Fri 8.5 – Like Jesus, Like Jesus

Today’s Readings: Colossians 3.17-25; Philippians 2.5-8

As we close out this passage in Colossians, we’ve noted that God addresses a variety of real-life relationships. Let’s now make sure that we are reading about those relationships in the correct context.

Remember if you would the thought of 3.17 for a moment. Basically put, we are to make sure that our very WORDS and DEEDS are done IN THE NAME of the Lord Jesus Christ, correct? So then, what is the connection between that verse and the list of relationships that follows in the next verses?

I think we can argue that 3.18-22 are simply examples of how 3.17 should look in our lives. For example, if we are living our life in the name of Jesus Christ then:

As wives, we will SUBMIT.
As husbands, we will LOVE.
As children, we will be OBEDIENT.
As parents, we will be HUMBLE.
As SERVANTS, we will OBEY.

Now, you may be looking at this list and think to yourself, those are not exactly the first qualities that I think of when I think of Jesus. While majesty, holiness, power, and preeminence are the things that we typically associate with Him, do not lose sight of the time he spent here on earth and what that it took for GOD to become a MAN.

I find a lot of similarities between the teaching of Col 3.17 and of Phil 2.5. Read them together and see if you can sense the heart of the author as you read. They both seem to be calling us to a selflessness and a pursuit of Jesus’ life in ours don’t they? As our WORDS and DEEDS are taken captive to Christ and our MIND becomes His, then it seems that we would begin to live that life of seeking things above and setting our affection on things above.

Check out the similarities in the description of the mind of Christ is Phil 2.5-8

He SUBMITTED to the will of God, “but made himself of no reputation”
He was made a SERVANT, “and took upon himself the form of a servant“
He LOVED us enough to be, “made in the likeness of man“
He was HUMBLED, “being found in fashion as a man, he bumbled himself”
He was OBEDIENT, “and became obedient unto death, even death of the cross“

Do you see some similarities? I can’t help but think that God has a desire that we stop living this life ourselves and allow the life of Christ to invade and rule as we continue our days. May your life be lived IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, and may THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH ALSO WAS IN CHRIST JESUS, as you go today! Amen.

Sat 7.6 – King Peace

Today’s Readings: Colossians 1.20, 3.10-16; Romans 5.1,10, 14.17; 2 Corinthians 5.18-21; Philippians 4.6-7; I Thessalonians 5.23

We come to a huge statement in our study through Colossians today. Scripture says to “let the peace of God rule in your hearts”[v.15]. Now, what kind of person rules? A King, right? The King get’s his way, the King calls the shots, the King determines the direction of the people of the land.

Now with that in mind, check out the scriptures above. Where does that PEACE come from? I mean that true peace that is to rule our hearts. It comes from God. 1 Corinthians 14.33 actually says God is the AUTHOR of PEACE. He is where it starts, where it originates, where it comes out from. Wow.

So, if God is telling us that the PEACE which only He gives is to RULE in our hearts, how do we get there?

Do you ever feel like your life is RULED by everything EXCEPT PEACE?!?! I do sometimes. It is easy to feel like STRESS, or PROBLEMS, or TENSION, or DEPRESSION, or CONFUSION rules in our hearts. We would be lying if we said anything otherwise. That’s is just the reality of the believer living in this wicked world all around us. When we talk about the HEART we talk about all kinds of EMOTIONS.

Sometimes the EMOTIONS we FEEL are what we base the TRUTH on. If your parents have done something that makes you FEEL forsaken, you can easily talk yourself into believing the FALSE TRUTH that they do not love you anymore. However, that is not the truth but because of your EMOTIONS, your PERCEPTION of the truth can be ALTERED. And if we are going to have a RIGHT PERCEPTION of the TRUTH, we are going to have to put our DECEITFUL HEARTS (Jeremiah 17.9) UNDERNEATH the rule of the true PEACE of God, who sits on the throne over our HEART.

Well, God would not tell us to do something that is impossible would He? Of course not… so then, again, how do we get there? How do we get self, stress, tension, and all those other things off the throne so that PEACE HIMSELF (see I Thess 5.23) can sit down and rule in our hearts? God explains that in the next verse.

