Trekking through the Scriptures is an adventure. Feel free to comment here, or email me personally.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

1 Thessalonians 4:7-8



                God’s calling is not necessarily like a telegram that tells me what I get to do in my little world.  Nor is it simply an invitation.  As John Piper says, it is an act of creation!
“…when God looked forward into history from His standpoint in eternity he did not see free people using powers of self-determination to believe; he saw people enslaved to sin and spiritually dead, whose only hope was that the sovereign call of God would create the faith he commands.”[1]
 We are not called to uncleanness, though our will can choose to go toward uncleanness.  But in His holiness, God’s created call is holy, beckoning our spirit to lead the rest of our body to follow toward holiness.
                The person who rejects this holy calling is rejecting the very source of faith, and ultimately the giver of life.  This is pretty serious stuff to consider when sin presents its alluring temptations.  How might we respond if it were phrased to us this way:  “Come away dear one to my uncleanness.  You will find sickness, decay and death both for your body and your soul.”?
                The context of 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 reveals that this is not referring merely to a one-time conversion experience.  It is referring to our daily experience of walking with God in the world.  It is not just about a one-time blatant rejection of the gospel, but it is about receiving or rejecting God’s call to us to choose life—daily! 
Our relationship with God is to be a dynamic, daily experience moving us toward His holiness.  It is a cooperative experience wherein He calls, we respond, He calls, we respond, He calls, we respond…
May we each understand that today is another opportunity to surrender the thoughts and intents of our hearts which lead us away from God.  Today is another opportunity to receive His holy call which beckons us toward His holiness, and enables us to daily live more and more in His holiness.
Read and Pray:  Deuteronomy 30:19-20a, Proverbs 13:14, Isaiah 42:5-9



[1] Piper, John, Future Grace, (Multnomah Publishers, Oregon, 1995), p.128