Fill 'er up!

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From my reading of Colossians 3:15ff:

We should let Christ fill our hearts with peace. And, we should let that Christ-peace rule our hearts since we're all in this together; and we are called to peace by the Prince of Peace.

We should give thanks.

We should not only read the word of God, we should let the Word live in us as we teach one another, and help one another. We should use wisdom in this teaching and in our singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs of gratitude in our hearts to God.

Everything we do, in word and deed, should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

COLOSSAL PRAYER: Peace of Christ, fill my heart and rule it. Word Christ, enter in my heart, and help me teach and share with others with Your wisdom. Be in my living and singing, for I owe You and thank You for, everything. Let whatever I say or do, be done in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as I give thanks to God the Father, amen.

Our Relationship with Christ, and Others

In our relationship with Christ, our hearts and minds should be on heavenly things, for that is where Christ is; seated at the right hand of God. We should focus our thoughts to those which build up, not tear down, for in Christ Jesus we have died to the old nature, and we are now hidden with Christ in God. Our hope is, as we affirm in our worship, "Christ shall come again." And when He does, we too, shall appear with Him.

Our duty here and now is to put to death, and out of mind, those things that are killing us: sexual sins, impure things, lust, evil desires, our greed, which is a form of evil worship; for we know it is precisely because of these things that the wrath of God is coming.

Our lives now in Christ should be a time of preparation, of being made holy, putting away the old things that use to attract us: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language. We must be honest with each other, dressing ourselves in Christ, allowing ourselves to be renewed in our knowledge and image of our Creator. We should be in a place where there is neither Greek nor Jew, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.

COLOSSAL PRAYER: Loving God, this then, is my prayer: Clothe my nakedness with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Help me to bear with others, and to be forgiving with others as You forgave me. Let me wear love as my garment so that I can be bound to others in unity; through Christ Jesus I pray, amen.

Stay Rooted

These are my reflections from having read Colossians 2:6-19.

One of my favorite verses of Scripture is found in Jeremiah 17:7: But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream." Upon our having received Christ we have become like that tree planted by the waters of a living stream, for in Christ, Who now lives in us, we receive strength, and fullness of life (John 10:10). Our heart overflows with gratefulness for this rootedness in Him.

We should then, rely on, by learning and keeping, the basic principles of our faith, rather than the ones of the world - many are those who would deceive and trap us and take us away from God's love. We should not let this happen!

In Jesus Christ dwells the fullness of God, and we have been given fullness of life through Jesus, who is the head over every power and authority. In Christ we have received the markings of covenant through our baptism in Him; new life, and that to the fullest by the same God who raised Jesus from the dead.

COLOSSAL PRAYER: Loving God, when we were dead in our sin, you brought us to life, and removed our sinful nature. You forgave our sins with Your grace, and nailed those sins to the cross. Those who tempted and tested us, were also nailed to the cross. Let us not be judged by what we eat or drink; nor let us be separated from Christ Jesus - bring us to new growth. In His name we pray, amen.

Serving Christ

One should not believe that by simply saying a prayer of faith fulfills one's duty to God; it is a start towards a life full of sharing and serving God. And saying that prayer of faith, inviting Jesus into our heart does not remove suffering nor pain, but in spite of any and all suffering and pain that may come our way, we remain committed to serving God for the good of the Church. Every challenge, every obstacle, every hurt and shame that may come our way because of Jesus should serve only to make us stronger in the faith. Our attitude towards our service should be that of a servant, at the beck and call of Jesus our Lord. Our first and great task should be to present the word of God in its fullness, helping to uncover what for many remains well hidden: The mystery of the Gospel - Why would God do all that He has done; why would God share grace, love, compassion, and mercy to those who surely deserve death?

Our job is to proclaim Him, preaching, teaching, and living, with full wisdom, with the one goal that one day, all may stand perfect before God. We labor, with the energy given to us by Jesus, for we know our work is surely difficult.

