he apostle Paul must have been a brave man. He was told that he would be imprisoned if he went to Jerusalem (Acts 21:10-13). He went anyway. He knew that he would be in danger whenever he went to preach the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:30-31). He went anyway.
Why would he do that? For the same reason a parent would jump in front of a car to rescue a child. Or someone would run to a burning car. Or a soldier would throw himself onto a grenade.
To save life. It’s a special kind of love. It’s the kind of love that moves people to sacrifice without a second thought.
That’s the love that Jesus displayed when he entered this world to be our Savior. That’s why he was willing to suffer rejection, abuse, and crucifixion. That’s why he died under God’s judgment.
It’s the love that motivated all of the apostles to risk imprisonment and death to share the Gospel. It’s why Paul asked the Thessalonians to pray for the word of the Lord to spread and to pray that he would be rescued from evil and wicked people.
That’s why we pray that God would help us overcome our fear of sharing our faith. That he would remove the obstacles that Satan throws into our path.
To save life. Because God loves people. Because we love people. That kind of love moved Paul to bravery and to sacrifice. It’s the same love that moves us to sacrifice for God’s kingdom. Our love for people reflects Jesus’ love. We want to save life for eternity.
We read from the second letter to the Thessalonians that God dictated word-for-word to the apostle Paul, starting in chapter 2.
2 Thessalonians 2:16–3:5 (EHV)
16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and in his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.
3:1Finally, brothers, pray for us so that the word of the Lord may spread quickly and be glorified just as it was among you. 2Pray also that we may be rescued from evil and wicked people. For not everyone has faith. 3Still, the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and protect you from the Evil One. 4We also have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we are telling you. 5May the Lord continue to direct your hearts to God’s love and Christ’s patient endurance.
God bless you,
Pastor Tesch
Worship at Trinity
Come and worship with us! You can sign up here: https://trinitymarinette.com/events/june-28-29-worship/ or call Pastor or call the church office to let us know which service you prefer. It is wise to wait a bit if you are at risk or would just like to wait for the pandemic to fade. God willing, we will worship together when he ends this plague.
Here is this week’s bulletin: https://trinitymarinette.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-06-21-Announcements-The-Third-Sunday-after-Pentecost.pdf
Church Softball: All are invited – men and women – catechism age and up! You don’t have to be good, it is just for fun! It is a chance to get together, have some friendly competition and be outside. We will play with whoever is there, and will split up into two teams. (There are two fields if we have enough players for 4 teams we can do so.) We will be playing Sunday, June 28 at 2 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Grover/Peshtigo.
Bible Class will start on Wednesday July 1 at 9:00 a.m. in the church basement. Please bring along your harmonies of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles. If you don’t have one, there will be copies available. Everyone is welcome! As with worship, masks are welcome, but not required. I will have some with me, tho, if someone wants one.
If you would like to support the Lord’s work at Trinity, you may contribute at trinitymarinette.com/giving/ or you can mail it to
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
1501 Thomas St.
Marinette, WI 54143