Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

Thessalonians – Living Forward

We just completed a mission with a group of middle school students of sending a high altitude balloon into space For weeks we worked on the details, struggled and problem solved while learning many lessons about life leading up this event. We had to wait for the winds of March to settle so we could launch. Waiting to launch, cancelling four times because of high winds, was a lesson in itself! It finally happened yesterday.

God was with us. The pictures from the four cameras on board are phenomenal. All I can do is thank God. I thank God because of the relationships built with not only the students, but with the teachers who dedicated themselves to the project with open minds for learning new things, attempting something that’s never been done before this day at their school.

As I read Paul’s letter to his friends, believers in God’s church who are learning and transforming to be and to do all that God intended for them to be and do, I am reminded of life’s daily challenges that will ALWAYS include struggle, problems, along with solutions, greater outcomes, lesson learned and success! God has a way of balancing the scales in this life. We cannot do that like HE does.

Jesus promised LIFE and more LIFE, but He also said there would be struggles, trouble and despair along with this abundant LIFE. He also promised to be with us. God, Emmanuel, WITH us. Amazing, isn’t it? Knowing and living forward, assured that God is with us makes all the difference in our struggles and successes. How and why? He is making us fit for His forever Kingdom. “May your Kingdom come, Your will be done” is a new way of life. Yes!

This living forward fills our hearts with gratitude! Paul is filled with thanks TO God FOR others. This passage is full of passionate hope, encouragement for others believers striving to live forward, in spite of trouble, with reasons to praise God! I praise God for you who read this. Please read God’s Word and be blessed! And be encouraged to be encouragers today!

2 Thessolonians 1, The Message

1-2 I, Paul, together with Silas and Timothy, greet the church of the Thessalonian Christians in the name of God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ. Our God gives you everything you need, makes you everything you’re to be.

Justice Is on the Way
3-4 You need to know, friends, that thanking God over and over for you is not only a pleasure; it’s a must. We have to do it. Your faith is growing phenomenally; your love for each other is developing wonderfully. Why, it’s only right that we give thanks. We’re so proud of you; you’re so steady and determined in your faith despite all the hard times that have come down on you. We tell everyone we meet in the churches all about you.

5-10 All this trouble is a clear sign that God has decided to make you fit for the kingdom. You’re suffering now, but justice is on the way. When the Master Jesus appears out of heaven in a blaze of fire with his strong angels, he’ll even up the score by settling accounts with those who gave you such a bad time. His coming will be the break we’ve been waiting for. Those who refuse to know God and refuse to obey the Message will pay for what they’ve done. Eternal exile from the presence of the Master and his splendid power is their sentence. But on that very same day when he comes, he will be exalted by his followers and celebrated by all who believe—and all because you believed what we told you.

Dear Heavenly Father, Your being with us makes all the difference in this life. I just want to stop and thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Blessed be the Name of the Lord! Help us to be all You intended for us to be…today.
In Jesus Name, Amen

Thessalonians – Living Forward…live Jesus’ way.

If you had a few last words to tell your family before you passed on from this life to the next, what would you say? When you close your letters, emails or messages of communication to those you might not see again, what would you say? If you truly love them, what God’s best for them, you would probably say what Paul said to the believers in Thessalonica. This passage is a blessing of encouragement with ways to live Jesus, His way, with unconditional love as a never ending circle that delivers peace and joy no matter what our circumstances might be. Take joy in reading and rereading from someone who really cares, who points us to live Jesus!

1 Thessalonians 5, The Message
The Way He Wants You to Live

12-13 And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!

13-15 Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.

16-18 Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

19-22 Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.

23-24 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!

25-27 Friends, keep up your prayers for us. Greet all the followers of Jesus there with a holy embrace. And make sure this letter gets read to all the brothers and sisters. Don’t leave anyone out.

28 The amazing grace of Jesus Christ be with you!

Reflection:
–Am I living Jesus, in His ways? How?
–Do I embrace the stragglers with patience and love?
–Am I cheerful, no matter what?
–Am I grieving the Holy Spirit by ignoring His promptings to me?
–Am I allowing God to transform me? To keep me fit for His company and coming?
–Am I praying God’s blessings on others? Am I leaving anyone out of those prayers?

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for Your salvation and Your grace that makes us holy before you. Transform me. Change me. Make me into all You intended for me to be. I’m Yours. Help me not to worry about others so much but leave them in Your hands. May Your Holy Spirit guide me, tell me when to speak and when to be silent. When it’s time to speak, Lord, give me Your Words. I want to live You. In Jesus Name, Amen.

And I’m singing…
Living for Jesus, a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.

O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne;
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.

Thessalonians – Living Forward

According to psychology studies, we humans have an innate need to belong. We have a great tendency to be and do what others want us to be and do for the primary reason of not wanting to be left out…or left behind. If we could look past others and first, look up to the One who loves us so much He died, defeated death and is now preparing a forever home in heaven for us and live to please Him…we will never be left out orleft behind. Here is the promise…