Finding delight, Week 4...

I participated last week in Leslie's carnival but neglected to add the links. That's what happens when you get distracted while writing a post and end up taking two days to finish it. Hitting publish becomes a welcome relief and proofing flew out the window.

This week I'm watching the links. I hope you'll think about participating as well. While my "delight" passages have not contained the word "delight," it has been a sweet part of my Biblical meditation to think on that attribute of God's Word.

This week I saw delight in examining 2 Thessalonians against 1 Thessalonians. The key theme in 1 Thessalonians is Christ's return and what it will mean for believers--a reception of glory. The key theme in 2 Thessalonians is Christ's return and what it will mean for unbelievers--a judgment of condemnation. While the first glows with delight, the second offends many.

I saw delight in the comparison in a couple of ways. First, God is just, and a moral universe requires the punishing of sin. Scripture has always told this story from the beginning. Either Christ is punished for my sin or I am punished for my sin, but sin is always punished. As a believer, I delight in knowing that God's promise of my sin forgiven in Christ is a lasting truth.

The second way I saw delight was in reading all the many answers in 2 Thessalonians to Paul's prayers from 1 Thessalonians. It is believed that the two epistles were written about one to two years apart. In the first Paul prayed that the Thessalonian believers would increase in their faith and love, that they would persevere in afflictions, and that they would continue to be a model of the power of the gospel to all those around them. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul gives thanks for how these prayers have been answered. It truly is a delight to see how God works in the lives of His people.