Day 75

Psalm 127:2

2It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning to late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to His loved ones.

Day 74

Colossians 1:28-29

28So we tell others about Christ, warning them and teaching them with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. 29That's why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ's mighty power that works within me.

Day 73

Colossians 1:26-27

26This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God's people. 27For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ is for you Gentiles too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.

Day 72

Colossians 1:24-25

24I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church. 25God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.

Day 71

Colossians 1:23

23But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God's servant to proclaim it.

Day 70

Colossians 1:21-22

21This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

Day 69

Colossians 1:19-21

19For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

Day 68

Colossians 1:17-18

17He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 18Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.

Day 67

Colossians 1:15-16

15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He created the things we can see and the things we can't see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

Faith, Hope, Love

A few months ago, I was reading through Colossians, and right away I noticed verses four and five (of chapter one):

4For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and your love for all of God's people, 5which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

They had faith in Christ, and love for people, which came from their hope of all that God had for them. This reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13:13.

13Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love.

These three things are obviously related in some way. I am continually discovering these three terms used in the same context in many parts of the New Testament. So far, this is what I have discovered:

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see (Heb. 11:1). So that means you can't have faith without hope. After all, if you don't have anything to place your hope in, what good is faith? There would be nothing to have confidence about! In the same way, hope without faith is weak and floundering. Even hope in the right things won't do us much good without at least little confidence. But something glorious happens when you place your hope in the right thing (God and all He has in store for you - Psalm 42:11), and you place your faith in that hope: love is produced. Love is the evidence, the fruit, of these two things combined. Let that sink in for a while. God's Word is fraught with deeper meaning - sometimes it takes a while to wrap your brain around it.

Day 66

Colossians 1:13-14

13For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Day 65

Colossians 1:11-12

11We also pray that you will be strengthened by all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

And So We Begin Again (Days 58-64)

Hi all! I've been out of the loop for a while now - I just became too busy with work to focus on doing any serious memorizing. I knew this would happen, at least several times during the course of this goal, but I'm still determined to finish. I have been reading a lot of the New Testament lately, a lot of Paul's letters, so I've decided to memorize Colossians. I really love all of Paul's letters. They are all so beautiful, almost poetic in love for his brothers and sisters in Christ, and they are filled with the message of hope, peace, unity in Christ, and joy. His letters have spoken encouragement into my life on many occasions, so I think it's only natural for me to want to memorize them. Paul's letters are full of practical wisdom for everyday living in the Lord, something we all need reminded of as we go about our days. So I'm back on track, memorizing away. I've already worked on it for the past week (and just now decided it was probably time to update my blog). ;) And so we begin again.

Colossians 1:1-10

1This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle in Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. 2We are writing to God's holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace. 3We always pray for you, and give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and your love for all of God's people, 5which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. 6This same Good News which came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God's wonderful grace. 7You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ's faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. 8He has told us of the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you. 9So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will, and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.