by lighthouse | May 27, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 3:16 “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” It is impossible for a Christian to live and not show gratitude to God for the blessings He has given each of us. As we live, as we talk to one another, as we go to sleep and as we wake up, how can we do anything other than be appreciative for all we are blessed to enjoy, the greatest of all being His great love for us, His adopted children.
by lighthouse | May 23, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Every Christian desires a mind devoted to honoring their Savior. That honor demands and experiences a peace which can only come from a close relationship with our Father. Peace is gained when total trust is the relationship between our God and each of us. When we give our heart to God we can only then experience the peace which passes all understanding and makes each of us become as relaxed as relaxed gets. Have a great weekend.
by lighthouse | May 22, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 3:13 “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” This lesson is easy to type and easy to read but very difficult for any of us to follow. We all like to consider ourselves more righteous than the other guy, but when the truth is spoken, none of us would spend eternity in Heaven except for Jesus as our perfect advocate and making forgiveness happen. We do well when we follow the example of our Great Teacher as expressed in the second of the two sentences above.
by lighthouse | May 21, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved cloth yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Clothes are very important to many fashion minded people and because of that clothing stores abound and designer names carry weight to the fashion minded. However, who we are is identified by our wardrobe displaying our inner self. This passage certainly suggests every Christian’s wardrobe. The difference between our closet wardrobe and our inner self wardrobe is huge. One displays something purchased while the other displays our heart. The heart display is far more important than the closet display. Let’s all wear the clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
by lighthouse | May 20, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 3:2 “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” God expects us to enjoy our life on this earth and live a life dedicated to Him as we use our talents serving Him and our fellow man. But, our minds are always looking forward to a glorious future living with Him in Heaven. If we live only for earthly pleasure and gain, we will live a very disappointing life. We will leave this earth saying the well known words—is that all there is? If we live thanking our God for all our blessings we will leave this earth saying the well known words—praise be to God, Heaven is my home.
by lighthouse | May 19, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” The world is full of philosophies which might or might not include correct man’s thinking and some moral thoughts. Man is easily fooled into thinking, especially in America, where we highly value freedom of life which includes freedom of thought. As Christians we have to evaluate all philosophy as to whether it is God thinking or simply man thinking. Man thinking might have some value but certainly not the absolute truth God wants us to make our own.
by lighthouse | May 16, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 1:22-23a “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—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.” Because of our Savior you and I are forgiven when we confess we need forgiveness and become faith filled loved adopted children of God. The difficult to understand truth happens–we become perfect before God and are heirs to eternal life. Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection become wonderful celebrations. Santa Claus and the Easter bunny only become distractions from the real meaning of Christmas and Easter. Have a great weekend.
by lighthouse | May 14, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 1:10b-11 “…bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.,” Our obligation to our loving God is to do good works. Our obligation is to study His Word and gain knowledge. Our God is the One who gives each of us endurance and patience so that perseverance becomes our middle name. What a privilege it is to honor and serve our Magnificent God.
by lighthouse | May 13, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 1:9-10p “…We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you might live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way…” Our author wrote a prayer which could apply to all of us. We are all to live lives serving God and asking ourselves–are we doing the will of our God or serving our own will. Unfortunately, you and i need to be constantly reminded who to serve. We should always seek the knowledge and wisdom only God can provide. Contentedness comes from our God. Peace and wisdom come from God. Every Christian desires all 3.
by lighthouse | May 12, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 1:5-6parts “…faith…about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world…” A belief and total trust in God with zero doubt is a definition of faith as a Christian sees faith and as God describes faith should be. The people described in Colossians had such a faith. You and I should have the same. That faith allows us to enjoy the Gospel story. We therefore enjoy studying Scripture for therein lies the sweet Gospel story. We always want to learn what our God has to teach.
by lighthouse | May 9, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 1:3 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people” You and I have to ask ourselves — could this verse apply to us? The people being referred to had to be faith filled. They gave our God what He wants—their hearts. We ask ourselves—Are we giving God what He says matters to Him–our hearts? He has given us His—now you and I give Him ours. Have a great weekend.
by lighthouse | May 8, 2025 | Uncategorized
Colossians 1:2b “…Grace and peace to you from God our Father.” You and I possess a lot. We have been blessed tremendously. We have family. We have possessions. We have an abundance of food. What we have been blessed with is endless. But, what if we were told we could have only 2 blessings. Would we be wise enough to choose grace and peace? Grace–so we can live with a firm foundation which only our Heavenly Father can provide–knowing we live as repentant, forgiven, loved, adopted children of God; and peace–so that we can live with no anxiety or depression or any negative mentality, but rather–relax, breath easily and enjoy all of God’s creation. Would you say grace and peace would be 2 excellent choices?
