Paul, together with Silas and Timothy sent greetings to the church a Thessalonica, Christians assembled by God the Father and the Master, Jesus Christ. God's amazing grace be with you! God's robust peace!
Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you're in our prayers
as we call to mind your work of faith, your labour of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father.
It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special.
When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions. You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you,
and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!--taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble. Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you?
The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master's Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don't even have to say anything anymore--you're the message!
People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the one true God. Father Son and Holy Spirit!
They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.Col 1 v 1-10. MSG
BORN FROM ABOVE:
Jesus said to Nicodemus "Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to - to God's Kingdom."
"How can anyone ," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't
re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?"
Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation - the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life - it's not
possible to enter God's Kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can't see and touch-
- the Spirit - and becomes a living spirit.
"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'Born from Above'- out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
Nicodemus asked Jesus, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"
Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully.
I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what
I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing second hand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the
evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you things you can't see, the things
of GOD? "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could
have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up - and everyone who looks up to Him, trusting and expectant , will gain a real life, eternal life.
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His One and Only Son. And this is why:
so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God
didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God.
Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure.
But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."
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Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you're in our prayers
as we call to mind your work of faith, your labour of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father.
It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special.
When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions. You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you,
and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!--taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble. Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you?
The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master's Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don't even have to say anything anymore--you're the message!
People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the one true God. Father Son and Holy Spirit!
They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.Col 1 v 1-10. MSG
BORN FROM ABOVE:
Jesus said to Nicodemus "Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to - to God's Kingdom."
"How can anyone ," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't
re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?"
Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation - the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life - it's not
possible to enter God's Kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can't see and touch-
- the Spirit - and becomes a living spirit.
"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'Born from Above'- out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
Nicodemus asked Jesus, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"
Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully.
I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what
I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing second hand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the
evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you things you can't see, the things
of GOD? "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could
have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up - and everyone who looks up to Him, trusting and expectant , will gain a real life, eternal life.
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His One and Only Son. And this is why:
so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God
didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God.
Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure.
But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."
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