1 & 2 ThessaloniansSample

What does it take for the word to get out? How fast does news spread? At the speed of thought, the typing of a message, or the hitting of a send button. Sometimes the most powerful way to share the news is with the power of the human voice coming out of the human mouth. I’m married to a beautiful woman, a wonderful godly woman named Jennie. We have five kids. Olivia’s our oldest, Daisy, Clover, Lennox, our little boy, and then we have a child waiting for us in heaven. But before we had our fifth child, who’s a little boy, we had four girls in a row. We began to think about getting a dog. And so, I told my wife, “If we get a dog, we need to get a boy dog so I can have a fellow dude in the house.” And so, she humored me and allowed me to get a boy dog, but she said it had to be hypoallergenic, preferably a poodle, because of the allergies in our home. How does it help my street cred to have another boy in the house, but the boy is a poodle? A poodle who’s miniature? But that’s okay. I told my wife, “I’ll give him a mohawk and a tough name.” So we called him Tabasco. I’ll never forget when we first got Tabasco. It was wintertime, super cold, and he got out. I began searching because the kids were crying. I was looking everywhere for our little boy poodle. I was running up and down the streets of our neighborhood yelling, “Tabasco!” I don’t know what my neighbors thought. Maybe they thought that we ran out of Cholula or something and needed some spicy stuff for our breakfast burritos. I do love Tabasco sauce for sure. There is no doubt the neighborhood knew something was up as I continued yelling his name outside the homes around us. Eventually we found Tabasco, and he was not a poodle popsicle, fortunately. He was alive and we brought him back home. The prodigal poodle had come home. We pretty much threw a party in his honor. But really, it was a scary time, and we were grateful nothing bad had happened because Tabasco had gotten out. Paul, the apostle, wrote letters to the Thessalonians, because the word of their faith had gotten out. In fact, he was far away in the city of Corinth, but he had been hearing glowing reports in many cases about their faith. And so, he writes them because, like when I shouted my Tabasco’s name in the streets, word had gotten out about them. In a world of social media and instant global communication, the word gets out in about thirty seconds. Good news, bad news, world updates, personal secrets, accurate or inaccurate—news spreads faster than wildfire! Are you sharing the message of the God’s faith, love, and hope with those around you? Is your message spreading like wildfire? Shout His name today! Respond Who told you about Jesus and His saving grace? Have you spread the news lately? To whom? Who in your circle needs to hear about Him today? Prayer Father, open the door for me to share Jesus with someone today.