SO, THEY WEREN'T ANGELS AND NEITHER ARE WE

Those in Thessalonica in Paul's day (by the way, is that a cool city name or what? It's much cooler sounding than Corinth, which a former pastor of mine pronounced it as if it were spelled Cornth, or even Ephesus) weren't angels, but they were praised by Paul. And I think that's what we need more of.

Our Band of Brothers men's bible study ended today. We shared, we gleaned, we grew. But we also beat ourselves up. Over our shortcomings. Over how much more we should/could be doing for God's glory. It was so easy to see from our studies by Blackaby and MacDonald how we fall short. How we must disappoint God.

But like the Thessalonians, although we weren't continually praising God and praying to God, we were trying. I mean we were getting up very early to be at the church at 6:30 AM on Tuesdays for 32 weeks or so. So why are we so hard on ourselves?

Well, because we can still do so much more. But sometimes we should reflect and rejoice in our faithfulness. Not that we'll ever approach the faithfulness of our Lord, but we can feel better about ourselves. If we'll only allow it.

To my fellow Christian brothers, I applaud you and thank you for your efforts. And to our lead pastor, Rob Wagner, much kudos go to you for your efforts. To have a small group led by our pastor for that long was truly a blessing. Now, if I could improve my memory verses... But there I go again, being negative.