Jesus Fellowship: We'll meet the Lord in the air. :) 10/16/15

Day 288

Today's song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S94AkkW6bpE

No copyright infringement intended.

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/1Thess.4

1 Thessalonians 4

A Life Pleasing to God

4 Finally, then, brothers,[a] we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification:[b] that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body[c] in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

The Coming of the Lord

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,[d] that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Supplied Life Devotional by Bill Freeman

A felt presence October 16th

“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” 1 JOHN 2:20
We may liken the teaching of the anointing to our being taught in the physical realm. For example, if we walk into a room in which the temperature is one hundred degrees, the presence of heat teaches us to take off our jacket. There is no need to read a sign that says, “Take off your jacket.” The presence of heat automatically teaches us to take it off. It is the presence of something that teaches, not a teaching by audible words or outward letters of instruction. We can say that the temperature itself teaches us with the voice of a “felt presence.” The anointing works in the same way within us. The anointing is the presence of a Person moving within us. Thus, whenever we are taking a certain course of action that is not compatible with the Lord, we sense a bothering or troubling within. We lose our normal inward poise of peace. For instance, you are about to complain to someone because you are right and they are wrong about something they did or did not do. But as you actually launch into your argument, the more you speak, the more there is the presenceof“heat.” You feel uncomfortable, you feel awkward,you lose your peace, and you yourself sense that what you are saying is not compatible with your insides.

Just as heat teaches you to take off your jacket, so the presence of the anointing teaches you to stop talking in a complaining way. The reason you are unable to keep talking is not because someone is telling you not to talk that way. You cannot talk because you have an inward forbidding. You are just not free and at liberty to speak that way anymore. This kind of experience is the anointing teaching
you. The anointing’s voice made it clear that your words were not compatible with the Lord. This kind of experience is not an occasion for taking condemning thoughts and accusations about yourself. Rather, it is an occasion for learning to be compatible with the Lord’s life in your speaking and attitude.

Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH)

Anna, Ariana, Ariel, Georgie, Wes, and Zoe.