Welcome to Books of the Book,
I'm Jon Paulien, Dean of the
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school of religion at Loma
Linda University and I have
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with me my
Pastor, Jon Ciccarelli.
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Pastor of the Calimesa
Seventh-day Adventist church.
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Jon it is a
pleasure to be here with you.
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You know one of the
things I like about you?
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Is that you spell
your name right, there is
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no H. in there. How did
that come about for you?
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Well in my case it is very
simple, my parents named me
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after a Bible
character Jonathan.
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When I became an adult I
stopped to think, I'm probably
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going to have to sign my
name 100,000 times in my life,
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a little bit shorter
might be a good idea,
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so I just shortened it.
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Less is more says Ezra.
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Well for me I'm the
youngest of four children,
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and I have three older sisters.
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Oh, that sounds like
trouble. - yeah, so when I was
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born, my parents said God
must have some special for him
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and they named me
after John the Baptist.
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I asked my mom, But I said
John the Baptist spells his name
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with an H., how did
you come up with just JON?
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They said, well
we just liked it.
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So that is how I
ended up with Jon.
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Pretty cool, it is nice
to be here with you today.
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We are going to be
steady the letters of first and
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second Thessalonians together
and so what we want to do
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in this program is
to set the table for it.
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In other words we are
going to talk about how these
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letters happened and I
think to kind of summarize it
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there is one text and all
those Thessalonians letters
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that I would like to emphasize.
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It would be chapter 2 verse 13.
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And for the viewing audience
I should just mention that
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the translations of first
and second Thessalonians are
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translations that I made
not out of disrespect to any
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of the Bible translation,
but to bring out the nuances
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in the original language
that sometimes are smoothed
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over in the English.
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So 1 Thessalonians
2:13 reads like this.
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And Jon I think that is a
game changer, you've got people
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walking around in today's
world, they don't know whether
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that they are coming or going.
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I think sometimes even as
Christians, we feel that way
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from time to time and to
know that we can have a word
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that comes from the King
of the Universe, that covers
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values way beyond anything
we understand and can give us
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guidance for everyday, I
mean that changes everything.
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- Right, right.
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- that brings life
together the way it should be.
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But Jon, why
should anyone really take
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the Bible seriously today?
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- well that's good question,
I think a lot of people
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probably wonder if
it's just ink on a page.
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One of the things we are
going to emphasize on this
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program is Bible prophecy.
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In so many ways God said
ahead of time, what was going
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to come, and it happened.
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You know economists today,
they can't even tell you if
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the economy is going up or
down tomorrow, they are not
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even sure if it's
going up or down today.
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For the Bible to talk
about something happening a year
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or five years or 50
years later and it comes true,
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that is amazing,
only God can do that.
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- yeah! - not only
that, the Bible is the most
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thoroughly attested
ancient book, famous people like
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Alexandria the
Great, Cicero and so on.
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We may have one or five
or 10 manuscripts of their
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writings, the New Testament
has almost 6000 handwritten
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manuscripts, all
attesting to its value.
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You see, so to me the
Bible is the most solid book
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that we have.
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You know one of the
things for me, is just the
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resurrection of Jesus.
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You think about why the
empty tomb? Why was the body
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of Jesus never been found?
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If you think of those
who were enemies of Christ,
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if they had stolen the
body of Jesus, why wouldn't
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they reveal it at some point?
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When the disciples were out
proclaiming the resurrection of
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Jesus, and then they
could pull out no, here it is,
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He was not raised from the dead.
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Then for the disciples, if
they had stolen the body out
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of the tomb, why on earth
did they go through all the
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suffering and the martyrdom,
no one has been willing to
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die for a lie.
That would be foolish.
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So you are seeing things
right there in the Bible,
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that can only be explained
by a supernatural power or
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influence and I personally
know several major historians
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that would agree 100% with you.
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They say the empty tomb
is a powerful evidence that
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these things are real and
historical, we're going to
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notice in our programs here on
Thessalonians, there are several
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points were things that
are said in the Bible intersect
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with things we
know from history.
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They are attested by
archaeologists, they are tested
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by ancient literature, and
the Bible just connects, it fits
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with all of that and we
can have confidence in it.
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You know another thing Jon
is, the Bible itself is self
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authenticating. -
what does that mean?
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When you actually sit down
and spend time with the Word
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of God, the same Spirit
that was in the authors of the
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Bible inspiring them to
write, is the same Holy Spirit
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that speaks to our
hearts and minds as we read
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those very words and
it meets our needs in such
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deep and profound ways.
