Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

If you're doing our New Testament plan, today we finished our 7th and 8th books. And if you're doing

the whole Bible, we finished our 46th and 47th books. These two books

are Paul's letters to the church at Thessalonica. We met them yesterday in Acts 17. Paul, Silas,

and Timothy spent a lot of time with them until the local Jews who were jealous of their ministry,

formed a mob and basically drove them out of town. Paul really loves the people of this church,

so he writes them this letter to speak words of encouragement and love. He starts out by telling them a few of the ways

their lives demonstrate that God has chosen them to be a part of his family. First of all,

they've received the gospel wholeheartedly, and the Holy Spirit came to them as well. Second,

they started spreading the word to other people. They received

and lived out and shared the gospel. Paul says he and the guys mentored them and then they started

mentoring others. They took what they learned from Paul and made Macedonian mentees. Third, they've

turned from their idolatry and worship the one true God. We also see here that there is wrath coming, but Jesus is the

one who delivers us from it, because God's kids will never experience his wrath. Then Paul recounts the

story of how they met. He had just been beaten up and imprisoned in Philippi, but he didn't stop preaching.

He came to Thessalonica to share the gospel with them even in the face of opposition.

He didn't come there to be popular or powerful, and he didn't come there to get rich. Even though the apostles had a right to demand that the church take care of them, they didn't make use of that right. In fact, they worked overtime so that they could share the gospel and their lives with the Thessalonians. 212 says Paul exhorted and encouraged and

charged them to live in a way that shows they believe the gospel and that glorifies God.

They did, and as a result, they encountered persecution. Paul really wants to see them again,

but he says Satan hindered him. Some scholars think this is a reference to what happened the last

time he was there

when Jason posted bail. It seems like there may be some kind of restriction against Paul returning.

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