{"id":6419,"date":"2015-11-26T11:21:57","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T17:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/?p=6419"},"modified":"2018-06-14T17:28:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T22:28:10","slug":"preparing-day-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for the Day of the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Preparing for the Day of the Lord<\/h1>\n
Preparing for the Day of the Lord is a simple thought reflection for Advent from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 about how one can prepare for the Day of the Lord.<\/p>\n
November 26, 2015 Year C<\/p>\n
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11<\/p>\n
Today is Thanksgiving. In our home, that means that we go to my parent\u2019s home. We eat a full Thanksgiving meal. We sit around, play games, watch the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Parade on NBC (followed by the National Dog Show<\/a>) and talk about life. At some point, we come together to prepare the Christmas tree for Christmas.<\/p>\n
Everyone might have their rituals on Thanksgiving, but everyone knows that Thanksgiving is the beginning of the Christmas season. You see it everyday when you watch television. Since I can remember, we have watched the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Parade. At the end of the parade, Santa Claus shows up. This ushers in the official Christmas season in America.<\/p>\n
In the same way, we are living in the time of the end of the church year. Today marks the beginning of the season of Advent<\/a>, which starts the new church year (Year C in the Revised Common Lectionary<\/a>). There will be four Sundays before Christmas and these Sundays are called the Sundays of Advent. Advent means \u201ccoming.\u201d It is referring to the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus came during the first Advent to save the world. We live now preparing for the second Advent of Christ<\/a>. Paul describes this process of preparing in this passage. He calls the second Advent the Day of the Lord<\/a> (1 Thessalonians 5:2). He challenges us to do five things as we prepare for the return of Jesus Christ. Just as we are preparing for Christmas, we can also prepare for the return of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
FIVE WAYS TO PREPARE FOR THE DAY OF THE LORD<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/strong>1. Wait (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2)<\/b><\/p>\n
The first way to prepare is to wait. Paul says \u201cabout the times and the seasons,\u201d that the people know to get ready. They are waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. They actively wait by living a life that tells others that Jesus is coming again. The signs are there. We won\u2019t be surprised and we can wait for the return of Jesus because we are watching.<\/p>\n
2. Watch (1 Thessalonians 5:3-7)<\/b><\/p>\n
What are we watching? We are watching the predicted trends. (I wrote about these predicted trends elsewhere<\/a>). Paul compares these trends to labor pains. When you watch a woman in labor, you know that the baby coming. When you watch the events going on in the world, you know that Jesus is returning soon. So we need to be aware that we are getting closer to Jesus\u2019 return. We don\u2019t sleep and find out in surprise that Jesus has come. We are actively awake. But we don\u2019t just wait. We also work.<\/p>\n
3. Work (1 Thessalonians 5:8)<\/b><\/p>\n
But we are not lazy while we wait. Christians work while waiting for Jesus to return. We show love, faith, and the hope of salvation for those who need to know about Jesus Christ. Jesus told many parables that highlighted the rewards one would get when we served Him. He wants to later call us a \u201cgood and faithful servant.\u201d That can only happen if we are working by serving.<\/p>\n
4. Witness (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10)<\/b><\/p>\n
While we are waiting, watching, and working, we are also witnessing. Paul describes a brief summary of the Gospel in these verses. Paul wanted people to \u201cobtain salvation.\u201d That would only happen when we witness to other lost people. The church spends as much time as possible to let people know about Jesus Christ and their need for Him. While we are waiting, watching, working, witnessing, we are also worshipping.<\/p>\n
5. Worship (1 Thessalonians 5:11)<\/b><\/p>\n
Worship when done properly, should encourage each Christian and build them up. Worship is when we focus on God. He strengthens us and then we can go back out to the world. Worship is a refreshing act for the Christian. As we are waiting, watching, working, and witnessing, we are worshipping together to help each other.<\/p>\n
As we prepare for Christmas which celebrates the birth of Christ, let\u2019s also prepare for the return of Christ.<\/p>\n
Prayer: God, help me prepare for Jesus birth and His return. Thank you for another year.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Preparing for the Day of the Lord Preparing for the Day of the Lord is a simple thought reflection for Advent from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 about how one can prepare for the Day of the Lord. November 26, 2015 Year C 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Today is Thanksgiving. In our home, that means that we go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2886,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,44,5,6],"tags":[199,245,493,8,1276,10,24],"class_list":["post-6419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-thessalonians","category-advent","category-lectionary","category-simple-thoughts","tag-1-thessalonians","tag-advent","tag-christmas","tag-lectionary","tag-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade","tag-simple-thoughts","tag-thanksgiving"],"yoast_head":"\nPreparing for the Day of the Lord<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Preparing for the Day of the Lord is a simple thought reflection for Advent from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 about how one can prepare for the Day of the Lord.