PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

There really is no doubt that Paul wanted to get back to Thessalonica as soon as he could, but he couldn’t.  So, he sent Timothy to check in on the church to see how they were doing.  Look at vs.6 where we read that Timothy just got back and gave a glowing report.  Not only is the church doing well, but here is a video of one of their worship services…  Okay, not quite, but pretty much right?  

It is interesting that Paul basically told the church that you know what you signed up for, right?  I told you that you were going to be persecuted, and sure enough you are living through that persecution.  But hey, it isn’t anything that we haven’t experienced.  He says it in the most loving and caring way possible.  In fact, since we don’t really know each other all that well, I sent someone along to check in on you just in case you were falling in your faith.  But you weren’t!  Praise be to God.

Focus for a moment on vs.12.  “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”  This is really the progression that we see we ought to take.  As a church we have to have love for each other, but that love can’t remain within the church.  It has to be love that we have for all.  That is fairly audacious of Paul to make that statement that we have to have love for all.  Not just our neighbor, not just the people we like, not just other members of the church, but all.  Focus on that for tonight and this week.  

This entire chapter seems to be an encouragement to this young community to keep doing what they are doing.  In Erica’s comment on yesterday’s Scripture, I wish there were a like button to be able to agree with what she said.  Wouldn’t it be great if our church were known as the heart of the borough, county, state, even nation in that what we do is seen as a magnet to bring people to a saving knowledge of Christ?  We can’t wait to see what God is going to do.  Here in chapter 2 Paul continues to point out positives within the community in Thessalonica that the congregation was doing.  

It is interesting, though, that Paul also feels the need to defend himself and to lay out his authority and his work as if he is reminding the Thessalonian community of his pedigree and his background.  He speaks of how they worked day and night so that they would not be a burden (read financial burden) to the community as they made their living.  He commends the community for the fact that they interpreted Paul’s words as words which came directly from God.  He commends the community for having taken on suffering in such a way that it was not a hindrance to the propagation of the Word of God.  

The entire chapter is an atta boy and atta girl as he underlines the fact that their faith is strong and that they basically just need to keep what they are doing and trust Paul and his leadership as they move forward into the future.  I love, love, love the last verse of this chapter.  Listen to it and take it to heart: “Yes, you are our glory and joy!”  Brothers and sisters, all you who are reading this hear and believe the good news of the Gospel: Yes, you are our glory and joy!  What an incredible witness and what an incredible legacy that can be ours.  Strive to live your life in such a way that people will call you their glory and joy.

This is the first of Paul’s letters in all of Scripture.  (Some would argue that Galatians is the first.  In fact, in my earlier blog I say as much.  I changed my mind, this one is earlier).  Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica was written around 51 AD so it would have been when most of Jesus’ disciples could still have been around.  Remember, Paul wrote most of the New Testament, so it is significant when we say this is his first letter.  You may have thought that Paul’s letters were arranged in chronological order.  No, that is not the case, if it were so then Romans would have been one of the first written.  Instead, we know that Romans was one of the last and written while Paul was in prison.

So what do we know about the Christian church in Thessalonica.  We know that Paul started the church.  Go ahead and read Acts 17:1-9.  We find there that for three weeks (three successive Sabbath days) Paul was arguing in the synagogue that Jesus was the messiah.  Can you imagine that?  Just think if for three successive Sundays we had someone come into our church and argue that this man who was killed as a state criminal was actually, in fact, the messiah.  I’m not sure we would give that person much time, nor should we.  But Paul persisted for three weeks.

Still in Acts 17:1-9 we read that some actually believed and followed Paul and that eventually Paul was kicked out of the city because he was accused of rebel rousing.  From there he left the city.  We don’t read that he ever returned again.  That is the setting of his work in Thessalonica and it is thought that he wrote his letter to them from Corinth shortly after his escape from their city.  You can look at Acts 18 and see that he goes to Corinth afterward.

So here is Paul writing to a fledgling community who only had a chance to hear from their founder for less than a month before he has to escape.  They are left in this city by themselves trying to figure out how they survive and how do they live this Christian life.  It is no surprise that Paul’s theme for this letter is the second coming of Jesus.  He tells them to hang on because Jesus is coming back.  A fancy term for this is eschatology.  Eschatology is the belief that Jesus is coming back.  The debate around eschatology is exactly when is Jesus coming back.  We simply don’t know, and Paul will tell us this later on.

