act of the will, while doubt is born out of a troubled mind and a broken heart,” my commentary said.

Habakkuk decides to trust God despite his lack of understanding and his doubts.  He ends by saying, “I hear these things, and my body trembles … But I will wait patiently … Fig trees may not grow figs, and there may be no grapes on the vines.  There may be no olives growing and no food growing in the fields.  There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns.  But I will still be glad in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Savior.  The Lord God is my strength.  He makes me like a deer that does no stumble so I can walk on the steep mountains.”

Thank You for taking me through everything with Josh’s adoption so that I could learn  that for myself, Father.  Thank You for teaching me the four words to say when I doubt:  “I trust You, God.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Nahum 1-3 -- Jealousy, Vengeance, And Anger From God

This book starts out, “The Lord is a jealous God who punishes; the Lord punishes and is filled with anger.  The Lord punishes those who are against Him, and He stays angry with His enemies.”

It’s very easy to say, “Something’s not right here!  God is love.  My God wouldn’t do that!  I wouldn’t want Him being that way with me!”  My commentary helped me see that what is written in the Bible is both true and good.  Jealousy, vengeance, and anger are good parts of God’s character, and here’s why:

“Jealousy is a sin if it means being envious of what others have and wanting to possess it, but it’s a virtue if it means cherishing what we have and wanting to protect it … when you are jealous over someone you love, you’re zealous to protect the relationship.  Since God made everything and owns everything, He is envious of no one, but since He is the only true God, He is jealous over His glory, His name, and the worship and honor that are due to Him alone … He will not share His people with false gods … God’s jealous love burned against Nineveh’s pride and willful breaking of His law.”

“In Scripture, vengeance is usually presented as a sin … But a holy God cannot see people flouting His law and do nothing about it … When God takes vengeance by judging people, it’s because He is a holy God and is jealous (zealous) for His holy Law.”

“God’s anger isn’t like human anger, which can be selfish and out of control.  His is a holy anger, a righteous indignation against all that defies His authority and disobeys His law.  God’s people ought to exercise a holy anger against sin … Nahum invites us (as Paul put it) to ‘consider the goodness and severity of God.’”

Psalm 115:8 says that people become like the god they worship, for what we believe determines how we behave.

Father, forgive me for backing up as I first read this, wondering if Nahum was ascribing traits to You that were unkind at best.  Had I truly known Nineveh’s sin, I would never have wondered.  You are good, and that goodness includes jealousy, vengeance, and anger for those who disobey Your laws and defy Your authority – even me.  Help me to always agree with You and Your Word.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Micah 5-7 -- God's Amazing Love For Sinners

As Micah finished giving God’s message, the people began to ask what they could do to remove their sin.  “Ignoring His commandments resulted in a hart heart that deliberately rebelled against God’s will,” my commentary said.  Do we even realize that we are doing the same thing today?  They needed to confess their sins, yet they asked what they could do to get rid of them.  “Their request shows how shallow their spiritual life really was and that they were ignorant of the enormity of their sin and the high cost of forgiveness.”  We are little different today.  “Doing penance without truly repenting and trusting God’s mercy only multiplies the sin and deadens the conscience,” my commentary added.

It’s vitally important that we come clean with ourselves.  “The only people God can save are lost people; the only people God can forgive are guilty people.  If we see ourselves as God sees us, then we can by faith become what He wants us to become.”

I loved the last few verses:  “There is no God like You.  You forgive those who are guilty of sin; You don’t look at the sins of Your people who are left alive.  You will not stay angry forever, because You enjoy being kind.  You will have mercy on us again; You will conquer our sins.  You will throw away all our sins into the deepest part of the sea.”

Father, forgive me for sinning against You and Your great love for me.  Do this for me, Father – every day.  And help me to trust You more so that I will not sin against You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Micah 3-4 -- The Hazards Of Not Listening To God

The religious and civilian leaders of Israel were leading them to sin.  Their false prophets were about to see their visions grow dark.  They were making them up anyway, seeing good things for those willing to pay them and calling for holy wars against those who wouldn’t.

Although God was promising them that they’d go into captivity for their willful sinning and rebellion, He also promised that one day the Temple Mount would be miraculously raised up and even Gentiles would come to hear what the Lord would say.  Nations would stop fighting wars or even training soldiers.  There will even be an end to terrorism and the fear it causes.

There were so many promises of God taking action Himself in these verses – gathering, keeping alive, making strong, bringing together.  If people can’t see God at work today, they certainly will at that time.  Right now, “They don’t know what the Lord is thinking; they don’t understand His plan.”  But someday they will, and they will be amazed.

