Colossians
Saturday, June 26, 2004
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Thanks for another week of life in Your Son, Jesus! I praise You for this week of study, which makes it so clear that You and Jesus are one, and that Your grace is sufficient to meet all my needs. I pray that You will fill me with Your Holy Spirit right now, that I may apply all that I have studied this week, and that when I need these words to share with another believer, or someone who is seeking the truth, that they will come to my remembrance. I claim Jesus’ promise that when the Spirit has come, that He will guide us to remember everything that He taught. I pray that whatever I do today, whether working or playing, or resting, that You will be glorified in my life, and that others will see You in me. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God's Word For Me Today
Colossians 1:15-23
15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. 16Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. 17He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together.
18Christ is the head of the church, which is his body. He is the first of all who will rise from the dead, so he is first in everything. 19For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20and by him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross. 21This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, 22yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. 23But you must continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed by God to proclaim it.
Reflecting on God’s Word
What would you include from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, if you were writing a letter to a group of new believers, who were seeking to live faithfully for Jesus in our times?
A Deeper Exploration of God’s Word
As you re-read this week’s Scripture what insights jumped out that you hadn’t noticed before?
Understanding God’s Word
When you read this week’s Scripture as a whole what does it tell you about God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit?
Applying God’s Word to Our Lives
What one action do you need to take as a result of reading this Scripture?
Thoughts...Holy and Blameless...
We live in an era when the terms “holy” and “blameless” are quite uncommon. So many folks, Christians among them, wouldn’t even want to be known as holy, because the term seems to signify those who are totally separate from life, and who engage in extreme levels of religious ritual, prayer and service. This is actually a caricature of holiness. Holiness is nothing more or less than being set apart by God to live as He desires us to live. Holiness WILL separate us from many of our peers, but not because we will “look” religious, or “act” religious. It will set us apart, because we will be LIVING the teachings of Jesus.
The word “blameless” is seldom heard in our culture, because we are a blaming culture. Look around today and someone is always pointing a finger of blame at someone else. Children blame their parents for bad upbringings. Patients blame their doctors for poor health (or sometimes they blame McDonalds!) The truth is each of us goes through this life as a blamer, or as one who is blameless, because of Jesus. When we realize that Jesus takes away ALL the blame in our lives—all the sin, it’s easier to stop blaming others for them. As we go about this day, let’s thank God for making us holy and blameless people through the blood of Jesus! Let’s LIVE as holy and blameless people to His glory, and as we do, we’ll see that others want what we have—Jesus—too!