Colossians 2:6-7
“My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.”
“ And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
School’s out can mean two different things. In childhood it was glorious with promise of a free and lazy summer. During college years it meant finding summer work and then, after the senior year, beginning a career path. What kind of ‘school’s out’ is meant here?
Our spiritual birthright is freedom. We embrace it like summer vacation. When school ends for good we quit studying and start adulting. It is hard. The way forward is Christ and even more of him. Eyes on him and his word find complexities dissolve and clear direction for the next step. Our burdens lifted we choose God’s path. Freedom and sometimes terrifying adventures await.
Lord, prepare me for the next adventure. Make me faithful to you and others. Keep my eyes on you.
Colossians 2:3-4
“All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.””
“ In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.”
Man’s religion always has secrets. Learn them and life will be good. Then there are more secrets and more. Secret seeking becomes a bondage. Eventually the one behind the secret seeking leads the seeker to himself. Darkness and destruction ensue.
But God’s way is full disclosure! Joyfully, it is simple. Christ alone. Destruction’s way is increasingly shallow, narrow and bleak. Christ’s way is rich, meaty, utterly beautiful and free. It may be simple, but it leads to a delight-full and wide-open but secure life of joyful discovery.
Lord, I am so grateful for your leading in my life. You have directed, provided, healed in many ways. Thank you for joy, freedom and discovery you bless me with. You are everything to me!
Colossians 2:2
“ I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery.”
“I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.”
I love the metaphor of tapestry describing our relationships in the body of Christ. According to Merriam Webster a tapestry is “a piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving colored weft threads or by embroidering on canvas, used as a wall hanging or furniture covering.” It is generally not woven “row by row” across the width of the piece but, rather, by shapes or colors as the design progresses.
The warp threads form the structure upon which the colored yards are placed. Christ is our warp. The threads are placed according to an intricate design. Some colors are center stage. Accent colors appear seldom but are critical to enhancing the work. Some colors by nature catch the eye. Others form the background. Groups of colors complement one another accomplishing much more than one color by itself. Each believer is a unique color with an assigned place. God alone knows the pattern he weaves with us. We do know its name. It is The Bride of Christ. For the first time I can imagine the stunning beauty of the church on her wedding day.
Lord, make me able to do, and be, my part in the great tapestry you are weaving. I don’t care what it is. I just want to do it well.
Colossians 1:28-29
“We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.”
“So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.”
God is infinitely big, infinitely small and now I know he is infinitely simple. All the truth in the universe is wrapped up in one person, Christ. He is good news. Christ heals all and solves all. His power sustains subatomic particles and therefore all creation. All hope points to Christ who puts all things right. Christ is the only one able to reveal the Father. He is the center of creation and time.
Lord, I want to single-mindedly dwell on Jesus. I want him to be the center of my heart, my life, my spirit and my body. I want more of him and need more of him. Please, help me!
Colossians 1:18-20
“From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies…”
“He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth…”
Paul is speaking of Christ. This describes the promised fulfillment of the hope we believers have, that in Christ everything broken will be fixed and shine in fulfillment of its eternal destiny. I cannot imagine anything more beautiful and cannot wait to see it.
Lord, keep me grounded in hoping for healing for every bit of creation.
Colossians 1:11-12
“We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.”
“We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.”
I’ve found there is a sense of dread given by the Spirit when I head in a direction out of his will. It is not fear. Perhaps it could be described as a lack of joy. Joy is the settled peace of knowing I am in God’s place in his time. If we lack joy in a task and face a thing with gritted teeth we should ask again for God’s direction, lest our efforts come to nothing. Joy is not a warm fuzzy. It is the peace of certainty. God customizes our yoke. It is lighter than air, a bright and beautiful thing. He makes us strong to pull the weight of his will. He rewards us with thanksgiving and joy. Dread has no part in any of this.
Lord, keep me tuned to this kind of dread. Help me grow in discerning the difference between it and the dread evil casts. I long to be ever more certain of you until the gates of Hell will not stand against me.
Colossians 1:9-10
“We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work.”
“We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.”
It always begins with God. Seeking, knowing and enjoying him must be primary. All of life flows from it. Incorrect ideas of God’s nature spawn bondage. Knowing him gives freedom and understanding of how to work his way.
