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

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d