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Colossians 3

6/30/2011

Colossians 3:1 “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.”

You have to consider yourself new when you ask Christ into your life. We are saying that we want to be different and not continue living the way we were.

Verse 2 says, “Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.”

This should be an entirely new concept for us. We should stop when we are thinking of ourselves and focus on Christ. We should slow down when we react and listen to the Spirit growing in our hearts. This doesn’t happen over night or with one prayer, it is a constant feeding and learning, truly having a relationship with the Lord.

Verse 3 says, “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”

So, I say, seek out all God wants and teaches. Devote yourself to constant learning so the joy of heaven will fill you here on earth. Then you can understand verse 4 which says, “And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the world, you will share in all His glory.”

We need to open our hearts to learn how Christ lived so we can be Christ like in our journey to be not of this world. Amen

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Colossians 1

6/28/2011

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Colossians 1:6 “This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.”

This just made me want to ask a simple question; has your lives changed since you first heard and understood the truth? It is so important that we realize that we all need to change and focus on Christ. We must remember that the world doesn’t change, we do or should. If you are in the same spot spinning your wheels, ask for understanding from God. Ask Him to open your heart and mind so you can grow and change.

Paul says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 25, “Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith.”

There is joy in having faith in Christ and with that comes change and development. We learn to live as a light and we shine even in the crud of this world. Look at the prayer Paul prays for the Colossians in chapter 1 verse 9, “So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

It didn’t say we heard about your love so we didn’t need to keep praying about you. We are all in this together working hard to constantly be a light. Look how incredible verse 10 is, “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.”

Our growth never ends, I love that it says “…you learn to know God better and better.” How are you doing knowing God? Is it only at church on the weekend, or maybe a couple days during the week you can fit in to your busy schedule? I say learn to know Him daily asking, seeking and knocking to be full of the Spirit so you can have a fruitful life of true joy. Amen

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Ephesians 6

6/24/2011

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Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.”

Life is a battle, we can choose to surrender to this world and live according to it, or we can realize that we are not of this world and live for God striving to learn and grow to be like Christ. We need to understanding that the devil, the ruler of this world, will constantly entice you to live for yourself.

Verse 14 says, “Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.”

Christ is truth; we need to work hard to follow what He has shown us understanding that we will always be learning.

Verse 15 says, “For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.”

We need to know we are walking with the Lord and that peace is the only thing to give us joy in all things.

Verse 16 says, “In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.”

These arrows are not always the bad things; they are the things that challenge us most. Our fleshly desires that make us the weakest, these arrows don’t stop because we accept the Lord; we need to build our faith and trust always.

Finally verse 17 which says, “Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”

It is so important that as we grow and develop we never stop opening the Word of God and work on living the way it says. It is our instruction for life and our example for right living. The more we know it the more we can live it and that is what we need to do. Amen

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Ephesians 3

6/14/2011

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Ephesians 3:16-17 “I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”

First, I love that Paul is always focused on others and concerned with people, even the believers, making sure they had a relationship with the Lord. Through His Spirit He will empower us and give us strength, so are we feeling the Spirit? What do we do when we hear the Spirit guiding us and tugging us to make decisions? Do we listen or do we second guess it? The next part is huge, it says, “…then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him.” Trust means: confident expectation of something. Are we confident that Christ is who He says He is? If so, have you surrendered to that and is your life being changed to be like Him. This is a constant devotion to learning and growing everyday. We can’t have a one and done mentality, we must know the more we learn and do the more we will learn and be lead to do.

Verse 19 says, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Trust in the Lord and let Him open and fill your heart to experience true life. Amen

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Ephesians 1

6/9/2011

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Ephesians 1:22-23 “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is His body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself.”

Notice how important it is for us to be full of Christ. We can’t go into this not expecting to be full and be passionate to be the church. We are what keeps the Good News going and reaching people. When we don’t pursue this relationship with the Lord we miss out on all the joy and benefits we get from being in His family.

In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 it says, “And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago.”

Don’t wait for some sign or special feeling, seek and learn all that God wants and fill that Spirit that you have when you believe and make it a shouting voice that drives you to move for Christ. And remember as it says in verse 8, “He has showered His kingdom on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.” Amen

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Galatians

6/7/2011

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Something from the heart: As I have been reading in Galatians Paul has been opening my eyes to things that matter and things that don’t. In chapter 2 Paul shares how when you are sharing the Good News and are living by the Spirit and not by your own desires God will give you the words to say, and you can be confident in what you say.

In verse 6 he says, “And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.”)

The truth will set you free and we can all have confidence to understand what God is showing us. Let the Spirit guide you and share what you hear from God. The author and Pastor Warren Wiersbe said this about the church commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and I thought it to be a great way to look at it. “We are to make disciples, which calls for evangelism, we are to baptize, which implies fellowship in a local assembly, and we are to teach the word, which the Spirit uses to convict the lost. Let us be busy sowing the seed of the word, watering it with our prayers and tears and patiently waiting for the harvest.” This is what we all should be doing with our eyes focused on Christ as that perfect example. We need to remember as we are growing and learning that nothing can be in place of Jesus, not even if it is a good thing. We should always teach this and emphasize this when we passionately share our faith.

Paul in Galatians 6 verses 14-15 says, “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not what counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.”

What is your focus, is it Christ or something else? There are good things in this world but Christ is our selling point for our faith and God is the only thing that makes it grow. Amen

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Galatians 5

6/6/2011

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Galatians 5:16-17 “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”

How hard is it for us to listen to the Spirit the first time we hear it? It is as if when we hear the Spirit guiding us to do what is right we make excuses to not listen and do what feels good. That’s why Paul says that the “two forces are constantly fighting each other.” Because we know that as believers we should want to feed the Spirit more and more with wisdom from God. We know that most of what we watch or hear during the day will open our mind to desires of our sinful nature. So if we are not filling ourselves daily with wisdom and knowledge from the Lord, our sinful nature is louder in our hearts and we struggle even more with our daily decisions. When we accept Christ as our Lord we need to remember what it says in Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives me. So I live in this earthly body trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

What are the things that cloud your thoughts?

Galatians 5:19-20 says, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, dissention, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Do any of these things sound familiar, they do to me, and I pray and seek God to fill me more and more so I can hear the Spirit loud and clear. That daily growth doesn’t do it alone; it takes dying to self and trusting in what we know the Lord did for us and then realizing He is the only way to be free. Amen

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Colossians 3

Colossians 1

Ephesians 6

Ephesians 3

Ephesians 1

Galatians

Galatians 5

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