May 13, 2012 - Pastor Doug Caister
Right-click here and choose "Save As..." to download audio
1 Thessalonians 1:1-3
Have you ever come across someone who by the nature of their character caused you to pause and do an attitude check? I mean just being around them was convicting in a good way. On the plane back from my trip to the Philippines, I met a young Filipina lady who was raised mostly in the States, but went back to the Philippines for college, but lived in a squalid squatter village with her grandma, she scraped away maggots from her food when she ate and rode for an hour on a sweltering, smelly city bus to school. She had just finished up and had such a burden for the squatter children she decided to study for the next 7 years to become a pediatrician so she could specifically serve impoverished kids. What I remember about her was a look she had in her eye of love and a quiet determination. I had to ask myself, "Am I burdened for something like that?"
When I look at the church in Thessalonica, I get the same kind of conviction in a good way. As we start a verse by verse journey through this book, I am getting more and more excited about what God is going to do in our lives. At first, I was attracted to the book because it had good practical teaching about basic Christian doctrines, especially the return of Christ. But now I also see some other reasons why the timing is good for us to hunker down and let God speak to us through this great book. I would like to invite you to try an experiment with me. 1 Thessalonians has 5 chapters, try reading one chapter a day and read through the book each week as we go through the series - either individually or as a family - similar to what we did during the Easter season. See how it goes and I am sure you will get even more out of the series.
Ok with that in mind, let's get started.
