Book of Colossians Study - Weeks 2 and 3

Chapter 1:3-8
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. 

First thing to notice is that Paul was always giving thanks and praying for those in the church  (See Cor 1:4, Eph 1:16, Phil 1:3). Paul understood the struggles that came with being a Christian and was continually praying for the saints and for their perseverance.
In verse 5, he mentions “the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.” What hope is he referring to? Look at the following verses: 1 Peter 1:4 “to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you”

2 Tim 4:8 “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. 

The hope that is laid up for us in heaven is Jesus Christ. He is “the blessed hope” in Titus 2:13. And this hope is not some uncertain belief that may or may not happen. The hope we have in Christ is the confidence in what God will do in the future. This confidence should lead to a greater trust in God and a deeper love for others as well as influence our lives if we are truly believers.

We also read in these verses that the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ had to come to Colosse. Understand it was not native to the area. It was brought by Epaphras who was a citizen of Colosse  (Col 4:12). Had met Paul at some point and came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, probably in Ephesus. He was most likely the pastor of the church in Colosse. He was visiting Paul while he was a prisoner in Rome. We do not know if Epaphras was arrested as well or a “voluntary prisoner.” All we do know is that he took the Good News back home. Mark 5:19 tell us what Jesus said to the demon possessed man that he cast the demons out of. The man wanted to stay with Jesus but Jesus said, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”

We are to take the gospel of Christ to our homes, our families and our friends. We need to let the good news spread and touch the lives of others.

When we become Christians and are convicted of our sins, we sometimes feel the need to become the sin patrol and point out others sins. Sins that we were committing, along side of them, previously. That usually causes a division and casts us in a negative light.

We are to share God’s Word and caution against sin, but we should focus on the forgiveness of Christ and the price He paid for that sin. It is when we truly recognize the price that Jesus paid, that we truly recognize the seriousness of our sin.

The last thing we will look at in these verses is found in verse 6 where it says the Gospel is “bringing forth fruit.”

If we are truly saved, it should be evident in many ways: We will hate sin, feel horrible and repent when we do and want to do good works and help others. These are just a few things. If Christ is in our hearts, it will be reflected in our lives.

Listen to what Jesus said in John 15:2-5 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

Pay extra attention to verse 5. If we truly abide in Christ and are branches attached to His vine, we will bear fruit. My pastor friend, David Reed in Delaware said that if we are not producing any fruit, maybe we are attached to the wrong vine! Because if we are, we will be separated and thrown in the fire as stated in verse 6  “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”

I think we have covered enough for this time. Read  verses 9-14 for the next time and post any thoughts or questions you may have.
Week 3


Colossians 1:9-11
“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy”


These verses start off with “For this reason…” For what reason? We have to go back and look at the previous verses to find the answer. Paul was so overjoyed that he had heard about the Colossians faith and good works that he and his companions were constantly praying for them.


[Quick Note for Reflection: Sometimes when we hear that others have come to the Lord we can be critical and think to ourselves, “What? They can’t be saved. I’ll believe it when I see it” Instead we ought to be praising God and praying for their new found walk with Christ and coming alongside to help them and encourage them and most importantly, shining our light and setting a good Christ-like example.]


Let’s begin our study ( a little longer one this week) by looking at the things Paul is praying for in these verses:


“filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding”
How many of us can say we know God’s will for our lives? A few maybe but when we think of “God’s Will” we tend to think of the specific purpose for our lives and that one thing that God wants us to do. God’s will is much more than that. Verses like 1 Thess 4:3 and 5:18 tell us that it is God’s will for us to abstain from sexual immorality and to give thanks in everything. 1 Peter 2:15 tells us that it is God’s will for us to do good so foolish people will be silenced. God’s will for our lives is more than just a specific purpose or certain area of ministry, it is a way of life that is a reflection of Christ.


