1 Thessalonians 5:15

1 Thessalonians 5:15

“If God himself sets the example for our behavior, it is also God’s mercy towards us that motivates and empowers our reciprocation. In the cross of Christ, God carried out the greatest act of mercy towards the undeserving, and at the same time executed severe and uncompromising justice upon the sins of humanity. Now you might ask: How can I reciprocate the mercy of God? Which is a good question, since Christ will never be in need of your kindness, gentleness, patience, and especially not your mercy. But Jesus regularly directly linked the treatment of his body, the church, with the way that we are treating him : ‘...as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

The way we treat the image bearers of Christ — no matter how poorly they reflect that image at times — is literally how we are treating the one who gave his life for us.”

Psalm 46

Psalm 46

1 God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
    God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
    how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

1 Thessalonians 5:14

1 Thessalonians 5:14

“…Paul lays the responsibility for the whole community on the community itself. Each member, and not the leaders alone, must be aware of his or her responsibility for others and seek to help them. At no stage can the ordinary member lean back and say or think, ‘This is the task of the leaders alone.’ Paul knows nothing of an inert mass, the congregation, on which the ministry operates…In short, Paul is trying to develop in the entire congregation a sense of pastoral responsibility…”

Romans 3:21-26

Romans 3:21-26

“…The multifaceted plan of redemption doesn’t just have you at the centre of all that God does. God has never been under any obligation to Man, the creature. Would you be offended at me if I told you that God, before the creation of the world, needed nothing? That Father, Son and Holy Spirit were satisfied in their eternal existence. That it was only out of the overflow of love that God chose to create mankind. That he wasn’t obligated then, or even now, to Men. That the theatre of history is designed to maximize the glory of God…”

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

“The peace that the apostle has in mind is not merely the absence of conflict… but the presence of positive, healthy relationships. These do not come as a result of superficial harmony, where we are nice to each other and coexist without open conflict, but genuine peace is the result of following the guidelines of Matthew 18:15 and going to those who sin or offend us in loving confrontation. We Canadians so highly value the kinds “niceness” and “politeness” that take us far afield from genuine kindness and peace which are fruits of the Spirit …People who do not “care enough to confront” are no more loving than leaders who will not admonish.”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

“Believers are adopted into the family of God by grace alone, through the finished work and sacrifice of Christ, but their existence as children of the light, children of the day, has moral implications, The Thessalonian Christians did not need to be reminded of the facts, but they are being reminded here of the implications these facts held for their actions. They are already day people, but they are being reminded to live as such!”

Mark 14:12-25

Mark 14:12-25

“Adam and Eve ate the first recorded meal in rebellion, which is to say, they rebelled against God by eating what was forbidden. And because of their actions, their sin; rebellion and sin have pervaded every relationship, event, thought, and part of creation since. So when we go from looking at humanity’s first meal to what has been called Jesus’ last supper, we again see our rebellion full strength. Adam and Judas share this in common; they betrayed their relationship with God, believing in their hearts that their way, their interpretation, their will was better than Almighty God’s…”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

“The goal of this whole passage is quite simple and clear, although it has unfortunately also been the source of a great deal of end times speculation that is quite unrelated to Paul’s own interests. Paul’s expressed goal is ‘that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope,’ or to state it positively, that our hope would be so grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, that our whole understanding of death, the future and the fate of all believers would be profoundly different from the world that does not have Christ.”

Mark 14:1-11

Mark 14:1-11

“Today we enter into the Passion of Jesus Christ. In our common English use, the word passion means intense desire, or an uncontrolled or barely controlled emotion, but in its original Latin, the root ‘passio’ means to suffer or to endure, therefore Christ’s Passion refers to his suffering rather than any impassioned desire…”

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