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Call to worship: Mark 5:1-20
Text: 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8
Summary:
With thanksgiving to God, Paul recounts the remarkable advance of God's eternal love, first, for and, then, through the Thessalonian church into all the world. Indeed, their faith in God went forth everywhere.
Prepare
Discussion Questions:
- Read 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8. Compare with the texts given for our call to worship and intermediate reading above.
- When it comes to Christian imitation, are we to imitate people? If so, what sort of people are we to imitate? Who and/or what is Paul? Are we to always imitate other Christians, or is there another Person Who sets the standard for both them and us? Who has ultimate authority in the Christian life? Is there ever a time then when we should find license to sin?
- To the contrary, what characterizes imitating Paul as he imitates Jesus? What does it say about the Word that they received it notwithstanding much affliction? How was the Holy Spirit operative in exalting God's Word among them? What was the end result of their Spirit-led reception of the Word of God, even with joy amid much suffering?
- To whom did they become examples? How much care do we take to set biblical fidelity before other believers, thinking to motivate and cultivate the same in them?
- Is our faith well-known wherever we go? Is it evident as exemplary before other believers? Do we live in light of eternity to the degree that our faith would make the testimony of apostles' superfluous and unnecessary, so to speak? Is our faith in Christ such that its 'speaking' says what an apostle might preach? Are you, I, we advancing the Gospel into all our community by the potency of our Christianity?