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For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Overview of the New Testament: The Epistles 7. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians Bible Verse :Colossians 3:1-17 "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. . . . Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. " Message:
Colossians, the third of Paul’s prison epistles, is unusual in that Paul had never been to Colossae. It is a short epistle (four chapters) and quite readable, although the only new territory it covers are several specific heresies.
The epistle is filled with praise for the believers in the church, so the problems it addresses were not as widespread as the comparative uproar in Corinth and Galatia earlier. While Paul does not define the false teachings, his plea that “no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition,” together with his specific admonition that “the fullness of deity dwells bodily [in Christ]” (Col. 2:8,9), point to some variant of Gnosticism.
Rutland Psalter
Angel sleeping with a lion
Rutland Psalter (1245)
Gnosticism covers a wide range of pseudo-Christian systems, mixing the Gospel with pre-Christian Greek philosophies. Gnostics taught that all matter is evil. A Supreme God or pure good could not mix with matter; thus, they hypothesized a pantheon of lesser deities interposed between God and the world. Jesus and the Hebrew YHVH were two of these lesser deities.
Having established the basics of sound Christian belief in the first two chapters — with emphasis on the full divinity of Christ — Paul devotes the last two chapters to practical advice about how to live as a Christian. The transitional paragraph (above, beginning “If then you have been raised with Christ”) is a clarifying statement, connecting our spiritual life to our daily life. It is sometimes hard to grasp what concepts such as “born again” mean; many people find that the beginning of Colossians 3 helps their understanding of the great Christian mystery called “life in Christ.”
Paul mentions the church of Laodicea in 2:1. The church at Laodicea is famous for another reason: it is last of nine churches detailed in the quasi-epistle of Revelation 2 and 3. Many people believe that this stands as a prophecy of the church in the Western world today, for the Laodicean church was marked by lukewarm religious fervor and material prosperity; moreover, the word “laodicea” in Greek can be reasonably be read to mean “judgment by the people,” inferring a dilution or hybridization of the Gospel with secular thought, due to pressure from popular opinion.
At the end of Colossians, Paul mentions a letter to the Laodicean church, and asks the Colossians to greet them and swap letters with them. (The Laodicean epistle has not been found.) Perhaps Paul hoped that the zeal of the Colossian Christians would rub off on the Laodiceans!
Meditation : Prayer : Let me not forget you as I go forth into the world this day, blessed Lord; may my every word be a prayer, and my every act be testimony to your love and truth, and may I know your presence every second of this day...Amen |
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