COLOSSIANS 1:24-29

I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church. God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.

So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

Suffering for others
I recently was talking with a lady from the church who just returned from a mission trip to Haiti. Shock over the deplorable poverty the people live in still resonated in her voice as she shared her experience. I was reminded of my trip to Zambia with Mike and Wendy and the rampant poverty we witnessed there.

Going on a mission trip wakes us up to the blessings we have here in America. We realize just how blessed we are and how luxurious our accommodations are. At times I think I am suffering because I drive a car I don’t really like, or do not have a particular tool I want to use. I look around and see other people with more than I have and can begin to bemoan my own “poverty”. Truth be told, I am wealthy.

As I read about Paul suffering for people he did not even know I am challenged to give up some of what I have to help others. Paul suffered for the Colossians in his body. How am I suffering for believers around the world in my body? Do I deny myself anything for the sake of others? Am I willing to sacrifice my pleasure so the needs of others I do not know can be met?

Jesus, you suffered the ultimate price for my salvation. Teach me to sacrifice my pleasures for the needs of others that your Kingdom might be spread through the world. Transform my attitude to think of others more than myself. – Dan Jones

The Proclaimer
Continuing the Good Friday suffering of Christ in my body isn’t my cup of tea. Paul can have it – all of it. He can have the “fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.” I don’t want it. But, alas, anyone who senses a responsibility to proclaim the same message Paul did, is stuck with some aspect of suffering.

My body hasn’t suffered like Paul’s body did; nothing close, unless church potluck suppers count. But my emotions do. And my relationships. Being a Proclaimer of the “secret” that Jesus Christ wants to live as absolute leader within everyone – especially outsiders and people of other religious persuasions (Gentiles) – guarantees misunderstandings, accusations, rejection, and attacks. Warning and teaching others about something so personal as spiritual truth cannot help but share company with emotional and relational strain, even pain.

Why would suffering accompany a message that promises to bring life to the full and forever? Why did it for Christ himself? I think it’s simple, perhaps obvious. While we all want to taste glory, we want it on our terms. The message of Christ not only refuses to allow us to set the terms, it insists we travel a radical pathway to obtain it, one that seems upside-down and opposite to common human experience. His is a message that demands a complete rewiring of the human mind, reconstruction of the human heart, and rearrangement of human personal and social patterns.

So, as much as I’d like to walk away from the religious spotlight to live out my days in a relatively safe – at least less painful – place, I remain a proclaimer of Christ as a profession and a way of life. That’s my calling and responsibility, as is the pain associated with it.

Lord of my life, as much as I hate the stresses and strains, brokenness and alienation that accompanies a Proclaimer’s calling, I’ll remain steadfast, with your strength and help. – Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 1:15-23

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

An offensive idea

The idea of a narrow minded God disturbs, even angers, many minds. Yet, the three most influential religions of the world – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam – all insist on this understanding of God. While many want to nullify this reality, an honest reading of the sacred writings in all three religions deny the notion that God has established many paths to himself.

Respecting the sacred texts demands that we accept their teaching. The Koran insists that God has ultimately revealed himself and provided salvation for humanity through Mohammed; the Torah, through the Mosaic Law; the New Testament, through Jesus Christ. The texts call me to decide which person I will follow and proclaim to the world that it is the singular path God has established.

Of the three religions Christianity is aggravatingly unique. Both Judaism and Islam teach that God chose a prophet (or prophets) through which he revealed himself. Christianity, on the other hand, insists that God himself came into the world! This makes it doubly difficult to transform it into “one-of-many” paths. If the one who created everything and holds it all together comes, why bother with anyone else!?

Christ of Creation, I reaffirm my sole allegiance to you. Though many will find it insulting, I will offer you as the singular hope of the world. Grant that my offer not be offensive, not even coercive. May the only offence others take be in Christ, the one who reconciles all things to God. – Mike Leamon

Visible Invisibility

Who is Jesus? People have tried to find the answer to this question for centuries. Entire careers have been dedicated to searching out the answer. Societies have formed, papers have been written and wars have been fought over the answer to this question.

Paul had no doubt. Using the words of what had become a hymn for the early church, a creedal statement about the nature and character of the one called Jesus, Paul opens his letter to the Colossians with a description of Christ. There is much to unpack in these verses about the nature of Christ. So much the church later (in the year 325) took this material and made an official creed called the Nicene Creed reflecting the core of Colossians 1.

