Breathing

Colossians 2:8-23

I come to the page this morning feeling guilty. I’ve spent no time in the word this week. Zero. Travel troubles, family issues, deadlines, company coming, grandchild care, mother care, laundry, shopping, cleaning, worrying—I’ve let it all get in the way of time with the Lord.

And then this morning, at 5:18, the thought woke me: Post time! My turn!

To post what? Something profound. Something insightful. Something fabulous.

Ha.

Here’s the thing: I have been running and doing and going so fast, I haven’t had a moment to think about anything other than where I need to be next. My prayers have been cries of the heart, shot out to God on the fly.

And God loves me. Today’s reading reassures me. I am complete in Christ. I am alive in Christ. I am free in Christ. All the guilt, those “musts” and “shoulds” I hear—in my own voice—are nonsense.

I am free. I am alive. I am complete. I am loved.

He has so much more to say, I know. Another time. For today, this is just what I needed to hear.

Lord, help me to hold on to You today. Help me to breathe…just breathe.

Homecoming

Colossians 1:19-2:7

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 by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God.

I just read Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming. The entire book is written about his experience with the Rembrandt’s painting of the prodigal’s return, and how this painting has captivated him and helped the parable from Luke 15 come alive for him.

I, too, have come to see myself as this wayward son, broken and hopeless, apart from the kindness and mercy of my Father. I find that the richest times in worship, for me, are the times when I recognize myself as this wayward son in the embrace of his welcoming Father, who was not content to wait for me to return, but ran out to meet me and bring me home.

God has reconciled us to himself in Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross for us. While we were in distant countries, looking for love in all the wrong places, living in rebellion, arrogance, and/or ignorance, He came to us, offering us peace and forgiveness.

Let God’s mercy wash you clean today, as feel your Father’s warm embrace at the cross of Jesus.

Always Please the Lord

Colossians 1:1-18

Here, where Paul tells the believers in Colosse how he is praying for
them, we discover rich insight into the Christian life. Let's consider
this to be a prayer for each of us -

Paul prays that God will give us spiritual wisdom and understanding.
But note that such wisdom is not an end in itself. Rather it is given
to us in order that we may live in a way which will always honor and
please the Lord.

"Always please the Lord" is not an injunction to do better in order to
earn our salvation. Jesus has already purchased our freedom from sin
and death. Through faith in him, we have become citizens of the kingdom
of light.

On the other hand, let us not despair when we desire to please God and
then feel we have somehow fallen short. He is the God of second
chances. He offers hope of transformation -

In Romans 12, Paul wrote, "I plead with you, in view of God's mercy, to
offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God ... be
transformed by the renewing of your mind." Again, "Let the Spirit renew
your thoughts and attitudes" (Ephesians 4:23). Seems pretty clear. The
Holy Spirit living in me desires to change my thinking. Change it from
"what do I want?" to "what do You want?"

Back to Paul's prayer. He asks God to give us complete knowledge of His
will. Then, as the Lord reveals His will and we choose to submit to it,
our lives will "produce every kind of good fruit" (v. 10).

And, because of our expectation of - our confidence in - the
inheritance awaiting us in heaven, the fruit we bear will include "love
for all of God's people" (v. 4). (Ouch!) Surely this pleases the Lord.
"Whoever loves God must also love his brother" (1 John 4:21).
Impossible?

Ah, but there is more to Paul's prayer. We will grow as we learn to
know God better and better. And Paul's request for us is that we will
be strengthened with power from the Mighty One, the Captain of Heaven's
Armies. He's the Provider of all the endurance and patience we need.
And love. Hallelujah! Oh, let me remember to call on Him.

And may we be filled with joy and gratitude as we keep in mind our
amazing Christ - our Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, and Sanctifier. The
One in whom all things in heaven and on earth, all things visible and
invisible, hold together.

Deetje Wildes

A Life of Praise

Notice the concern about disagreements among Christians expressed by Paul.  Our names (as Christians) are written in the Book of Life!  In the hymn, “Is My Name Written There?” – the last verse reads, “Yes! My name’s written there!”  Can you say that with confidence right now?  You can…by faith in the Lord Jesus.  V. 4 – Joy – Rejoice – Thanks – Peace – Praise.  Notice how often in Paul’s letters we find these words…and they should be a central part of our vocabulary too!  V. 6 – Don’t worry.  Am I expected to pray about everything?  Really?  Thank the Lord for all He has done for you.  Ask yourself, do I do that often?  V. 7 – The experience of God’s peace.  What does that mean to me…now?  V. 8 – The emphasis is on positive thinking.  Is that my way of thinking?  V. 11 – Being content in whatever situation you find yourself in is a challenge isn’t it?  Am I willing to really try to live that way?  V. 13 – A key verse.  Maybe you’ll want to commit it to memory.  It comes in handy.  V. 15 – Paul’s appreciation for all the folks have done for him.  Do I express thanks to others who help me so much in various ways?  Finally, does this letter really sound like a letter written from a prison cell by a person not even guilty of anything…other than telling folks about Jesus?  Can we not live more fully the life of praise?  That would be a worthy goal, wouldn’t it?