We must LET THE WORD OF CHRIST DWELL IN US RICHLY AND IN ALL WISDOM! [v.16]

In this verse we see the KEY that will open the door to all of the things we have learned to be true of the NEW MAN. Guys, we could talk about 100 reasons that we need to let the WORD OF CHRIST come into our lives and TAKE OVER THE PLACE! It is the key to everything in the Christian life. We talked Wednesday night about the fact that our failures before God are always DIRECTLY RELATED to our failures in STAYING IN THE WORD. God clearly illustrates the WORD OF GOD AS BREAD(Matt 4.4, John 6, Amos 8.11), and just like our PHYSICAL BODIES WOULD DIE if we did not eat food, our SPIRITUAL BODIES WILL DIE if we do not eat spiritual food – the Word of God!

We cannot go everywhere that verse deserves in this short devotion today, but I want to leave you with one thought… YOU ARE LIKE THE PEOPLE YOU HANG OUT WITH (Prov 13.30)!

So, would it not make sense that when we HANG OUT WITH GOD IN HIS WORD, and let that WORD remain (dwell) in us, and we’re constantly thinking on it/Him, and constantly fellowshipping with what parts of it/Him are hidden in our hearts (Ps 119.11), that we would have peace? Forgiveness? Charity? Equality? That we would bare that Image? That we would be RENEWED in our MINDS? And everything that the NEW MAN is!!! I think so!

May the WORD DWELL IN YOU RICHLY AND IN ALL WISDOM today! Amen.

Fri 5.5 – Jesus taught us how to deal with it…

Today’s Readings: Colossians 1.16-22, 2.12-14, 3.1-7;

As you know, Sunday is the Christian celebration of “Easter”. Although Christ actually died at the Passover, because of pagan celebrations and worldly influences through history, Christians adopted the name to compete with festivals for false God’s. (I don’t even know why I put that out there…guess I just thought you’d want to know?) Anyway, since Easter is coming in two days, I wanted to take a new approach to the thoughts we’ve been looking at in Colossians by looking at them through the window of the MORTIFICATION OF CHRIST. While we have talked about MORTIFYING our FLESH, and making that a spiritual principal, Christ ACUTALLY mortified His flesh. However, many of the same principals applied. That FLESH (the human body of Christ) had to be mortified before the SPIRIT (the Holy Spirit of God) could reign in life (by indwelling the believer, see John 16.7 ).

So, here’s how today is going to work…get our your Bible, get out a pad of paper, click here, and here, for some awesome background music, and prayerfully consider these passages. We know how our FLESH lusteth against the SPIRIT (Gal 5.17), so let’s consider the ultimate battle between ALL FLESH and the SPIRIT HIMSELF as Christ was suffering on that cross…as he bled…as he groaned (Rom 8.23)…as he was mortified… and consider these verses…

Philippians 2.5-8

• Imagine the power it took for CHRIST JESUS the LORD to be on that CROSS!
• How should that invade and influence our MINDS?
• What did the cross signify in Christ’s life? (specifically v.8)

Hebrews 12.2-4

• Consider the HUGE statement that Jesus Christ is the AUTHOR and FINISHER of OUR faith!
• What made Him mortify that flesh?
• How are we to gain strength from meditating upon His death for us, and how far He was willing to go?

Ephesians 2.14-17

• What has been removed between God and us?
• We were at ENMITY (absolutely against) God, what did Christ do to remove that from us?
• What was the instrument Christ used to RECONCILE us (or bring us back) to God? And what did that tool do to the ENMITY?
• Because of Christ’s work, now we no longer have ENMITY between God and us, but rather we have something amazing, undeserved, and unreachable without Christ…what is it?

Before you leave your time with God today, spend time thanking Him…because He mortified, we can mortify…because He died, we can die…because He suffered, we can have peace…it is truly, NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD, and I pray we will YEARN for Him more today because we realize that more and more!

Tue 5.2 – DOGPILE!

Today’s Readings: Colossians 2.20, 3.3-4,7; Romans 6.2, 7, 11; Galatians 2.20, 5.24; I Peter 2.24

It’s the bottom of the 9^th, your team is up by 3, there are 2 outs and the count is 0-2. Last pitch. Swing and a miss. YOU WIN! Then you hear those dreaded words “DOG-PILE!” and before you know it, you’re buried underneath a mound of sweaty, stinky, ball players.

Well, there is some spiritual truth to this idea that I want you to see. Sunday morning, during the 8.15 service, I was talking to the congregation about many of the same principals that we have been talking about here on the devotions. I received an encouraging e-mail the next morning from one of our members. Through our exchange, a very important truth was brought to life and I want to make sure we do not go on without making it clear for you all.