Creeds are important and the Biblical message stands as our final authority on Christ, but they alone do not make Jesus, Christ to me. Until I wrestle with the question “Who is Jesus?” I am outside of relationship with God. Until I confess, “Jesus is Lord,” and apply the reconciliation of his blood to my life, Christ stands outside of my recognition.

Only in relationship to God through Christ does Jesus become visible to me. Until I am drawn by the Holy Spirit into the grace of God, Christ is invisible. Once I am awakened to the identity of Jesus through the gift of grace, then Christ becomes visible in me.

Jesus, your glory, love, grace, and humility amaze me. I will never fully understand all that you surrendered to restore my broken relationship with God. I thank you for your love and pray you would become more visible in me each day. – Dan Jones

COLOSSIANS 1:3-14

We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

The sweetest, juiciest fruit

What’s the secret of loving ALL of God’s people!? If Paul isn’t using hyperbole then he’s reporting a miracle. Given what I’ve witnessed growing up in church, and (to be painfully honest) what I see in the mirror, the average Christian possesses deep affection for only a few and a commitment to sacrificially serve –laying down one’s agenda for the other’s benefit – for only those few, and then only while everything runs along smoothly between us.

Truly loving beyond the few, beyond the similar and like-minded, beyond my comfort zone – this is surely a gift of the Spirit. And one so few possess in its sweet ripeness, as when a piece of fruit reaches that zenith of maturity that to bite into it leaves the taste buds yearning for more. So many of us possess such powerful love in its early green-apple stage; unappetizing at best, upsetting at worst.

Is there anything I can do other than to beg the Holy Spirit to magically drop such love into my heart? Is there anything that will nurture genuine love for God’s people I don’t like, I’m not like, I like to stay away from, or I so dislike it verges on contempt?

Perhaps Paul’s follow up clause provides a hint. “which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven.” Maybe, developing a deeper understanding of heaven’s qualities, centering more of my life on my reserved spot in glory, and experimenting with ways to live heavenly realities now, will provide the spiritual weather patterns that will foster the ripening of this most delectable fruit.

Father, in whose house I have a room, forgive me for allowing the stuff of this temporary existence to define me and stunt heaven’s love. Grant me the resolve, follow through, and insight needed to make heaven the defining center of my daily walk. As I breathe heaven’s air and bath in its sunshine, ripen love to it most delicious state in me. – Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 1:1-2

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.

We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.

May God our Father give you grace and peace.

Pick Me!

Little kids want to be picked. Older people would just assume you left them alone. Paul seemingly had no choice. He was chosen by God to be an apostle. It was not Paul’s life-long goal to be an apostle; his dream was to be a Pharisee. He wanted to be a respected religious leader not rejected by the establishment.

I had different dreams for my life than God did. I think I can say with Paul, I am chosen to be a pastor. It was not my goal and frankly, I still think my plan for life would have been a lot easier than what God has called me to. However, I realize when God chooses, our choice is either obedience which leads to blessing or rebellion which leads to misery.

The good news in all this is that Paul found himself surrounded by faithful people God had also called. He addresses the people in Colossi as “faithful brothers and sisters.” Without faithful brothers and sisters I would not be able to do what God has called me to. I praise God for each person who is faithful in my life to pray for me, encourage me and come alongside me in my ministry. Some of those people are you. So thank you for your support and encouragement today.

Captain of the team, I want to thank you for choosing me even on the days when the work is hard. Thank you for surrounding me with faithful brothers and sisters who are there to encourage me. Help me know I am not alone in the work you call me to and that I can rely on my brothers and sisters as well as my captain. - Dan Jones

I'm ready to be surprised!

God has a habit of picking unlikely people to lead in his kingdom. Paul was one of those people, and he knew it. Highly educated, but highly antagonistic toward anything having to do with Jesus. Strongly motivated and self-directed, but one who imprisoned and killed Christians with that motivation. Standing there, holding the coats of men stoning the Christian deacon, Stephen, no one would ever have guessed that this man would become the moving force behind the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire!

The only way Paul sat with his protégé, Timothy, writing to the group of Christians at Colosse, was through God’s intervention and call.

I wonder what God has up his sleeve in the 21^st century. What avid secularist working to sideline public expressions of Christianity, or scientist spreading philosophical naturalism alongside evolutionary biology, or Muslim extremist planning suicide bombings will be blindsided by God as they go about living out their agendas? Who will become another Paul?