 

Donald E. Pardun

 

Do We Care Enough to Send the Very Best?

Philippians 2:19 - 3:3a

The old ad slogan from Hallmark Greeting Cards jumped into my mind while I was reading today's passage. "When you care enough to send the very best." It seems a bit cheesy to apply it here, but given how often the words "care" and "send" appear in this section of scripture, it just seemed to fit.

Paul himself planted this church at Philippi, and this letter is overflowing with his love for this young church and its people. In the same manner, the Philippians seem to have a deep love for Paul, assisting him in some manner, and sending Epaphroditus to him, as Paul says to "do for me what you couldn't do from far away." And Paul is anxious to send both Timothy and Epaphroditus back to the Philippians -- and to hopefully travel there himself.

This passage gives us an excellent picture of a relationship between a church and those it sends into the mission field.

I must confess with some shame that my mind is not often on those Bethesda sends into the mission field. It is far too easy to let my mind focus on the here and now. There are bills to pay, jobs to do, children to tend to . . . all sorts of things that seem so present and pressing, it's easy to forget that half a world away there are families who we know personally -- who we count as friends -- who appreciate our support.

We always keep the latest letter from the Venbergs on our refrigerator. This is a great reminder. In fact, I should probably make a habit to pray for them every time I open the refrigerator door.

And last week my wife said "I think it's time to send a package to Dan and Rachel." And I thought this was a great idea. But so many good intentions are done in by the tyranny of the present and its urgent needs.

Paul, Epaphroditus, Timothy, the Philippians . . . here were people who cared deeply about each other, sending letters -- and themselves -- across great distances to lend support.

In this age of modern communication, how much easier it is to "send the very best." How is it that we routinely do so much less?

-- Drew Clausen

The Matter of Being Ashamed

Based on Philippians 1:1-26
It is hard for us in these times to imagine a time when Christianity was a “new” and unknown item in the world. As I read the passage for today, the opening of the book of Philippians, it is so clear in Paul’s words how precious and precarious the situation that the followers of this new faith were living through. The dedication, commitment and courage that was certainly needed and, of course, the faith in who Jesus was and what He had done for all of us, is remarkable amongst these early followers and early churches.

How often we take this for granted!

Now, we may sit in our churches, maybe we go, maybe we don’t, maybe we bounce from one church to another looking for the perfect church, and never really find perfection. Maybe we are brave in our Bible study or in church to declare Christ our savior but in front of our friends, family or co-workers we shrink back so as not to make waves among those “uncomfortable with God-talk.” Maybe we celebrate Christmas with abandonment and acknowledge Jesus somewhere in the whoopla. Maybe we regularly attend church with our children, but God, prayer and Jesus Christ are never talked about the rest of the week with our children or even with ourselves as adults. Maybe we think that our children will somehow just “become Christian” without our help, influence, teaching or role modeling. Maybe we live like most Americans live: as if the country we love and the right to believe and worship will always be there through no effort of our own. Maybe we should turn on the light of reality and seek the truth!

As we often give credit, and rightfully so, to those men and women who have fought in our armed services to preserve our freedom, as Christians, we are not so consciously aware of the people like Paul and all his followers who went before us, inspired by God directly as they carried out the mission of spreading the good news in a time filled with treachery. We forget about the struggle. The percentages for Paul and all the rest to succeed were probably, at a glance, not the best. Was God walking, standing and inspiring these men who bravely spread the word? Absolutely! This was a miracle of Biblical and historical proportions being carried out right before every ancient governments eyes, before every noble, king, before all the legions of Roman authority, before a world that had been crying out for God—and still is.

