[1:1] Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

[2] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thursday is a tough day. Yup, it’s application day.

Notice how I barely got this blog post up today.  Yes, it’s always a fight to move on to application. It’s a long week. You lose sleep. There’s so much to do before the week is over.  There’s a million reasons to skip over the most important thing because of the urgent things.

The application of the gospel to ourselves is the most important AND the most urgent thing. In it’s simplest form it goes like this: Jesus gave his life on the cross in our place for our sins. It is lost on us if we don’t believe it, trust him, and receive and use the life that he bought for us.

But lots of religious people do that all the time. Don’t be one of them.

Never skip Thursday.  Even if it’s late, don’t skip application.  It’s truly a life of death issue.  Merely  learning/memorizing/being able to explain scripture without repentance/confession/forgiveness/obedience/joy/freedom is a half-life which is getting closer to death every day. Don’t do it.

Here’s 4 questions we’ll ask every Thursday (or every time we reflect on a text):

1. How does this text challenge me?
2. What change does God’s Word require of me?
3. What calling of God must I receive and engage in?
4. What does this mean for me in light of the cross?

Happy Thursday. Just shut up and do the work.

Reflect, RESPOND.  See you tomorrow.