It’s easy to watch people oppose, limit, or mute the voice of Christ in the world and wring our hands wondering if the future will have any room for Christianity. At Stephen’s stoning, Christianity hadn’t even broken out of Jerusalem! And there was Paul, whose work against Christianity unwittingly helped it, and whose work for the cause of Christ helped it even more.

The Kingdom of God has spread around the world and continues to move and grow powerfully. And there are people actively working against it. I wonder which ones of them will end up writing something like Paul, “Chosen by the will of God.”

Sovereign Lord of the Church, against which the gates of hell can not stand, you have reminded me today that you are full of surprises in your active commitment to redeem this world. May I never doubt your ability to raise up men and women, from the ranks of the most antagonistic, to further your cause. - Mike Leamon

THIS FINISHES BOOK ONE OF PSALMS. TOMORROW WE BEGIN COLOSSIANS!

PSALM 41
For the choir director: A psalm of David.

Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor!
The Lord rescues them when they are in trouble.
The Lord protects them and keeps them alive.
He gives them prosperity in the land
and rescues them from their enemies.
The Lord nurses them when they are sick
and restores them to health.

“O Lord,” I prayed, “have mercy on me.
Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
But my enemies say nothing but evil about me.
“How soon will he die and be forgotten?” they ask.
They visit me as if they were my friends,
but all the while they gather gossip,
and when they leave, they spread it everywhere.
All who hate me whisper about me, imagining the worst.
“He has some fatal disease,” they say.
“He will never get out of that bed!”
Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely,
the one who shared my food, has turned against me.

Lord, have mercy on me.
Make me well again, so I can pay them back!
I know you are pleased with me,
for you have not let my enemies triumph over me.
You have preserved my life because I am innocent;
you have brought me into your presence forever.

Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,
who lives from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen!

When Leaders Struggle
Is David paranoid!? Has the temperature of his body risen to the point of addling his brain? “I’m king, I’m deathly sick, and they’re all out to get me, even my best friend! Make me well, God, so I can get revenge! Oh, and by the way, I know you are pleased with me.” Huh?

Maybe others are making moves on his throne. Maybe they have judged him and concluded God has shown his rejection of David through terrible sickness. I don’t know. I do know this. People do those kinds of things. Even today, people conclude God has withdrawn his blessings when things go wrong in a leader’s life or leadership.

When leaders, especially spiritual leaders, experience deep pits – emotional, physical, or spiritual – people talk. Gossip really does spread, and story becomes more sordid as it goes around. Leaders really do wonder who their true friends are in difficult times and who are those who have only been friendly and supportive as long as things go well and are successful in the leader’s life.

David was such an effective king that his reign became the standard against which others’ reigns were measured. Despite his profound moral failures, and his deep spiritual questions, he even became the one who would lend his name and reputation to the Messiah, “The Son of David.” Even highly effective leaders go through seasons of despair, tragedy, even ineffectiveness.

Unlike mortals, God isn’t tied to the temporary ups and downs (however high or low) of a leader’s life. He sees the integrity of the heart and anchors his confidence in his calling rather than the seasons of life.

Lord God, grant me the integrity as a follower of leaders to stand by them in their times of tragedy and agony. Grant me the wisdom to understand the line between those things that disqualify a leader for office and those seasons of ill winds that come to each of us. – Mike Leamon

Politics and Church
The visit by Obama and McCain to Saddleback Church this past weekend has been plastered all over the news. The evangelical vote is critical to the election this fall and each candidate is trying to capture their share of this “new” voting block. I found it interesting to read the quote from our newspaper the Rochester D&C. The paper quoted a church member who thought McCain lined up better on moral issues like abortion, but then quoted Rick Warren on the church’s stance on poverty and helping the poor.

Many of the people who attend Saddleback left still undecided because they see Obama’s positions on helping the poor as more in line with Scripture than McCain, but like McCain’s stance on abortion.

For many evangelicals a candidate’s position on abortion and homosexuality is the litmus test. I found it encouraging to see an influential segment of the Church standing not just for moral values but also social justice. For too long we have ignored the plight of the poor and oppressed in favor of our own lavish lifestyles and “rights” to prosperity.

In contrast, the Psalmist recognized the Lord blesses those who care for the poor. It is not easy to freely give up your money and time for people who may likely abuse your gifts, but God instructs us to do it anyway.

God, forgive me for not doing my part to help those in need, and for thinking I have made a great sacrifice when I do help them. Replace my self absorption with love that expresses itself in the same way you expressed your love. – Dan Jones