Wasn’t that fellowship from brother Chris helpful? We need to pick up the burden in every message we read.
Today we have an opportunity to “practice these things” with message 15, “An Exhortation Concerning a Holy Life For the Church Life” which covers 1 Thes. 4:1-12.
The sections of this message are:
I. A WORD OF WARNING
II. SANCTIFICATION VERSUS FORNICATION
III. BROTHERLY LOVE
IV. A BECOMING WALK
V. CARING FOR THE NEW BELIEVERS
Lord, impart the burden of this message into us!
I was exposed and yet encouraged to be ambitious to be quiet. What a practical exortation. Amen.
“Those who are working with young people or with new believers can receive from this book both a direction and outline to follow.” I’m very thankful for this timely word. Lord supply us and lead us in each time with the young people and new believers to follow Your direction. I just pray that I would not express myself (very easy for me to do) and just the Lord in our time with the new believers and young people. Thank you Lord for these messages! How I need them!
I believe that if we desire to love the Lord, to live Him, to walk according to His heart, deep within we shall sense something requiring us to be normal and becoming in all we do. In the way we drive, in the way we wear our hair, in the clothes we wear, and in all other things, we shall want to be becoming.
Oh Lord we want to be those who are so normal in all that we do. May we seek Your sense in every practical thing that we do and be becoming ones for a proper testimony to those outside of the church.
Wooow! What a message!!!
I am impressed what kind of vision brother Poul had conserning the church which controled his care of the new saints.. The church life is a holy life. That’s why Paul injects an inoculation into the believers concerning the most serious germ that damages the church life, the germ of fornication.
The church life is damaged the most by fornication, then by jealousy, and after that by busybodies.
Paul exhort the believers also regarding brotherly love… This emphasis on love indicates that love is a vital factor in the Christian life. According to Galatians 5:14 and Romans 13:10, love is the fulfillment of the law. If we love others, certainly we shall not commit fornication, steal, or lie.
May the Lord grant us a sanctified living and a becoming walk that we can be a real pattern to the young ones!
The epistles to the Thessalonians were written to new believers, and thus contain practical help for them. Paul’s practical advice to the Thessalonians include taking care of our sanctification (fleeing fornication), participating in brotherly love (instead of jealousy), and being ambitious to be quiet (instead of being busybodies).
Hallelujah!! Praise the Lord ~ Praise the Ministry!
Today I read and listened to msg 15 of Life-Study! What a gorgeous it was. I appreciated both of them so much! Tonight I really got the burden of br. Witness Lee on 1 Thes. 4:1-12 The burden was Sanctification versus Fornication! O ~ Lord, Jesus I’m eager to be away from the situations and places which would lead me to Fornication. I’d like to run away from it just like Joseph in Genesis! Yes, we believers should take the same action against fornication. we should follow him in the excellent pattern. He was a terrific. As a result, He could sit on the governing position. If we’d like to in the will of God, we should be awaken to Fornication because it destroys our body as the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit operates and gives God’s nature into Us!! The Will of God is our Sanctification. So we should protect ourselves from all sorts of possible and suspicious situations that bring in miserable result! Br. Witness Lee was a good pattern to us. Now I’m going to read the related verses of Sanctification versus Fornication.
1 Thes. 4:4 “That each one of you know how to posses his own vessel in sanctification and honor,” We as humans are predestine to be the vessel to contain God, but fornication is the most devastating thing against the will of God. So we should posses our own vessel in sanctification and honor. Sanctification means that we are permeated and saturated with the Holy Spirit who indwells in us for the purpose of making us sanctified in our whole beings!
1 Thes. 4:8 says, “Consequently, he who rejects, rejects not man but God, who also gives His Holy Spirit to you.” Amen
According to today’s reading, I fully understand why apostle paul put an emphasis on fornication so strongly. Amen
Amen. Thank You, Lord, for this message!
Fornication is so common these days. Some young believers do not have a sense that this is a sin. They reason in their minds to justify themselves. This is such a delicate matter. Lord, lead us and guide us to how to lead the young ones and new believers! Even sanctify us! That we would abstain from any kind of fornication, and flee from anything that may lead to fornication.
Back in university, the saints who served us led us by example. Brothers who picked us up to the meetings, who are much older than us and are married, would never pick a young sister up alone, or would never be in a car alone with a sister. Neither would he enter a sisters’ house. To me, who was new and fresh into the church life, it was really something. That sowed an impression in me, which remained when I entered into work-life and when I spent time with my friends who were not believers.
Lord, sanctify us much more! That there would be no opportunity to lead to damage in the Body.
“Those who are too interested in others’ affairs should be ambitious to be quiet and attend to their own affairs. But those who do not care for others and who spend too much time on their own affairs should be encouraged to spend more time caring for others in a proper way. In this matter, because we were born with different dispositions, we all need to be balanced.
In verse 12 Paul charges us to walk becomingly. We should not walk in a way that is strange or peculiar. In the eyes of others, our walk should be very becoming.”
