By Maggie Marshall What I specifically want to focus on from the Colossians 3:12-14 passage is that God loves you; because of this love you must clothe yourself in His love and principles. The image in verse 12 of putting something on implies that you have to take something else off. You have to take off the old self, which is sin and put on a new self. The new self means to emulate the character of our Lord Jesus Christ and how He acted and reacted as He walked on this earth. This does not mean that we live perfect lives immediately. This is a continual life process called sanctification, which is not complete until we meet Jesus in heaven.
So what are things we put on to make a new self? A heart of compassion, which includes pity, favor, grace and mercy to everyone around us. Kindness, goodness, uprightness, humility which is self abandonment, gentleness, patience and forgiving each other as the Lord forgave you, and loving as God loves us which creates unity. For most of my life, I saw this passage as a list of things I needed to do to be a Christian. I grew up in church, was born into a Godly home, and went to private schools in which I learned doctrine and theology starting in preschool. Early on in my faith, I thought I was pretty good at trying to check off these boxes, but I ignored the ones I fell short on. After several missed goals and heartbreaks, God brought me to a realization that this list is not a goal of characteristics I can achieve on my own. Looking back, I was playing religious games and had not taken off the old self of pride and independence. He showed me what I had been ignoring for years that I couldn't even measure up to my own list of standards. Through an ongoing process, which I am still working on today, I came to see the new self only exists when Christ is ruling in my heart and His word indwelling in me through the Holy Spirit. To me, this means that my self worth is found in God and not my own checklist. And it is only from this place of God living through us that we can put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience as described in Colossians. In the end, each of us has been chosen by God- holy and beloved. The message of the gospel is summed up in John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
0 Comments
by Brandalynn Graham Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said,“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 11: 40-42) What happens when God seems silent? It is true the Lord speaks to us in many different ways throughout our lives, but what about the times when we feel He is silent? This past year has been one of the most difficult seasons of my life. I can only describe it as being a cave, in the valley, and in a desert all at once. These are all lonely quiet places. Although I know the Lord is there, it can feel at times as if He’s silent or even distant. When we don’t experience deliverance or healing as expected in our timing, when can be tempted to doubt God’s love or become weary or think our faith has failed. One way the enemy can discourage us is through the lie that we are forgotten or God doesn’t hear us. The truth is that God can be trusted even in the silence and can use these quiet times of uncertainty to mature our faith and draw us even closer into an intimate relationship with Him. He is not ambivalent or indifferent towards us, but longs to use our pain and suffering for His ultimate good. As I reflect over scripture, there are many different examples of God’s silence in the bible.
Why is GOd Silent?
Isaiah 55:8-"Neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. So how do we respond when we feel like God is silent Remember TRUTH by reading the word of God (God speaks through the bible)
Be Patient. (Trust and Obey Him despite your feelings or perceptions.) Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)
“and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. -2 Corinthians 5:15-21 With the elections coming up this next month, I know that there will be plenty of blog posts and sermons to help us in our decision to vote as Christians for the next president of the United States. Before we get into this devotion I want to first say that I love ‘Murica, I love that our founding fathers built our nation on Christian principles, I love that there is a freedom and that there are laws and order in this land. I am extremely grateful for our armed service members and veterans who have and are protecting our country. I am also currently in the process of becoming a Chaplain in the Air Force Reserves so again I say, I love ‘Murica. The truth is that America is not the Lord’s country, Israel is. It is through Israel that salvation is then brought to the Gentiles which are those who are not of the Jewish decent (Romans 11). Though we are either born in America or who have become citizens of America, once we have believed in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins, we have then become citizens of the Kingdom of God (Philippians 3:20). As we have become citizens of the Kingdom of God our citizenship in America becomes secondary in comparison to the Kingdom of God. We can see in 2 Corinthians 5:18 that God has called us in to Himself from our old way and given us a new identity and citizenship in Christ to send us out with the ministry of reconciliation. I was born in Dallas, Texas and I will always