WATCHWORD:
He Is Your Life — So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. Colossians 3:1-4 Message Version
Commentary: In Colossians 3, Paul begins a section where he focuses on practical Christian living, with a clear understanding that practical Christian living is built on the foundation of theological truth. Because we believe in the Resurrection, the FACT of the Resurrection, and we identify with Him. In that divine security we can step forward in confidence. ‘Come, follow Me’.
Meditation:
Jesus Speaks, Part 2
Years ago, I read a wonderful faith story from India, about a man who rushed up to a Monk who was passing through his village and said to him, Give it to me! The Monk replied, Give you what? What you have in your pack! Last night I had a dream and in the dream God instructed me to ask the first monk I see walking through the village to give me the precious stone he carried. So give it to me!
“Oh, you must mean this”, said the Monk, reaching into his pack. “I found it during a walk in the forest.” He pulled out the largest diamond the man had ever seen. It was huge and sparkled brightly in the morning sun. Well, the man was ecstatic. He ran home, happy beyond words.
That night he found it impossible to sleep. He tossed and turned. The next day he ran after the Monk. Here, take this back, he said handing him the diamond. Instead give me the gift that you have, the one that permits you to give to me so freely, this treasure.
Murray Bodo, author of The Way of St. Francis, makes this observation: “Instead of walking the road to… Emmaus, where Christ is revealed in the breaking of the bread that we have become. We turn away from being bread broken and consumed; we look desperately for short cuts…”I wonder, if in our own individual journeys that we look for short cuts. You know, instant piety? Our faith in an aerosol can or from a shouting evangelist, prowling the stage. Ask yourself, are you experiencing spiritual growth? What influenced that growth? A revelation? How has it progressed?
What would you say to a person at the beginning of that journey? What advice? How would you communicate that spiritual wisdom? How would you share that precious stone? That pearl of great price. Dorothee Soelle, in her wonderful book, Death by Bread Alone, speaks on the nature of our personal spiritual journeys. She concludes with this: “Each step of one’s own is worth more than all the knowledge and insight of others.”
Well the fact is, the greatest theologians, all the TV televangelists, all the wonderful working pastors with great sermons, and best-selling books, have failed to convert one Single solitary human being. Great thought and knowledge is valuable but that’s not what changes lives. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “Each man is called separately and must follow alone.” Peter had to take that first step, away from his nets, to become Peter.
The choice is ours.
A Morning Prayer:
Lord, may nothing separate us from You today. Teach us how to choose only Your way, so that each step will lead us closer to You. Help us to walk by the Word and not by feelings. Help us to keep our hearts pure and undivided. Protect us from our own careless thoughts words, and actions. And keep us from being distracted by our own wants, our own desires, our own thoughts on how things should be. Help us to embrace what comes our way as opportunities…rather than personal inconveniences. Finally, Lord, help us to rest in the truth that you have Great Love for us. You love us, warts and all. That is amazing. But what is most amazing is that the Savior of the world would desire a few minutes with us this morning. Lord, help us to forever remember what a gift it is to sit with You each morning, like this. Amen.