Lord, it has taken me a lifetime to feel like I know you. How I wish it could have been so sooner. Thank you for healing me bit by bit, bringing me to this point. Let my progress shine into other lives, illuminating your glory.
Colossians 1:6
“The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger just as it has in you.”
“This the same Good News that came to you from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.”
The gospel is power-full. It is true truth and cannot be diminished by anything the world pours upon it. I can be assured sharing it will bear fruit, probably in ways I cannot see or understand. As I relax into this. My sharing will grow more natural and joyful.
Lord help me to share The Message fruitfully in this life you have given me. Let me relax into its power.
Colossians 1:3-5
“Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.”
“We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. ”
Paul begins this little book by thanksgiving for the church of Colossae, corporately and individually. He uses the sandwich method of placing critical exhortations between positives. I must do better at this, especially with my husband and family. I tend to speak directly, which sounds harsh. This would be especially good with my daughter-in-law.
Lord, help me to recover the tact and gentleness I had when younger. Granted, it was a function of my insecurities. Life burned it away and only you can bring it back. Please restore it to me. Let it be rooted in you this time.
Joshua 1:16-18
“They answered Joshua: ‘Everything you commanded us, we’ll do. Wherever you send us, we’ll go. We obeyed Moses to the letter; we’ll also obey you—we just pray that GOD, your God, will be with you as he was with Moses. Anyone who questions what you say and refuses to obey whatever you command him will be put to death. Strength! Courage!’”
“They answered Joshua, ‘We will do whatever you command us, and we will go wherever you send us. We will obey you just as we obeyed Moses. And may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Anyone who rebels against your orders and does not obey your words and everything you command will be put to death. So be strong and courageous!’”
This was spoken by the Tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh who had decided to settle on the east side of the Jordan River. This generation grew up in the wilderness. They lived the judgement upon their parents, who forty years before, had refused to follow God and fight for the land of promise. Successful navigation of hard times did good things for their character. They had developed faith-bone, hardened, ready to follow orders. They understood themselves and therefore others, knowing leaders need encouragement also. They promised unconditional support. A sojourn in the wilderness produced a beautiful change of eternal significance in their hearts. God controls every moment of my life according to the individual plan he has for me. God ordained trials are always a good thing. Lord, remind me of this during the next trial. Make me always ready to face them. May the church grow faith-bone and become hardened in the faith, ever ready to hear and follow orders.
Numbers 36:9
“Every Israelite is responsible for making sure the inheritance stays within the ancestral tribe. No inheritance-land may be passed from tribe to tribe; each tribe of the People of Israel must hold tight to its own land.”
“No grant of land may pass from one tribe to another, each tribe of Israel must keep its allotted portion of land.”
The context is of Zelophehad’s daughters. They had no brothers and asked that their ancestral land be given to them. If they married outside the tribe, tribal leaders didn’t want tribal inheritance to pass to another tribe. God responded and said they must marry within the tribe. The land of promise was precious. It was as wide open for settlement as the cross is to everyone. It flowed with nourishment for physical bodies just as the Spirit nourishes us. It was the place of rest as Christ is our rest. The land was precious because it pointed to the most precious thing, living with God through Christ.
Amen!
Numbers 35:20-21
“And if out of sheer hatred a man pushes another or from ambush throws something at him and he dies, or angrily hits him with his fist and kills him, that’s murder—he must be put to death. The avenger has a right to kill him when he gets him.”
“So if someone hates another persona and waits in ambush, then pushes him or throws something at him and he dies, it is murder. Or if someone hates another person and hits him with a fist and he dies, it is murder. In such cases, the avenger must put the murderer to death when they meet.”
These verses are addressing something other than vengeance though one could argue they have the same root word. I see the value God places on human life and his hatred of sin. Destroying man, God’s image bearer, is ultimate destruction and defies God’s intention in creation. God gives life. Satan seeks to destroy it. Failing to provide justice for one murdered soul reduces everyone’s worth, including ours. We value life by administering justice.
Lord, forgive us. Convict us of the evil within and the necessity of facing it with the redeeming power of the cross.