{"id":1371,"date":"2022-10-23T07:58:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-22T21:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2022-10-23T07:58:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T21:58:18","slug":"get-a-strong-grip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/2022\/10\/23\/get-a-strong-grip\/","title":{"rendered":"Get a Strong Grip"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bible Reading<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>2 Thessalonians 1-2<\/li><li>Daniel 5<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Devotional Thoughts<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I look forward to the day when I can look back at you guys, and be able to say the same of them as Paul says of the Thessalonians in 2 Thess 1:3-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. We proudly tell God\u2019s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are so proud of where each of you are at, and what God is doing in and through your lives!&nbsp; Keep living for Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past we have followed Paul\u2019s words.&nbsp; I remembered witnessing Jeff and Joy\u2019s life.&nbsp; As we witnessed their life and saw their testimony in the midst of persecution and hardship, we proudly shared it with our churches and supporters. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This past week, Dave and Emily Rimstead in Maliyali shared of their burden, their hardship.&nbsp; The doctor is allowing them to finish phase 1, but then they will have to return to the US to deal with medical things.&nbsp; But, their faith, their testimony, is so beautiful.&nbsp; We proudly tell our churches (God\u2019s other churches) about their love for the Maliyali, and their endurance and faithfulness in all their hardships!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That should be the desire of all of us.&nbsp; Paul goes on in chapter 2 to say this; 2 Thess 2:13-16 We can\u2019t help but thank God for you\u2026 we are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation\u2026 With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phil 2:2 Jesus said, (because you have experienced encouragement from belonging to Christ, comfort from His love, fellowship in His Spirit (Phil 2:1) \u201cMake my joy complete.\u201d (ESV)&nbsp; \u201cMake me truly happy\u201d (NLV) BY agreeing wholeheartedly, loving each other, working together with one mind and purpose.\u201d (NLV)&nbsp; Keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you!&nbsp; (Keep a strong grip on PHIL 2:1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interesting that I read 1 Thessalonians 1-2 today.\u00a0 But my Old Testament reading was Daniel chapter 5.\u00a0 Daniel is such a great example of this.\u00a0 2 verses stuck out to me in chapter 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Daniel 5:11 There is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy gods&#8230;<\/li><li>Daniel 5:14 \u201cI have heard that you have the spirit of the gods within you and that you are filled with insight, understanding and wisdom.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Daniel\u2019s faith and his faithfulness was so great, each of the kings that he served under came to trust him\u2026 even though Daniel was a refugee and technically a captive in Babylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As believers witness our lives, it should encourage them to endure, be faithful, grow in faith\u2026 (Ps 69:29-32) But that will only be the case when we \u201cKeep a strong grip\u201d on what we know is true!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because when the conversation begins to heat up, or the circumstances begin to seem out of our control, and our emotions begin to hijack our thinking, we have got to have a strong grip in order to declare truth to ourselves and think clearly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bible Reading 2 Thessalonians 1-2 Daniel 5 Devotional Thoughts I look forward to the day when I can look back at you guys, and be able to say the same of them as Paul says of the Thessalonians in 2 Thess 1:3-4. \u201cWe can\u2019t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130594],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-the-word-for-the-day","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}