corporate 30-day challenge, one life-study message per day, 1 Thessalonians

It is so wonderful to set goals! Sometimes last year I did this 30-day challenge - One meaningful Thing I did Today - and it was a very good experience. Since then I've been thinking concerning "the next challenge", whether I should take one or how to go on in this... I am so glad now that there's a solid burden for all the young adults to get into the truth in a solid way, reading not only the Bible portions for the day but also getting into the life-study messages in a consistent way! Via Living To Him "the life-study reading program" has started today! So here am I with another challenge, this time a corporate one :)

Corporate 30-day Challenge - One Life-Study Message per day, LS 1 Thessalonians!

On Living To Him they are daily posting the reminder with the outline and a link to where you can read the message, so the one for today is, Msg. 1, Life Study of First Thessalonians. The way I want to kind of do this is not only read the message and enjoy it, together with the Scripture reading and the notes (if possible), but also have at least 1-2 paragraphs of sharing (either in my own words or as a quote from the book). And since they are posting daily there, maybe I can post my enjoyment both here on the blog and as a comment on the blog post at LivingToHim.

Message 1 of the Life-Study of First Thessalonians - enjoyment

I am so encouraged to do this reading together with all the saints :) As those learning to take responsibility in the church life and making the Lord's recovery "our Lord's recovery", we firstly need to be constituted with the truth! Here's my portion of enjoyment from the reading today:

Praise the Lord - we are the church IN God the Father - we are organically united with Him! God is not merely our Creator but our Father, and we are His many sons. Also, it is so precious to call on the name of the Lord - O, Lord Jesus! Not just, I love You Jesus, but I love You Lord Jesus! In our experience we have a relationship with the Lord and we love Him - we love to call on His name!
I was particularly impressed with the meaning of the work of faith (our work is our faith; the strength with which we work and the nature of our work are both faith), the labor of love (deeper and harder than work, our shepherding becomes a labor - in and out of love), and endurance of hope (hope is the source of endurance, and endurance involves suffering)! This is the structure of our Christian life. 

Lord, what about this additional reading? O, Lord, the next 30 days and, why not, the rest of the year! Fill my days with the Word and with the ministry! Lord, hunger for the Word! Lord, understanding of the Word so that there would be a solid deposit of the truth in my being! O, Lord... 

The Picture for Today :) - Wood Green, London Underground

Pretty self-explanatory, the above picture was taken at the Wood Green tube station in London. I checked outside the station, there's lots of green stuff (a bit more up the hill there are lots of parks, green grass, etc) - just in case you were wondering whether the name is linked to the place. 

london under snow....

It actually snowed, and it is still snowing, in London! And this time the snow is up to 20cm high! :) Of course, just like any big city, London is not prepared for such things; I remember Bucharest when it snowed.... besides the accidents that took place, the traffic was almost completely jammed! But because of experiences like these, the cities that are snowed on are learning:

• acquiring some special machines-devices to remove the snow from the roads,
  
• spreading salt & sand in order to reduce the slippery effect for the cars;
• enforcing the rule that: every store/flat/house owner has to take care of the snow on the sidewalk in front of their venue(and not throw the snow on the road, but maybe deposit it in the backyard or around the trees, in piles);

and other practical things... Now in London/UK it has not been such snow for more than 15 years, as I heard, so let me list some of the effects/observations of what's the people's reaction to it:

• yuppy yey! Many schoolers and high-schoolers have no school today, either by the order of the authorities(see Cambridge schools not in session) or by simply not going to school(but going ski-ing or making snowmen...);
• yuppy for some employees - like some of my workmates - they simply can't get to work, because of the road condition and the trains not working.... traffic jams... (and some can spend some more time with their families, or again, making snow-men....);
• no busses in Central London - at least I saw none, and I tried to wait for 43, my "favourite" bus, but it didn't come... WOW - all London busses have been withdrawn today, because of the adverse weather conditions...(actually, I would not like to see an accident in which a double decker is involved.... in the snow....)
  
• the tube - lots of incidents, closures and suspended lines/itineraries - see what bbc says about it, or the tfl updates. Some of the tube/train stations are either closed or severe delays are taking place, so crowds of people waiting for the train is a normality....
  
• @work, at least in our shop... less customers, because of the weather outside(who would travel now, especially by car?), yet the online orders are working even better! :) Now everyone is in front of the PC, looking online for things to buy....
• @work - my favourite part - working from home, remote, by the existing networking protocols and remote working softwares out there.... unfortunately, it's not my case today;
  

Sorry I don't have pics to post from London, but soon on facebook there will be some(check out what BBC says about the chaos in London because of the snow...). London under snow reminds me of Bucharest under snow... :) Finally, the snow is here! :)