A SECRET REVEALED

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

Colossians 1:25-27 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

From the time that God chose the Israelites to be His people, anyone who was not a Jew was on the outside looking in. If they wanted be one of God’s people, they needed to convert to Judaism and accept its laws, doctrines, and sacraments.

In other words, when it came to the Jewish faith, you were either a Jew or a non-Jew, someone referred to as a Gentile.

Now, it should be known that there were many God-believing, God-fearing, and God-worshiping Gentiles in Old Testament days, all this despite other polytheistic belief systems that were more the norm in non-Jewish nations. We know that the temple in Jerusalem had an outer court for Gentiles to gather and pray, a court that was turned into a marketplace during the Passover festival which incensed Jesus as He visited the week of His death. You’ll remember how He overturned the tables of the money changers and merchants, declaring how they had turned a house of prayer into a den of robbers (Matthew 21:12-13).

Despite this Gentile position, excluded from the temple of God and treated as outcasts by Jews in general, God had special plans for them well before those plans were revealed. In other words, God’s plan for the Gentiles was a secret to them, waiting to be revealed in the future. And as we see in our passage today, the Apostle Paul told the Colossian Christians that the secret had been kept by God for “centuries and generations past until He was ready to unveil it.

That unveiling happened through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and it was foretold in the Book of Isaiah:

And now the Lord speaks—the One who formed Me in my mother’s womb to be His servant, who commissioned Me to bring Israel back to Him. The Lord has honored Me, and My God has given Me strength. He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to Me. I will make You a light to the Gentiles, and You will bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 49:5-6

Jesus, the long awaited Messiah, was not just coming to deliver the Jews but all people. He was going to be a light for all people, indiscriminate over who He would save. All any person needed to do was to believe in Him as Savior in order to share in His glory.

The scriptures are clear that through Jesus, God’s great secret was revealed. Salvation would come to any Gentile who placed their hope in Christ and they were now able to receive His “riches and glory” as their Savior came to abide within them.  

Paul wanted the Colossian believers to know that God had given him the “responsibility of serving His church by proclaiming His entire message”, the good news of God’s saving grace to them through Jesus, the greatest game changer in human history. 

Today, we share with Paul the calling of our God to proclaim salvation through His Son to all people, many of which have never heard the Gospel before. With this, all Christians get the chance to help others come to Jesus and be saved. What a privilege and honor it is to do so, one we should continually give thanks to our Lord for.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

GLADNESS IN SUFFERING?

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

Colossians 1:24 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I have been doing ministry work for a long time and have been engaged with countless numbers of people who have been suffering from any number of life difficulties.

A multitude of disease afflictions, cancer being the most prominent.

Consistent struggles with finances.

Broken hearts from broken relationships.

Social biases and inequities.

Grief after loved ones pass away.

Even persecution for believing in Jesus as Savior.

Indeed, there are multitudes of people dealing with misery, anguish, and/or distress today, just as there has been since the dawn of mankind. No one is immune to it and therefore everyone will experience suffering in some form in their lifetime so we had better learn how to cope with it. Thankfully, we have the Word of God to help us but where the world would skew a person toward negative, pessimistic thoughts regarding their afflictions, the Bible encourages a different viewpoint.

Consider these words from Paul as we continue our study of his letters to the Christian believers in Colossae:

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. Colossians 1:24 NLT

When we become Christian, we are to trade in our worldly life for a new one, a life fully associated with Jesus. Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Corinthian believers:

...anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

This newness in Christ brings with it a new approach to our life experiences. For as we go through our Christian living, we are to be filled with joy as we go through the things Jesus did.

We’re to rejoice in the opportunity God has provided to serve others.

We’re to be thankful for the wisdom and power God grants to do His good works and carry out His will.

We’re to delight in every chance we have to make a difference in the lives of those who are considered the least, those who are marginalized by society.

And we’re to be glad when we suffer.

Yes, you read that last statement right. As Christians, we are to be glad when we suffer.

Now, this is completely counterintuitive to the way the world treats suffering but then again, Jesus is radically different from the world and when we choose to follow Him, we choose to be in the world but of Christ. We’re that new creation that Paul writes about and new means new.

Paul understood more than anyone that signing up for the Jesus experience meant that one was opting for everything Jesus went through, His joys and His sorrows. This is why he said that he was glad when he had to suffer for Jesus in his body because in doing so, he was sharing in the sufferings of his Savior.

Jesus suffered deeply for our sake. Our salvation didn’t come without a great cost. When we decide to believe in Him and be saved, we can’t expect that this Christian becoming will be one void of hardship and affliction. Rather, we can rejoice in knowing that our Savior suffered greatly, more than any suffering we will ever endure, to ensure we could one day join Him in glory and have eternal life.

Friends, there can be gladness in suffering if we adopt the attitude of Paul and give thanks for getting to experience just a fraction of what our Savior endured to bring us salvation.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

A CALL FOR CHRISTIAN CONSISTENCY

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

Colossians 1:23 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There was a real threat to the Christian church in Colossae. False teachers were attempting to distort and corrupt the purity of the Gospel, and although Paul had never visited the Colossians, he felt impelled to write them in an attempt to stave off the peril at hand.

