OzThoughts Friday 2nd October 2009

OzThoughts Friday 2nd October 2009

William Booth in his first “Orders and Regulations for Field Officers” tells his Officers that whatever they do in meetings should be short and lively to keep the interest of the people. He says some Officers can keep the listeners attention during a long address. However, he says they do harm because the less able will try to copy them. “Therefore”, the Regulations continue “let everything be brief. Short and to the point is the rule of The army” (1891, p404).

Today’s portion of Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, warns Christians about getting caught up with those who dazzle with big words, intellectual double-talk and endless arguments. He reminds the Colossians that God has done it all through Christ on the cross.


[Listen: Band and Songsters: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4442.mp3
or
Organ and choir: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4244.mp3

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame,
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Chorus
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown.

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then he'll call me some day to my home far away
Where his glory for ever I'll share.
Author: George Bennard (1873-1958)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 124



Colossians 2:8-15 (The Message)

8-10Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
11-15Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant cancelled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

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