1 Thessalonians - A Short Intro

It's been almost two weeks since I've written and mostly it's been because I've been very busy with work and also a personal project in which I am heavily invested. I haven't had a day off in over two weeks and won't get one for another several days, but I'm doing ok. And even though I've been so so busy on my other endeavors, I have missed being here and studying. Usually my daily study is my main priority after getting all my other work done, but when I haven't had time, I've still felt a little bit of loss in my day, so anyway, I'm glad to be back. The other point that I want to make is that when I ended my last entry, I said that I would try and be more grateful for things and see what kind of difference that made in my life. I really focused on the "I am grateful for…" for the next couple of days, and then it dropped off, but I still managed to have it be a little bit higher on my priority list than usual and my mood was dramatically improved, even when it was just a minor focus. Then imagine my surprise when I woke up one day and Facebook was flooded with people being grateful for stuff, it was really surprising. Anyway, I'm going to try to keep it as a higher focus for me because I really liked it. Anyway, on to Thessalonians, which the IM says "it is probably the oldest book in the New Testament, having been written more than a decade before any of the Gospels." Apparently, "Thessalonica was the most populous and prosperous city in the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia because of two important features. The city was built on the best natural harbor in the Aegean Sea, and it was located on the major highway that connected Rome and modern-day Turkey." The other important factor in Paul's epistle here is that the saints at Thessalonica were a combination of Jewish and gentile converts who accepted the gospel while Paul preached there but then after he was driven out by the Jewish leadership, they stayed faithful to the gospel.