Tag Archives: 2 thessalonians

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread  – Our Daily Bread — His Choice

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God from the beginning chose you for salvation. —2 Thessalonians 2:13

 

Read: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
Bible in a Year: Numbers 12-14; Mark 5:21-43

When our children were small, I often prayed with them after we tucked them into bed. But before I prayed, I sometimes would sit on the edge of the bed and talk with them. I remember telling our daughter Libby, “If I could line up all the 4-year-old girls in the world, I would walk down the line looking for you. After going through the entire line, I would choose you to be my daughter.” That always put a big smile on Libby’s face because she knew she was special.

If that was a smile-worthy moment for her, think of the grace-filled fact that the Creator-God of the universe “from the beginning chose you for salvation” (2 Thess. 2:13). Before time began, He desired to make you His own. This is why Scripture often uses the picture of adoption to communicate the amazing reality that, through no merit or worthiness of our own, we have been chosen by Him.

This is stunning news! We are “beloved by the Lord” (v.13) and enjoy the benefits of being part of His family. This glorious truth should fill our lives with humility and gratitude. “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us . . . establish you in every good word and work” (vv.16-17). —Joe Stowell

I will be forever grateful that I am Your child,
Father, and that You love me! Teach me to remember
all the benefits of belonging to You, and may I
serve You faithfully as part of Your family.

It’s God’s choice to love you and to make you part of His family.
Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – A lecture for little-faith

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“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.” 2 Thessalonians 1:3

Suggested Further Reading: Matthew 17:14-21

When faith commences in the soul it is simply looking unto Jesus, and perhaps even then there are so many clouds of doubts, and so much dimness of the eye, that we have need for the light of the Spirit to shine upon the cross before we are able even so much as to see it. When faith grows a little, it rises from looking to Christ to coming to Christ. He who stood afar off and looked to the cross, by-and-by plucks up courage, and getting heart to himself, he runneth up to the cross; or perhaps he doth not run, but hath to be drawn before he can so much as creep thither, and even then it is with a limping gait that he draweth nigh to Christ the Saviour. But that done, faith goeth a little farther: it layeth hold on Christ; it begins to see him in his excellency, and appropriates him in some degree, conceives him to be a real Christ and a real Saviour, and is convinced of his suitability. And when it hath done as much as that, it goeth further; it leaneth on Christ; it leaneth on its Beloved; casteth all the burden of its cares, sorrows, and griefs upon that blessed shoulder, and permitteth all its sins to be swallowed up in the great red sea of the Saviour’s blood. And faith can then go further still; for having seen and run towards him, and laid hold upon him, and having leaned upon him, faith in the next place puts in a humble, but a sure and certain claim to all that Christ is and all that he has wrought; and then, trusting alone in this, appropriating all this to itself, faith mounteth to full assurance; and out of heaven there is no state more rapturous and blessed.

For meditation: How would you describe the state of your faith? Do you want to grow in faith (Luke 17:5)?

Sermon no. 205

18 July (1858)

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Greg Laurie – We Win in the End

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And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast–miracles that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. —Revelation 19:20

Years ago historian Arnold Toynbee said, “By forcing on mankind more and more lethal weapons and at the same time making the whole world more and more interdependent economically, technology has brought mankind to such a degree of distress that we are ripe for deifying any new Caesar who might succeed in giving the world unity and peace.”

Toynbee’s statement fits the biblical scenario. The deifying of a “new Caesar” will take place in the future. And things are ripe for such a man to emerge on the world stage. This coming world leader will do what no other man has ever been able to do before: bring global peace. He will be so successful that he will be hailed as the greatest peacemaker who has ever lived. But behind that will be the most evil man who has ever walked this earth.

Why give even a passing thought to the Antichrist? One reason would be that more than 100 passages in Scripture detail the origin, nationality, career, character, kingdom, and final doom of the Antichrist. He is discussed in-depth in the books of Revelation and Daniel. He is also referenced in 2 Thessalonians and in 1 John. The sheer volume of information in Scripture about the Antichrist is enough for us to want to understand who he is and what he will do.

But I think there is another reason we should know about the Antichrist. As we read Scripture and see him reigning, as we see evil predominant in the culture, it could almost look as though things will end for the worst. But as we continue to read the narrative as given to us in Revelation, we see the Antichrist defeated. We see that evil is overcome. And we are reminded that we win in the end.