Apostle Paul’s heart for the church at Colosse and Laodicea was all about them knowing Christ fully. He struggled for them, and even for those people he had not met in person.  But simply because of the fact that they were at that church, he would struggle for them to be encouraged and united as a church, ultimately so that they would know Christ.  Apostle Paul was “gospel-centric”, which was demonstrated in his hopes and heart for the Colossian church, so much so that he would actually struggle for them.

Struggling for other Christians, I think, can take several different forms.  But all under that umbrella of being “gospel-centric” as Apostle Paul was.  It means getting into people’s lives, knowing what’s going on in their hearts and how they are living. It means praying for them, struggling in prayer over them, to receive wisdom on how to guide them, or that they would be led to repent or struggle with their sin or take steps of faith so that they could grow.  It could mean providing for them avenues through which they could take such steps of faith, or provide them contexts in which they can learn how to love other people or how to take themselves seriously as Christ followers.  It could mean being creative in trying to help them to see themselves or to align their worldview and values with the word of God, with God’s values and view.  And of course it means bringing them to the word of God, for the word to teach, correct, rebuke and train them in righteousness.  All of these things birthed out of being “gospel-centric,” myself being filled with the word and engaging in spiritual battle over myself and over them.

The ways that I could be trying to avoid this struggle in my life is by withholding myself from the people that I’m ministering to, but not wanting to get the details of information because I know that I’ll need to deal with those things.  Or perhaps by withholding myself emotionally, so that if I’m rejected by this person either leaving the church or rejecting me personally that I won’t feel the pain. The more I care about somebody, the more it hurts when that rejection happens.  I haven’t taken these avenues of avoiding this struggle, but I know that those are the ways that Satan tries to offer me.

Continuing to live in Christ as I did when I first received him as Lord means to keep my relationship and love for him fresh, the place of “first love” as the song says.  It means to live out my commitment as clear as it was when I first came to him 17 years ago when I saw that I was a church-attendee, but my life was utterly indistinguishable from the rest of the world and I surrendered my life as a soldier who wants to please his commanding officer.  It means going to the word and prayer with the same zeal and expectation and hunger from my commitment when I first made it. It means to engage the world and the people God brings in my life to love them and bring the gospel to them, raising them up to be more faithful and devoted Christ followers with the same excitement as when I first made that decision.

It means for me to be faithful with that which I’ve been given with the same energy as I started out running with.  That translates into leading the seniors and staff in Kairos to greater faith, greater commitment, teaching them how to love God, love others by bringing them the gospel, by embodying the gospel, and by loving one another within the church as well, the corporate embodying of the gospel.  It means to provide for them opportunities to grow, avenues through which to experience a greater prayer life, a heightened sense of ownership over the people of their generation and in their contexts.

And of course, it means bringing the gospel to all the new people that God has led to our group, as so many of them are just finding out about Christianity through Kairos, or just simply enjoy being with us.  That’s such an opportunity to bring them the life-saving, life-changing good news of the gospel.

Being rooted and built up in him means going to the word and allowing for it to work its way through me and out into how I live my life, the decisions that I make, the reactions and responses I have to different situations in my life.  Being strengthened in the faith as I was taught means to put into practice the ways of love that have been poured out for me.  As my leaders spent time with me, got into my life, guided me, answered my questions, exhorted me, encouraged me, demonstrated Godly values and choices to me through their lives… likewise I am to strengthen my own faith in these ways by living likewise.  And overflowing with thankfulness is to reflect, remember, realize all the ways that God has loved me through my life and continues to do so on an ongoing basis.

I think with regard to overflowing with thankfulness, that’s something that isn’t so strong in me.  I go through my days, my weeks needing to get things done, or at least have that mentality.  A lot of times my heart and mind doesn’t take the opportunity to marvel at what God has done and is doing.  I take time weekly to reflect over all that I have to be thankful for, which is something that I greatly benefit from.  That’s something that I need to discipline myself to do on a daily basis, so that I’m overflowing with thankfulness.

Reflect on how much .v21 was true of my life before Christ, and is true today of people outside of Christ. 

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior

Verse 21 was definitely true of my life before I met Christ.  When I think about the kind of person I was, half the time, outwardly I came off like I was an innocent person.  Outwardly I did my best to say the right things and to do the right things.  However, while attempting all this, I knew that my mind was bent on evil, bent on how I can perhaps manipulate this person or use this person for my gain.  My mind would be focused on myself and focused on my selfish gains.  I see that my evil behaviors such as stealing, hatred, anger, lust, laziness only fueled my mind to think about such things.  All these things alienated me from God.  God is love and His desire is to love people, and in my evil behavior, in my quest to look out for myself, I alienated myself from God because, as an understatement, he is completely opposite of me.

Think about the way God reconciled me to Himself. 

²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—

It’s amazing to think, that in regards to the kind of person I was, that God would still love me.  It’s amazing to think that God would subject His one and only begotten Son to die for my sins, and not only that, but through his death, would present me holy in sight, without blemish free from accusation.  Who am I to deserve this?  Who am I that the God of the universe, creator of all things would consider me? It says in v.16…

¹⁶ For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

This description of God would almost seem like He could just make ‘reconciliation’ happen, but this is far from the truth.  Instead, God chose suffering, sacrifice and eventually death to reconcile us.  This is the language of love that we all understand and that we can all identify and say, God really meant it.

Reflect on the words “to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” What is amazing about these words, and to what extent have I fully entrusted myself to these truths?

The result of Christ physical body being put through death is that I am presented to Him as holy in his sight, without blemish, and free from accusation.  These words are amazing because they are simply not true of me, yet in God’s eyes they are true of me.  I think about my almost two-year old daughter, Ellie, and how when I look at her I don’t think about all the times she was whiny, threw a fit for no good reason, or when she says no to me when I ask her to do something. No! But when I look at her I think about how she’s my precious daughter, I think about how much I lover her and how she’s the cutest baby in the world.  In the same way God sees me that way.  He knows that I’m a sinner through and through, but He also knows that there was something He did to take that away and to reconcile me.  I think on my better days these truths ring loud and true and when that happens there is a confidence in God that encourages me, that gives me strength to serve Him and courage to take risks for Him.  However, I know that there are days when my sins weigh me down, and when I feel defeated by failed attempts to struggle with my sins.  I recognize then how important it is to immerse myself in God’s word, to pray daily, and have personal times of worship so that I can fully entrust myself to these truths.

What do I need to do to “continue in [my] faith, established and firm?”  What is it that moves me away from the hope held out in the gospel?

²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

In order to “continue in my faith, established and firm,” I need to daily remind myself of these truths, through DT, through bible study and through messages. I need to hear the gospel message over and over again.  I also need to proclaim it, to preach and share it.  As I do both of these things I also need to take on the attitude of a servant as Apostle Paul did.  It is because of this gospel message that he labors to no end.  It is because of this message, that transformed his life, that he gives his all.  As I think about this coming quarter, I am thankful for the meaningful work he’s given me to do because I can both hear and proclaim this message.  I have the opportunity to serve and to take on that servant attitude.  As I think about the students we will meet, my prayer is that I will be able to struggle ‘with all his energy’ that is ‘powerfully’ working in me, to preach and share the message of reconciliation.