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preparing for the Day of the Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Preparing for the Day of the Lord is a simple thought reflection for Advent from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 about how one can prepare for the Day of the Lord.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jim Erwin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revjimerwin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-26T17:21:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-06-14T22:28:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Erwin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@revjimerwin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Erwin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/\",\"name\":\"Preparing for the Day of the Lord\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-26T17:21:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-14T22:28:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/d60794d59235a0279dec26398d994dcb\"},\"description\":\"Preparing for the Day of the Lord is a simple thought reflection for Advent from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 about how one can prepare for the Day of the Lord.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Preparing for the Day of the Lord\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/\",\"name\":\"Jim Erwin\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/d60794d59235a0279dec26398d994dcb\",\"name\":\"Jim Erwin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/70772a6e533e4bcbd0ac0e0af2d62ff1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/70772a6e533e4bcbd0ac0e0af2d62ff1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jim Erwin\"},\"description\":\"My name is Jim Erwin. Welcome to my site patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin. You can look around this site and find out more about me. I am a country postmodern pastor in the digital world. I am a Christian, husband to a wonderful wife, father of four wonderful girls, mentor to new Christian leaders, and pastor of a local church. I pastor Washburn First Baptist Church in Washburn, Missouri in the beautiful area of the state called the Ozarks. I am also the Executive Secretary of International Baptist Church Ministries. I am a graduate of University of Houston, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I am also a graduate of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry in Church Planting.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revjimerwin\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/revjimerwin\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/author\/jerwin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Preparing for the Day of the Lord","description":"Preparing for the Day of the Lord is a simple thought reflection for Advent from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 about how one can prepare for the Day of the Lord.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Preparing for the Day of the Lord","og_description":"Preparing for the Day of the Lord is a simple thought reflection for Advent from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 about how one can prepare for the Day of the Lord.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/","og_site_name":"Jim Erwin","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revjimerwin\/","article_published_time":"2015-11-26T17:21:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-06-14T22:28:10+00:00","author":"Jim Erwin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@revjimerwin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim Erwin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/","name":"Preparing for the Day of the Lord","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-11-26T17:21:57+00:00","dateModified":"2018-06-14T22:28:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/d60794d59235a0279dec26398d994dcb"},"description":"Preparing for the Day of the Lord is a simple thought reflection for Advent from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 about how one can prepare for the Day of the Lord.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2015\/11\/26\/preparing-day-lord\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Preparing for the Day of the Lord"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/","name":"Jim Erwin","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/d60794d59235a0279dec26398d994dcb","name":"Jim Erwin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/70772a6e533e4bcbd0ac0e0af2d62ff1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/70772a6e533e4bcbd0ac0e0af2d62ff1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Jim Erwin"},"description":"My name is Jim Erwin. Welcome to my site patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin. You can look around this site and find out more about me. I am a country postmodern pastor in the digital world. I am a Christian, husband to a wonderful wife, father of four wonderful girls, mentor to new Christian leaders, and pastor of a local church. I pastor Washburn First Baptist Church in Washburn, Missouri in the beautiful area of the state called the Ozarks. I am also the Executive Secretary of International Baptist Church Ministries. I am a graduate of University of Houston, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I am also a graduate of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry in Church Planting.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revjimerwin\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/revjimerwin"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/author\/jerwin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}