1 - Pre-Thanksgiving Potluck - Monday November 25th. Kids and staff only. Please sign up to bring a dish for 5-6 people to help with the meal. Bev and Brett will be supplying the turkey, stuffing and pop. We still need potatoes, gravy, vegetables, side dishes, and dessert. Sign up today!
2 - Christmas Party - December 16th. Last event of the year. Family and friends are welcome. Please RSVP.
COLOSSIANS – Chapter
2:6-23
10-21-13
Quick Review:
1. What book of the Bible are we reading? Colossians
2. Who wrote this book? Paul
3. To whom was it written? Believers in Colossae
4. Why was this book written? Gnostics claimed they had the supernatural knowledge necessary for salvation. Paul wrote to clear up the true identity of Jesus Christ and wrote against the false teachings of the day.
5. Who started the church in Colossae? Epaphras
Introduction
Last week we talked a little bit about the Bible being confusing at times. I said one thing you could do is read different translations. Tonight, we are going to read "The Message" which is a modern translation of the Bible. I would not use this book as your "go to" Bible, because is a loose translation of the Bible. However, it is fun to read and very understandable and gives you a general concept of what is being said and the intent and purpose of what was being said.
Read: The Message: From Shadows to The Substance
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master: now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you're been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in - insiders - not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive - right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's Cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
So don't put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.
Don't tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They're a lot of hot air, that's all they are. They're completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.
So, then, if with Christ you've put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? "Don't touch this! Don't taste that! Don't go near this!" Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they're just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.
Question:
What is Paul's main point in all of this? Group discussion.
Homework:
Read this passage in a regular Bible and compare that to what we read tonight. If anyone does not have a Bible at home, see me afterward, and we'll get you one.
(BTW: We handed out 5 or 6 Bibles last week!!!)
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