Category: Colossians

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Sorry – Wrong Account

Well, that was a surprising email!

Dave and I are waiting to be reimbursed for some warranty work. I received an email requesting our summer address and was given a date of when the reimbursement should be arriving.

I replied asking if that would be for both invoices and received another email verifying two invoices but the wrong amounts. This was quickly followed by another email, “Sorry, wrong account” and then listed the correct amounts for reimbursement.

Good.

Things like that happen every day, hundreds of times. People being improperly charged and then there are emails, phone calls (sometimes very heated calls) and finally correction and resolution.

Do you know things like that happen in our spiritual lives as well? We’ll be going along just as carefree and happy as you please when a thought, a condemning thought, comes to mind. It’s called our conscience, a guilty conscience, reminding us of something in our past that we are ashamed of, and we plummet into self-pity and unworthiness.

Stamp that memory with the words “Wrong Account” and return to the sender, who is the devil.

“But Christ was sinless, and he offered himself as an eternal and spiritual sacrifice to God. This is why his blood is much more powerful and makes our consciences clear. Now we can serve the living God and no longer do things that lead to death.

15 Christ died to rescue those who had sinned and broken the old agreement. Now he brings his chosen ones a new agreement with its guarantee of God’s eternal blessings!” Hebrews 9:14-15 CEV

Christ took our sins, all of them, and paid the price for our forgiveness. They were charged to His account and that account has been marked paid in full. Through His sacrifice we can live with a clear conscience.

“He destroyed the record of the debt we owed, with its requirements that worked against us. He canceled it by nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:14 CEB

The debt has been removed by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Our account, our conscience, has been cleansed!

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Cleaning Toilets

Yesterday I had a friend email me after reading the blog about my refrigerator. She said she would be praying everything got taken care of today. That meant a lot and then she reminded me of a story from many years ago.

I was part of our church’s ministry team and had recently started a morning Bible Study for our women. Those teachings were very similar to the ones I share with you each morning. This particular morning, I was sharing that if we keep our hearts and our spiritual ears open the Lord will minister to us any time or any place.

Earlier in that week, while I had been doing my regular housecleaning, the Holy Spirit prompted me to keep my attitude pure in all that I did. See if you can relate. We had a large ranch-style home, three children (12, 10, 6mos), a dog, horses, and I worked full time. I was grumbling as I was cleaning toilets.

The verse that came to mind, I believe, was this:

“And whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in [dependence upon] His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:17 AMPC

After Bible Study was over that morning one of the ladies, a new Christian and a new bride, came up to talk with me. She said she had never thought of me having to do all the things that wives and mothers do. Her next words made me chuckle, she said she just thought I sat home all day, reading my Bible and praying. She didn’t think that I would have to do the normal stuff.

That’s when I realized how important it is to share the way the Lord works in our everyday lives.

Jesus never came to separate Himself from us, He came to join us. He came to bring His power and provision to the mundane. He came to add his “super” to our “natural”.

“Follow my example: Even the Son of Man did not come for people to serve him. He came to serve others and to give his life to save many people.” Mark 10:45 ERV

Christ came to serve others, to serve us. Yes, He got tired. Who else could fall asleep during a storm at sea? But His heart was always centered on serving. He knew that whatever He did should bring honor and glory to the Father.

Cleaning toilets, rocking a baby, wiping up spilled cereal, folding laundry, washing dirty faces, kissing little faces good night. Mowing the yard, spraying weeds, washing the car, board meetings, shoveling snow, changing the oil in the car.

Waiting for a new refrigerator.

Whatever we do in word or deed, do it all with an attitude of giving thanks to God!

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I Do It Myself

It’s not uncommon to hear little kids say, “I do it myself”. They are growing and learning and many times don’t want to accept help. They want to be independent. What we, who are older and wiser, know is that most of the time that attitude leads to a mess.

But before we are too critical of the little ones we need to look at our own statements of independence and there consequences. Hating to admit we need help is an expression of pride. I hesitate to ask Dave to open a jar of pickles – I can do it myself. Our cabinets are tall and he will volunteer to put things up for me and sometimes I find myself saying, “no that’s fine, I’ve got it”.

Why? That’s just silly but I do it all the same. We offer our time and our help as a gift, not as a criticism or an assertion of inability.

The Lord offers to help us in every circumstance of life but many times we’re like that small child standing with our hands on our hips and declaring I’ll do it myself. Through the years I’ve gotten more comfortable receiving from the Lord.

I heard one teacher contrast the difference between receiving and getting.