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You know a church I was
Pastoring in one time, there
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a gentleman who was coming and
proclaiming to be an atheist.
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His wife was a Christian, was an
Adventist when they were coming.
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When he would read the
Bible, he would come to church
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and worship and
would begin to weep.
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His wife would always ask
him, what are you crying for?
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He would say, oh because
I lost my Father couple of
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years ago and I am
still grieving that.
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Well after a couple years
of being on this journey and
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coming to church and
reading his Bible, he finally
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confessed that he accepted
Christ and those tears every
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time I cried was because I
could feel God's presence in
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my very being when
I read those words.
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I can't deny it any more,
and so the word of God itself
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just speaks to our very deepest
needs, peace, and healing.
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You know what I hear
Pastor Jon saying, is that if
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you are not sure whether
the Bible is right for you,
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if it just looks like ink
on a page like any other book,
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he is saying,
give it a try. Read it.
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Just going in a corner somewhere
where nobody else can see
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you, open it up and give
it a shot because the Bible
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contains within itself
words that are empowered by the
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Holy Spirit, now you may
not believe that at this moment.
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But try it, find out,
because so many people, millions
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throughout history
have discovered that the
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Bible authenticates itself.
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When you read it and
take time, God speaks to you
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through that book,
and it is life-changing.
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Jon do we really
have to study the
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Bible deeply, to
really experience God?
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Oh, in other words do you
have to be a Bible scholar
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in order to follow Jesus?
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I'm picking on you a little bit
- absolutely not, absolutely not
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I want to be clear on that.
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I remember a beautiful
young lady that I was working
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with its a young
Pastor sometime ago,
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and she had been baptized.
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She came to me and was really
distressed, she said I need
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to be re-baptized again.
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I said what are you talking
about? She said well there
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were things I didn't tell
my Senior Pastor, and then
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she unfolded the
tale of woe and so forth.
00:08:00.51\00:08:03.11
I said let us go
deal with it then.
00:08:03.11\00:08:05.21
We took a walkout by a
lake and sat down on a rock and
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I led her through the story
of Jesus and said Jesus died
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for you, all that
history can be gone.
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I led her through the
sinner's prayer, and when that
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prayer was done, thunder
clapped, rain poured down,
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and she turned to me with
this wet sheep dog kind of look,
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and she said with a big
smile, I'm being baptized again.
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She took that as a sign
from God, now I realize that
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doesn't happen for everybody,
but sometimes God connects
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with people at special
times and opens things up.
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At that moment,
she knew God was real.
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She didn't need a Bible to
tell her that God was real.
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So there are times when
God will work directly with
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people. - so you do you
still know that beautiful,
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beautiful woman?
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Oh yeah, I didn't want to
let that one go, I married her
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and we have been
together 38 happy years.
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Ah, that's great. But it is
so important I think too, these
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experiences are great and I
think all of us have probably
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had some of those types of
experiences of God and nature,
00:09:10.15\00:09:13.35
but it is so important for
us to test these experiences
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with the Bible, to make sure
they line up with Scripture.
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Because sometimes I think,
if we are not careful, we can
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rely so much on those other
experiences and less of the
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Bible and that is
when it gets kind of scary.
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We always want to be
rooted in the Bible, but thank
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God for those experiences.
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One thing I would say in
relation to what you are saying,
00:09:34.50\00:09:36.71
is we all have
voices inside of our heads.
00:09:36.71\00:09:38.91
People may think the
voices inside their head is
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the voice of God, and it can be.
00:09:42.11\00:09:43.71
But there is an evil one
out there, the Bible tells us,
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that's sometimes
plants thoughts in our mind.
00:09:46.78\00:09:49.18
Sometimes that voice in the
middle of your ear is one of
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your parents, or maybe a
cruel uncle that use to beat you
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up for something like that,
there are all kinds of voices
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in our head's and the Bible,
being the authentic Word of
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God, helps us to sort
out some of the stuff that
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is going on in our head.
00:10:06.77\00:10:07.97
Some of it is trash,
it needs to be thrown out,
00:10:07.97\00:10:10.11
and some of it
needs to be hung on to.
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Yes God will speak to you,
God can meet you where you are,
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but because there are many
voices out there, even many
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spirits some would say, I
think it is helpful that the
00:10:20.38\00:10:23.75
Bible can help us sort
that out and give us something
00:10:23.75\00:10:27.06
solid to depend on.
00:10:27.06\00:10:28.62
Well Jon, let's get into
the Bible because the letters of
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first Thessalonians were
written with a specific series
00:10:32.73\00:10:36.73
of historical events in mind.