Now to the meat of the first chapter.  It is important to know the background to the letter, but let’s look at the first chapter.  Paul begins with a normal greeting to the church.  Well, normal at least, for a church that he likes and of which he is proud.  Not like I Corinthians where he consistently chastises them for their way of life and their bad theology.  No, here instead, we read of: “your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Now that is a great healthy church.  But they need help, they are still trying to figure things out on their own.  

But he especially commends them for their witness and their willingness to reach out to others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that they would turn from their idols and follow the only one true God, Jesus Christ.  

My grandparents on my mother’s side were missionaries in what was the Belgian Congo.  They had some amazing stories of God’s love and God’s miracles in their work.  If you want to read more about their life my grandmother wrote a book and I can lend you a copy or you can pick one up at:

 https://www.amazon.com/Congo-kaleidoscope-Alice-Cobble-Henry/dp/B0006QW3F8

But one of the stories is about my grandfather who was sent to a village which had never had exposure to the Christian message.  He befriended the chief of the village and told him he would be back in about a year.  It was far away and there were many villages that my grandfather had to oversee.  The chief asked if he could send a missionary or someone else to help them and teach them while he was gone.  No, my grandfather said, there is no one.  But I will be back.  A year passed and my grandfather came back and the chief showed him the new church that they had built and asked if he had found someone to stay in the village to help them learn about Jesus better.  My grandfather said no, but he would be back in a year.  The chief turned to him and said, I hope I am still living, for if I do not live then I am not sure this village will believe your words about Jesus.  I believe, but without someone to teach us I am not sure they will continue to believe.  

A year later my grandfather returned.  The first thing he noticed was that the church was torn down and in its place were the village idols.  The chief had died.  The villagers allowed him to stay for one night but then made it clear that he was not welcome.  Every time my grandmother or my mother would tell that story they would have a hard time getting through it recognizing the potential that was lost because there are not enough workers in the field.

The people of Thessalonica were left on their own to try to fend for themselves theologically.  They survived.  

Dear FPC family and friends,

            We are well on our way to finishing together the entire Bible.  This next 90 Day Challenge will take us through the New Testament and give us a taste of the Old.  In this challenge we will be covering a book of the Bible that is the most intriguing, and confusing, for some people: Revelation.  If for no other reason than to see what we think as Reformed Christians about this book of the Bible, pick up this 90 Day Challenge III and get reading!

            We will begin the Challenge on August 20, which is a Sunday.  It should take us all the way through November 15 when we will be looking forward to eating turkey on Thanksgiving.  It seems so far away!  But those of you who are Challenge veterans know that once you start reading, the end of the time comes very soon.  It is a challenging portion of Scripture because it does contain some harsh and even caustic statements that Paul and other writers include in their thoughts.  Hopefully we will be able to put them within their right context without stripping away any of the authority which the Bible contains for our life.  Isn’t that part of what we do as we read the Bible?  We try to read it knowing that it was written thousands of years ago, and yet it applies to us completely today as well.  It is a balance that takes some prayer and request of guidance from the Holy Spirit.  But that is what life takes after all.

            Our Challenge this year will take us through the celebration of the 500^th Anniversary of the Reformation.  It is a time in history when people of faith rose up against an institutional attempt to control a population’s ability to have a direct relationship with our Savior.  For many that relationship begins with the reading of Scripture.  I hope and pray that as you join us on this Challenge that you will see yourself as someone who is walking in the footsteps of those who paved the way to allow you to read the Scripture.  Allow the Bible to change your life.  As you do, put yourself within the context of generations before you who sacrificed their lives and their way of life so that we can read the Bible and understand what it means to walk with Jesus. 

            Remember, follow along online with my daily blog at: http://www.straspres.org/90-day-challenge-iii.

            Happy reading!

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bob 

This was more my style growing up as a teenager.  Probably not the best way to end our 150 day challenge.  I should have something a bit more appropriate and serious.  But this is where we find ourselves.  We find ourselves at the end of 150 days that we agreed to read the psalms and contemplate what God’s message might be for each of us.  We end with a psalm which states simply: “Praise the Lord”.  It is a good ending.

I hope you have enjoyed these 150 days.  That brings us to the end of one 90 Day Challenge, and then another 90 Day Challenge, and now these 150 days.  We have been doing this for 330 days not in continuity, but over these past couple of years.  We will continue until we finish the entire Bible.  I look forward to our next 90 Day Challenge.  I pray that you have not only appreciated the discipline, but grown from it as well.

