"For they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God." 1 Thess. 1:9

Believers everywhere testified to the true conversion of the Thessalonians. Paul and his team received a mixed response wherever they preached the Gospel. Some believed the message; many were openly hostile to the Gospel. The city of Thessalonica was a center for pagan idol worship. Someone has well said that the unregenerate heart is an idol factory. Paul tells us exactly how some of the people of that city responded to the message of the Gospel; they had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Turned is a N.T. word for repentance and would be commensurate with the military command "about face." After this change in direction, the new believers were now no longer serving dead idols, but the one and only true God. Is it obvious to your community that you are serving the Lord?