Father, I think back to how I used to wonder why You’d left and were no longer at work in the world, but You’d blinded my eyes, just as You did theirs, until I returned to You.  Now I see You at work every day.  Please help others to do the same.  Show up and reveal what You are doing so that people everywhere will look up to You and know You are the Holy God.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Micah 1-2 -- Judgment, With Consolation & Hope

God gave Micah a message for both kingdoms.  They’d conveniently listened to false prophets who were only encouraging them to sin.  They’d kept worshiping idols and sinned their way right into defeat.

These were God’s chosen people.  He gave them privilege.  “Privilege brings responsibility, and responsibility brings accountability,” my commentary reminded us.  They’d been infected with materialism, caused by covetousness – something God had forbidden – and now “they would see everything they lived for and sinned to acquire be taken over by the enemy and wasted.”

They’d altered their religion as well.  They thought they could simply go through the motions and it would count as worship.  Their hearts weren’t in it, except to further their own interests.  Micah’s message revealed this, but they rejected it, and my commentary said, “The way we respond to God’s Word indicates our relationship to the Lord … The nation didn’t learn from its history; the people repeated the same sins as their ancestors but thought they would avoid the same consequences.”

Micah was to expose sin and announce judgment.  But he also was to provide consolation and hope.  If he only consoled the, and didn’t preach repentance, he was only giving false hope.  If his message included no hope, it only created hopelessness because of their sin.  God gave him a message of hope, but that hope wasn’t going to come quickly.

My commentary says that the message for us today is “to deal with our sins of covetousness, selfishness, and willingness to believe religious lies.  We must abandon soft religion that pampers our pride and makes it easy for us to sin.”

Father, help me to take to heart Your Word today, for my own life and for the lives of those I love.  I read that I should expect sinners to sin and that I should not be offended when someone sins against me, but instead I should open caring arms to them.  Help me to do that, Father.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hosea 14 -- God Heals Our Backsliding

“Though His people may turn away from Him, God will not abandon them, even though He disciplines them, for He is true to His covenant and His promises.  ‘If we are faithless, He remains faithful,’” my commentary said.  And this last chapter of Hosea offers new hope to those who have stepped away from God.  He even gives us the words to say to invoke His forgiveness.

“God had every reason to reject His sinful people, but He chose to offer them forgiveness … They needed to bring sincere words of repentance and ask God for His gracious forgiveness:  ‘I will forgive them for leaving Me and will love them freely, because I am not angry with them anymore.’”  He sees our pitiful condition, and His love for us moves Him to abate His anger and draw us to Himself in love.

My commentary also says, “God restores the penitent to spiritual health and heals their backsliding.”  It’s almost as if our own decision to sin against Him is like a festering wound, and God washes it clean, removes the sin infection, and seals the skin to prevent re-infection.  Our backsliding was our choosing to sin, and He even heals that – causing us to not want to sin again because we are blown away by such love!

The last verse helps us to see what it takes to be a wise person and an understanding person – to know God’s desires for us and His commands that give us freedom from sin, and to take them to heart.  He also “presents us with only two alternatives:  rebel against the Lord and continue to stumble, or return to the Lord and walk securely in His ways. ‘Good people will live by following them, but those who turn against God die because of them.’”

Father, thank You for forgiving me for leaving You years ago.  Thank You for placing within my heart a desire never to get into that mode again.  But like all flesh, I am tempted at times to test those boundaries and to relive old sins.  Don’t let me go there.  Speak loudly and clearly to me.  And Father, verse 3 says, “You show mercy to orphans.”  Remember those two boys who were orphans.  You placed them in my home and gave them a father.  Show mercy to them when they sin.  Show them the way back.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hosea 12-13 -- It Finally Comes To This ... In Love

What God was about to do to Israel, the Northern Kingdom, wouldn’t be good, but it was necessary.  My commentary said that they’d refused every other manifestation of His love, so now discipline was all that was left.  It wasn’t punishment; it was chastening.  “Chastening is a loving parent disciplining his child in order to perfect his character and build his endurance … chastening has to do with love.”

Hosea mentioned Jacob, rather than Abraham, for a reason.  “During most of his life, Jacob struggled with himself, with others, and with the Lord, and until he surrendered to God at Jabbok, he never really walked by faith.  God had to discipline him to bring him to that place of surrender.”

Jacob had met God at Bethel, and later he returned to Bethel for a new spiritual beginning.  “The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”

One of the reasons Hosea listed for Israel’s discipline was ingratitude.  “The Jews were glad for what God had done for their forefathers, but they didn’t really show Him sincere appreciation … In their prosperity, they became proud and turned away from God to idols.”

In 13:14, God says, “I will show them no mercy.”  The Living Bible says, “I will not relent.”  This wasn’t God saying that He no longer loved His people.  His discipline was another manifestation of His love for the.

Father, help me not to again get so far from You by my sin that Your discipline becomes necessary.  Remind me to be attentive to the little nudges You give me daily so I won’t need the whip.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford