t 3

hi guys..it is finally tomorrow!

verse 14 stuck out to me today. It says that if someone does not follow the teachings in this letter, leave him out of the group, but do not regard to him as an enemy but warn him as a brother. That is just really powerful to me, i think that shame is a powerful force because it sticks with you and not go away, like physical pain. We can use this type of "punishment" to fix one another in our ministry, I think we can help and encourage others to get rid of their issues and problems, but that is only if they refuse to get rid of it. I really like how Paul words the final parts of this verse, do not regard him as an enemy but warn him as a brother, even if we do this to someone we still need to let them know that we are their to support, care and love them.

tomorrow!

Retreat tomorrow!!!

Thessalonians 3

1. Verse 5: May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance.

We always hear about adopting Christ-like love, but I like how Paul writes about adopting Christ's perseverance, because I think that's a huuuge part of being Christian. If you think about it, Christ dealt with soooo much crap while he was here on earth, and imagine how that must have felt like? He full well knew that he was 100% man but also 100% GOD, and to have these regular humans that are so much less than him treat him like such dirt sometimes...and not once did he react out of Godlessness. So this reminds me to not only call upon his love, but for his perseverance, as well, to navigate through this bad world.


2. "If a man will not work, he shall not eat..." and "Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother."

This kinda fell into place a little oddly for me, but as I read this part, I thought about the opportunities that this retreat will present. As leaders, this is our opportunity to work our butts off to make this an amazing experience for the rest of the ministry, so let's remain committed to it! Signing up to take on a leadership position isn't for the title but to see our youth grow, and that doesn't come easily - we need to work hard for it. So this retreat, let's be realllly enthusiastic about putting our all into it.

In her email, Suj reminded us how we should spend most of our time with our fellow church members and to try twice as hard to make them feel welcome. Let's stay committed to that. And as Paul writes, if any one of us is falling out of the line, let's not think bad thoughts or anything, but out of love, encourage them as a brother or sister.

SEE YOU GUYS TOMORROW.

mmmm, egg water.....

- H

"May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance."
I really liked this verse because the writers really emphasized the most significant quality in God and Jesus- love and perseverance. I think it's safe to say that we will never be able to really comprehend the unconditional love that God has for each one of us since He loves even the most sinful of us. Once we see how imperfect we are and understand that God loves us as imperfect people, hopefully, we can get one step closer to loving one another just because everyone was formed by God. When you think about God forming each of us with a purpose, it's kind of interesting; seeing that God formed culprits with a purpose can even be confusing at times. Now, Jesus was a human being like the rest of us, and yet He persevered in His faith and love like none other. He lived a holy life, trying to send the message to everyone else that the "worldly" life is not as precious as the eternal life in heaven. Even with the temptations in our lives, if we remember Jesus and recollect His life on earth, we can all see that it is possible to resist those temptations.

"Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother."
I was a little frustrated because Paul, Silas and Timothy kept on saying that one should not associate him/herself with people who did not have faith in God and continued to live sinful lives. I always believed that one should try to help those people and inform them about believing in God and being able to transform one's life to that which pleases God. Being close to a sinful person was not a bad thing, in my perspective. Then, I read this verse and understood at what Paul, Silas and Timothy were getting- that one should not learn or encourage the faithless person, but advise and work with him with love, not hate.

Sorry for the lateness

R..E..T..R..E..A..T tomorrow BOO YAHH

Man I really liked Thessalonians everyone is really close to each other. Paul was miles away, but he was still able to communicate and encourage us even thought he wasn't physically there with them, lol I guess Roh is going to become like Paul in a way.

It is already emphasized like crazy but Pray. Prayer can do so much, and we should never forget to pray for each other, especially when we go out there and play. Like we do every Sunday, to me it will feel weird to play without praying, because it became such a integral part to ready yourself to God.

Also, you have to be careful with who you mingle with. There are so many religions out here and their going on preaching too, even more than Christianity. I guess that's why the word is so powerful, because how do you tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong? You need to support what you believe in, and not run around in blind faith

k c ya guys tomorrow

RETREAT TOMORROW

"5 May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ."
Patient Endurance. I love this line. A lot of the time when we try to get a "full understanding" of God we get to excited and read tooooo fast. Sometimes its the little things that mean the most. Like when i read proverbs, i read one line, no matter how unrelatable, and try to get something out of it.

" 16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all."
Comparing this ending to the other letters, its short, but has so much power in it. If you truly believe in God, then wouldnt you believe in the power of prayer? Sam says that a lot and i think its important.

ahaha wooww i wrote this but forgot to send it for like an hour...

-Isaac

MARCH BREAKKK WOOT WOOT!
except i realized that i still have to go to hmrm tmrw, but whatever its tok and i love that class
and RETREAT TMRWWW! im actually so pumped. now that schools over its really sinking in that our retreat LOOMSSSSS ON US
yeye

sorry this devo is very past the 6pm mark. i just got home from losing like 50000 games of mario minigames.. ahha and then went out for starbucks with my chrstian friend. but OHMYGOSH HER MOM IS PROPHETIC! ITS CRAZYY
she predicted 9/11 before it happened: God told her that there was evil coming and she saw a big tower of light and two dark things that crashed into the sunday before it happened and ohmygosh im just so like. WOWWWW i think its the coolest thing ever. i wish i was prophetic. i should ask God

2Thessalonians:
"Pray first that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you."
I don't know. today i had a real heart-to-heart with my friend about our spiritual lives and we were just talking about how much our lives have changed becuase of God and how much he's really done for us, spoken to us, been with us and forgiven us no matter how many times we've messed up.. And then we started thinking about practically everyone else in our school that didn't have the same relationship with God that we have and it broke our hearts to know that theyve never experienced God's love.. And even though it can be so incredibly awkward to evangelize and bring it up in friendships we agreed that it was totally worth it. Everyone out there deserves and is called to have an intimate relationship with God - and we are God's instruments to help them get there; so let's embrace it and be fearless! I think ill bring some friends to church soon. Apparently Mimi is interested again and I am thoroughly pleased:)

"Whoever does not work should not eat"
Hahha I thought this verse was sorta funny at first. But then i thought about what it meant in our lives.. Paul said that we shoudlnt be living in idleness or dependency on others. And this reminded that we should really be hardworking people. Being Christians, we trust in God and sometimes we trust in the charity of others.. Which is a good thing, until people start using it as an excuse to be lazy or relying on others or God to the point of justifying their own lack of hardwork. Just becuase God provides doesnt mean that we can slack off and be complete tools in society. We still need to put in work, effort, committment intot he things that we do! If anything we should be doing it the most, becuase it is not only a way of feeding ourselves and contributing to society, but it humbles us, and teaches us important values like commitment. So do your homework everyone! Don't skip tomorrow like Cathy Pak

I'll see you all tomorrow!
I am PUMPEEDDDDDDD!

Hey guys sry for posting my devo late today, wont happen again...anyways this is what i learned for todays devotion...

But the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one, we have confident in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.

So in this passage, i really opened my heart. That God is there to strengthen us, and meaning my using our hearts to fight against satan and the evil. It also talks about faithfulness. God is telling us to have faith because having faith is defending our hearts from evil. Having faith in us is also telling us that we truly believe that the Lord is their to protect us. So the Lord is telling us not to worry and to stand up with your heart. Satan wants to see us fall apart and be week, but we must stay strong and win against him. So have God in your sides, and he will strengthen your heart.

Mow may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

This verse also touched my heart. God is there for us. He sent his down to earth to die on the cross for our sins. And that brought grace and peace in this world and also in are minds. Lord Jesus christ loves us so much and he will always.

AMEN....

cya guys tomorrow....have a good one

excited? ahaha
gobble gobble gobble, we should flap around liek turkeys.

Yes Pateince and Endurance, i learned alot just by reading all yoru devos.
Allan i got what you got, PRAYER.
Remembver it's prayer that enables us to coomunicate to God, it's prayer that lets God know that we need him.
Prayer and EFFORT of believeing, lets pray that miracles will happen at this retreat! Pray and believe guys
Faith is all you neeed. ahahahha
Get hyped, and drink alot of orange juice.

have fun a the retreat tmr guys, and ROCK IT! =]
I got yous backs all the way from TO xD
Math test tomorrow... i'm praying to God that there aren't any surprises x.x

In this Chapter Paul urges everyone to earn their share of living by working and not idling.
This made me realize that I'm guilty of being idle most of the time.
For instance, I waste a lot of time thinking about doing something instead of wasting my time putting it into action.
If I look back on all these times when I did that, I think about how much more experience I could've had doing stupid things than to just think about doing them.
It's easier to learn from mistakes when they actually happen in front of your eyes and affect you.
Also, I want to be hard working in terms of faith and showing God's grace to others as well.
I'll try my best not to turn a blind-eye to people in need of help, and when I do help them I'll do the best job I can.
That's what I took away from this Chapter
see you guys on Sunday =]