Today's Passage: Colossians 3

God's timing is so good down to the smallest detail.  Just one week after we heard Ephesians 6 preached, our blog for today covers a very similar passage written to the Colossian church. The common themes include living Spirit filled and living in submission to one another in the proper family roles as well as on the job. I love it when God sends me the same message through different ways!  In addition to these great reminders, a small phrase surprisingly caught my attention...

"When Christ, who is your life..."  Is Christ my life?  There are a lot of things that distract me from keeping Christ at the center of my life.  And the result is like being left on a roller coaster or a ferris wheel: up and down on the same loop.  Jesus is the way off that ride!  There's so much more to see and do in Him!

When we truly let Christ live through us (make Christ our life) all of the things mentioned in this passage fall into place.  For example, our attitudes and actions will be ruled by compassion, humility, patience, forgiveness, peace, love, and thankfulness as discussed in verses 12-15. It reminds me of Galatians 5--If we live and walk according to the Spirit then love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (the fruit of the Spirit) will manifest itself in our lives. 

So what is hindering us?  Our answer is found in verses 1-2. "set your hearts...set your minds... on things above NOT on earthly things."  Verse 3 continues, "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."  We are our biggest enemy.  We refuse the death of our old life and we refuse to accept the new life now hidden in Christ.  It is this refusal that keeps our minds on earthly things.  There are obviously some earthly things that are bad and horribly destructive, which we will not go into detail about right now.  However, some of these earthly things are quite good: a job, a spouse, a child, a church, a ministry, a spiritual gift---they are earthly in that we experience them while we are here on earth.  Are you ready for this?  If we make any of these "our life" instead of Christ, we are missing it and I dare say we are taking steps to putting our minds on the really bad earthly things!   Or put another way, we are breaking the first commandment, which says, "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3)  Jesus must be first!! He will not be second to anything in our lives--even the good things and good people He has given us!

Perhaps a good question for each of us to ask ourselves is, "Who is my life?"