consider the great Nation of Texas to be my home. What we see in Scripture and throughout history is that nations and countries rise and fall. The truth is one day all of the nations and countries that we know today including America will no longer be but a memory when Jesus Christ returns for His second coming in His full glory and might. Until the time that either Jesus returns or calls us home we are to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God while living in our land as strangers and exiles (2 Cor. 5:20, 1 Peter 2:11). Ambassadors are sent from a host country to a foreign nation to be their representatives on behalf of that host country. We are the same, being sent from our host kingdom which is the Kingdom of Light to parts of our land where men and women are still underneath the kingdom of darkness. Things are going to be a lot different in the next couple of years for our country. Life as we know will be different. Rather than fighting by playing defense to keep things the way they have been, we are to exercise our calling as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God by imploring all on behalf of Christ to be reconciled by God. The Kingdom of God is wherever the reign and rule of the Lord is imminent. As we are sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all, we also have the role and responsibility to be advocates for the Lord in how God intended things to be before sin entered the world in Genesis 3. In the public square (culture), we are to be advocates for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, human dignity, religious liberty for all, and for family stability,[1] and to pray for those who are in authority and to seek the welfare of the city and it’s people (Jeremiah 29:7). [1] Moore, Russel1. Onward: Engaging The Culture Without Losing the Gospel. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group. 2015.
Passage: Luke 14:25-35 We’ve all had a longing to be identified with something. Whether it is in sports, we want to know what’s our position, team name, colors, and mascot. Whether it be military, what branch do you want to serve, Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines and why. Whether it’s Civil Service, what area do you want to serve your local community? Is it as a police officer, paramedic, or firefighter? We’ve all not only have longed to identify with some sort of community/team but also understand there are usually some form of sacrifices to make the team. In addition, once you’ve made the team you will answer to someone above you, for example a Coach, a General, a Commanding officer, someone who will lead you along your career or service so that you are equipped to understand your position and help lead others. After reading this passage, there are some clear statements from Jesus on what it means to be a disciple. The basic meaning of a Disciple is someone who is a devoted follower. A devoted follower Jesus describes in this passage and in many others is someone who counts the cost, denies them self, carries their cross, and follows Him. What exactly does all this mean you may ask? Jesus here teaches us a disciple is someone who loves Jesus even more than one’s self and their immediate family. Also in the scriptures we are told the 1st greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37, Deut. 6:5) before we are to “love others as ourselves” (Matt. 22:38). To carry your cross symbolizes total commitment, complete dedication, a willing obedience, or a popular term we hear is “GOING ALL IN” for Jesus. Jesus didn’t take total commitment to Him lightly. Jesus shares in addition to following Him, both in Luke 9:24 and Matthew 10:39, “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but who ever loses their life for me will save it.” Jesus explains total commitment may mean losing your life for Him. Jesus says all this because he really wanted His disciples and those who chose to follow him to not have a naïve commitment that expected only blessings, rather to really count the cost and understand what complete surrender to him looks like. Before we can understand any commitment to Christ, we must understand God’s love for us and why Christ paid the penalty for our sin on His behalf. According to Romans 5:8 it says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” For anyone here today whose accepted Christ but unsure what it means follow Him or anyone who would consider them self anything other than a Christ follower, please let me share that GOD SINCERELY LOVES YOU! There’s no doubt or hesitation on how much He REALLY LOVES YOU! Everything in the passage shared about what it means to be committed and to follow Jesus is already what God committed and willingly did for us. Jesus already counted the cost, denied Himself, followed us here on earth, and took up our cross that we should have bore for our sins against God. Jesus didn’t want us to be condemned and live a life apart from God, but to cross over from death to life, so we may have life here and the life to come. In conclusion as we commit our lives to loving God, following Christ, and serving others, my prayer for all of us along this journey in life is from the words of the Apostle Paul that we would “Run in such a way as to get the prize” and “we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” Reflective Question
|
Follow us on instagram
Categories
All
|