Abound More and More- I Thessalonians 4:1

I Thessalonians 4:1
Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

George Müller said: "The primary business I must attend to every day is to fellowship with the Lord. The first concern is not how much I might serve the Lord, but how my inner man might be nourished. I may share the truth with the unconverted; I may try to encourage believers; I may relieve the distressed; or I may, in other ways seek to behave as a child of God; yet, not being happy in the Lord and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, may result in this work being done in a wrong spirit."

                I was reading this and it just shocked me when I started reading the beginning part of this quote.  I read, “The primary business I must attend to every day is to fellowship with the Lord.”  Oh I agreed with that!  Very true! I went on reading, “The first concern is not how much I might serve the Lord…” I stopped.  WHAT? That’s unbiblical!  Of course I need to serve the Lord as much and as often as possible!  What is he thinking? But I went on, “The first concern is not how much I might serve the Lord, BUT how my inner man might be nourish.”  Then it hit me.  Ohhhh! I can share the Gospel, I can say words of encouragement and be a blessing to others….but so can unbelievers.

Many people KNOW the plan of salvation, the right words to say, but do not believe or accept.  If I do not have a good standing with my Heavenly Father, I have not talked with Him, spent time learning about Him and what He wants for me, I will not be strong and all the works I do are in vain.

The last part of our verse says this: “…so that ye would abound more and more.”  This verse is telling us that we are beseeched and exhorted, or urged and begged, through their example of how to walk and please God, to abound more and more.  We cannot abound (or be rich and well supplied) if we are not taking time to learn about Him!  We need to spend time in the Word, absorbing all we can to better learn how to walk and conduct ourselves in a way that would better please, worship, and bring glory to Him.  In doing this, we will have a more abundant and full life and my relationship with God will be strong, and serving Him will come when I am walking with Him and doing as He asks.

Jeremiah 33:3

Jeremiah 33:3
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

God is full of power and greatness!  Just look around at His creation!  The soft clouds float by on a bright blue canvas; the shining diamonds are spread out so perfectly in the navy blue sky, each leaf on every tree placed by God Himself with only speaking a word.

We should not doubt the greatness of our God or the wonderful works of His wondrous hands.  After all, not a cloud goes by that God does not form and a leaf that does not fall without God’s knowledge of it.  Every star has been counted and named by God.  Psalm 147:4 “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”

Isaiah 40:26 “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringesth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.”

Isaiah 40:28 “Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.”

Our God indeed is great!!!  Sometimes, we just need to stop and be in awe of Him!  Just think, the Creator of all, the One who holds every drop of water in His hand, loves me!  He wants the best for me, He cares for me.  Dare I say “no” to Him?

He wants to show us “great and mighty things” but we must first call to Him!  He says that He WILL answer us, but we have to call to Him!  He desires to show us how He can work through us, He longs to bless us, He yearns to have fellowship with us, but we must FIRST call unto Him!

Moses, in Exodus chapter 33 calls out to God pleading to know Him.  Verse 13 says, “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now they way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.”  Moses was asking to be shown the way so that He may know Christ.  Verse 17 of the same chapter is God responding to Moses: “And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.”  God KNOWS us by name!!!

All the best that God wants for us is at our fingertips, all we have to do is call to Him and ask Him!  Do we not trust God enough?  We KNOW He is great, we KNOW He is powerful, we KNOW He wants what is best for us…but “knowing” gets us nowhere!  Do something about it and call to Him so that you can experience Him!

Do I really long to know God?  He longs to know me and spend time with me…He LOVES me.  But do I love Him enough to want to spend time with Him?  Do I have that burning desire to really KNOW God?  Call to Him, He will answer and show us great and mighty things.

Psalm 63:1-2 “Oh God, thou art my God: early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.”

Psalm 19:1

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

As I sit on this airplane on the way back to California…at a window seat on flight number 1417 with Southwest, I contemplate the sky.  I had been flying for about 2 ½ hours from North Carolina, stopped in Missouri and am now flying somewhere over anywhere between Missouri and Colorado.  The sky is a fiery red that blends into a deep orange, smooths out to a creamy yellow and stops at the dark shadowy grey clouds.  From the clouds, a mist of baby blue rises and eventually deepens to a navy blue spread.

The only thing I can think of is God’s mighty and powerful hand!  I think of His great love for me!  I am overwhelmed and in awe when I think that all God had to do was speak and everything is as He wants it to be.  I wonder how anyone could doubt God’s power, love, and care!  After seeing this beautiful sight, God is clearly seen!

I had the opportunity to witness to the man sitting next to me.  We talked about how Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect, sinless life, so He could die for my sins, resurrect from the dead and give me the hope of an eternal life with Him!  All that needs to be done is recognize my sinfulness (Romans 3:23- "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.") and recognize that Christ is the ONLY One who can cleanse me (Romans 6:23- "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.").  I must repent of my sins and ask Christ in faith to forgive me (Romans 10:9- "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.")!  He said He will! Romans 10:13- "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."  Knowing this, how can you say “no” to Him?