This is again a psalm of praise, but we do find ourselves in our nation, at least, on a day that needs to be mentioned.  We find ourselves on Memorial Day, a day that we remember those who died while they were in the line of duty.  It was interesting that the speaker at the service today said that there is a real distinction between Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day.  Today is a day that we remember all those who died while in the line of duty.  It is not a day that we simply remember our service men and women.  She made that distinction because she was then able to rattle off about a dozen or so people whom she knew, and with whom she had served, who had indeed paid the ultimate sacrifice.  When you meet a soldier you know that you are meeting someone who knows comrades who have died while on duty.  It is that simple.  Meet a soldier and meet someone who has known death first hand of a friend and colleague.

This psalm praises the Lord but also asks for vindication and justice to be served in the form of violence against those who might go against the wishes of the author.  It is interesting that we find this author say that the glory of the Lord also lies in meting out justice on the kings and rulers of other lands who do not follow the way of the Lord.  This is a bit in contrast with what we hear in Isaiah 19:25 which states: “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.”  At least in this Scripture we don’t have the author taking glee in the massacre of the enemies of the Lord.  Here, rather, the enemies of the Lord, of which Egypt and Assyria were, and continue to be, the habitual enemies of the people of Israel, are called blessed.  This is more along the lines of what Jesus promises and what Jesus would have espoused as a theme for His people.  

This is a typical psalm of praise.  Can you figure that out from how many times we hear the phrase: “Praise the Lord”?  I would count 12 times that the word “praise” is used in relationship to what we ought to do for God.  That is our task and our duty.  If you ever memorized the Westminster Catechism, which I never did, you will remember what the first question is: What is the chief end of man?  And the answer to that question is: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”  I love that answer.  What is our chief end, what is the reason for our being?  There is no greater reason to live than to glorify Him, read praise Him, and to enjoy him forever.  I like that goal.  

But if you notice in the psalm it isn’t just the people who are called to praise God.  We find that every single living thing is called the praise God. Even the sea monsters!  The Leviathan as Psalm 104 and 74 both point to, that creature that God could only have created and loved.  Even that sea creature is called to praise the Lord.  I wonder if this includes mosquitos.  

You may not know it but there is a mountain in Israel that actually has snow.  In fact, the more the ice cap is on the mountain, then the more secure Israel is in regards to water.  The mountain is called Mt. Hermon and it is one of those areas of Israel that is contested.  They say the one who controls the water, controls the region.  If you take that logic out one more step, you can also say the one who controls the mountain, controls the region.  Part of the mountain is in an area called the Golan Heights which was taken by the Israelis from the Palestinians and annexed by them in 1981.

When the psalmist speaks of snow and how it melts and provides the water, it is not a negative thing which we may envision, that is all positive in the mindset of the Middle Easterner.  Water is life in that region of the world.  This psalm is peppered with the phrase: “Praise the Lord.”  For some reason this song came to my mind.  It was one that I loved when I was in high school.  

Actually, it is this song that I like from Mylon Lefever.

This is another psalm that needs to be matched up with a New Testament Scripture.  But there is an Old Testament Scripture which also needs to be added.  Go ahead and turn to Luke 4:18 and then again Isaiah 61:1.  Keep in mind that the Luke Scripture is when Jesus is asked to read in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth, and he does by taking the scroll of Isaiah.  Once he reads it and says it is fulfilled in their sight they drive him out of town and look to cast him off the edge of the cliff of the town to his death.  Below you can see the edge of the cliff of the town of Nazareth where this event is commemorated.  

It is a precipice, without a doubt.  Jesus is added to the number of messengers from the Lord who were cast out.  In this Psalm it is interesting that the author, who could have been David, tells us not to trust in princes or mortals.  He praises God because he knows that happy are those whose help is in the  God of Jacob.  Not happy are those who are great at taking the initiative and doing things on their own.

This psalmist tells us that God watches over the strangers, he doesn’t demand that they speak English.  He upholds the orphan and the widow, he doesn’t remove their social net which allows them to survive day in and day out with the help of the ruling power.  The more and more that I read the psalms, the more I see the hand of God which directs us to reach out and help the most vulnerable in our society.  It is an imperative, it is a command from our creator.  If we do not reach out to them, then we are no different from the people in the synagogue of Nazareth looking to keep their town in the way that it was.  Here comes this preacher bringing new ideas.  Let’s drive him out.  These new ideas were based around the fact that the kingdom of God is not only open to everyone, but everyone ought to have a fair opportunity to live this life as a child of God.  It is an incredibly powerful message for us today as well.