SCRIPTURE READING: 1 Thessalonians 2:8-13 NLT
8 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good
News but our own lives, too. 9 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and
sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to
earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we
preached God’s Good News to you. 10 You yourselves are our
witnesses– and so is God– that we were devout and honest and
faultless toward all of you believers. 11 And you know that we treated
each of you as a father treats his own children. 12 We pleaded with you,
encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God
would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and
glory. 13 Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received
his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human
ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God– which, of
course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.