Colossians 1!

First of all, here's a website that gives you some background info. on what the book of Colossians is, who wrote it, why he wrote it, etc. It's totally for you own study's purpose:

http://www.ibs.org/niv/studybible/colossians.php


And here's my shveal (or however u may choose to spell that word)!

It's kind of neat to jump from the story of Jesus, how he came to the earth for our sake and died for our sins, to around 20-30 years after Jesus' death. You may wonder what may have happened in the church for all that time. It seems like nothing hasn't really changed. Christians were still being persecuted and jailed. It doesn't say about that much here, but I do know that Paul was on the run for several years (or maybe even for most) parts of his life and trying to lead people to Jesus at the same time. It's pretty cool as well, that ONE man (Paul) wrote so many of these letters to different churches, and were compiled into the Bible. This one man had that much influence on the church. He writes such wise words too, and he was a great leader.

I like verses 21-23...we're "without blemish and free from accusation." Not even without "scars", but without blemish, these little tiny marks that ruin the appearance of one. It just shows how much God cares and how much detail he pays attention to in us. He's remove every single one of our sins and flaws as far as it is from east to west. And our hope is in the gospel, and it alone.

I can kinda sense that the first church was really struggling. And how many times do we take the fact that we have a stable church to go to with a stable community, for granted? We're one of the bigger churches in Toronto too. Our church has money. Our church provides us with a safe, big enough place for worship every Sunday. Our church has granted us with an amazing pastor and amazing people around us. We take it for granted! So why not go out there and bring people to church, if it's so amazing? And why not try to make MORE OF AN EFFORT to make it more amazing, rather than just sitting on our butts and settling for the "good" church? This is what I've been telling the leadership team too, and I really hope that we will try to go far with the church and the possibilities that we can fathom from our youth ministry. So for all of you, don't just settle for being in the praise team, but REACH OUT.


Roh

evening ladies and gents...
Not much to say on a monday night... looking forward to sams thingy tho.

To be honest i didnt get much from this chapter. I didnt read anything i already knew. Although having a constant mind that God is the all mighty is good!
Maybe its that my eyes are tired from work but i just dont get the point of this chapter. ill re read it later before i sleep though...
But Paul's journey is quite the epic one. From jail to jail... to jail again...
But mike remember i was talking about the letters? these are it!

OHHhhh BY THE WAY!!! Sams birthday is coming up soon so i have an idea that we should pool in some legit pesos (i guess Canadian money will do fine) and buy him something nice! not an ipod, his fam jam is getting him one. Maybe....a ..... coco bidet?

happy monday everybody!
only three more days of school this week..hehe..haha.

anyways, i'm gonna apologize ahead of time because i feel like my head is stuffed up to HERE (which you obviously can't see...hahaha) and it's beyond me how comprehensible anything from me is going to be today, haha. but heeere I go:

Colossians 1
Firstly, like Roh said, I think it's awesome how Paul writes all these letters to these different churches. It takes a certain kind of dedication to do that, and I love seeing just the enthusiasm he shows for seeing these churches grow. It's pretty great, and I think there's a lot that can be learned from the man..

v.10 "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light."

I liked this verse as it almost set out a sort of guideline for the kind of lives that we should be leading, with the different characteristics that Paul lists here. I particularly like the bit of about having great endurance and patience, emphasizing that these are characteristics that are significant to us, as Christians, coming back to the idea that our walks in this world will not always be easy. And I also liked the last part that says, "...who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light." Earlier on in this chapter, in v.4, Paul speaks of how he thanks God for the faith their church shows in Jesus and the love that they show for all the saints, so I'd imagine that in the context of the times, it would be a great honour to be told that they would be sharing in the same inheritance of the saints, who are I'm assuming regarded with a certain sense of respect and reverence. It's just a reminder of how good our God is, the grace that he shows, the mercy that he shows...Just good, just good

have fantastic choosdays, everyone

- hanners

Oh, I almost forgot. From that link that Roh sent out where it explains the context of Colossians, there's this one line that I really appreciate:
The theme of Colossians is the complete adequacy of Christ as contrasted with the emptiness of mere human philosophy.
Anyways, just thought I'd point that out there as we begin reading today..They're heavy words..and I really like it. Haha.

wow i dont know what it is but this passage was so hard to absorb
and i still havent quite absorbed it yet
i guess its different from reading john which was more like a storybook
17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together
I like this verse becuase I dont know.. I guess it kinda challenges my understanding of God
we often think. Oh God is in the church and God is in us and he works in us. But this relaly takes me outside of the limits ofmy own perception/imagination. And 'in him all thigns hold together' kinda shows me that everything is connected.. That his entire world is interweaved and connected and held together by God's grace and his plan
And even though we might know this at the back of our heads we don't really open our hearts to see it.. We turn a blind eye to the magnitutde of God's presence and pretend that we have our own lives, pretend that sometimes when we try to hide from God that it works; when it really doesnt.
Sorry guys today was short

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry for the lateness.
This is exciting.. reading another book together! woot woot

Colossians 1

There was a couple of verses that stood out when I read this passage.

In verse 6, Paul says, "All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth."
I've been really frustrated with my school friends because they're quite hard-headed when it comes to my telling them about God. They love to argue, and I really can't quite keep up with them. I brought one of my friends to church one night with a speaker, and she was so intimidated by us because of what the speaker said. At one point, I wanted to give up on trying to get my friends to come out to church. In fact, I still have my doubts and fears about this. However, reading this verse made me realize that God constantly works in each and every one of us whom believe in Him. For me, this also means that God moves in the people with whom I share my faith. So, I don't know how long it will take until my friends will encounter God and accept Him, but I know that eventually this will happen.

These days, I've been noticing that I'm really impatient- with everyone including myself. From verse 11, I learned that endurance and patience are two things that I are included in living a worthy life of a christian. I don't know how I can learn to be more patient, but I guess I will try to remember this verse and work at it.

In the end, in verse 29, Paul says, "To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me." Schoolwork has definitely brought a load of stress into my life these days, and I'm exhausted by the end of every day, but reading this verse really motivated me. When we believe in God's power to work in us in amazing ways, we'll be able to do everything with the energy with which he provides us.



There are grade 9 girls in the library, and they do not understand the concept of being "quiet in the library."
It's a zoo here. Greeeeeeeeaatttt..
I guess I should practice the whole patience thing starting now.

buhbye

heyooooo

sry i didn't do it on time =[

I have to use the biblegateway.com site for the bible cuz this book isn't in my bible
so i'm using the NLT which Roh recommanded to me and it reminds me of latin class... it's so choppy and stuff and it feels weird reading it...
anyways...

Through this chapter I could see that through his experiences with Jesus, Paul grew a lot as a person.
I just felt that in these letters (these are letters right?!) that he knew what he was talking about, he was able to give advice and prayer and that he had changed from a normal guy into somebody who's "more" than that.
I kinda dread using that word "more" because I feel that it implies an upward shift in Paul's social status (from average guy to an influential figure) but I really mean like now he's able to help people on personal levels and in many depths I guess.
Yep.. that's it!
onto today's actual devo~_~