Getting implies working hard, striving, manipulating, using your effort to obtain. Receiving, on the other hand, is opening yourself to accept what someone else can do. You receive a gift with gratitude. Receiving from the Lord is accepting what Jesus has already done – that’s faith!

We don’t “work” to “get” from the Lord we walk by faith and accept His gifts of grace.

“You have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord. Now keep on following him. 7 Plant your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life. Be strong in your faith, just as you were taught. And be grateful.” Colossians 2:6-7 CEV

Here is our truth to live by today.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13 KJV

…to break it out further, here is the Amplified version

“I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]” AMP

Self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency – I can’t do it myself but when He helps all things are possible!

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Sit Quietly

This morning is one of those times when sleep eluded me. Awake at 1 am and up at 1:45. It was time to get up, pray and let the Lord speak to my heart.

I cherish those times of sitting quietly in His presence.

I began to read some of my favorite passages and found myself in Colossians. It’s there I stayed; my heart was flooded with complete gratitude – there truly are no words to express my thankfulness.

“God made us free from the power of darkness. And he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son. 14 The Son paid the price to make us free. In him we have forgiveness of our sins.” Colossians 1:13-14 ERV

Every sin I have ever committed and every one that I still will are forgiven!

Christ paid the price for our sin, once for all, we have been made right with God. I have been made right with God!

“At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, because the evil you did was against him. 22 But now he has made you his friends again. He did this by the death Christ suffered while he was in his body. He did it so that he could present you to himself as people who are holy, blameless, and without anything that would make you guilty before him. ” Colossians 1:21-22 ERV

No longer separated from, no longer enemies but friends. And not just friends – we’ve been adopted as His own. Christ died for me, to forgive me and then presented me to the Father as one who is holy, blameless and without guilt.

“You will show me the way of life. Being with You is to be full of joy. In Your right hand there is happiness forever.” Psalm 16:11 NLV

“Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! 16 So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved grace, and we will find help.” Hebrews 4:15-16 CEV

I am welcome in His throne room. I am invited to spend time in His presence. It’s important to sit quietly in His presence with no agenda or requests. In His presence is the fullness of joy!

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Rooted In Him

Have you ever thought about the difference between “with” and “in”?

If you have a glass of water and you take it to the table, it is “with” you. But you can leave that room and leave the water behind.

However, if you drink the water, it is “in” you. It gives life to your cells and nourishes your body.

The Old Testament tells us that God was “with” his people. When Jesus came, one of his names was Emmanuel, God “with” us. Jesus was and is the presence of God. After we accept Jesus as our Saviour the Scriptures says that we are “in” Him.

“Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so go on living in him—in simple faith. Grow out of him as a plant grows out of the soil it is planted in, becoming more and more sure of the faith as you were taught it, and your lives will overflow with joy and thankfulness…9-10 Yet it is in him that God gives a full and complete expression of himself (within the physical limits that he set himself in Christ). Moreover, your own completeness is only realised in him, who is the authority over all authorities, and the supreme power over all powers.” Colossians 2:6-10 Phillips

His fullness fills us with His life, His love, His character.

Wherever we go, Christ goes in us. We bring His nature, His life to every circumstance and person we come in contact with.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven. 4 In Christ, he chose us before the world was made. He chose us in love to be his holy people—people who could stand before him without any fault. 5 And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. This was what God wanted, and it pleased him to do it. 6 And this brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely. He gave us that grace in Christ, the one he loves.” Ephesians 1:3-6 ERV

There is no need to beg God to be “with us”. We need to be aware, vitally aware, He is always “in us”.

“This message is the secret truth that was hidden since the beginning of time. It was hidden from everyone for ages, but now it has been made known to God’s holy people. 27 God decided to let his people know just how rich and glorious that truth is. That secret truth, which is for all people, is that Christ lives in you, his people. He is our hope for glory. 28 So we continue to tell people about Christ. We use all wisdom to counsel every person and teach every person. We are trying to bring everyone before God as people who have grown to be spiritually mature in Christ.” Colossians 1:26-28 ERV

Christ lives “in” us so that we can take Him to the world! May the Lord shine through us today.

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Make It Stronger

A few days back Dave asked me to make the coffee stronger. I have used the same number of scoops for years, so his request intrigued me.

We always use the same brand and both of us drink our coffee black. I’m wondering if the coffee company has changed their processing. Maybe it’s just our taste buds. But I complied with his request, and we are enjoying it more.

Make it stronger…as I was drinking my first cup this morning and enjoying the fuller flavor I was reminded of a couple of Scriptures.

When we are young Christians, the Apostle Peter, says we grow by experiencing the milk of Scripture.

