No text available.
No text available.
Paul is writing to the Thessalonian Christians asking them and urging them to excel even more in living a life that is pleasing to God. Paul does not want these Christians to become spiritually stagnant. Paul does not want these Christians to experience a spiritual regression. He urges them to grow and to keep on growing. Paul did not write to these Christians to discourage those who were striving to please the Lord in their lives. Rather, Paul wrote to warning them about letting up in their spiritual progress. He did not want their intensity for the love of the Lord to wane. He did not want them to become lukewarm or lose the love that they presently have. So it is important to hear what Paul is trying to do for these Christians and for us. Satan is trying to destroy us and destroy our faith. One of the ways he tries to destroy our faith is by tempting us to not continue to strive to be pleasing to the Lord. We are called to grow. We are called to more. Open your copies of God’s word to 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 and we are going to see how Paul is calling us for more holiness…
To read more of this lesson click here.
We are in Romans 8 where Paul is teaching us how we can have the good life, the transformed life, because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (cf. Romans 8:1). We have been set free from the law of sin and death and have been enabled to obey Christ. We noticed in our last lesson that the first step is a change in the mind. We must change the way we think. We must change what we value in life. Paul said that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit (cf. Romans 8:5). The struggle with sin reveals that there are areas in our lives that we value more than the things of God. Now the apostle Paul is going to further motivate this change of thinking in our lives by showing us what we have in Christ. Open your copies of God’s word to Romans 8 and we are going to spend our time in verses 12-17…
To read more of this lesson click here.
There has never been a sport in which a successful athlete has ever said that he or she does not need to practice any longer. Michael Jordan is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Yet he did not proclaim that he is such a great player that he did not need to practice. His desire for success continued to propel him to practice more and more. This is true not only for great athletes but also for any work or effort. Whether we are talking about music and entertainment or about education or career, no one can remain successful if they stop working at their craft. Yet one of the dangers of the Christian life is becoming content with our current level of faithfulness. It is easy to think that since we have hit particular levels of faithfulness or spiritual maturity that we can be content with that level…
To read more of this lesson click here.