OzThoughts Wednesday 30th September 2009

OzThoughts Wednesday 30th September 2009

When I looked at today’s passage from Colossians (1:15-29), the first thing I thought was “it is long”. My next thought was “How do I shorten it?”

It is a wonderful description of God’s Son, Jesus and what he did to become our Saviour. Jesus went to the cross and died there but that is not the end. It is the end of our old life but it is also a new beginning.

Although yourself to soak in Paul’s message and give God the praise as you reap the benefits of all this today.

Colossians 1:15-29 (The Message)

15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
21-23You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don't walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.
24-25I want you to know how glad I am that it's me sitting here in this jail and not you. There's a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church's part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God's way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.
26-29This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it's out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That's what I'm working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.
[Listen: Male Voice: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2116.mp3
or
Band: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4035.mp3
or
Piano: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_1755.mp3 ]

I bring to thee my heart to fill;
I feel how weak I am, but still
To thee for help I call.
In joy or grief, to live or die,
For earth or Heaven, this is my cry,
Be thou my all in all.

Chorus
Christ is all, yes, all in all.
My Christ is all in all.

Around me in the world I see
No joy that turns my soul from thee;
Its honors fade and fall;
But with thee, though I mount the cross,
I count it gain to suffer loss,
For thou art all in all.

I've little strength to call my own,
And what I've done, before thy throne
I here confess, is small;
But on thy strength. O God, I lean,
And through the blood that makes me clean,
Thou art my all in all.

No tempest can my courage shake,
My love from thee no pain can take,
No fear my heart appall;
And where I cannot see I'll trust,
For then I know thou surely must
Be still my all in all.
Author: Herbert Howard Booth (1862-1926) (verses), W.H. Williams (chorus)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 489


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