“that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him”
Can we say that our lives are worthy of the price that Jesus paid? When someone does something for us really nice or gets us a gift when we didn’t expect it, we tend to desire to want to repay that person or really show appreciation for the gift that was given to us. How much more should be show appreciation to Jesus for hanging on a cross and dying for us? Our desire should be to please God in the way we live our lives because instead of  condemnation he showed us grace.  Paul conveyed this same desire to the people in Ephesus in Eph 4:1 “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” 


and to the Philippians in Phil 1:27 “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”


and to the people in Thessalonica in 1 Thess 2:11-12 “as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, 12 that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”


“being fruitful in every good work”
Read what Jesus said in Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”


What type of treasures do we have in our heart? What types of fruit are produced by it? Good or Evil? As Christians, we are to produce good fruit. We do not do good works to get saved, We do good works because we are saved.


“and increasing in the knowledge of God”
We need to be increasing in the knowledge of God. Not just memorizing scripture but understanding what Jesus did and understanding how He wants us to live.


Eph 4:10 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” 


This is a verse that every pastor should have highlighted, circled and underlined in his Bible because it clearly defines the key responsibility and duty. That is to equip and edify (instruct and uplift) the people of the church to do the work of ministry. The word “minister” means servant. Jesus gave us the ultimate example when He washed the feet of the disciples. Pastors should be teaching God’s Word and helping others be raised up so they can serve the Lord with the gifts given them.


This verse also says that we all need to come to the unity of the faith. It does not say “to unity OF faith” as others would teach today. It means that we should all be coming together in unity to the faith of Jesus Christ.


“strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power”
In the Greek language, the words for “strengthened”, “might” and “power” can all be translated as “power” but they are all not the same Greek word.


However, “strengthened” and “might” do come from the same Greek root word, “dunamai” which is where we get our word for “dynamite.” The word for “strengthened” means, clearly enough, to strengthen and the word for “might” means inherent power, to be able to do something, to be capable, strong and powerful.


Now the word for “power” is a synonym of “dunamai” called “kratos.”


[You will all be Greek scholars after this.. Seriously, not to make this too scholastic but sometimes the understanding of the original language is important because the Greek language has so many more words than our language to describe one thing so bare with me a little.]


“Kratos” is a word for power that means manifested power, mighty, dominion, great with power and is used only of God in the NT. There are 6 total words (at least listed in my Strong’s Lexicon) for power and 3 are used in this verse. Why these three? After studying these definitions we can translate this verse to read as follows: “Be strong with all your might being empowered by the might of God’s glory.”


Warren Wiersbe commented on this verse saying, “The grace of our Christian lives is but a result of God’s power at work in our lives. Spiritual growth and maturity can come only as we yield to God’s power and permit Him to work in us.”


“all patience and longsuffering with joy”
“Patience” deals with circumstances and means endurance when things get tough. It doesn’t mean sitting back and waiting for the problem to solve itself.  To borrow a quote “Patience is endurance in action. It is not the Christian sitting in a rocking chair, waiting for God to do something. It is the soldier on the battlefield, keeping on when the going is tough.”


A good example can be found in Hebrews 12:1 “…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”


“Longsuffering” deals with people.  The word literally means “slowness in avenging wrongs.” When someone wrongs us we tend to want revenge. We may say to ourselves, “I am not like that, I am a Christian now and I can forgive and leave vengeance to God.” But what if someone hurt your spouse or your kids. Would you seek revenge? Would turn to Lev 24 or Exodus 21 and shout “Eye for an eye!” or would you turn to Matthew 5:38 and read “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also”


The danger is a lack of endurance often results in despondency or losing heart, whereas a lack of patience often leads to wrath or revenge. The last two parts of this verse actually go together telling us that we can have patience and longsuffering through the power that only comes from God.


I know I was going to go all the way through to verse 14 but there is just so much stuff in those verses that go with other versus in John and 1st John among others that I want to put that off to next time.

Book of Colossians Study - Part 1 "Greetings and Background"

Let's begin our study of the Pauline Epistle to the church in Colossae with a little background study of the city and the church.

Colossians – Background (Excerpts from Warren Wiersbe’s Bible Exposition Commentary)

Colossae was one of three cities located about 100 miles inland from Ephesus. The other two cities were Laodicea and Hierapolis (Col 4:13, 16) his area was a meeting point of East and West because an important trade route passed through there. At one time, all three cities were growing and prosperous, but gradually Colossae slipped into a second-rate position. It became what we would call a small town. Yet the church there was important enough to merit the attention of the Apostle Paul.

