PASSION AND PERSEVERANCE

“Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ” (2 Thess. 3:5 NKJV).

Two important thoughts are in this verse. The first one is about passion; the second one is about perseverance.

Passion – “The Lord direct your hearts into the love God.” This is an exhortation about our affections. Here the apostle Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to have their love for God and what He represents. So many things are competing for our affections today. Hence, we must be careful where we place our affections. Where we place our affections have much to do with what happens to our character. If we center our affections on that which is offensive, hurtful, and defiled, we can expect to become offensive, hurtful, and defiled. On the other hand, if we center our affections on that which is holy, Godly, and upright, we can then expect to become more holy, Godly, and upright. If allow our affections to become attached to the wrong things, we will experience heartache and ruin.

Perseverance – “The patience of Christ.” The word translated “patience” comes from the Greek word hupomonē (ὑπομονή = hoop-om-on-ay') which means endurance and perseverance in difficult situations. It means perseverance in the midst of hostilities. And so, the exhortation is to stand fast in the faith in spite of difficulties. We must not give up when opposition comes to our faith, when our faith is ridiculed, and we suffer wrong because of our faith. We need to stick with it and be loyal to the Lord at all times. In Heb. 12:3, we read, “For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.” This tells us that the Lord Jesus experienced great opposition in His ministry, yet He kept going. We must do likewise. We must not quit just because we are criticized and circumstances are difficult.

(Adapted from Butler’s Daily Bible Reading 3)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“The saints prove their conversion by their perseverance, and that perseverance comes from a continual supply of divine grace to their souls!”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 - 1892)

English Particular Baptist Preacher

Word Study

Flashed

In Acts 9:3 we read, “As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him” (NASB).

“Flashed” is the Greek word periastráptō (περιαστράπτω = per-ee-as-trap'-to). It is made up of two words: “peri” which means about, around, and “astrapto” which means to shine like lightning. Thus, it carries the idea of shining very brightly around an object. Periastráptō occurs only twice in the New Testament, and both occurrences appear in the account of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus (cf. Acts 9:3; 22:6). He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians, when he was stopped by a blinding light and fell to the ground. He said he saw “a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me” (Acts 26:13). Interestingly enough, although all saw the light, only Saul was blinded by it. Saul may have thought that by stamping out Christianity in Damascus, he could prevent its spread to other areas. However, the Lord had other plans for him. Confronted with the appearance of the blazing glory of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, Saul, the hardened persecutor of Christians, was speechless with terror. The Lord Jesus personally called Saul to be one of his apostles. He took Saul with all his training in the Scriptures, his desire to promote Judaism, and his zeal for tradition (cf. Gal. 1:13-14), and turned him into the apostle Paul, a willing instrument to serve His cause. The Lord is still changing lives today.

Did You Know…

By law, if an Israelite touched the carcass of a dead insect, he became unclean until the evening (Lev. 11:23-24).

Bible Quiz

According to the Book of Daniel, what is described as having “teeth of iron and its nails of bronze?”

**Answer to last week’s Bible Quiz

In Nathan’s story to David what was it that was taken from the poor man by the rich man? “One little ewe lamb” (2 Sam. 12:3-4).

Prophecies Fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ

He was hated without a cause (Psalm 35:19; cf. John 15:25)

"Let them not rejoice over me who are wrongfully my enemies; nor let them wink with the eye who hate me without a cause” (Psalm 35:19 NJKV).

To “wink with the eye” means to mock or insult. So, here the Psalmist David prays that the rejoicing and gloating by his enemies over his adversity would be put to a stop. His prayer was that God would vindicate him and silencing his enemies once and for all. The Lord Jesus identified with those who suffer without apparent cause, because He applies the words of Psalm 35:19 (cf. Psalm 69:4) to Himself in John 15:25. The Jews had no reason to hate the Lord Jesus. He came as their Savior, fulfilling their Scriptures, healing many, and promising eternal life to those who believed in Him. Yet the people thought they were serving God by rejecting Him, when in reality, they were serving Satan (cf. 8:44). This is a reminder that as believers in the Lord Jesus, we should not be surprised when the unbelieving world hates us and there is no valid cause for their hatred.

Did You Know – Christian History

Bonhoeffer Transferred to Buchenwald Concentration Camp - February 07, 1945

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on 4 February 1906 in Breslau, Germany. He was a German Lutheran Pastor, and Theologian.

Bonhoeffer’s childhood took place in a large home in Berlin, alongside seven siblings. At age twelve, he announced to his family that he would become a theologian. At age twenty-one, he earned his first doctorate, and three years later he completed a second doctorate. In between doctorates, he worked as a youth pastor in Spain. Bonhoeffer then became a lecturer in systematic theology at the University of Berlin. However, his promising academic and ecclesiastical career was derailed when the Nazis came to power on January 30, 1933. Bonhoeffer became an opponent of the regime from its inception. As a result, his books were banned, and he lost his license to teach at the University.

Safe in exile in America, Bonhoeffer abruptly returned to Germany. “I have come to the conclusion that I have made a mistake in coming to America. I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of the Christian life in Germany after the war if I did not share in the trials of this time with my people. Christians in Germany face the terrible alternative of willing the defeat of their nation in order that civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose. But I cannot make that choice in security.” This would land him in a concentration camp and eventually cost him his life.

Bonhoeffer worked with the underground resistance, and helped guide Jews to safety. Believing that Hitler was like a madman “driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders,” he joined a plot to kill him. After he was arrested for his aid to the Jews, his role in the plot was discovered. There was little hope he would survive Nazi wrath. Nonetheless, Bonhoeffer was personally at peace. Suffering, he said, had become a better key for understanding the world than happiness had ever been. On February 7, 1945, Bonhoeffer was transferred to the terrible Buchenwald Concentration Camp where many thousands of prisoners died, some under cruel medical experiments. Three months later Bonhoeffer’s corpse was added to the list of the dead. He was hanged days before the allies freed the camp. He had fulfilled his own theology, aptly expressed in his book The Cost of Discipleship: “The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will resolve [man’s] difficulties and make him free to become the child of God.” When the government usurps God’s place, what is the Christian to do? By his life and death, Bonhoeffer exemplified one solution.

A Little Humor

A young couple invited Pastor Bob to dinner. After praying, he asked, “Where’s the main dish?” They replied, “We’re waiting for God to provide like you say in your sermon!

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“Nature is but a name for an effect whose cause is God!”