And the Results of the Election Are . . . [34:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 [+/-]1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 [2]We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, [3]remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. [4]For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, [5]because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. [6]And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, [7]so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. [8]For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. [9]For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, [10]and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (ESV)

One of the chief characteristics in the life of every legitimate child of God is growth in Christlikeness in our character and our conduct that is rooted in our convictions and commitments that are being changed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. Growth produced by change is an unending constant in the life of every true believer. Every person who has ever come or will ever come into a right relationship with God through the surrender of life to the Lordship of Jesus always begins the same way. We are babies. All that we know at the beginning is that God has done a work of grace in our lives and changed us from living for ourselves in wanting our own way toward living for His glory and wanting His will to be done. All we know at the beginning is that something has happened inside us that has made a change us in relationship to the person of God, we want to love and serve Him; in relationship to the proclamation of God in His Word, we want to learn it and live it and in relationship to the people of God as we want to join with them in the praise of God and in the living out of His purpose in the world. We are just babies who are hungry and thirsty for the milk of the word and the manifestations of the Master in and to and through our lives. And from the moment that we are born into the family of God by faith, there is a constant that does not cease: we are being changed into the likeness of Christ by the Spirit of God and through the Word of God.

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