I am so grateful that 10 years and 5 months ago, on August 10^th, 2001, I repented of my sins and asked Christ to forgive me!  What a wonderful day when He washed my sins away!!!  I am just amazed at God’s goodness towards me!  Thank you Jesus for saving me! Thank you for your faithfulness, mercy, and love reflected in your creation where I can rejoice in it every day!

Psalm 23:1

Psalm 23:1
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Here is a well-known verse.  It is the one that begins the famous Psalm 23.

The first phrase states that the Lord is our shepherd.  If He is our shepherd, we must be the sheep.  That is pretty logical, I think.  Now if we are the sheep, let’s discover exactly what we are.

First of all, sheep are pretty unintelligent.  Sorry, but it’s true!  For sheep to learn a lesson, it takes quite times of pain for them to finally understand that they are only hurting themselves.  They are stubborn!  They stray everywhere.  They just aimlessly wander around and eat grass.  They follow each other for no apparent reason.  They are very dependent animals.  They constantly need someone who watches over them to make sure they do not get in trouble.  This “someone” is the shepherd.

We are exactly the same way.  We are stubborn; we go through much heartache to finally learn our lesson.  We follow each other around just because everyone else is doing it.  We are pretty dumb and cannot live on our own without getting into a lot of trouble.  This shows how dependent we are.  We, just like the sheep, need someone to constantly care for us.  This is our Savior Jesus Christ.  He is our Shepherd.  We are so dependent on Him, without Him we would be NOTHING!

This reminds me of the song entitled “Without Him”

Without Him I could do nothing,
Without Him I’d surely fail;
Without Him I would be drifting,
Like a ship without a sail

Without Him, I would be dying,
Without Him I’d be enslaved;
Without Him Life would be hopeless -
But with Jesus, Thank God I’m saved.

Jesus, O Jesus, Do you know Him today?
Do not turn Him away!
O Jesus, O Jesus, Without Him
How lost I would be...

                This song is so true!  Seeing how needy we would be without Him makes us realize, how much we depend on Him.  The last part of our verse says this: “I shall not want”.  This is saying that because God is our Shepherd, we are in need of nothing, we lack nothing!  Our Shepherd is all we need.  He is the only thing necessary for us to achieve completeness.  Oh how lost I would be without my Shepherd!!!

JESUS, YOU ARE ALL I NEED!!!

II Timothy 4:16-18

II Timothy 4:16-18:
16. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
17. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me: that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
18. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Timothy was abandoned.  Only Luke was with him.  Demas left him for love of this present world, Tychicus was sent to Ephesus, and Alexander the coppersmith had done “much evil”.  So Timothy was left alone.  He says in verse 16: “…no man stood with me, but all men forsook me…” He also prays that their works not be charged to them.  This shows the forgiveness of Timothy and how he realized that God is the one who has control of “payback” or discipline.  It is not our place to reward evil for evil.  It is God who decides how he wants people to be rewarded, either good or bad.

·         Do I wish evil upon those who have hurt me?  Or do I forgive and let God take care of the rest?

We also see Timothy’s faithfulness and commitment to the Lord.  Even though no one stood with him, he still stood strong and relied on the Lord for strength.  Many times we are left standing alone and on our own.  What we do in response to this is what shows what we really are.

·         Am I really faithful?  Am I really relying on God? Or do I do what the crowd does?  Do I really depend on Christ to sustain me?  Or do I let others dictate how tall or how long I stand?

Verse 17 shows God’s power to deliver.  The Lord stood with Timothy and strengthened him.  Why?  This so that Timothy could be used of God and that through him others could hear the preaching of the Gospel.  God delivered Timothy “out of the mouth of the lion”.  Verse 18 goes on to say that the Lord will deliver Timothy from every evil work.  “And the Lord SHALL deliver me from every evil work, and WILL preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom…”  Timothy not only had the knowledge that God CAN, but also the faith that God WILL deliver from every evil work and preserve him unto His heavenly kingdom.

·         Am I letting God stand by me and strengthen me so He can use me?  He WANTS to use me because He CAN and WILL if I let Him.  Am I rejecting and pushing Him away?  Or am I willing to let Him?

            The last phrase of verse 18 says the following: “to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  God is always to be given glory and honor.  There should always be worship directed towards God.  In every situation, whether we be accompanied or alone, happy or sad, in a good situation or having a hard time…God is ALWAYS worthy of our worship.  Whether we feel like it or not, God needs to be praised.  Our actions, attitudes, words and thoughts will do one of two things: praise, worship and please Him, or disrespect, disappoint and reject Him.

·         Am I worshipping Christ in all I do, whether I feel like it or not?  Do my actions, attitudes, words and thoughts please Him?

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