“Like newborn babies hungry for milk, you should want the pure teaching that feeds your spirit. With it you can grow up and be saved.” I Peter 2:2 ERV

The writer of Hebrews points out that as we grow, we need a stronger diet of more solid foods.

“But solid food is for people who have grown up. From their experience they have learned to see the difference between good and evil.” Hebrews 5:14 ERV

That is why I love Paul’s writings in the book of Colossians.

There are so many wonderful nuggets of God’s wisdom and provision contained in that small book. I wish we had time to sit and discuss it verse by verse. This book is filled with hope, strength, forgiveness, instruction for daily living. It starts by reminding us of how deeply the Father loves us.

“At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, because the evil you did was against him. 22 But now he has made you his friends again. He did this by the death Christ suffered while he was in his body. He did it so that he could present you to himself as people who are holy, blameless, and without anything that would make you guilty before him. 23 And that is what will happen if you continue to believe in the Good News you heard. You must remain strong and sure in your faith. You must not let anything cause you to give up the hope that became yours when you heard the Good News. That same Good News has been told to everyone on earth, and that’s the work that I, Paul, was given to do.” Colossians 1:21-23 ERV

At one time we were enemies of God the Father. But through Jesus’ sacrifice we have been brought into a right relationship with Him. The Father loves us and sees us as holy, faultless and without blame. All of our sins were placed on Jesus when He died for us.

Christ lives in us and is our power source, our strength and our victory.

In our homes we have electricity. That electricity will light a bulb of 25, 60, or 100 watts. The size of the bulb may change but the power source is the same.

Christ is the same in all our lives and as we grow stronger in Him we learn to appropriate more of what He has provided.

Make us stronger Lord for your glory!

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Learn to Study

This morning I was considering what to write. I knew I wanted to share some of Paul’s encouragement to us, as Christians. However, some of his sentences are so long and compound with multiple prepositional phrases, adjectives and adverbs.

To fully unpack the meaning of these wonderful words we need to break the sentences down. That takes time and the skills we learned in Jr. Hi English class. Plain and simple, it’s called sentence diagramming.

Paul is writing to the “saints” in Colossae and to us “saints” who live in today’s world.

“This is what we pray: that God will make you completely sure of what he wants by giving you all the wisdom and spiritual understanding you need; 10 that this will help you live in a way that brings honor to the Lord and pleases him in every way; that your life will produce good works of every kind and that you will grow in your knowledge of God; 11 that God will strengthen you with his own great power, so that you will be patient and not give up when troubles come. Then you will be happy 12 and give thanks to the Father. He has made you able to have what he has promised to give all his holy people, who live in the light. 13 God made us free from the power of darkness. And he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son. 14 The Son paid the price to make us free. In him we have forgiveness of our sins.” Colossians 1:9-14

Paul prayed for us. He prayed that God would make us sure, completely sure of what He wants so He gives us wisdom and understanding, all wisdom & spiritual understanding. We need this wisdom and understanding to live a life that honors & pleases the Lord in EVERY way.

This wisdom and understanding will cause our lives to produce GOOD works of every kind, understanding & good works will cause us to grow in our knowledge of God. Paul also prayed that God would strengthen us with power, His great power, so that we will be patient (have endurance) and not give up when trouble comes.

Not giving up, we thank the Father because He has made us free from the power of darkness (this is His promise to us) and brought us into His Son’s kingdom where we have freedom and the forgiveness of sins.

WOW!!!

Thank you, Mrs. Morgan, for teaching me to diagram sentences. (By the way, I just saw there’s an app for that). We need to learn how to study the word of God because every word has meaning and purpose.

God doesn’t waste words – In the beginning He said, “Light be” and light was.

When we find a couple of verses filled with so many words, we must take time to find the meaning packed in each one. Learn to study them out.

It’s there we will find the wonderful message of God’s love, His wisdom, understanding and strength!

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Encourage the Brave

I found this saying attributed to Alexander the Great and thought it was worth sharing. “An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep”.

God has placed within us all a spirit of boldness; sometimes we just need someone to encourage us.

Let’s look at three words. Courage, En courage, Dis courage.

Courage: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.

Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to push through it.

En-courage: to make (someone) more determined, hopeful, or confident.

In the Bible the words strength or encourage are used interchangeably.

Discourage. to make (someone) less determined, hopeful, or confident.

When we become discouraged, we lose the ability to persevere and withstand difficulty. I want to encourage you in who you are today in Christ. Don’t let the enemy or the circumstances you are facing discourage you.

