Skip to main content

The New Divide

Ok, now that Christmas is over, we can move on from birth stories and manger scenes, right? Maybe. While we may talk less about baby Jesus we won’t (or shouldn’t) stop talking about Jesus. As annoying as the phrase ‘Reason for the Season’ may be, the simple truth is that Jesus is the Reason for…well…everything!

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian Church, he began by telling them how thankful he was for their faith in Jesus. He tells them how this good news is “all over the world” and is “bearing fruit and growing.”

Then Paul tells these Colossians how he is praying that God would fill them “with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” But this not just knowledge for the sake of having knowledge. This knowledge’s purpose is so they “may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way.” This is our faith becoming action.

This knowledge is to be shared. It is to be lived. Knowing Jesus is not like checking an item off of our to-do list. “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.” There was our life before. Now there is our new life.

Jesus is the New Divide! You can decide which side to be on, but it would seem a waste of what God did to walk right back into a darkness that He already saved us from. Maybe that's just me.

Question for today; Do you tend to compartmentalize the Christmas stories? Or will you remember Jesus as baby stories all year long?
 
* All of these quotes can be found in the first 14 verses of Colossians.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl...

The Facebook Maybe

Granted, I'm a pastor. I have Type-A tendencies. Ok, my tendencies border on freakish OCD behavior patterns, but... Few things bother me more than the Facebook 'maybe'. I suppose I could go on and on about the grey areas of our society and the refusal of people to accept absolute standards. I could discuss the great need of people to accept that what is wrong for one person is likely wrong for everyone. I should certainly be concerned about mentioning that someone might have sin in their life. But I don't believe the Facebook 'maybe' is quite sin. Perhaps if I were coming up with new sins, I would add this to the list. But alas... Some might think the Facebook 'maybe' did not exist prior to the Internet, but they would be wrong. When I was in high school and asked a girl out on a date, I would normally be told that if they had no other plans, if nobody else called them, if there was nothing good on television and their hair did not need washing, then per...

But I Wanted It

As I've said before , I'm looking for a new place to do youth ministry. Job searching in itself can be a full time task. Unfortunately, no one is paying me to look for a job. And when you haven't had to find a job in 15 years, the whole experience can feel brand new. And nerve-wracking. And quiet. So very, very quiet. I may spend a few hours here and there sending out my resumes and writing cover letters. But the churches I'm sending my information to have their own timeline. And sometimes that timeline does not involve acknowledging my presence. Which is fine, especially if one of the churches I've applied to is reading this right now. I understand those looking for youth pastors will have their own agenda and their own timeline. But it leaves me sitting here with a deafening quiet around me. I am choosing to walk by faith through these days, picturing God working behind the scenes (always behind the scenes) and holding His voice very still, until He is re...