COLOSSIANS 2

Heart Issues

I want to burn with passion for our group and the people around me as well. I want to find myself on my knees struggling for everyone else and asking God to work mightily in their lives. God wants to unite us in love and encourage our hearts. In our following Him he wants to do the same through us for our brothers and sisters. Also I am challenged to continue to be strengthened in my faith and to be more and more thankful to God day by day. I also love the concept of Jesus triumphing by the cross. The guards and the Jews at that time thought they were triumphing by killing Him, but Jesus had and still has all the supremacy and by their work he triumphed over them by setting the captives free and forgiving all of our sin. He has cancelled all that stood against us and nailed it to the cross by giving his life and raising from the dead to live forever. WOW!! What an amazing Jesus we serve!

Notes

-Paul has such an awesome heart for the churches that he struggles for them. He is in anguish through prayer and concern for the churches. I love what he said that his purpose was. He wants them to be encouraged in heart and united in love. That is my prayer for our students as well. I want to pray this more often for only God can bring about this type of atmosphere. The result is a deeper knowledge of Christ and a better understanding of the Spirit-filled life. Paul wants to protect them from falling prey to the deceivers and their fine-sounding arguments.

-After receiving Christ we are to continue to live in him, strengthened in faith and overflowing with thankfulness. I love the concept of living “in” Him. He envelopes us and we need to continue to realize who we are and that we are in Christ, forgiven of all sin and holy in the sight of God. Our faith is being strengthened as we walk with God and through the ups and downs of our faith. We are to continue along the path and as we continue we are strengthened and as we are strengthened we know that it is only the Lord who has accomplished all of it so we can’t help but overflow with thankfulness. What an amazing God we serve! He is so worthy of our praise!

-We find again as Paul talks about Jesus that He is amazing and all of God dwelled in him bodily and as we know from Hebrews he restrained his rights as God and became like us. He has given us that same fullness through the Holy Spirit as we have put off the sinful nature and have been raised with Christ to new life.

-Its amazing that God forgave all our sins and cancelled the law that was against us and nailed it to the cross. Video Idea - Multiple people struggling with different sins and clothed in dark ratty clothes. That people (business man, drug user, jealous/gossipy teen, prideful guy, can’t stop being jealous, doing drugs, etc. and then a bright light shines in and takes over. Then the clothes are nailed to the cross and the people standing in white robes clean. Jesus has taken all of our sin and made us new.

-We can try a lot of rules and regulations to try to keep us from sin. Only freedom and grace can truly change us. It seems right that harsh treatment of the body and discipline are the way to change, but we all grow weary of this and chase back after our sin in our lazy state.

COLOSSIANS PRAYER

Thank you, Father, for your gospel and your presence in our lives. The story is all about you and the power, strength, and glorious might are all in your hands and not our own. We long for your presence to be revealed to allow those attributes to be visible in our world today. I love you Father and I long to know more of who you are and not just know your word. I am thankful for how the Gospel has been bearing fruit and growing in my life because of your work through it. Your unconditional love and grace has changed me and allowed me the freedom to fail and the freedom to love. I want to go after all that you have called me to and not shrink back because of worries or faithlessness. You have obviously always come through on your promises. I not only want to take the risks, but be able to own up to my failures. Help me Lord Jesus to enjoy you and trust you no matter what. Help me to love you and to enjoy you, not everything else. Thank you for allowing me to share in the kingdom of the saints of light, for giving me faith, hope, and love; for strengthening me; and most of all for rescuing me from the dominion of darkness.

Thank you, Jesus, that you are the image of the invisible God. You created all things and placed all things under your feet. All of this world, every detail, points to you. Even the things that are unknown to me and invisible to me point to you. Without your sustaining hand all would cease. Thank you for upholding us and leading us to your presence. I pray that you would come back to get us and bring us home for all eternity. You have made peace with God and you have the supremacy. I bow in honor of you and place my life in your hands. I need you Lord Jesus and I pray that your rule and reign would take precedence over my own. I want to step off of the throne and allow you to sit to direct and empower me to live for you. Thank you Lord Jesus for what you will do in and through me today.

