Month: November 2024

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ” Colossians 1:3 NIV

Paul is writing to the Christians in the church in Colossae. He has never met these brothers and sisters in Christ, as he was unable to go there to help them begin the church in Colossae. Even though he has never met them, he opens the letter he is writing to them by letting them know that he is praying for them and he is thankful for them.

Praying is very important to our spiritual life as it is a direct connection between us and God. We often pray for those we know who are non believers to come to know Christ. Praying for other believers is as important as praying for unbelievers because when we do we are lifting them to God to help strengthen them. Praying for others, even others we have never met, shows our connection to them through the family of Christ.

Being thankful in our prayers helps us to maintain our focus on what God has done for us. When we are focused on the blessings we have been given, it is difficult to focus on negative things in our lives. For those who are new Christians, I encourage you to pray for everyone including yourselves as you grow in your walk with Christ.

When you pray, do you give thanks? Do you pray for nonbelievers? Do you pray for other believers? Do you pray for both?

“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29 NIV

I have written about the idea of loving God with all of your heart and all of your soul, before. This verse is encouraging us to seek Him as well with all of our heart and all of our soul. When we commit to seeking God, whether in times of trouble or not, we will find Him. He doesn’t hide from us.

When we seek God with a sincere desire to find Him and have a relationship with Him, not simply as a passing activity when we have decided that we need Him, we are engaging in a relationship with our Creator. This desire comes from deep inside to connect to the Creator of the universe. We all have this desire, we are hard wired by God to want to be connected to Him.

When do you seek God?

Does your seeking of God involve all of you?

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 NIV

Is it necessary to believe that God exists to pray to Him, to go to Him? The obvious answer should be yes, however, there are individuals who when they are in crisis mode will pray to God even though the rest of the time they profess He doesn’t exist. That is inconsistent, odd, weird and some might say hypocritical, but I am thankful for those moments because in my mind, that person isn’t firmly cemented in their unbelief.

It doesn’t mean that they are now believers or that God is going to richly reward them as God wants sincere faith in Him, not just crisis based cooperation. However, I believe that when a person is willing to consider, even when it is in a crisis, that there could be ‘someone bigger than themselves’ then the door is open to the person possibly changing their beliefs. This is exciting news since there are most likely people in each of our lives who are in the category of nonbelievers.

There is so much more about this verse that can be unpacked but for today I simply want to focus on the hope that we can see when an unbeliever cracks open the door to consider that God actually exists. I encourage each believer to look for those moments when an unbeliever is inconsistent between their actions and beliefs and to be excited that there is a crack in the place where the unbeliever has cemented themselves normally.

Have a wonderful day!

“Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:38-39 NIV

The passage of scripture that these 2 verses are taken from is a recounting of when Jesus is instructing His disciples to go preach and heal. During this passage, Jesus reminds them that in order to represent Him to the world, that they must love Him above all else, that is what He meant when He says ‘Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.’ The life Jesus is referring to is their old way of living, which was the same as the way the world lived, putting self first.

When we choose to follow Jesus there are things we choose to change about our lives and maybe even cut out of our lives, certain behaviors that are not in line with how we are choosing live now. There are sometimes relationships that are toxic to our decision to change from following the world to following Jesus. Dying to self – placing others, in this case Jesus, above our wants, desires, addictions, relationships and what we have determined to be our needs – is hard. We are essentially taking our old life, the way we lived, thought, acted, reacted, and burying it so that it is no longer a part of our new life.

Sometimes the choice of what is going to be cut from our old lives is made for us. There may be some individuals in our lives who have strong negative reactions to our decision to follow Jesus. They may be very harsh with us, calling us names, treating us differently and even cutting us out of their lives. This is part of what Jesus is warning His disciples about, that they too will suffer for His sake. That as long as they were willing to accept the consequences of following Him, losing everything of this world, they would be worthy enough to be His disciples.

However, when we choose to follow Jesus and then do not change from our old ways and cling instead to our old life, Jesus is saying that we are not worthy to follow Him. A relationship with Jesus is an ALL IN or ALL OUT kind of decision. He does not like indecisiveness. This sounds harsh, but we either are willing to do what is needed to be worthy or not, it truly is our choice.

What are you choosing?

“Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” Galatians 3:11 NIV

The verse for today comes from Paul’s letter to the believers in Galatia who were struggling with letting go of their old life and completely embracing their new life, a life in Christ. There were Christians who believed that they still had to maintain the Mosaic laws of Moses and were not understanding that the Law had nothing to do with being justified.

Being justified or righteous occurs because the believer is living by faith. Living according to the Laws and without faith is not the path to be justified. The law was what condemned the Israelites when they broke it, and it was broken a lot because it was impossible to not break it. There were 613 laws that the Israelites were to live by and not break and the moment one of them was broken, the whole overarching concept of the Law, was broken.

So if keeping all of the laws did not justify a person before God, what did and what does now? Jesus. Accepting Jesus as your Savior, a relationship with Jesus, faith in Jesus is what justifies you and me before God. Jesus came and freed us from the laws and gave us a different path to justification, righteousness, life – faith in Jesus, faith in the Holy Spirit, faith in God. Those who live life through faith in God are righteous before God because they are living a life of faith in Him, not performing mindless acts to fulfil a law. We do not become justified and then decide to live by faith, it is through our faith, the act of having faith and the active use of our faith, that we become justified.

Are you living by a list of rules you feel will entitle you to be justified if you complete all of them? The way to being justified before God is to live by faith that Jesus saved you when you accepted Him as your Lord.

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27 NIV

Paul is writing a letter to brothers and sisters in Christ who he has never met. The church at Colossae was found by those Paul sent there but not by Paul himself. However, Paul had a sincere concern for all Christians and wanted all to be fruitful in living a life dedicated to Christ. Throughout the book of Colossians, Paul is encouraging the followers of Christ to maintain their relationship with Jesus and to not give into the cultural pressures surrounding them.

The city of Colossae had a mixture of religious practices and therefore any individual who was beginning to follow a new way of life could become influenced into believing what some false teachers were preaching. In this verse, Paul is making it clear to everyone that to follow Christ they did not need to be Jewish, either by faith or heritage. He wanted all to understand that if they chose to follow Christ that they would become aware of the glorious riches of the mystery of ‘Christ in you’.

That sounds wonderful, ‘glorious riches’ and ‘Christ in you’, but what exactly does that mean? Christ came from His throne in heaven, where He was king, to become a human baby that was vulnerable and poor by the societal standards of His time. He did this to save mankind so that mankind could be given a chance to have everlasting life, the glorious riches of living in the kingdom of heaven.

Christ in you means just that, Christ lives in us once we accept Him as Lord and Savior. He is there from that moment forward. He is there to give us His strength to do what we could not otherwise do, He is there to give us His peace which we would otherwise not be able to feel. Can you feel the difference in your life from when you were not a Christian and lived by the standards of this world? If you have not accepted Christ yet, do you want to feel that difference?

Heavenly Father, thank You for allowing those of us who are not Jewish by faith or birth to be recipients of the glorious riches of the mystery of Christ in us. You are so loving that You want to be involved in our lives and let us experience heaven for all of eternity. I pray that if there is anyone reading this that has not accepted You as their Lord and Savior, that they stop where they are and do that now. That they bow their heads and talk to You, listen to You, accept You and become Your child so Christ can live in them as well. Thank You for Your love. In Jesus’s precious name, Amen.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7 NIV

As a Christian, we find our identity to be from a different source. The source is the very root of the word ‘Christian’, Christ. Most people are proud of where they are from, what the source of their heritage is, where they are rooted. Just as a person who lives in Pennsylvania is known as a Pennsylvanian, those who live in Christ are known as Christians.

Each Pennsylvanian is in charge of either acknowledging that their roots are from Pennsylvania or not. Each Christian is in charge of either acknowledging whether they are rooted in Christ or not. Paul is reminding the church at Colossae that their spiritual life is rooted in Jesus Christ. Being a Christian in Paul’s time was not an easy endeavor, you had to hide what you believed if you were around the religious leaders of your area because they all hated Jesus.

Paul, is these verses and many more in the book of Colossians, is encouraging his brothers and sisters in Christ to remain steadfast. To remember where they have placed their hearts and faith, what they have been taught about Jesus and a new way of living, a new way of believing and a new way of having faith. To remember that they are rooted in Christ.