All kinds of philosophies mingled in this cosmopolitan area, and religious hucksters abounded. There was a large Jewish colony in Colossae, and there was also a constant influx of new ideas and doctrines from the East. It was fertile ground for religious speculations and heresies!

The interesting this is that Colosse may have never been mentioned in the Bible without this letter. Paul did not start this church nor did he ever visit it. But he had heard of their faith (Col 1:4,9) and send them a letter to encourage him. I am sure glad he did because there is so much in this letter that we need to learn from.

When we examine the persons involved in the prison correspondence of Paul (see Eph., Phil., Col., Phile., and 2 Tim.), we can just about put the story together of how the Colossian church was founded. During Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, at least two men from Colossae were brought to faith in Jesus Christ—Epaphras and Philemon (see Phile. 19). Epaphras apparently was one of the key founders of the church in Colossae, for he shared the Gospel with his friends there (Col. 1:7). He also had a ministry in the cities of Hierapolis and Laodicea (Col. 4:12–13).

Philemon had a church meeting in his home (Phile. 2). It is likely that Apphia and Archippus, mentioned in this verse, were respectively the wife and son of Philemon, and that Archippus was the pastor of the church (Col. 4:17).

There is a good lesson for us here: God does not always need an apostle, or a “full-time Christian worker” to get a ministry established. Nor does He need elaborate buildings and extensive organizations. Here were two laymen who were used of God to start ministries in at least three cities. It is God’s plan that the Christians in the large urban areas like Ephesus reach out into the smaller towns and share the Gospel. Is your church helping to evangelize “small-town” mission fields?

The Colossian assembly was predominantly Gentile in its membership. The sins that Paul named (Col. 3:5–9) were commonly associated with the Gentiles, and his statement about the mystery applied more to the Gentiles than to the Jews (Col. 1:25–29). The church was probably about five years old when Paul wrote this letter.

Chapter 1: 1-2

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (NKJV)

To fully understand Paul’s letters, we need to understand the character of Paul. He was a Pharisee (Jewish religious leader) that new the Hebrew scriptures thoroughly (or so he thought) and was present at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58) and would persecute Christians (Acts 8:3). His name was Saul during this time. But on that fateful day when he was on the way to Damascus to arrest Christians, Saul was met by the Lord Jesus and chosen to be His servant (Acts 9). 

The word “apostle” means ‘messenger, one who was sent’ and the word for “will” means ‘desire or pleasure.’ So we can reword this to say, “A messenger who was sent by Jesus Christ for His pleasure…” This is the same greeting that Paul used in Gal 1:3. In other letters, he uses words like slave or bondservant (depending on your translation) but the Greek word “duolos” (bondservant) means ‘willful slave.’

One interesting note is that Paul always used the same greeting in verse 2 in all his letters. “Grace and peace to you” and always in that order signifying that we can never have peace without God’s grace. In his letters to Timothy and Titus, he added the word “mercy.”

Next week we will get into verses 3 through 8 and discuss their faith in Christ.

Till next time…

God Bless,

Mike

Are You LOST?

"6 REASONS PEOPLE ARE LOST AND NEED SALVATION"


1. They are lost because of their rejection Of biblical revelation.

Ps. 19:1-4
"The ​​heavens declare the glory of God;
And the ​​firmament ​1shows ​​His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their ​​line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world."

Rom. 1:18-23
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and 7Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”



2. They are lost because of disobeying their own conscience.
Rom. 2:14-16
“for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”


3. They are lost because of their relationship to the world.

Eph. 2:1-2
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the 1course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience”

James 4:4
“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever”

1 John 5:19
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

4. They are lost because of their relationship to Satan.

2 Cor. 4:4
“whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

Col. 1:13
“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,”

1 John 3:10
“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”


5. They are lost because of their relationship to sin.

Gen. 2:17
“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Jer. 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?”

Rom 5:12
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”

Rom 7:14
“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

Eph. 4:18 – 19
“having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”


6. They are lost because of their relationship to God.

Eph. 2:12
“that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

1 John 5:12
“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

STAND FIRM - In The War

Sorry for the delay in the final installment of the “Stand Firm” teachings but nevertheless, here we are at the final chapter. So far we have discussed standing firm in God’s Word and standing firm in the world. This last topic is a little similar to the last one because it involves standing strong in the midst of unbelief and persecution but to take it to another level, we are to stand firm in the WAR. Yes, we are at war. I want to open with some verses that you may be familiar with but I think it sets the tone for our lesson. It is from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.

