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Colossians 2

6/27/2016

Colossians 2:2 NLT

"I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.”

We get so caught up in trying to figure out God's plan for our lives when all He really wants is our love and us to know Jesus. When we surrender and open our heart to have that relationship we start to know Him, then as we continue to know Him we become more and more like Him. In Christ we have eternal life. He bridges the gap to the Father in heaven, we must know Him and accept (believe) who He is. In verse 3 we are told, “In Him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

The change comes from God working in us to transform us to the new creations that we are. As we grow and get to know Jesus our change becomes evident and the world doesn't look right to us any longer. The wisdom and knowledge we get is from Jesus because we are putting the time in to know Him. This time is never wasted, it is always blessed so that we can be who God created us to be. In Galatians chapter 6 verse 5 it says, “For we are each responsible for our own conduct.” It's not up to our pastor or the church, they help us but we have to know Him and realize we have a choice and responsibility to co-labor with Christ.

We never want to take responsibility for what happens to us, but we need to step up and take the bull by the horns and keep growing in our relationship and see how our faith is perfected the more we know Him. I love Colossians chapter 2 verse 7 which says, “Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” We can never feel like we know it all, our relationship with Him needs to be daily and then our hearts will be full so we can live out God's plan which is for us to be like Jesus. Amen

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Colossians

6/22/2016

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Colossians 1:9

“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.”

See these types of prayers are important to us as we continue to grow and learn to be like Christ. My passion is Jesus and knowing Him more and more, but it is also for all people to belong to Him. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we receive the Holy Spirit and the bridge to the Father - eternal life. But when we just believe we get stuck in this world sometimes and it starts to weigh us down. There is freedom in the name of Jesus and we need to seek it with all our hearts and know that it's not about earning, it's about using it.

See, Paul's prayer is that they get complete knowledge of His will and wisdom and understanding, this is how we live surrendered to our feelings and to the lies of the world. In verse 10 it says, “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.” See, we can know God better and belong to Jesus. Don't get satisfied with believing in Him, keep going so you know Him better and your light shines so others start noticing a difference in you. (Don't get me wrong ,we have to believe, but don't stay there.) There is so much more He has for us, desire all that He offers so the way we live with honor Him. It talked about fruit in His word, and if you have any question what that fruit should look like here is Galatians 5:22-24. "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there.”

When we belong to Christ we don't live by our feelings, we desire to let them go and live the way Jesus has modeled for us. Verse 25 says, “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Every part of our lives means just that, every part, we can't think that we can pick and choose what parts we want to change. We can't think of the word "surrender" as a negative word because for God it is a sign of strength and love. When we get knowledge of His will, spiritual wisdom, and understanding we will grow to see why Jesus said “...My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Jesus "surrendered" and was strong, let go and let the Holy Spirit take control and we will see that surrendering will open our hearts and help us belong to Jesus in every way. Amen

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Philippians 1

6/15/2016

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Philippians 1:21 "For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.”

This has been my favorite verse since I first started reading God's word in 2005. I think it is the place we should all desire to be at in our walk with Jesus, because it shows complete surrender to our will.

Today I want to share the verses that follow this one and show the importance of our passion for growth and maturity in Him. Verse 22 says, “But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better.” See, Paul's focus is on being fruitful and doing more work for Christ so people hear the Good News. As he continues this chapter he shares this in verses 23-24, “I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.”

The thought of dying, and it being better for himself, was in his thoughts but he knew what Jesus showed him out weighed what he wanted because of his love for Christ. See as we grow and surrender our will we must understand that we are not just living to have more days for ourselves, we are living to show the fruit of our salvation and shine His light. Verse 25 is what has been on my heart since accepting the Lord in 2005 because we as believers should be different and live a life full of joy and hope because of the resurrection of Jesus. “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.”

We need to share the Good News with everyone and be willing to show the fruit that is given to us so all believers live a joyful life and their faith will be steadfast. This will help us live verse 27 out and keep our purpose alive. “Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.” Nothing we do for the Lord is useless so keep shining and knowing that we all matter to God and our love and passion can help someone have joy and hope in this crazy world. Amen

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2 Corinthians 2

6/10/2016

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2 Corinthians 2:14
“But thank God! He has made us His captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.”

He is using us, we must remember that we are His children and we have a purpose for being alive. It is not just for our benefit and for our fleshly desires, it is so people can see and (smell) His fragrance from us. This will never be an easy task because people will always appose the truth, but it should make us work harder and desire to learn more about Jesus. Look what it says in verse 15, “Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.” See we can't make people perceive it differently without planting seeds and then taking the time to water it. We are all not good at planting seeds so we connect with people around us and we strengthen each other to do His work.

We know we are many parts in one body and that's how God wants to use us to change the Kingdom of God. See what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 21-26, “The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.”

See when we take the time to understand what God would like us to do our focus comes off just pleasing ourselves and we have a fragrance that could be pleasing to others. And the ones that don't like the fragrance (unbelievers) we keep shining and loving because God is the only one that can make them grow. Believe in Him and live knowing we have a purpose and it does matter what we do because people are watching. Amen

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1 Corinthians 6

6/2/2016

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1 Corinthians 6:11
“Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

See we forget sometimes that our old lives and choices are washed away and we can make the choice to live new lives and be Holy. See when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior He is just that, our Lord - the one we follow - we must learn and study His ways so we can be like Him. And He is our Savior - He has taken our sin and has washed us clean - in this case we are (new creations) not stuck in our old way of life. See in verses 9-10 right before this Paul is sharing with the church in Corinth that their old ways of living was leading to death and separation. We need to read them with a loving heart and not get caught up on the ones we may struggle with but release them to our Lord.

Verses 9-10 say, “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” See these are selfish and keep us from letting go and seeing all that God has for us. See we mustn't miss these statement that can help with our transformation. Verse 11 ends like this; "...made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." When we call on the name of the Lord we are saying, I am yours, and the Spirit of God leads us and guides us to say not my will but yours.

When we let our hearts go to His word and we start seeking our new way of life we see that we are holy and we don't fix our sights on what we did, we fix them on who we are in Christ, then we live with purpose and direction. We are created in His image to reach the lost and show people how much He loves us. See He sent His one and only Son while we were still sinners, so that we could feel that love and surrender our will. Paul was once a Pharisee and a murderer and lived with no joy or hope, but then he saw Jesus! he believed in who He was and let Him change who he was from the inside. His life never was as tough as it was going to be but he had true joy and hope because of Jesus. We can have that same joy and hope and live everyday with a smile and a light that will shine bright for others to see. Paul shares in verse 19 and we need to see it and remember it. “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself." We were cleansed, so let's live that way and keep our eyes on Him. Amen

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Colossians 2

Colossians

Philippians 1

2 Corinthians 2

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