Thoughts From Colossians - Day 3

        "... the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven.. Col. 1:5

          One more day of pondering this verse. It has been said, "Don't be so Heavenly Minded that you are no Earthly Good" and of course there is a danger to that. I believe even the epistles to the church in Thessolonica addressed the problems with people quitting their jobs and sitting on the mountains looking up in the air. In today's setting, why even waste 4 years in college when the Lord could come back this week? Wouldn't it be better just to be "about His business?" I've had these thoughts, too, but there is much more truth spelled out in the Bible that says "If you want to be Earthly good, you have to be Heavenly minded." In fact the Faith chapter, Hebrews 11, points out 7 times that people living an effective life of faith were looking forward to a land not built by human hands, i.e. Heaven.

           This is what we see in Colossians 1:5. Not only to live a life of love requires a hope of Heaven as we saw in the last blog, but to live a life of faith requires a hope of Heaven as seen in Hebrews 11. At first when I read this verse I think, now wait a minute; doesn't it take faith to believe in Heaven? How can faith spring from that which requires faith? After meditating on that for a while, I've come up with 2 thoughts. #1 - Maybe the "Hope stored up for us in Heaven" is not a thing but a person. As they said in 'Songs From the Loft" - "Hope has a name - Jesus". Maybe from Jesus, our giver of all good gifts comes down from heaven in the person of the Holy Spirit two "fruits" into our life love and faith and that may be what this passage means. #2 - Hope is not "I hope so" but rather a confident assurance that what has been promised will come to pass. Therefore, once we have that confident assurance based on God's word that Heaven is our for sure home, we can then live a life of faith based on that. That is the direction I am going with.

         So knowing that I am headed for Heaven, how should that affect my life of faith? I would say most people are motivated by wealth, power, significance, to be loved and accepted, and comfort to name a few. Going in order, if we have treasures stored up that will last forever - a life of faith would not be spent on seeking wealth but laying it down to get eternal treasures. As to power, I am a child of the King, what do I care if I am the low person on the pecking order here on Earth. I can seek to elevate others. As to significance, the God of Heaven loves me so much that He sent His Son to die in my place so I could be adopted into His family. I don't need any acclaim down here. Let any praise I get go to Him. What if I don't feel loved or accepted down here? I will be loved and accepted eternally by my Father in Heaven. Therefore instead of seeking to be loved, I can seek to give love and acceptance to those who are ignored down here. And what if I don't live a life of comfort but live a life of disease, illness, hardship and pain down here? Should I be a whiner? No! I'm getting a new body that lasts forever. It will probably even have a six pack and full head of hair! Woo hoo!

           So be so Heavenly minded that you can be Earthly good by living a life of faith fueled by your hope in Heaven.

Thoughts From Colossians - Day 2

 

        "  ...the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven." Col.1:5

              When the grandkids spend the night, when they come downstairs, usually very early in the morning, they will seek out my wife, Mimi, on the back porch who is having her quiet time. She then does a devotional book with the girls and a different one with the boys. This morning as I listened in, I heard, "How old will we be in Heaven?" "If there is no night or darkness, will we sleep? "Will we go to the bathroom in Heaven?" "Will I be able to fly in Heaven?" "Will we be sad in Heaven?" "I think Pokemon characters will exist in Heaven.""What will we do in Heaven? Can we play video games?"

               That's not the first time they have had questions about Heaven and I'm sure it won't be the last. Why are we all so fascinated with Heaven? The Bible says that God has put eternity in the hearts of man which means that all humans deep down know there is something beyond this life - that we don't just cease to exist. Christianity says that there is a Heaven and we can know for certain if we are going there. It isn't like school where you are waiting to see if you scored high enough to move to the next level and the resultant anxiety, but rather a confident life of peace knowing that we have already received our grade and it is "Pass" so just enjoy the class. Carrying the analogy a little further, the class was so hard that everyone in it had no chance of passing but Jesus took the test for us and scored a perfect 100 and applied His score to everyone's grade if they so desire.

             So if, as believers who have received the gift of Heaven, how should that affect us? Paul says that love for others should spring from this. Why would love spring from this confident assurance (hope)? Well for one thing, using the test analogy, we aren't competing against others for a place or a better grade. There were times in my post-high school education where people didn't want to study with me for tests. They felt like they "had it down" and studying with others and sharing their knowledge could only affect them negatively. How would that attitude have been changed if they knew ahead of time that everyone was going to fail the test but the teacher would give them an "A" anyway? They probably would have gladly studied with me and shared all their knowledge with me. As fellow failues in life, knowing that Jesus has accepted us anyway and given us Heaven, there should be no pride, selfishness, or competition between fellow believers, only love.

What Are You Doing For God?

 

        When you read the title of this post, straight off you are probably convicted like when any pastor preaches on witnessing, your prayer life, your quiet times... he will probably have an altar call that looks like 5 minutes before door opening on Black Friday. But that's not what I am getting at here. Doing things for God may not actually be what He wants. Let me explain.

   In 2 Samuel 7 we have an interesting and perplexing passage about David wanting to build a house (bayith in Hebrew) for God. Now intuitively we think that anything done for God is a no-brainer. Nathan, a great prophet of God even thought so. Without even consulting God he said, "Go for it!" because, like I said, it's a no-brainer. However, when Nathan actually heard from God, he heard a different answer - NO! Why would God want to remain the "Tent God" and not the "House God". Maybe the answer is found in that Hebrew word Bayith which is used 15 times in this chapter. (I got these thoughts from my son who recently preached from this passage) In 7:13 God tells Nathan that He (God) will build an everlasting Bayith (house) for David. His kingdom will never end and the savior of the world, the Messiah, will come through his house.

       Religion says, work for God and He will reward you. In fact all religions in the world except Christianity say that in order to get to Heaven, our eternal house, we have to be good for God. Christianity says that we can't be good enough so Jesus had to be good in our place. We don't work for Him, He works for us. Is it possible that since this a key prophetic messianic prophecy that a point had to be made that we enter God's house by Him working for us, not vice-versa?

    Well, what about once we are saved - don't we then work for God? Actually, NO! There are no passages that say "work for Christ". However, there are a bunch that say "work in Christ". You see, not only has He done all the work to get you to your Heavenly home and actually is preparing it for us even now (John 14:3), but, in the person of the Holy Spirit He has made His house inside you now.

"Do you not know, your body is the house of the Holy Spirit" 1Cor 6:19

"For it is God who works in you both to will and to act according to His good purpose" Phil. 2:13

 "Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord.Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord." Rom 16:13

"this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me." Col. 1:27,29

        Religion says work for salvation. WRONG

         Religion says work for God. WRONG

         Jesus says, "I've done the work, rest in me. Let me come in and save you and then work in you and through you as you surrender control of your life to me" Stop building a house for God and let Him build His house in you.