Yet, here Paul reminds us that this faith is more then a personal choice to pick a ‘belief system’ as it is so commonly labeled these days. Christ is not a system nor is He a choice as if we are choosing between apples and oranges. Yes, we make the choice for him, but he is not the ‘lumped in with every religion’ that our modern society calls for him to be. Yet, who is allowing this to happen? Is it us? Are we as guilty as the rest of this secular humanist world when we do not respond to the battering of Christianity in our country and the world? Who is supposed to answer those who make Jesus into a common prophet, a nice man or an inspired teacher? Is it our pastors or someone like Billy Graham or the Pope?

No it is us, it is all of us, who must stand up and fight the righteous fight for the faith we say that we say we believe in. If we believe that Christ is God on earth, who enabled all of us, should we choose him, to have eternal life, why do we then not cry out at a media that belittles Christians or calls people of faith “ radical extremists”, impaling them with the Islamic terrorists of 911 ( Rosie O’Donnell, Charlie Sheen etc.). Is it OK for us to not react? We seem to be unlike many other religious communities, who, if they were confronted by a similar circumstance, such as when comedian Kathy Griffin after she won her Emmy award a few weeks ago, stated, “A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus. This award is my God now."

Last year, the Muslim communities went bizerk over political cartoon that made fun of their prophet “Mohammed”. You will recall the riots and bloodshed over a pen and ink drawing. Yet, here we are in good old USA, and a female comedian of dubious reputation can speak such an insulting and graphic remark about our “prince of peace”, our “lamb of God”, our “Lord of Lords”, our “mighty God” and we say nothing. No church denomination has cried out, and only a few people have mentioned this. As far as I know, it did not make the news on CNN or FOX or NBC etc. It has not been gone over repeatedly like a Brittany Spears antic. Are we turning the other cheek? Or is our passion for Christ laying flat on the floor?

Paul says this in Philippians 1:10 and 20 “For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.” “For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past.”

Paul often talks about not being ashamed as a follower of Christ. But here we are in this 21st century and we are seeing this dismantling of Christianity by the media, by higher education, by the culture, by our acceptance of a social order without values and, finally, even from within Christendom, as many denominations choose a path that serves the culture rather then Christ. Do we grasp any longer what Paul implored us to understand about what really matters? Our choice comes to this: whether we are ready to become unashamed and stand up for the truth or whether we will continue to hope that the diluting and shredding of Christ will just slow down or go away. Lord help us with our frailty of spirit.
Laurie Erdman

As You Would Serve Christ

Ephesians 6:1-24

Again, there’s so much packed into this little chapter. Parent-child relationships, strength and the armor of God, prayer, peace, and more…

But this morning, I’m most struck by something else, something that feels offensive and mysterious and incredible. Did you read verses 5-8? I often skip over the parts about slaves, because I’m not a slave, and we don’t use slaves anymore. So I read the words, but I don’t really think about them. But this morning, I can’t escape them.

I know that Roman slavery wasn’t exactly like the slavery in our American memory, but I doubt theirs was a lot more noble. Slaves were property, workers with no rights, no paychecks, nothing. Some, I’m sure, were cared for better than others, but the system was oppressive, breeding mistrust, animosity, and bitterness. I am not a slave, nor can I imagine what it was like. I’ve heard students describe their chores as slavery, and I perhaps did at times, too. Here, however, God, through Paul, addresses actual slaves, not just people who felt mistreated, people who were overworked, underappreciated, and robbed of human dignity.

And the words of God come to these slaves, saying, “obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.” What!?! Paul doesn’t even remind them of the spiritual promises in the Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, much less say, “God desires for you to be free,” or “You’re more valuable to God than your earthly masters recognize.”

Here we see how incredible Jesus’ call really is on our lives. Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Love your neighbor as yourself. This is what it means. We are to love God so profoundly that we would love others so purely that, even as mistreated, undignified and beaten slaves, our goal would be to see our service to our masters as service to Christ. Although we were stripped of our identity, robbed of our God-given dignity, and barred from any right to have our complaints heard, we are to bless the people around us, that God would be glorified in our lives and in our work, and that the love of Christ might be seen in us.

No matter what our circumstances, no matter what our place in society, no matter the pain we feel or the privileges we enjoy, our sole purpose is to bring glory to God, that others might recognize in us the incredible love God has for them. Clearly the love of slaves for their masters described here is a supernatural love. Only God can cause a slave to love his earthly master like this. And it’s just as impossible for us, in our own strength, to live out the perfect family relationships described here, too. Every relationship we have reminds us of our brokenness and sin, and our need for Jesus to rescue us. And, in each relationship and every situation we face, God has the power to redeem our failed attempts at love and goodness, making His love shine through us, that others might see their need and His incredible offer of life and grace and transformation.