00:10:36.73\00:10:38.60
There was an ancient city
called Thessalonica, which is
00:10:38.60\00:10:42.70
where Thessalonians comes from.
00:10:42.70\00:10:45.04
The people who were the
Thessalonians and the city was
00:10:45.04\00:10:47.04
Thessalonica and
how did Paul get there?
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Before he got to Thessalonica
he went to a place called
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Philippi, a colony of Rome.
00:10:54.92\00:10:57.15
You can read about it in
Acts 16 it's one of my favorite
00:10:57.15\00:11:02.56
stories in the
Bible, even from a kid.
00:11:02.56\00:11:04.73
Paul has this vision,
and this man is calling Paul
00:11:04.73\00:11:09.76
to come to Macedonia, so
Paul does go to Macedonia and
00:11:09.76\00:11:13.80
he makes his way to Philippi
and that's where he goes on
00:11:13.80\00:11:17.77
and goes outside the village
at the Riverside for a place of
00:11:17.77\00:11:21.08
prayer and meets
Lydia, the seller of purple.
00:11:21.08\00:11:23.41
He shares the good news
with her and she gets baptized.
00:11:23.41\00:11:29.02
But then it says also, later
in Acts that as Paul was going
00:11:29.02\00:11:33.25
about preaching the gospel
there was a certain slave girl
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that had a spirit of divination
and she would proclaim
00:11:37.56\00:11:41.03
that these people are here
for God, and proclaiming the
00:11:41.03\00:11:44.50
Gospel and it
became very annoying.
00:11:44.50\00:11:46.80
- and the short story is
he ended up in jail over this,
00:11:46.80\00:11:49.20
right? - exactly,
exactly, but before he got
00:11:49.20\00:11:52.11
to jail, he
took quite a beating.
00:11:52.11\00:11:54.21
They brought him before,
because the slave owners of the
00:11:54.21\00:11:59.08
woman didn't like that
they had lost their business and
00:11:59.08\00:12:02.62
so now they bring him before
the magistrates and beat them
00:12:02.62\00:12:06.55
and take him to prison and
then in the middle of the night
00:12:06.55\00:12:10.46
Paul and Silas are singing
hymns and praying prayers
00:12:10.46\00:12:13.23
and God brings this earthquake.
00:12:13.23\00:12:15.10
They are going to be set
free, the jailor of course is
00:12:15.10\00:12:18.17
concerned and goes to
them and finds they are still
00:12:18.17\00:12:21.20
there and ask them
what I must do to be saved?
00:12:21.20\00:12:23.51
So his whole family
becomes saved, and then the next
00:12:23.51\00:12:28.61
morning they are back in
prison and the magistrates come
00:12:28.61\00:12:32.15
and say they are going to
let them go and Paul of course,
00:12:32.15\00:12:35.32
as Paul does, throws a
little wrench into it and says
00:12:35.32\00:12:38.09
wait a minute, we're
Roman citizens you can't treat
00:12:38.09\00:12:40.82
us like this. And
they go on as well.
00:12:40.82\00:12:43.09
The thing is what happened
to them before they got to
00:12:43.09\00:12:45.06
Thessalonica there.
00:12:45.06\00:12:46.23
And Paul mentions this in 1
Thessalonians 2:1-2 he says,
00:12:46.23\00:12:52.47
Inner struggle he says,
I can imagine Paul and his
00:13:14.46\00:13:18.53
companion Silas walking
along the road, they are bruised
00:13:18.53\00:13:22.06
and beaten and they're asking
why are we doing this thing?
00:13:22.06\00:13:25.60
They come to Thessalonica
and the last thing on earth
00:13:25.60\00:13:29.97
they want to do is to
preach the gospel again.
00:13:29.97\00:13:31.71
Everywhere they go they're
getting beaten up for this thing
00:13:31.71\00:13:34.38
And he says to the Thessalonians
as you know we became
00:13:34.38\00:13:39.08
bold, the original
language says, we became bold.
00:13:39.08\00:13:43.18
In other words God gave
them the courage to speak again
00:13:43.18\00:13:46.76
in spite of all
these challenges.
00:13:46.76\00:13:50.63
They gave it another shot
and the Thessalonians were
00:13:50.63\00:13:54.36
so glad that they did.
00:13:54.36\00:13:56.00
Well Jon would want to go a
little bit deeper into this but
00:13:56.00\00:13:59.27
right now we
need to take a break.
00:13:59.27\00:14:01.07