9 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. 10 You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. 11 And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. 12 We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
do we work hard? are we a burden? do we treat everyone fairly?
he says they encouraged and urged them to live their lives in a way that God would consider worthy because they are called to share in the kingdom and the glory of the Lord... I wonder... when we speak are we encouraging people/children to do better? or are we condemning them for their actions? I think that is one of our greatest faults with our children is that rather than encouraging them we tend to tell them all that is wrong...
13 Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.
how many people do we know that don't really receive the message of God? I know for myself.. I knew God and received Him but on my own terms... I was unwilling to allow Him to change my life... till this past few years... and I can EASILY say that these years have been the happiest and most peaceful....
14 And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews. 15 For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity 16 as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.
isn't it odd that sometimes.. it is the very ones that proclaim God that persecute those who try to follow Him... I think we are mostly all guilty sometimes... yet we don't think we are... we decide when someone else is 'obsessed' with God.. or maybe we say they are chasing the church and not God... yet who are we... to think we can decide how someone else is to follow God? doesn't God speak to each of us individually?? so don't you think that maybe God just tells them something different than maybe He tells you? I think if all of us were to be serious about our own relationship with God and stop worrying about someone elses.. we may all be better off... God leads us all at the speed we are able to go
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