How wonderful that we can keep eating the healthy food together! Today we come to message 14, “Encouragement For Faith, Love and Hope”. Wonderful.
Don’t forget to read the verses for the messages. For this message they are 1 Thes. 3:1-13.
The sections of this message are:
I. ESTABLISHING AND ENCOURAGING
II. TWO ASPECTS OF FAITH
III. PAUL’S CONCERN
IV. ENCOURAGED THROUGH THE BELIEVERS’ FAITH
V. PERFECTING WHAT IS LACKING
VI. AN EMPHASIS ON LOVE
VII. HEARTS ESTABLISHED BLAMELESS IN HOLINESS
VIII. WORKING WITH THE NEW BELIEVERS
Keep reading saints!
1 Thes 3:3 says ”That no one would be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed for this.”
I enjoyed footnote 1 ”If we are established in the faith, afflictions will work out for our good according to God’s purpose in His appointment. Otherwise, we may be shaken by the tempter through the afflictions.”
I also enjoyed that our ability to believe depends on our seeing, on our view. During the time we have been in the recovery, our view concerning Christ and God’s economy has been broadened. Since our view has been broadened, our objective faith has increased. This results in an increased ability to believe.
Lord thank you for your faith, love and hope in us!
I received much help from this message. Brother Lee shared that along with fostering, this life needs to be established firstly in faith, then love and hope. Paul in chapter 3 was concerned for these new believers’s faith by his sending of Timothy. Our ability to believe(subjective faith) depends on our seeing, on our view of and in the things we believe(objective faith). The more of the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ we see, the more our ability to believe is increased. This is our need. Then we will be established and not shaken from the faith(v.3).
Praise the Lord! Praise the the Lord’s recovery and the abundance of the Ministry to supply us with the flowing of water of life!
Today I enjoyed the part of two aspects of faith so much,”Subjective faith does not happen once for all. On the contrary, from the time we began to believe, the action of believing has been going within us, for Christian life is a life of faith, a life of believing. Day by day we are living a believing life. We don’t live according to what we see, we live according to what we believe. As paul says, “we walk by faith, not by apprearance(2 Cor. 5:7) Our walk is by faith, not by sight” Our living is absoultely a life of believing.” Amen! Hallelujah~
Instead of fellow-worker, some manuscripts read “minister of God.” The minister of God is God’s fellow-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1). What a privilege! What a blessing!
This may have not been the focus of this msg but I LOVE this!!!! What a PRIVILEGE! What a BLESSING! Saints, we need to have this heart and realization! This is so wonderful!
“Because now we live if you stand firm in the Lord.” (1 Thes. 3:8) The believers’ firm standing in the Lord ministers life to the apostles… If the young believers you are working with stand firm in the Lord, that standing will certainly minister the life supply to you.
Yesterday, I began to do my reading with my sister who is in a different time zone (4 hours ahead). I believe that we never read the ministry together before, so I got really excited when she asked me to do the remaining messages together. I get to my work early and call her to read early in the morning while she is at home getting ready for lunch there. It is just so normal, sweet, and encouraging that we can pursue the Lord together!! Certainly we live if our brothers and sisters stand in the Lord.
Amen! That is so wonderful!
In the meetings of the church and of the ministry, it is as if we are all watching a heavenly television to see more of God’s economy. The more we see this heavenly television, the more we believe. We spontaneously believe in what we see. Therefore, we come away from meetings full of the ability to believe. The meetings of the church and the ministry enlarge our capacity to believe.
A good Christian worker is a person who continually infuses others with the divine view, helping them to see the marvelous scenes on the heavenly television and to be impressed by them. When the heavenly view is conveyed into us, transmitted into us, we have the ability to believe. By believing we are connected to a divine transmission. This transmission is the flowing of heavenly electricity. By believing we “switch on” to this flow.
Saints, may all our meetings and ministry be a heavenly television and may we be those who infuse others with this divine view. What a word, praise you Lord. Lord Jesus we love You.
Oh Lord Jesus! May “…we see the structure, origin, fostering, and establishment of a holy life for the church life, [so] we shall have a direction in our work with new believers”! Thank you Lord, for these messages!
Today I am enjoying the most:
“Paul’s way to take care of new believers is very different from that followed by many Christians today. His way is to show the new believers that they have been regenerated of God the Father and brought into an organic union with the Lord Jesus Christ and thereby have the structure of a holy life.
A holy life is a life entirely separated unto God, sanctified. To live a holy life is to have a life absolutely for God, by God, with God, and in God. This holy life is for the church life.
As real Christians, we all have this kind of life within us. Now we need to live it. This life has a structure composed of faith, love, and hope. Our work with new believers should foster this life; it should nourish and cherish it so that it may grow.
Moreover, we must learn how to establish, strengthen, and encourage this life in its structure of faith, love, and hope.”
Lord we Praise You that You gave us holy life.
Lord Jesus train us more how to live holy life and how help others to live such a life for the church life.
The more we watch the heavenly television and listen to the heavenly music the more our faith is established and the more the Church will live as a whole and become a masterpiece . We must take the responsibility to let it crystallize into our being so we will not be flooded and driven a way. In the past few weeks my faith is already strengthened in a steady and progressive way. Praise the Lord for this. May the power of resurrection also work in us as it did in Paul and establish the young believers in a fostering care like he did and fill up in what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for His body.
