Do you have the peace of Christ?

Read Colossians 3:12-17

Did you know that the peace of Christ passes all understanding and our gratitude produce the peace that supports our spiritual growth along with the church's health, hope, and connectedness?

This means God calls us to salvation and then binds us to Him and to one another. This refers to salvation as well as the practice of unity “among one another” as in the practice of God's love, reconciliation, grace, and forgiveness that give us eternal rest as well as peace and security for today. This is what He did for us; as Christians, we are to show who we are in Christ—the example being how we are to others. When we practice His precepts, we are modeling Christian community and unity that shows a broken world our Lord and what He can do for them (Rom. 5:1; Phil. 4:6-7; Heb. 6:1)!

In context this also means to have Christ as our “supreme umpire” to live in us. This is the picture of our abundance and unity in Christ and His promise to reside in us. He is in charge so we can be at peace. The Colossians had a skewed understanding of the goodness and sufficiency of Christ. Both they and we need to know that it is Christ Himself living in us; we are motivated by Him to bear and bring Christ wherever we go. This is a powerful conviction and motivation and blessing. We are to live out our Christian walk with joy and the responsibly of His power, conviction, clarity, and truth, because He is not in heaven, aloof, or just watching. He is residing in us now (Psalm 119:11; Matt. 13:9; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17; 5:18-19; Phil. 2:16; Col. 3:3; 2 Tim. 2:15)!

This is a call for us to heed that will allow the Word of God to impact us, live in us, and “referee” us so we can live joyfully, worship God, and love others more effectively. With the understanding of what Christ did for us, we can have the hope and confidence to trust and obey Him. These are the attributes that produce character and spiritual maturity that in turn show that we are representatives of Christ. This total life transformation will not only change us from the inside out, but also allow us to have an impact on others for the Kingdom!

When we are focusing on the heavenly things, the earthy things seem small, insignificant, and worthless. His precepts are much more needed, precious, and positively impacting. What is often missed in this passage is the call to admonish. This means we are to take to task with gentleness and love but still do it earnestly, counseling others when they stray from God's path. We are to sharpen one another, help one another avoid sin so we can help one another put off what holds us back. If by not admonishing one another we think we are being kind, we are, in fact, being mean, negating our responsibilities, allowing a brother or sister in the Lord slip into the ways of the world so they lose out on opportunities and rewards, and gaining meaninglessness and bitterness. We are indeed to remind each other His tender mercies by our own behaviors and spur on The Kingdom.

Q: What do you need to do to allow more of the Word of God to impact you, live in you, and umpire you?

Q: How can Peace help make you more joyful and content?

Q: How can Peace help you worship God and love others more effectively?

What do you think?

Read more here: http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=53776&columnid=3803

Are you identified in and with Christ?

We, as human beings, tend to sway easily by ideas, people’s personalities, new encounters, and experiences that tantalize us. New religious formats and thinking are appealing as we seek the latest and greatest, but what we think is great usually is not. We become captive to traditions and influenced by arguments and feelings that are persuasive. But, we must never substitute our ideas for God’s! We will follow the latest fad and want more. We get bored with our car and want a new and better one, and so forth. We do this with our doctrines too! The advertising machine in Madison Avenue knows this well, as we all want more, and they use this trait to appeal to us, pushing us in the direction they want to sell or influence us in some way. At the same time, we must be on guard not to allow such things to infuse, influence, or govern us.

We have His Word, wisdom, influence, and Holy Spirit; there is nothing better! We have His fullness; there is no better filler than His presence! Therefore, we must be aware of our nature to seek what is wrong and fleeting, and always be on guard. Never allow yourself to be cheated by wrong thinking or chasing the wrong things, because they rob us of greater opportunities and treasures in Christ! The bottom line is we do not need any substitute or the world’s distractions because we are complete in Him! Do not be the one who seeks to please the world while rejecting our Loving and living Lord, in your doctrines or in your life!

more here:
http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=52214&columnid=3803

How does the decay of our understanding of God and our standing in Christ affect your virtue?

How will this cause the decay of yourselves, your church, and our culture?

What do you think?

Got Apostasy in your life and church?

