everybody what is going on you know what time it is you're listening to join the journey podcast with

your host emma daughter thanks for joining a lot of times you'll hear people say that

christianity isn't a to-do list but in today's chapter at first glance it can look like paul's saying

to do more and more and to add more to your list or to make the things on your list harder to check off.

Today, we're reading First Thessalonians 4, and in it we're introduced to a principle that says faithful believers are called to excel still more, or said differently, to do faithfulness more and more.

Some of us look at Paul's charge to the Thessalonians and we get overwhelmed.

We know we can't ever reach God's standard of righteous living while here on this earth,

so the call to do so more and more just seems unattainable. On the other hand, there are those of us

who operate out of pride. We think we've got the Christian walk all figured out

so the fact that the bar just got raised is frustrating. It's like a game of monkey in the middle

where the kid in the middle is shorter than the other two and can never catch the ball.

But that's not Paul's attitude. Paul raised the bar for the Thessalonians because he saw

that they were living in a way that was righteous and honorable,

but he also knew no one arrives while living life on this earth. There will always be a call to

excel still more regardless of where you are in your faith journey. Think about it like this.

When I was a kid, I did gymnastics. Now, I wasn't very good because I had like zero muscle mass and was so scrawny,

but my younger cousin was super athletic and great at gymnastics. She'd move up in levels.

Now, most of us are familiar with the level of gymnastics we see on TV whenever the Olympics

roll around. That's the elite level. But in order to even be eligible for the qualifiers, the Olympic qualifiers, you've probably

spent your whole life working through all 10 of the other levels of gymnastics.

And as a gymnast works his or her way up or progresses through each level, the bar is raised.

More and more difficult skills are expected.

...