COLOSSIANS 1

Heart Issues

WOW!!! There is so much in this chapter. It has challenged me in multiple ways. It has put me on the right course of how to do ministry. I want to have the same heart of Paul to pray, proclaim, and please the Lord. Nice alliteration huh?! J It is so encouraging and faith-building to read again about how amazing Jesus is. He holds all things together and created every detail of all that we see. He holds all supremacy and has placed Himself within all believers. WOW!! That is amazing. He reconciled us and rescued us and this is a great truth for me to continue to hear and believe. This helps me continue to push further away from works righteousness as I understand all that He has done for me. I know that I cannot attain to any of this. I want to continue to labor that all may know Jesus as He has made Himself known to me. I love Paul’s final verse and I have quoted it many times in regard to the ridiculous amount of energy that God places within me. God does energize us and give us all that we need to continue for Him. I can be spiritually worn out and meet with Him for a moment and all is renewed. Praise be to God for His indescribable energy and help to accomplish all that He has called me to do.

Notes

-Paul Starts with calling out the truth about the Christians in Colosse, that they were holy and faithful. God had set them apart and changed them with a new identity.

-Paul is so thankful to God for what He is doing in people’s lives. Paul doesn’t take the credit and he doesn’t credit others for God’s work. He is always focused on God receiving the glory not man. This view encourages his prayer life and keeps him asking God for things and not just trying to learn how to teach them better.

-The gospel will bear fruit on its own, it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. This takes some pressure off and lets us know that all we need to be faithful to do is to share the gospel.

-The triad of faith, hope, and love are consistent cornerstones of the Christian faith. They work together so well and are the main three attributes that should be true of a Christian.

-God’s will is that we may live a life worthy of Him and please Him in every good work. We do this through His strength, not our own, and throughout it we give Him thanks and not ourselves. For (I love conjunctions) He has rescued us. It is awesome to see His power and might being the sole reason for our faith, the sustenance for our faith, and the energy to live out our faith to please Him.

-Jesus is amazing. I love this section about who He is. The image for us to see of the invisible God; the first parent over all creation is a better translation, especially in context of the next few verses; all things were created by Him and in Him all things hold together, he sustains all creation; He is the head of the body and the first to beat death; all of the power, presence, rule, etc. of God dwelled within a man (amazing) and through Jesus He reconciled all things to Himself; this was not done easily, peace had to be made for the wrath of God was ready to make war against mankind, but Jesus brought peace

-21-23 let us know of our identity in Christ. It lets us know the bad news first and the past situation to allow us to appreciate the position in which we stand now. God has reconciled us through Christ and we now stand holy in His sight. The scripture goes on to drive this home by letting us know that we are without blemish and free from accusation.

-Paul’s continued ministry will mean that he will be persecuted and will be afflicted for the sake of the Church. This does not mean that it is needed that Christians may suffer or that Christ did not suffer enough for He fully appeased the wrath of God. In sharing the gospel we will most likely run into persecution and affliction but Paul determined to live his life for the body and not for himself. Paul continues to teach the word of God in all its fullness and in all its truth.

-Paul views his role as proclaiming Christ. In this he wants to admonish and teach everyone with all wisdom in order that they may be not perfect in thought or deed, but perfect in the grace, holiness, and righteousness of Christ. The perfection that we desire in this life is the perfect understanding of our positional truths.

-The main concept that Paul pulls out here is that Christ is in you. This is the hope of glory - the treasure, the main thing, the awe inspiring truth of our faith, the evidence of the eternal, the first fruits of heaven. How amazing is it that God would have His presence dwell among us, we are far too wretched for that, but thanks be to God that Jesus Christ has reconciled and rescued us from ourselves and brought us into relationship with the Father and placed His spirit within our very body-temples.