In the list of verses above, you will find some critical teachings about the death of our flesh. Now, obviously it is not literally dead because you and I are still breathing. However, because of the working and power of Christ, it’s ways and methods are. Don’t forget the truth of Romans 8 when we learned about the DEATH SENTENCE that is already passed on our BODY. What tends to happen in our lives is that after salvation we receive (via the new man) the right DESIRES and WAYS that can rule our lives. Then as time goes on, we allow little bits of that old BODY to creep in, and before you know it we still have that NEW man inside to give us the VICTORY in CHRIST, but he is buried under a DOGPILE of sinful lusts, pride, and so many more.

Students, I cannot express strongly enough to you what YOU ALREADY HAVE IN JESUS CHRIST if you are a born again believer. HE is the one who GIVES US THE VICTORY (I Corinthains 15.57). Do NOT miss that! Our victory over this fleshy state is going to be THROUGH CHRIST JESUS and no other means. The only way for us to mortify, the only way for us to LIVE life as DEAD people, is to allow CHRIST to be our VICTORY over sin and flesh.

Never lose sight of Galatians 5.17 – There will ALWAYS be a battle between the FLESH and the SPIRIT. They are fierce enemies at the very best, and if we think for one second that they can co-exist, we are sadly mistaken. Do not allow yourself to enter this war with your MIND. Do not yield to the CARNAL or FLESHY mentality that the world floods you with. Remember I Corinthians 2.16, we HAVE, currently, the MIND of CHRIST.

My prayer for you today is that you would realize your identity in Him. I pray the MIND of Christ would have freedom in your life to rule and to reign over you. I pray the DOGPILE of the worldly, earthly, fleshy things would cover the Spiritual things. Rather, I pray that TODAY as you spend time with God in prayer and opening the doors of your heart to the VOICE of God through His Word, that you would say with Paul, “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us!”

Mon 3.1 – Seeking and Setting

Today’s Reading: Col 3.1-4; Luke 10.38-42; Mark 12.28-34

Sorry. Something happened with my internet connection yesterday as I was trying to publish the devotion. It locked down and I lost everything I’d typed. So today, I will try to replicate yesterday’s devotion as well as today’s…although I must say it will be less than exact L.

In Sunday school we talked about God’s remedy to return to that FIRST LOVE kind of love. God said there were three easy steps, REMEMBER, REPENT, & REPEAT. We then took three passages of Scripture and saw how God illustrated that in His word.

Today, let’s take the next step into our study in Colossians and see how one of those stories illustrates our next point as well. We have been talking about SEEKING the THINGS ABOVE from Col 3.1, and we noted that the THINGS ABOVE are (1) The PERSON of God (I Jn 5.7), (2) the WORD of God (PS 119.89), (3)the THRONE of God (Rev 4, Isa 6), and (5) the FAIMLY of God (Eph 3.14-15). Those are the THINGS God says are ABOVE in His word. Those are the THINGS we are to be SEEKING with our lives, chasing after with all that we have.

Everyone understands the word SEEK don’t we? Sure, that’s easy…things can get a little confusing on the next one though…God says to “set your affection on things above”(3.2). So, the natural question everyone has is “how do I do that?” But, it may be simpler than you think. When you are in your house and it is very hot, if you want to change the environment in your house where do you go and what do you SET? Right, you go over to the wall and SET the thermostat to get the A/C running. If you are watching TV when another show comes on you want to see, you SET the TV to a different channel. When you SET something you are simply adjusting it so that the object it controls, changes. Now, God says in that same way we are to SET our AFFECTION on the THINGS ABOVE. We are to adjust our AFFECTION so that it’s desires are towards the THINGS God said were above.

Let’s make sure we all understand what we mean by AFFECTION as well. When the Scripture uses that word, sometimes it is translated mind. Your study Bible might even tell you that this word may mean mind. However, God specifically chose the word AFFECTION here. The connection is that our AFFECTION, the things that we are PASSIONATELY IN LOVE WITH in our lives will be connected to what we CHOOSE in our MINDS. We SET the temperature of our AFFECTION through the thermostat of our MIND.

To close our time with God today, let’s look at the story of Jesus at Mary and Martha’s house in Luke 10. Answer these questions and ask yourself which is true for you: Where is Mary’s affection set? Where is Martha’s? Do they both love God? Why can we say they both loved Him? Does Jesus rebuke Martha for serving Him? Where does Jesus put the priority? Where do we? What does Jesus say Mary had done that Martha hadn’t, that involved her mind, and her decision to SET her affection? What have you chosen?