Paul is giving us the same encouragement about remembering where our lives are rooted once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. For us to grow in our faith and spiritual walk with Jesus, we can draw our strength from the Holy Spirit who lives inside each believer, from Jesus who died and rose to give us a path to eternal salvation and from God Himself who loves us and wants to be involved in our lives.

So, where are you rooted? Who do you belong to?

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV

Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. Until you read the next part of the verse, you don’t realize that they are in prison at this time. They are in prison for telling others that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. The officials and religious leaders were very threatened by the man Jesus Christ and even more because He was the Messiah.

What I want to focus on here is that it is midnight and they are in prison. Two things that are not the normal setting for people to be praying and singing hymns. The average person, when placed in prison, tends to be upset by the fact that their freedom is gone especially when they haven’t committed a crime. They typically become hard hearted and cynical, beginning to treat others harshly and curse God.

However, that is not how Paul and Silas were feeling or behaving. Their faith and belief in Jesus and God was so great that they were proud to be in prison for telling others that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. It was midnight and I can imagine that they were not quiet in their prayers and singing. They did not show fear of the officials doing anything else to them, and they knew the other prisoners were not able to tune them out. This was a chance for others to hear the wonderful news of who Jesus is!

How often do we have a chance to tell others who Jesus is and we don’t even have to be talking or singing very loud. We don’t have to be in prison for us to be able to minister to others. The best part about telling others about Jesus is giving them the chance to make their own choice. Their own choice of whether they want to have a personal relationship with Jesus or not. There are times when we don’t even have to be speaking or singing at all. Those around us watch us to see how we are responding to circumstances around us, how we initiate interactions with others and what decisions we make in situations.

So, as we go about our day today, I challenge each one of us to think about how we respond to the world around us, whether we seek out others to give them the wonderful news of Jesus or even just know that they are watching us to see what we will do as a ‘Christian’ in the circumstances of life. Are we willing to remember that we have joy in knowing that Jesus is our Lord even in difficult times?

“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:22-24 NIV

In these 3 verses in Romans, Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome, and he is explaining that we are all on the same level as far as God is concerned, it didn’t matter who they were, Jew or Gentile, they all had the same condition, a sinful nature. It doesn’t matter who we are, we ALL are born with a sinful nature. We all miss the mark of favor from God and approval of God.

‘We all start at the same place’ gives me comfort. This helps me to remember that I am no better than anyone else. It would not matter if I was a different nationality, if I was born into a family with money or if I was born into a family with nothing, we all start at the place of being a sinner. We are all born into sin, every one of us, not one of us is born without sin and we can move from there.

To be a Christian, we have to understand that our sin blocks us from interacting with God and from being with God. Once we accept and admit we are a sinner, we can move. We can move closer to being able to acknowledging that we need saved. At this point hopefully our hearts are more open to hearing about how much God loves us and what Jesus did for us than when we were thinking we could save ourselves.

We all start at the same place but we don’t all remain there. Accepting and acknowledging we are sinners is where we need to be to move forward with exploring a relationship with Jesus. 

Have you moved from that place where you started?

“Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor.” Isaiah 26:13 NIV

This chapter is actually part of a 4 chapter section of the book that Isaiah has devoted to the end times and what God’s judgement will be like. In this section of the chapter, verses 12-15, Isaiah has stated that many other rulers have been in charge of the Israelites’ lives over the years but the Lord alone is Who they will honor, not the other rulers.

The prophet Isaiah is saying that their confidence is in the Lord for their future, not the rulers who oppressed them over the many years. Isaiah has this confidence because everything they have ever accomplished that was good has come from God. While we have not been in captivity for any period of time by foreign rulers, we have experienced other ‘lords’ in our lives.

How many things in our lives have ruled over us that are not our Lord and Savior? We are a society that rewards people for being busy all the time and for not resting, so the idea of always moving and doing something can become a ruler over us. The idea of needing to have more money can become a ruler over us, demanding that we keep going because we never have enough. None of those ‘rulers’ will bring us prosperity according to the Lord, only He does that. Only when we decide to listen to Him and let Him rule over us will we be successful in moving to a path in our lives that is pleasing to God.

Who do we want to honor this day? God or whatever society has told us should be what we are obeying and honoring.