For the past seven days, we have looked closely at how Paul established Jesus as the One who is supreme over all creation. He wanted the Colossian believers (as well as all Christians) to know that Christ had (and has) absolute authority and is the head of the church. He has no rival or equal and if there would be any change needed to God’s established plan of salvation, He would be the one who would institute it.

With this, there was no need for any Christian to accept any advances that might alter the Gospel or the Word of God that established it. All a Jesus believer needs to do is stand firm, anchored in the perfect, inerrant scriptures and their sovereign Author.

This is Paul’s call as we look at our passage for today, a passage that carries an exhortation to stay consistent in Christian faith and refuse compromise. Look again at what the Apostle writes:

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. Colossians 1:23-24 NLT

God established the Good News of salvation through His Son Jesus and since its onset, it has been preached around the world. Those who hear it have a simple choice to make.

They can either accept it and gain everlasting life in Heaven.

or

They can reject it and settle for eternal damnation and torment in Hell.

There’s no third option, no middle ground. You are either for Christ as Savior or against Him.

Now, as you would expect, Satan has worked and will continue to work overtime to ensure people don’t choose Christ. He is set on the destruction of every single person Jesus wants to save. Essentially, since he is already condemned to Hell, he wants to take as many people with him as possible and he is very skilled at it.

This is why we are told in the Bible to don the full armor of God every day with our weapon being the “sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:10-17). When we stay saturated in the scriptures, we can assure we don’t “drift away” from all the assurances and promises we find within. We are strengthened in our knowledge and wisdom, granted the beautiful gift of discernment through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit which illuminates the truth and exposes deceit. Ultimately, we become consistent in our Christian faith and therefore a great example for other believers to follow and unbelievers to aspire to.

Our God has called us to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 11:44-45). This means we need to follow Him and be consistently obedient to His word and will every second of every minute of every hour of every day, ever striving to make our lives mimic the perfectly divine life of Jesus. If we do this, if we commit ourselves to truly be holy as our Lord is holy through being like Christ (which is what we are to do as Christians), then we can ensure we’ll be set apart from the sinful world we live in while preserving the sanctity of the Gospel, which like Paul, we are appointed servants to proclaim.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

WHO IS JESUS? (PART 7)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

Colossians 1:19-22 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Every created person is a sinner and has fallen short of God’s favor (Romans 3:23).

God hates sin and anyone who is a sinner is in opposition to Him, the One who is omnipotent and the righteous Judge of all created things.

For a sinner, it’s a bad place to be, one that is hopeless because no mortal being has a chance when up against God. As we read in our scripture passage today, all sinners are “enemies” of God,  “far away” and “separated from Him” by “evil thoughts and actions”.

Thankfully, God, out of His great love and compassion, made a way for every single created person to be made right with Him and He did it through Jesus.

Therefore, Jesus is the great Reconciler, the perfect Mediator, the only One through which someone can come to God the Father (John 14:6). This is the final answer to the question we have covered in this series, “Who is Jesus?”.

Through the Law, God required a sacrifice to atone for sins. These sacrifices were prescribed with regularity for the people of Israel because they unfortunately continued to sin, even after repenting and having their transgressions forgiven. It was a temporary band aid placed on a spiritual would that could never heal. There was never any permanence of peace between God and His chosen people, and the Gentiles weren’t even in the sin forgiveness picture, although many of them did believe in God. We know this because at the temple in Jerusalem, there was a designated court where the Gentiles could come to pray, the court where Jesus would overturn the tables of the money changers and merchants (Matthew 21:12-13).

And so God, out of love, enacted a new covenant, this one with all people, whether Jew or Gentile (John 3:16). All a person had to do was simply believe and confess in Jesus and they would be saved (Romans 10:9) and receive eternal life.

We learned from this series that Jesus was one with His Father (John 10:30), the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15a). “God, in all His fullness, was pleased to live” in Jesus as He “reconciled” all created people to Himself “through the death of Christ in His physical body” and “made peace” with them “by means of Christ’s blood on the cross”, the blood that washes sin away and leaves the sinner cleansed (Isaiah 1:18).  

As a result, God brought every believer in Colossae as well as every other Christian “into His own presence”, making them “holy and blameless...before Him without a single fault”. There’s a fancy theological word for this called justification and the easiest way to always remember its meaning is through breaking it down like this:

Through God’s redeeming work through Jesus, a person who believes in Jesus as Savior is made justified or just-as-if-they-had-never-sinned.

Jesus, the one who is in absolute supremacy and sovereignty over all created things is also the only one who can bring reconciliation for sin and the subsequent salvation for anyone who will submit to Him and believe He is the Savior of the world.

This is the heart and substance of the Gospel set by God the Father who is found in all His fullness in Jesus Christ. It’s what Paul wanted the church in Colossae to remember and it’s what the Lord wants us all to remember today.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com