Revelation as most evangelicals understand it is about the "last days" and the "judgment" of evil, and for the most part it is. “However,” a Big however, a however most of us do not like to hear and will rarely study or teach on is this: Revelation is also about how we are called to lead and manage...the Church... our church...no it is HIS CHURCH!

Let’s look at two key words in Revelation 14, Him who made the heavens and Obey God's commandments and now consider the context of John writing to the Seven Churches:

· Him who made the heavens refers to God who is Sovereign and Creator and Who is in charge—meaning command and control—a God we can indeed trust and resound to with our love and faith (Ex. 20:11; Psalm 146:6).

· Obey God's commandments refers to people who think God does not have the right to judge, who think judgment will not come about or apply to them, or who think that since God is about love and mercy, He will not judge. Thus, a warning is given to the Christian against apathy and complacency as well as against liberalism and relativism; it will be severely judged as it is a disgrace to a Holy God of Truth! If you force your ideas as God’s or manipulate others away from solid biblical precepts, judgment and grace are at your door. To open the door of grace, we have to repent; to open the judgment door, all we have to do is just remain in our pride!

God is calling you and I, those who lead and pastor churches, who influence people in the church, who sit on committees, teach or like to manipulate and gossip behind the scenes…is to wake up and SEEK HIM and not ourselves or ideas or plans or trends!

Here in Revelation, in its entirety is a wake-up call to an apostate Church that ignores truth and chases trends and personalities, and that is uncaring and even callus to real, effectual, biblical truth. Too many Christians seek only what will make them feel good. They want “sermon-ettes” for “Christian-ettes” that tell them they are good just as they are, containing no real teaching or conviction so they can sit in a pew and feel good about them selves. In effect, they end up doing nothing for the Kingdom or the glory of the Lord. There is no stretching or exercising of faith, no work of the Spirit or living in the ways of His Love and Fruit. Only pride and thinking, in confidence, that they are doing and being good Christians remain. It is easy to see how God will judge the wicked, but what about when we seek to run his Church our way and not His Way, betray our faith, or become complacent and apathetic? Saved? Perhaps, but what good it is when we do nothing in the way of His Fruit, service, or precepts and plan?

Pastors and church leaders must heed God’s ways and worship Him, not place their trust in the latest and greatest fads and ideas. It comes down to faithfulness and getting in His Word, allowing His Spirit to move and convict us, and following our Lord with allegiance, faith and loyalty. We are not to seek comfort for ourselves, manipulate others to get our way, or gossip and refuse to take personal responsibility for our evils and lack of faith. We need to beware that judgment is coming for us too, those of us who seek to weed our churches of good and faithful people who teach, and replace them with smug, pretentious administrators who shovel papers and personal agendas devoid of His precepts, rather than shovel the paper of the written Word or stand on their faith in Christ. I have seen once good churches remove their faithful pastors who teach and call their people to read God’s Word and replace them with sensational personalities who preach a “lite” gospel to attract more people. But, the only people they attract are those who do not want to grow or go for the Kingdom. These are the people marked, not by Christ, but by other means and things. This is what John is warning us about. It is not about a megalomaniac personality rising up politically; it is about you and me and to whom we are faithful. Is our faith based on Christ and His Word and led by His Spirit? Or, is our response to our selves, to the ways of the world, to what we want in “our“ church, rather than to focus on Christ? Will our mark be of faith or of our own ways? It is easy to think the mark is about satanic influences, and for the most part it is. But, the bottom line is, what is Satan trying to do? He is seeking to get you to be disloyal and chase the things that are not of Christ, getting you to twist God’s percepts thinking you do not need them, that you need something else. If you are manipulating others to get your way, using your strong will to strong-arm others, if you gossip, if you cause strife and if you connive to rid people of faith to have it your way, your are “marked,” but that mark of yours is Satan’s, not Christ’s! The call for us is to be a real, vibrant, Christ-driven Christian who worships and is loyal to Christ’s Supremacy, allowing His Truth and Conviction to lead His Church His way!

See more here: Revelation

http://sites.silaspartners.com/CC_Content_Page/0,,PTID34418%7CCHID757974,00.html


Got ideas or thoughts yourselves?

What can we do about this?