“You have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord. Now keep on following him. 7 Plant your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life. Be strong in your faith, just as you were taught. And be grateful. 8 Don’t let anyone fool you by using senseless arguments. These arguments may sound wise, but they are only human teachings. They come from the powers of this world and not from Christ. 9 God lives fully in Christ. 10 And you are fully grown because you belong to Christ, who is over every power and authority.” Colossians 2:6-10 CEV

Be strong, be grateful. Don’t listen to senseless arguments that discredit God. The power of God rests in Christ and since we are in Christ. As believers God makes His power available to us. He has made us free!

“You were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self. But God gave you new life together with Christ. He forgave all our sins. 14 Because we broke God’s laws, we owed a debt—a debt that listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us of that debt. He took it away and nailed it to the cross. 15 He defeated the rulers and powers of the spiritual world. With the cross he won the victory over them and led them away, as defeated and powerless prisoners for the whole world to see.” Colossians 2:13-15 ERV

Christ won the victory for us! Be encouraged with that today.

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Hard to Be Humble

Those of you who remember the country music of the 80’s will remember this song by Mack Davis:

Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble
When you’re perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
‘Cause I get better lookin’ each day

Humility is lost to a great many in today’s society. Taking sole credit for the good and putting all responsibility for things going wrong on someone else seems to be the norm.

Yesterday we found a list of qualities that the Father wants us to add to our lives. Qualities that will reflect His DNA (divine nature attributes) and when displayed will show that we are like the Father.

“Do your best to improve your faith by adding goodness, understanding, 6 self-control, patience, devotion to God, 7 concern for others, and love. 8 If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful.” II Peter 1:5-7 CEV

Goodness, understanding, self-control, patience, devotion, concern and compassion could all be used as descriptive terms for a person of humility. These are the characteristics of Christ; they show that we are conforming to His image.

“God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So your new life should be like this: Show mercy to others. Be kind, humble, gentle, and patient. 13 Don’t be angry with each other, but forgive each other. If you feel someone has wronged you, forgive them. Forgive others because the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:12-13 ERV

Oh yes, it’s hard to be humble; to respond like this when we are treated poorly is often a monumental task. To be kind and forgiving when we are maligned is not easy but it is Christlike.

“Don’t be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. 4 Care about them as much as you care about yourselves 5 and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: 6 Christ was truly God. But he did not try to remain equal with God. 7 Instead he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us.” Philippians 2:3-7 CEV

Jesus never compromised on the Word of God. He never apologized for His hatred of sin and evil but He never retaliated in a selfish or unloving way. His mission was the message of forgiveness and reconciliation to those on earth and He did that by becoming one with us.

Everything He did, He did to honor the Father. His life is our example.

“In fact, God treats us with even greater kindness, just as the Scriptures say, ‘God opposes everyone who is proud, but he blesses all who are humble with undeserved grace.’

7 Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you. 8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you… 10 Be humble in the Lord’s presence, and he will honor you.” James 4:6-10 CEV

Humility is a lifestyle that reflects the Father. He gives us the grace we need to live in such a way and honors us for our obedience.

Be humble!

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When Strength Is Low

I hope you will understand the blog being late today. I really slept in this morning! We arrived home late afternoon on Friday and then spent yesterday with family activities.

Our oldest daughter, her daughter and I spent a good portion of the day making jam. Strawberry. Blackberry. Dozens of little jars. It was a fun day. Jam making is generally something I do with our oldest grandson but yesterday the girls wanted to be involved.

It was one of those days of making memories!

But this morning it all caught up with me and I just needed a few more hours of sleep. You ever have one of those days? So, if you need a little extra encouragement like I did this morning here goes.

“We must not get tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time. We must not give up. 10 When we have the opportunity to do good to anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.” Galatians 6:9-10 ERV

“Young men get tired and need to rest. Even young boys stumble and fall.31 But those who trust in the Lord will become strong again. They will be like eagles that grow new feathers.[a]They will run and not get weak. They will walk and not get tired.” Isaiah 40:30-31 ERV

“The Lord your God wins victory after victory and is always with you.He celebrates and sings because of you,and he will refresh your life with his love.” Zephaniah 3:17 CEV

“Since the day we heard these things about you, we have continued praying for you. This is what we pray: that God will make you completely sure of what he wants by giving you all the wisdom and spiritual understanding you need; 10 that this will help you live in a way that brings honor to the Lord and pleases him in every way; that your life will produce good works of every kind and that you will grow in your knowledge of God; 11 that God will strengthen you with his own great power, so that you will be patient and not give up when troubles come. Then you will be happy 12 and give thanks to the Father. He has made you able to have what he has promised to give all his holy people, who live in the light.” Colossians 1:9-12 ERV

Now, I don’t know about you but I’m ready for the rest of the day. I’m going over in victory! AMEN.

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