Thought of the Day !!

You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.  And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

                                           1 Thessalonians 1:6-7 (NIV)

Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica.  He is praising them for their faithfulness to Jesus even in spite of the suffering that it produced for them.  In this praise he remembers how it all started.  They "became imitators of (Paul's group) and of the Lord."

Paul is not bragging and saying "Look at me!  Imitate me!"  Instead he understands that he has to not only tell others how to live in Christ Jesus, but also show them.  Ultimately he wants them to imitate the Lord because then they will be imitating what is perfect and true.  But in his teaching he had to show them his best imitation of the Lord as well.

How many people look at you and imitate you?  How many people look at you and decide that they don't want to imitate you?  As Christians we should be doing our best to imitate Christ before others so that they will see Him in us and learn to imitate Him as well.

This Christmas let us see how well we can show others what Christians are supposed to be like.  Non-believers see so much that is wrong with us.  Let us show them (not just tell them) that by grace we are forgiven for those faults and by repentance we come to imitate the one true perfect gift of Christmas, Christ Himself.

In the love of Christ,

greg