We will never fully understand the love of God for His creation. His love for us in Christ is beyond our comprehension.
Matthew 3:17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
God is LOVE!!!
The world that God created was perfect. On the return of Jesus Christ it will return to its original glory.
Colossians 1:9-14
9 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; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. The New King James Version
In His truth we turn our lifestyle to the ways of God. Jesus is truth.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
Holy Spirit is given to us to comfort us but also to teach and guide us in the ways of Christ. Understanding is only possible through his tutelage.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
In the unity of Holy Spirit we are baptized into one body, the Body of Christ.
Deuteronomy 32:8-9
When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations,
When He separated the sons of Adam,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the children of Israel.
For the Lord’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the place of His inheritance.
The sovereign God of the universe divided the nations He set the boundaries according to the number of the children of Israel. Jerusalem is the center and satan wants to wipe it from the face of the earth. Israel will remain under God’s supernatural protection and Christ will return there.
Jeremiah 31:37-40
Thus says the Lord:
“If heaven above can be measured,
And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also cast off all the seed of Israel
For all that they have done, says the Lord.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord—from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”
The word of God tells us that Israel is central to His return and nothing can stop the will of God. Carla
Knowledge of His will refers to the believers’ awareness of Christ’s desires for how they ought to conduct themselves.
False teachers might have described God’s will as unknowable—or knowable only through secret rituals. Paul rejects this idea: Followers of Christ, filled with the knowledge of His will, can live in a manner pleasing to God because they know what matters to Him. In contrast, Paul prays that the Colossians will be filled with knowledge.
This is the purpose of his ministry which is possible only because Christ Himself is the source of all wisdom and knowledge. The biblical conception of wisdom is oriented around God as the source of all wisdom; a wise person is a godly person. Spiritual insights refers to insight that comes from the Spirit.
The purpose of having knowledge, wisdom, and insight is not to boast or brag, but to love God and others, thereby reflecting His image in the world. Knowledge of God refers to experiential knowledge, not just intellectual understanding. As believers trust and obey God’s will, they become more acquainted with God’s ways—and with God Himself.
As non-Jews (Gentiles), the Colossians would have been considered outsiders to God’s blessings, which were reserved for the people of Israel. However, the central truth of the gospel for Paul was that Christ’s death and resurrection brought salvation for all who believed, Jews and Gentiles alike. Throughout his letters, Paul conveys this central truth using different kinds of imagery. Here, he affirms believers as God’s heirs; in the next verse, he shifts to language of deliverance.
In the Kingdom realm Christ reigns as King, where His sovereign rule is carried out. The transfer from one realm to the other is accomplished by God: In His love and grace, He brings believers out of the domain of sin and death and moves them into the kingdom of His Son. The kingdom of God (or kingdom of heaven) is one of the most dominant themes in Jesus’ teaching ministry. In this verse, Paul indicates that God’s kingdom is not just about the future; in some sense, it must already be present, because God has delivered believers from darkness and transferred them into His kingdom.
Redemption refers to the act of freeing someone who is enslaved. Just as Israel was enslaved in Egypt before being rescued by Yahweh, so the Colossian believers had been enslaved to the domain of sin and death before they responded in faith to God’s act of salvation in Christ. God’s forgiveness removes sin and provides reconciliation. Forgiveness is an expression of God’s grace and love. Faithlife Study Bible
Paul’s chief concern is that the Colossians might have full knowledge of God’s will. The desire to serve God will be in vain without a proper understanding of the One we want to serve. Thus Paul prays that the Colossians might be filled with full knowledge that encompasses all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Wisdom is the practical outworking of knowledge and that knowledge cannot be separated from the spiritual understanding that comes through the discernment given by the Holy Spirit.
Paul wanted the Colossians to live in a manner that adequately reflected what God had done for them and was doing in them.
According to His glorious power means that believers are empowered not in proportion to their need but according to God’s strength. So then, Paul desires to see nothing less than the very power of God Himself at work in the Colossian believers. Believers can never be qualified on their own; instead God must make them sufficient through Jesus Christ. The tense of the verb points to “qualifying” as an act in the past rather than a process. Ordinarily to qualify for an event or a position, we have to prove ourselves. However the inheritance that believers receive is not one that they have earned but is based on being qualified by God. The Father “qualifies” us for eternal life with Him, whereas the Son will reward us at the end of the race. God has liberated believers from the dominion of darkness. The apostle uses the common symbolism of light and darkness for good and evil, for God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom, that is found throughout the New Testament. The kingdom from which believers have been rescued is the kingdom of darkness. The NKJV Study Bible
Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
Ephesians 1:6–9 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…
Ephesians 4:1–2 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
Matthew 28:19 (CSB) "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit …"
Jesus commanded His disciples to spread the message of salvation and reconciliation to God.
Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross to pay for our sins, and rose from the grave, defeating sin and death forever! When we trust in Jesus, He reconciles us to God. And as Jesus sets us free from spiritual exile, He also gives us a purpose: to be His ambassadors and build His Kingdom (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
And because Jesus is Lord of all, His life, death and resurrection is good news for all. That's why He gave us a command commonly known as the Great Commission: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit …" (Matthew 28:19, CSB). We have each been called to participate in God's grand plan of redemption. Souls are longing for hope. Friend, let's go tell the world about our Savior's love. First5
I write this on World Mental Health Day. And for those who are going through storms this week, physical and mental (and I add myself to that list), this Daily Sabbath Moment is a Gentle Pause button, to allow us to hear these words from John Green, “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.”
And these, from Brené Brown, “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” Sabbath Moments
A blessing Prayer
May the Lord God Bless you each step of Life’s way.
May you learn each day to open yourself to love and the blessings of love.
May you find a stick to lean on when the road is hard--and not use the stick to beat yourself.
May you be blessed with life's abundance and blessed in poor days too, learning again what really matters, what lasts.
May you never give in to despair or the lie that nothing can change.
May you find ways of life and walk them with courage, knowing that every step is within the heart of Christ who holds all our days in love.
Reverend Dr Christopher Jenkins
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