1 Thessalonians 3 bible reading and devotions.

Click to download.

Max Lucado: An Advocate

Not all guilt is bad.  God uses appropriate doses of guilt to awaken us to sin!

God’s guilt brings enough regret to change us! Satan’s guilt brings enough regret to enslave us.  Don’t let him lock his shackles on you.

Colossians 3:3 reminds us, “your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

When he looks at you, he sees Jesus first.  In the Chinese language the word for “righteousness” is a combination of two characters, the figure of a lamb and a person.  The lamb is on top, covering the person.  Whenever God looks down at you, this is what he sees:  The perfect Lamb of God covering you.

It boils down to this choice:  Do you trust your Advocate—God or your Accuser—Satan?  Give no heed to Satan’s voice.  You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous!

From GRACE

1 Thessalonians 3
New International Version (NIV)
3 So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.

Timothy’s Encouraging Report

6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Ephesians 4:1-16
Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ

4 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it[a] says:

“When he ascended on high,
    he took many captives
    and gave gifts to his people.”[b]
9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions[c]? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Family Togetherness

September 14, 2012 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt

Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. —Ephesians 4:3
My husband, children, and I have a fun family tradition. It happens when we are at home and someone calls out “family hug!” We usually rendezvous in the kitchen; I hug the kids and my husband wraps his arms around all of us. It’s our way of expressing love and enjoying a brief moment of family togetherness.

Although we enjoy an occasional group hug, it’s not always easy to maintain that sense of unity. After all, each person in our family is unique. We have different needs, abilities, and viewpoints—much like the family of God (Eph. 4:11-12).

Despite inevitable differences with other believers, Paul calls us to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (v.3). Harmony with other Christians is important because it reflects the unity between Jesus and His heavenly Father. Jesus prayed this for believers: “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You” (John 17:21).

When problems arise within the family of God, the Bible says we are to respond “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love” (Eph. 4:2). This is the way to experience family togetherness with people who share the fundamentals of our faith.

I pray, O Lord, reveal to me
If I have caused disunity,
For You would have Your children one
In praise and love for Your dear Son. —Branon
Our hearts are linked through the love of Christ.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 14, 2012

Arguments or Obedience

. . . the simplicity that is in Christ.  —2 Corinthians 11:3

Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and . . . every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).

Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Designer Genes and Chromosomes - #6700

Friday, September 14, 2012

Years ago there was a Newsweek cover story that really caught my attention. It was about twins, and my wife and I had several friends at that time that had twins. Occasionally we had expressed horror at the thought of having had any two of our kids at the same time! Fortunately, God knows who can handle these incredible assignments, and who can't, so he wisely sent our three children two years apart.

But the Newsweek article was intriguing, and it explained the great amount of research that's being done regarding twins. And the article stated that the studies not only revealed a lot about twins, but also about all of us. For example, there are the studies that have been done on twins who have been separated at birth, and then raised totally apart and then reunited as adults. It is amazing how alike they are in their temperament, and the choices they've made, their likes, and their dislikes.

So, they're giving scientists new evidence in the debate over how much we're a product of our environment as opposed to how much of us is genetically programmed. These twins are telling us that there's a lot about us, more than we think, that we're born with. You know what? That should come as no surprise.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Designer Genes and Chromosomes."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God, Ephesians 2:10 . I love this. Great verse, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God (get this) prepared in advance for us to do." In other words, God has set you up uniquely for specific assignments that you are put on earth to do on a daily basis.

Now, the twins research tells us that each person seems to be uniquely wired. Well, so does the Bible. For example, you go to what David said in Psalm 139 . In that great prayer he says, "God, You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Then he says, "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be."

See, from conception, God has designed you to carry out a unique plan. You're just the right height to do what He's prepared for you to do. You've got just the right hair. You've got the right voice. You have just the right basic temperament. You've got the right skills and talents. He's even given you certain limitations to help you be sensitive and dependant, and compassionate, and He put you in the right family too.

It's true, a sinful environment has corrupted the purity of God's programming, but the basic you is God's one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Oh, you may be missing the point of how right you are, because you have done too much comparing with other people or with the things that society says are important. How can you be compared? You are uniquely wired for unique assignments. You're a category all by yourself. Hello? There's no one we can compare you to. You're the only one like you.

When are you going to start celebrating what you are instead of focusing on what you aren't? You were made right! You're wired for daily contributions only you can make. And ultimately we can only discover the answer to the question, "Why am I here?" by belonging to the God who put us here; who designed us. That's why the Bible says, "All things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16 ). We were supposed to revolve our life around our Creator, and in so doing find our destiny, find our identity, find our reason to be. Unfortunately, we found another reason to be; living for ourselves, which the Bible calls sin...middle letter "I." It's a terrible thing to be away from God, because it means a life without meaning and an eternity without hope. That's why Jesus came. He came to bring us together and to unite us with the God who has the plan.

Maybe it's time for you to say, "I'm not wasting another day with a 'me-run' life. Jesus, I'm turning it over to you. I'm all yours. You died for me, I'm yours." Go to our website. You'll find some help there in beginning a relationship with Him. YoursForLife.net. And you can belong to the Designing Genius who made you. You are a product of His never wrong, always right designing genius.