COLOSSAL PRAYER: Lord, You know much I struggle in my walk and work with You, but my purpose remains clear, to be one who encourages hearts to love, to have the full riches of full understanding, so that together we may know the mystery of Christ; for it is You, Lord, Who provides wisdom to keep me solidly in You, and away from foolish doctrines so that I may live and stand firmly in faith with You, loving You. In Jesus' precious and powerful name I pray, amen. (Col 1:24- 2:5)

Jesus

This came to me as I read the further part of Colossians 1: Jesus is key to our faith. The Apostle Paul recognized Jesus as the visible God, the firstborn of all creation, and One who had a hand in the creation of all things - even those things in heaven as well as on earth. Paul asserts, even those things we cannot see, Jesus helped create those. Every ruler, every power, every throne on the earth - created by Him and for Him. Even you and I were created by Him. We are not an accident. The Rev. Francis Chan, author of the bestseller "Crazy Love" in his evangelistic preaching says we humans believe so many lies, including the one that says that humans were an accident. This passage backs this up.

Jesus is supreme above all things; and in Jesus, all things are held together. Do you know a family falling apart, is Jesus absent or present? Do you know a church that is falling apart, is Jesus present or absent?

Jesus is the head of the Church, the Body of Christ. Jesus is the Alpha, the beginning and first fruits among the dead. Jesus is supreme. God's fullness dwells in Jesus, and through Him, all things can be reconciled, for peace was made and is offered now, through the cross.

COLOSSAL PRAYER: Dear God, once we were so far from You, and we even held You and things divine as enemies to us and the way we had chosen to live, but once we met and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and allowed His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, we have been reconciled with You, and we even now stand holy and blameless and free from any accusation. Our call is to continue strong in our faith, and not allowing anything or anyone, to take hope away from us, for that hope has come to us by the Good News of Jesus Christ and we are called to share that hope with others. May it be so. This we pray in the strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen.

Time with God

The gift a pastor can best share is that which she or he has received from the Lord while in prayer and study of the Word. A life lived posing as a pastor, with the deep roots of connectedness with God is short-lived and hard challenged. We must have must much to share much.

With that in mind, and prompted by the dynamic message of the current movie, WarRoom, I started this morning, praying as I normally do, stopping to read in the Word, then praying what had come to me in my reading. I went to the "cream" of what I learned early on on how to find some epistles, "Go, Eat Peaches with Cream," which helps me distinguish Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, and here's what I learned (Yes, we keep learning, no matter our age):

Prayer is key to life. Anything attempted without prayer is starting something seeking failure. As we pray, like Paul, we should have a strong attitude of gratitude, for giving thanks and talking to God should be one and the same thing. God provides all, and as we receive all that we have, we give thanks to God.

Faith without thanks is like an empty grocery sack. One cannot come home to a hungry family and present them with a grocery sack and expect them to be happy nor fed by nothing.

Faith without love is like a bowl of cereal without milk. Sure, crunching something is better than nothing, but you know how much more those who enjoy cereal enjoy it with milk - in the same way, God loves for us to believe and live, with love for God, and for all people.

We should give thanks for the Word of truth that set us free from our sin; it is the Gospel's good news of freedom and fullness of life that we should share.

This key verse jumped out at me: Colossians 1:6b: "All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth."

Here's my Colossian prayer for today:

And I pray that I and all who pray this prayer, may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work (And let me not be idle, dear Lord!), growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. This I pray in Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.

It's the Methodist Way!

Dr. Henry Santana, a justice of the peace in Nieces County, is a dedicated churchman at Kelsey Memorial United Methodist Church. On Sunday, the 28th of June, the first Sunday for many pastors moving in to churches in our conference; he said, as he introduced The Rev. John Fletcher for the first time, "It's the Methodist way!" And indeed it is. And Rev. Fletcher demonstrated why it can be a good way. As we are sent into new settings, we can take the pulpit, sigh and say, "Well, I was so happy back where I was, and I still can't make sense of why I'm here...(sigh again) and then you read a manuscript sermon." Or, we can take the pulpit and confirm why the Methodist way is to bring in new preaching, new styles of preaching, new hope and new excitement for the work of Jesus Christ.

And the congregation, you too, have a role in this! You can say, "Well, we also can't make sense of why you took dear old pastor Ralph; he was here so long he knew everything about us - and we pretty well knew all his sermons - had he stayed another two years we would have heard them all twice!" Or, you can say, "We thank God for our departed pastor and his/her ministry, but we thank God and rejoice in the presence of our new pastor and we will do our best to work with him/her to bring about what God is trying to do in our midst!"

I's your choice. Careful how you decide because it may be life or death for your church and for your own spirit.