Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Col 3 Thoughts for Pondering

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Colossians 3
Living the New Life
1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your[a] life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.[b]
7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.
10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,[c] circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,[d] slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.
Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Instructions for Christian Households
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.
19 Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.
20 Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord.
21 Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord.
23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.[e]
5 But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.

Footnotes:
a.
Colossians 3:4 Some manuscripts read our.
b.
Colossians 3:6 Some manuscripts read is coming on all who disobey him.
c.
Colossians 3:11 Greek a Greek.
d.
Colossians 3:11 Greek Barbarian, Scythian.
e.
Colossians 3:24 Or and serve Christ as your Master.

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
Jesus was raised up out of eternal death. He took sin upon Him, went to hell and took the keys of God’s kingdom for earth back out of satan’s hands, then rose again to give them to each and every man, woman or child who would take them in hand to be ambassadors of God’s kingdom on earth. He was the first one to unlock ancient doors of authority and power lost to satan who’d been given them by Adam. Jesus was the firstborn of many brethren, any who would believe on Him towards eternal life. Any who would take the keys in their own hands and set the world straight by being reconciled with God their Father through Jesus, would be forgiven the debt of their eternal sin and live a new life according to the spirit of God their original Father.
Remember when Jesus told the religious that their spiritual father was the devil? We’ll they now have a chance to change fathers, and so do we. Each person born after Jesus, has the opportunity and offer, for a new life. Jesus was the firstborn, we can be raised up in the spirit under the government of Father God and the Holy Spirit, if we so choose. The point is God made us each with a free will and we have to choose for ourselves.
What is your vision of and for life here on earth? To be successful, to climb corporate ladders, to be popular, famous, or a good parent? Whatever your vision, you can live as a Kingdom of God seeker within that area of influence where you live and work. We can go to work and think about the furtherance of God’s heavenly kingdom on earth. We can work a natural job, and be a Christian example. We can raise our kids and be an example of Christ to our kids. That’s having eternal vision.
In all we do, we do it unto God and for His eternal kingdom. There is no reason to set our minds on whatever will fade or burn away when we leave here. If we work for money, and that’s it, we’ll have enjoyed its rewards for a minut amount of temporary time, and will know that we wasted time and money, we’ll be very sad that that is all we lived for. If we live to please our flesh and enter into covenants with all kinds of sin and then find ourselves separated from God because we choose sin instead of Him, we will find ourselves very sad. It’s time to change reason and priority. It’s time to make an exchange of things old for things new in Christ.
Take off your old nature, and put on your new nature. That’s just like getting undressed to get dressed. What are you wearing? Righteousness or wickedness? You choose your clothes today. When we choose to put on the nature of Christ, all things begin to be renewed. The old clothes of evil works and fellowship with a liar were clothes of death and always tore us down, never lifting us up.
It does not matter who we were or what we did. We have forgiveness and the offer of eternal life lived for Him starting today. No matter what mans sin was, if one repents and gives up his old cloak, he can become alive to and live for God! That kind of God-love is truly amazing.
This type of forgiveness is what He is asking men to extend to men. Seriously, we are the only examples of Christ for the earth to see. The authority we have and so desire lies in the exercise of His will. His will is that none would perish, but all would have eternal life in Him, no matter what they’ve done before or are even doing now. He wants to save them, forgive, them make them whole, and use them for His glory.
Remember, the Lord forgave you too. No matter how “good” a person you may have been, you had an eternal debt and were doomed to hell without a payment made for you, you were a gonner. Sin is sin and God does not tolerate its unrepentant presence where He is. We all needed the sacrifice of Jesus. We all did. As we forgive others we show that living and alive in 2006 sacrifice He made for others. No, they did not and maybe do not deserve it, but He did it anyway, and each person is waiting to see that alive in those who call themselves His. They are looking for proof of its work in human people who’ve experienced His great grace and mercy! The question is how much do we love Him? Enough to love the unlovely all the way to their salvation revelation? Whatever you say or do, you re-present who Christ was to our world today. That is if you name the name of Christ. If you say you are saved or born again or are a Christian, you are re-presenting Him to the world of 2006.
As much as we know His love, as much as we know of it personally we can submit ourselves to another’s rule. Without a revelation of His love people will not submit to other people well.
I was thinking about how we all like order and sequence. If one offends me I like it if they ask forgiveness, then I forgive them too. When they won’t or don’t ask forgiveness and don’t seem to really care how I feel, I seem to have more of problem with that. But God requires me to forgive in order to be forgiven; I must forgive even if they never ask.
I was thinking, if the man just loved the woman as God said, in an unconditional way, she’d respond to Him and they’d have a happy life, and that is how God made it. Then I read this as the “man” being Christ and Christ is alive in me. The church is the “woman” and anyone who calls themselves a Christian is this “woman” too. Also anyone God wants to become her, and is destined to become her, I can prophetically consider as His “woman”. That might be my husband. I may be the Christ he needs. I may be the one who needs to unconditionally love Him in.
So I say to myself, “Christ”-ian, love “your” spouse as though she’s His bride, and don’t treat “her”, the Lord’s potential bride, harshly. Children (any Christian that is younger than another Christian) obey those who are raising you up in the Lord, they are your spiritual parents.
Do all of this out of your respect for what Christ did for you when He gave His life for you. Not because they deserve any of it, but because He gave His life for them. Thank God it is NOT about deserving!
If we will not forgive, then He also He will not forgive us. We’re saying His blood was not good enough for us. His body was broken in vain.
Whether we name the name of Christ or not, sin is sin and must be punished. It separated people from the Creator God, that is a serious thing, and God will not have it. So what we participate in, we serve; and we cannot have two masters, we must serve one, we must choose which one, the choice is determined by the daily actions and meditations of the heart. It is not based on mere wishes, or requests for help. It is judged by fruits. Fruits come from a root system grounded, and are there because growth of that seed has occurred over time. Time has proven faith and faithfulness. We are known not only by what we do one time, but by what we live all the time.

Daily Thought to Ponder -
“Oh Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good!”