Ephesians 6:10-17
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”

This verse is speaking of the spiritual war that Christians fight everyday. Well, honestly everyone is fighting this war, except those that do not have Jesus Christ as their Savior are just fighting on the wrong side and don’t even know it!

I like how Paul tells us to put on the WHOLE armor of God; truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation and The Word of God. Without all of these things, we don’t stand a chance against Satan and his cronies. We say we have faith but yet don’t read the Word or we read the Word but yet have no faith or we think we are saved and don’t read the Word, have any faith and don’t really know the gospel. I think you get the picture. We need to have all of these things in order to survive the war.

But while we are definitely in a spiritual war (I like the term, “invisible war”) we can be in other wars as well. I have a good friend who is in Iraq and is literally in a war. I was in Desert Storm awhile ago so I know what it is like to be in a physical war as well. But you may be dealing with other wars: addictions, marriages, relationships, financial battles, children, etc. God’s Word assures that we have the ability to survive and win these battles as well. We just have to trust in God and sometimes it takes more than just saying “Okay God I trust you” because honestly sometimes we just don’t really mean it do we? We say we trust God but then we pick up that six pack we know we shouldn’t or we ask God to help our financial situations and then we go charge more debt to our credit cards!

The bottom line is we are asking God for help but we are not letting him help or worse yet, we don’t really want His help. We would rather hang around in our sin and feel sorry for ourselves. John 3:20-21 comes to mind dealing with this. Jesus said, “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

You see when we sin, sometimes it is easier to just hang around in darkness and use our struggle as an excuse without really submitting to God. We can even fool ourselves into thinking we are saved and that God will just turn a blind eye to our sin because “He understands our struggle.” In reality we need to repent, turn to Christ and get on with our lives serving Him and leave our past behind!

If this offends anyone, I am sorry if you are offended but I cannot apologize for what God’s Word says. I care enough about you to share it with you.

In Exodus, Moses had a tough job. He rose to power over his own people, killed a guy and ran away and then when He was old, God told him to go back and lead His people out of Egypt. Now these people he eventually led away were tough to deal with. They were always complaining and whining and wanting more (anyone have kids???) Anyway, Moses was always pleading to God on their behalf and when they reached the Red Sea with Pharaoh and his army bearing down on them, you know they were freaking out!

Moses had the faith of God and knew they would be delivered when all hope seemed to be gone. Listen to what he told the Israelites:

Exodus 14:13-14
“Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

They only needed to “be still.” All they had to do was to stand and watch the glory of God. Maybe you just need to “stand still” or maybe you need to “stand up” and get serious about the war that you are fighting. Maybe God is not helping because you are not letting Him. Or maybe some of you just need to “kneel down” to the Creator of the universe and submit FULLY to Him.

What ever wars we are fighting, we need to “Kneel Down” first to the feet of Jesus Christ and surrender all to Him and then we need to “Stand Up” and “Stand Firm” in God’s Word and glory in His grace and mercy. I leave you with a verse of encouragement from James the brother of Jesus:

James 5:8
“You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

Amen and God bless and Come Lord Jesus Come!!

STAND FIRM - In the WORLD

Last time I talked about standing firm in God’s Word and having God’s Word stand firm in us. Today the topic is “Standing Firm in the World.”

As Christians, we are to be in the world but not of the world as Jesus said in John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Everyday there are churches and pastors and preachers, who were once defending and teaching God’s Word, changing their teachings and beliefs, contrary to the Word of God, in order to increase attendance and to gain acceptance by the world!

Prov 10:25 – “When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever.”

Matt 10:22 – “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Would you rather be swept away with people that accept you and like you or standing firm with the Lord forever? It can be hard when we work around people that don’t believe in God and who look at us differently because we do believe in God. But it doesn’t matter how much ridicule, teasing, abuse or mistreatment you think you have ever received or are afraid of receiving, think of Jesus. Think of the beating, the whipping, the scourging, the spitting, the cursing, the nails driven into his wrists, his feet, think of the pain He endured. Think of the abuse He took. Think of the ridicule He received.

