Remember

Friday, December 1, 2017

Daily Reading

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

Zechariah 14:1-9

***1 Thessalonians 4:1-18

Field Notes
I will forego paraphrasing the text from Thessalonians. Eugene Peterson has done a fine job. As you read from the Message, think how, really, not much has changed. We are human, after all!

***”One final word, friends. We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. 4-5 Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God.
6-7 Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God’s concerns, and he will take care of them. We’ve warned you about this before. God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside. 8 If you disregard this advice, you’re not offending your neighbors; you’re rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.
9-10 Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don’t need me to tell you what to do. You’re God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! You’re already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it.
11-12 Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You’ve heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurts. We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.

Questions for the Field

• What has God taught you about healthy, holy relationships?
• Where in the text did you find a reminder for your life that was needed today? What do you plan to do?

Family Field Talk

• How are we caring for one another in the ways Jesus’ teaches? Where is there room to grow?

Prayer
Lord, help us to live in your love; help us to carry that love to neighbors and strangers alike. Help us to know ourselves as your ‘beloved’. Amen.