ADVENT REFLECTIONS:

ADVENT REFLECTIONS:

God Chooses You

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

Sometimes it seems like God’s word comes out of the unlikeliest mouths — and sometimes the people speaking it don’t even know it! I can’t count the number of times have I heard something that profoundly influences my faith in an ordinary, non-churchy conversation. God is present everywhere. This was something that the Apostle Paul understood as he spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the "churchy" and "non-churchy," to Jews and Pagans alike.

The Thessalonians were not Jewish, but they were people of faith. To share the gospel with them Paul communicates very broadly. No mention of Jewish or Christian rituals or laws, no special words or stories from Torah. When Paul writes to these new converts, he just shares the promise that they are God’s beloved. He reminds them that they didn’t choose God. God chose them and gifted them with the power of conviction and the Holy Spirit. Paul kept it simple. 

Too many times we can let our words get in the way of sharing our faith. We get excited by Biblical history and complex concepts. We use jargon  and big words to try to explain our faith like the people in this video:

Paul was a master communicator. He knew when to talk about history and reference scripture to prove his points. But he also knew that big words and emphasis on perfect theology can get in the way of conveying something so simple: You are God’s beloved. God chooses you.