June 19, 2024

2 Thessalonians 1:5-2:12 (HCSB)
5 It is a clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering, 6 since it is righteous for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you 7 and to reward with rest you who are afflicted, along with us. This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His powerful angels, 8 taking vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from His glorious strength 10 in that day when He comes to be glorified by His saints and to be admired by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed. 11 And in view of this, we always pray for you that our God will consider you worthy of His calling, and will, by His power, fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Man of Lawlessness 2 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: We ask you, brothers, 2 not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God. 5 Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I told you about this? 6 And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way, 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of His mouth and will bring him to nothing with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders, 10 and with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false, 12 so that all will be condemned—those who did not believe the truth but enjoyed unrighteousness.

Michael Jackson
On Mike the Baptist, I like to start out the middle portion of the program by bragging on the Bible. It’s such a fascinating collection of writings. Astounding actually. The way it cuts right to the soul of man, explaining so much that we could never figure out about ourselves and the world around us on our own. Or ... through some other human. Guess what? The Bible contains all we need to know to make it from birth back to our Creator. We need no other ‘new’ information. We need some understanding, surely, and that’s why we gather together and study the Bible and talk about what it means in real time with each other. It’s why we listen to preachers and teachers who strive to help us interpret what we read for ourselves. It’s really easy, it seems, to occasionally think we need more. And the result of that is often listening to people talk that aren’t necessarily sticking to the words as they are written in the scriptures. Paul is sorta warning us all about things like that in these passages, plus he’s reminding us that we don’t have to waste a lot of time seeking revenge or justice from those around us, or even those we think are giving God a bad rap. God Himself will take care of the charlatans and deceivers on the planet who seek to misguide Christians with their counterfeit miracles and great signs and wonders. Be glad you have such a simple preacher. HD is about as common as a stick. And this is a compliment. He will tell you himself he is trying to figure out a lot of stuff himself and that he is just like you in that regard. But he will never tell you anything that’s not backed up by what’s already written in the Bible. And will gladly rejoice with you in new things he is learning as well. There’s great comfort in waiting on the end when you have others like you to wait with. You know what you can learn from those who think they know it all? Nothing.