I received a lot of help and supply from this message! Lord, cause to realize that the Life in us is a sanctifying life! Lord, do deepen the flow of life in us, so that our life may be a proper expression of Your glory and may we learn to shepherd the new ones in the same way our brother Paul did.
The matters presented in 1 Thessalonians are so basic yet so important to every believer’s life. I was encouraged and helped to see that in chapter 4 Paul speaks about three specific matters – being sanctified (and keeping our vessel, our body, in sanctification – running away from fornication!), brotherly love (loving the brothers in a holy and proper way), and walking becomingly (not being peculiar or busybody, but learning to walk becomingly by loving the Lord and living unto Him).
Paul is such a pattern to us in caring for the young believers in the Lord! Yes, we need to feed the young believers, but more importantly we need to help them practically – help them live a holy life, love the brothers, and have a proper and becoming walk. I particularly enjoyed this portion,
“I believe that if we desire to love the Lord, to live Him, to walk according to His heart, deep within we shall sense something requiring us to be normal and becoming in all we do. In the way we drive, in the way we wear our hair, in the clothes we wear, and in all other things, we shall want to be becoming.”
Praise the Lord!
It’s very encouraging to see many saints getting the burden of this message – abstaining from fornication, with a strong & stern warning and exhortation concerning a holy life for the church life. We must be persons sanctified unto God wholly and absolutely, for God has not called us for uncleanness but in sanctification. Nothing ruins man in this regard more than fornication. Whenever someone becomes involved in fornication, he is contaminated, and his sanctification is annulled. Moreover, he loses honor before man. Not even unbelievers honor those who commit fornication. Therefore, we believers must know how to possess, keep, preserve, our own body in sanctification toward God and in honor before man.
This is very important! As the young working saints out there we must be fully sanctified in God and abstained from fornication. As we shepherd and nourish other young people and new believers we must present to them our livings as a testimony, and we also must be impressed with Paul’s word of warning. The age in which we live certainly is no better than the age in which Paul lived. Furthermore, the cities where we live today are not better than Corinth or Thessalonica. On the contrary, both the age and the cities may be worse. New believers and young people need to be preserved today, and we need to be perfect to care for them, namely, we need to take care of the matters of sanctification, brotherly love, and walking becomingly. Amen.
“God’s will is that His redeemed people, the believers in Christ, should live a life of holiness according to His holy nature, a life wholly separated unto Him from anything other than Him….According to Verse 5….not knowing God is the basic reason for indulgence in the passion of lust” I am saddened that so much looseness has crept in especially among our young people and has burdened me to pray much more for them. We need to take heed to this word.
This message was very exposing on this matter of fornication. We must realize that man was made to express God and nothing damages man more than fornication. We need to be saved from this wicked age by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Thank the Lord that He went through a process to become the Spirit. By His Spirit we are sanctified and separated to answer His call and fulfill His will!
Praise the Lord for God’s will! God’s will is to have us separated unto Himself , wholly sanctified for the fulfillment of His purpose. This requires that we abstain from fornication. Lord may your eternal will be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
Today young people like to be peculiar. Some think that the more peculiar they are, the better it is. By being peculiar they attract the attention of others. We, however, should conduct ourselves in a way that is normal, becoming, and ordinary. However, in so doing we are not following any code or regulations. I believe that if we desire to love the Lord, to live Him, to walk according to His heart, deep within we shall sense something requiring us to be normal and becoming in all we do. In the way we drive, in the way we wear our hair, in the clothes we wear, and in all other things, we shall want to be becoming.
Lord Jesus gain this in all your saints, this will surely be Your testimony.
For this is God’s will for us O saints, our sanctification, that we abstain from fornication 1 Thess 4:3. Nothing damages a person more than fornication. We were made to express God. We must flee outwardly and inwardly, just like Joseph did when he fled in such a strong way that even his clothes were torn. Praise The Lord for this healthy warning Saints!
I also enjoyed the audio message that goes with it, it’s #12 the link is below;
http://lsmradio.com/audio/1and2thessalonians.html
Grace Saints, God’s will for us is our sanctification that we abstain from fornication
The church life is damaged the most by fornication, then by jealousy, and after that by busybodies. A busybody wants to be everybody when actually he is nobody. Therefore, Paul charges the busybodies to be ambitious to be quiet. This means that they should have the ambition of calming themselves down. Certainly I would encourage the saints to have more fellowship. But those who are busybodies should be encouraged to be somewhat less active and to be more quiet. They should not seek to be the church information desk or be interested in knowing about others’ affairs. Instead, as Paul says, they should attend to their own affairs. Perhaps they should spend more time cleaning house or arranging their things. They should avoid the kind of busyness that damages the church life.
Those who are too interested in others’ affairs should be ambitious to be quiet and attend to their own affairs. But those who do not care for others and who spend too much time on their own affairs should be encouraged to spend more time caring for others in a proper way. In this matter, because we were born with different dispositions, we all need to be balanced.