Faith is both objective and subjective. In order for our faith to be perfected, we need to see more about God’s economy and Christ (objective faith), and we also need more believing ability (subjective faith) infused into us.
Hallelujah! Our living is a life of believing. When we see a revelation of Christ, we can’t help but believe into Him! We need the Lord to open our eyes to see more of God’s eternal economy that our subjective and objective faith would grow and increase in us! Oh Lord, don’t let us lose sight of Your economy but continue day by day to reveal more of Your economy to us and increase our believing!
After listening to brother Chris Wilde’s sharing on the best way to read the life-studies, I was really looking to the Lord to see what is the burden in message 14 of this life-study… – I don’t know whether I got it or not, but I was impressed with Paul’s pattern of working with the new believers. He cared for the believers and wanted them to know that they are in an organic union with the Lord and here, in this organic union, they have the structure of the holy life for the church life! It is in the organic union with the Lord that we can live a holy life in our Christian life for the church life!
Hallelujah, we have this kind of life within us – we just need to live it out! And if we don’t really see that we have it, when our faith is weak, we need to be under the hearing of the Word of God so that the objective faith would generate in us the subjective faith! When we see the contents of God’s NT Economy, wow, something in us rises up to believe – this is the subjective faith! We see – we believe! This believing then flows out in love, and we live a life full of hope, focusing on the Lord’s coming back and not on our life on earth. O, Lord, keep us under the hearing of the Word!
“If we are established in the faith, afflictions will do good to us (Rom. 8:28) according to God’s purpose in His appointment. Otherwise, we may be shaken by the tempter (1 Thes. 3:5) through the afflictions. The Greek word rendered “appointed” also means destined, set, located. God has destined, appointed, us to pass through afflictions. Hence, afflictions are God’s allotted portion to us, and He has set us, located us, in the situation of afflictions.”
“As real Christians, we all have this kind of life within us. Now we need to live it. This life has a structure composed of faith, love, and hope. Our work with new believers should foster this life; it should nourish and cherish it so that it may grow. Moreover, we must learn how to establish, strengthen, and encourage this life in its structure of faith, love, and hope.
Faith is a matter of seeing a view of the contents of God’s New Testament economy. Once we have the view, we shall believe in what we see. This faith is the foundation of our Christian life. Out of our faith love will flow forth. In the church life we are living a life of love. We should love everyone: those believers who meet with us and those who do not and also the unbelievers. This love is the issue of our faith. Furthermore, we shall then have a life that is full of hope. We are living for Christ, we are expressing Him, and we are even His Body. As we wait for His coming back, we are filled with hope. Our hope, destiny, and destination are not on this earth. They are altogether focused on the coming back of the Lord Jesus.”
“Oh may a clear controlling vision of the Lord’s economy direct my heart”!
It’s true! We need this vision! This vision, the objective faith, produces the subjective faith within us. How we need to hold on to this vision so that we would not be shaken when afflictions come.
A couple of years ago I was shaken by afflictions. How horrible it is that it is possible for us to lose the subjective ability to believe! We don’t want this to happen to ourselves or our new ones. We need to help others to be established in faith. When we encounter the young ones, let’s be ones who continually infuse them with the divine television so that the faith in them would increase.
May our faith always increase and never decrease – May our eyes always be on God’s economy. I also enjoyed something of that such a God ordained way is in the word and is brought out through the structure, origin, fostering, and establishment of a holy life for the church life.
When Paul wrote the book of 1 Thessalonians, the believers at Thessalonica probably had been Christians for less than a year. To be sure, they needed to see much more concerning the contents of God’s economy. Likewise, even many of us who have been in the recovery for years may still be lacking in our view of the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ as the content of God’s economy. This means that we still have a lack in the objective faith. Having such a lack in the objective faith, we also have a shortage in subjective faith. Because our seeing is limited, our believing ability is also limited.
Our ability to believe depends on our seeing, on our view. During the time we have been in the recovery, our view concerning Christ and God’s economy has been broadened. Since our view has been broadened, our objective faith has increased. This results in an increased ability to believe.Many Christians do not have a proper Christian life. Furthermore, they do not have any idea concerning the church life. Many do not even know what it means to live a holy life. A holy life is a life entirely separated unto God, sanctified. To live a holy life is to have a life absolutely for God, by God, with God, and in God. This holy life is for the church life. The holy life for the church life is what Paul is covering in this Epistle addressed to new believers.
Faith is the foundation, love the building and hope is the top stone. If our objective faith is not clear, and we see not Gods economy, we wont be able to love and hope, or cary on in the church life. For any young believer it is crutial to be able to grasp this, and if we are wondering off away from the church life we should ask ourselves and pray to be able to see Gods vision again in order to fan the flame for our faith to be streangtened, in Him, in the church life
We must be concerned with fostering the faith of the new believers and for those who are not meeting. We need to foster the increase of their faith. Our work should foster this life in them composed of faith, love and hope. Our destiny, our destination, our hope is The Lord.