Can you or I say that we have gotten that because we are Christians? I think not.

If Jesus can go through that for us, so we can be forgiven from our sins and become children of the living God, the least we can do is be bold and proclaim that gift He gave to us and offers to all, especially those that ridicule us. Jesus forgave the criminal on the cross who was hurling insults one moment and then saved the next. He asked God to forgive those that crucified Him.

The key to living in the world and not of the world is found in these verses:

Phil 1:27 – “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:1 – “…walk worthy of the calling with which you were called”

Colossians 1:10 – “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”

Is the way we live our lives? Does our life represent the love and grace of Jesus Christ? If you were to tell someone you were a Christian, would they be shocked because of the life you really lead? We are to live out our faith and bear the fruit of our salvation that abides in us through Christ Jesus.

1 Cor 15:58 – “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Sometimes we can feel defeated and feel like “What’s the use?” “No one listens to me” “They all make fun of me if I try to share Jesus with them” “No one will like me if I tell them I go to church and believe the Bible.”

Please don’t be discouraged and remember that we are to not seek the praises of men but to glorify our Father in Heaven. The more you are persecuted and attacked by the enemy, the more you should be encouraged because you are doing something right.

Jesus died on the cross for us, the least we can do is be proud of that and not be ashamed!

Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes”

In closing, I leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the believers in Corinth and as he encouraged them to stand strong in their faith, I also encourage you to stand strong in your faith while in this world.

1 Cor 16:13 – “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.”

Glory be to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! AMEN!

STAND FIRM - In the Word

I am a fan of both college and professional football but even if you aren’t you’ve probably heard the name “Peyton Manning.” He is the quarterback for the NFL Indianapolis Colts and arguably the best (at least one of the best) to ever play that position. The reason is because he studies the game and his opponent endlessly. He studies game film after game film, memorizes play after to play, practices relentlessly and he trains hard. In the end, on game day Sunday, he is prepared and usually picks the opposing defense apart. (I know they lost the Super Bowl this year, but hear me out)

The reason I bring this up is because of three words I said in the last sentence, “He is prepared.” How good would Peyton Manning be if he blew off studying game film, practicing, reading his play books or working on his signal calling? What if he just looked at the game plan only 1 day a week and for only an hour or so that day? Probably not that good.

So here is my question and the reason I use this analogy: How strong of a Christian do you think you can be if you only open you Bible on Sunday at church? God’s eternal Word has got to have a permanent place in our lives and in our hearts.

2 Thess 2:15 – “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”

How are we to know the attacks of the enemy if we don’t read the warnings in God’s Word? Listen to what Paul says in the book of Ephesians Chapter 6:10-17
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”

It is our weapon against the enemy and against the world. The world tries to conform us to its ways because “times are changing” and we need to “get with the program.” The only program we need to get with is God’s program!

I admit, times are changing but not for the better. If you want a snap shot of America today, read Romans 1:18-32. As much our society is changing and its morals declining, God’s Word remains the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Psalm 119:89 – “Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.”
Isaiah 40:8 – “True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade, but our God’s Word stands firm and forever.”

The question is does God’s Word “stand firm” in you?

Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Get the most out of God’s Word so you can get most out of the life He has given you!

Standing Firm - Introduction

Recently, I was encouraging a friend who is stationed in Iraq about standing strong and leaning on Christ in difficult times (we should always lean on Him, but you know what I mean) and afterward I realized that this was something that all of us, at one time or another, struggle with and that includes myself.

I had sent my friend a bunch of verses to encourage him to “stand firm” and after looking through at the verses more closely I realized that they can all be classified in three categories:
1) Standing firm in the Word
2) Standing firm in the World
3) Standing firm in the War

So guess what? Yep, another series of postings is coming that I hope and pray will encourage you when you are struggling in your walk with the Lord.

So prepare you hearts and prepare your minds and check back in the next day or so for the first installment of “STAND FIRM.”

We will discuss how we need to stand firm in the truth of God’s Word and how God’s Word needs to stand firm in us.