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Good morning dear friends who are on the “Walking with Jesus” journey with me. I chose the phrase “Walking with Jesus”, for this daily experience, because God calls us to live each day with a sense that God is with us, through the indwelling power and presence of His Holy Spirit; and Jesus is leading us through life as we follow Him, learn more and more of Him, and deepening our relationship with Him. It’s very much like the journey his disciples and friends were on as they ‘walked with Jesus’, both while He was with them and after He returned to heaven and they carried on.
Today we’re in Colossians chapter 3 together. Oh my this is a great chapter my friends! You’ll notice Paul begins with “Since then, you have been raised with Christ…” So if you’ll back up to chapter 2 vs. 20 you’ll see Paul writes there, “Since you died with Christ, to the basic principles of this world…”. Ok, so what does this mean…we have died and been raised with Christ?
As we read Paul’s letters, you’ll see this is a theme he repeats often. It’s one of the ways Paul wants us to view our Christianity, NOT as a religion of laws or practices, not even a series of rituals or traditions that we practice, rather, Paul wants us to understand God is inviting us into an authentic, growing, developing RELATIONSHIP with Him. Oh please grasp this my friends. . .
God the Father invites us to understand that HE loves us; He has forgiven our sins against Him; He has adopted us into a Father-son, Father-daughter relationship with Him, and He has declared us justified (no longer guilty of our sins, in fact He now considers us holy people)! Now we are all sons & daughters, and parents, so we should have some understanding of this!
God the Son, Jesus Christ calls us to understand that HE paid the full price so the Father can do all those things in our lives. Also, the Son, Jesus, reconciles us back to the Father from whom our sin has estranged us, and the resurrected Jesus is ascended back into heaven where He now REIGNS over all in all authority, and He is interceding for the Father with us, and He is continuing to save, everyday, those who trust in Him to be their Savior from their sin. Also, Jesus is functioning as the Head of His global church…that’s all people in every nation, who have trusted Him for salvation. And Jesus is working the Father’s purposes THROUGH His church in every place God’s people live, as Jesus leads us each day in living as His representatives in our world!
And oh, there’s much more…for God the Holy Spirit had given us a new spiritual nature, we are born again by Him! And the Holy Spirit lives within God’s people, guiding them to live lives honoring to God, and warning them of temptation and sin, and empowering us, to live as God’s people powerfully impacting our world!
Now, you’ve probably heard all those wonderful things before…but I hope you own them as TRUTH and as your reality, your experiences with God! It’s not theory, it’s reality we are living!
So when Paul says we’ve died with Christ, he means, when we repented of our sin and trusted fully in Jesus Christ and His atonement death to break the hold of sin in our lives, it’s as though we died on the cross with Jesus, and no longer does sin have any authority over us! While we were born with a sin nature and all of us sinned many times in our past, now that we have been transformed by the work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, evil and wickedness and sin have no power in our lives.
Our past is covered by the blood of Jesus! We are dead to all that past ugly stuff! Do you see in Colossians 3:5 Paul says “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…”? He’s urging us to take seriously all God has accomplished for and in us, and to actively, aggressively work each day to defeat, may I even say to ‘kill’ any and all sinful desires which may rise up in us!
And just as Jesus rose from the dead to new eternal life, so we have a whole new life in Christ, and can live everyday in a dynamic, vibrant, Holy Spirit filled relationship, with God as our heavenly, holy Father, and Jesus as our Savior and Master and King! So Paul calls us in Colossians 3 to understand very specifically how this works out in daily practical reality.
Look with me… verse one tells me where my heart focus should be every day now…on heaven, on Jesus, on anything that is glorifying to my heavenly Father! It means my heart is no longer consumed with the stuff of this world…I can live oblivious to all the temptation and wickedness that used to drag me into the darkness! But, that requires effort on my part to resist the attractions of the darkness here, and to keep my heart, my desires, my passions focused on Jesus and His purposes for my life.
Verse 2 tells me I can live now with my MIND focused on Jesus, and things that bring God great glory. No longer is my mind consumed with materialism, or politics or entertainment or controversial debates that are worthless, and consume much of today’s media! I can live above all that! Because…“…your life is now hidden in with Christ in God.”
I’m a different man from who I was before I gave my life to Jesus! I have very different priorities in my life, and very different values! But it requires effort for me, to keep my mind focused on things of eternal value, things which are honoring to God, things which will keep my life pure. . .when all around me almost every voice is trying to draw me back into the dark stuff of this world. My friends, have you learned about the power of the on/off button on your car radio, or the ‘mute’ button on your TV remote, or the filters available for your computer?
Have you noticed how aggressive the world is in trying to capture your mind and heart, by deluging you, day and night, with non-stop information or conversation or simply NOISE? And have you noticed how all that noise can drown out the voice of God as He is trying to speak with you, teach you, guide you, help you, comfort you? That’s why truths like this are so important. . .
“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted in all the earth.” (Ps. 46:10)
“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.” (Ps. 37:7)
“Turn my heart toward Your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to Your Word.” (PS. 119:36,37)
Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to Your Word.” (PS. 119:36,37)
The contrast from who I was before Jesus, to who I am with Jesus is clearly seen in Colossians 3:5-11. And the resulting new life I should be living everyday, Paul wonderfully describes in vs. 12-17! So read through this very carefully my friends, with a simple question. . . Which is me? The old sinful person, described in vs 5-9, or the new person described in vs. 10-17?
This isn’t rocket science my friends, this is raw reality. So I invite you to do something courageous. . .stand in front of your mirror, looking yourself in the eyes, and read these verses slowly, verse by verse, pausing after each phrase to look yourself deeply in your own eyes. What do you see? Which of Paul’s verses describe who you USED to be, and which ones describe who God wants you to be? Which describe who you ARE? And what is the Holy Spirit of God telling you about the journey Jesus would like to lead you on in becoming more and more like HIM?
Tomorrow we’ll begin with verse 18.
Oh Lord Jesus, as we read each of these verses carefully, please show us what YOU see in each of us, and what YOU’d like to do to improve us more and more into the people you’ve designed us to be, when living in a wonderful and growing relationship with You!
Click to read today’s chapter: Colossians 3. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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