{{2010_10_28_t1.jpg}} {{2010_10_28_t2.jpg}} {{2010_10_28_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2010_10_28|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_ii|| Topics Collection ii ]] ======Thanks for Christian brothers and sisters ...====== Thursday, Oct 28, 2010. We are reading the letter of Ephesians. The apostle Paul talks about faith in Jesus and what it means. Today, we move on to verse 15 and 16, where Paul formulates words of thanks ... {{2010_10_28.jpg }} **Trust in Jesus and Love for his people ...** 15 Because of all this, when I heard how much trust you have in Jesus our master and how much love you show to his people, 16 I keep on thanking God for you as I mention you in my prayers. This first Chapter of Ephesians is a very dense, but consistent unit. It describes what faith means, what its consequences are, and how it realizes itself. Faith is trust in Jesus and leads to love to the brothers and sisters in the Lord, to the other people of faith. Is this love to the other believers just something like sympathy to someone with similar hobbies? One could think that it is similar to the sympathy I have to people who are like I am. But in fact it is quite different. {{ 2010_10_28_2.jpg}} **The reality of Christian communities ...** The reality of Christian communities is different. Usually, here you have many very different people. It is not that sympathy comes since you have similar interests, a similar character or the same goals. Yes, one goal is similar - all people want to serve the Lord. They search God, they search the door towards the creator of the universe, and more than that, they found the door, which is Jesus. But all these people are so different ... completely different! Love between Christians is a kind of mystery. These people are only connected by their relationship to the same God, to Jesus, the Lord. They do not gather since they have a similar hobby. Often, the hobbies and interests are so completely different, that you ask yourself what you do here in the middle of such a Christian group. But there is something else which links us, which brings us together. It is the Lord. In fact, there is authentic love growing between Christians. We love each other - it is a miracle. We develop sympathy where we have no sympathy. We develop love where we do not have love. We are influenced by his Holy Spirit, every day and again and again and again ... This leads to the thankfulness which Paul talks about. [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_ii|... more texts]]