In Colossians 2:19, Paul writes that those who delight in false humility have lost connection with the head, or Jesus. We can do all sorts of things to show everyone how spiritual we are, but if we are trying to live a spiritual life without Jesus as our Lord and Master, it doesn’t benefit anyone. If Christ is our Lord and we have died to our old selves, we need to live as if we are already with him in glory. That means that we are to put away behaviors that don’t reflect our connectedness with Jesus. This week, we will look at Colossians 3:1-14 and explore how a child of God should live his or her life to reflect the character of Jesus.
"When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”
On Jan. 4 we will celebrate Epiphany. Epiphany means to reveal or to make manifest. And so Epiphany is where we celebrate the moment that our Lord Jesus was recognized by the three wise men as the savior for all the nations. This Sunday, we will unpack Epiphany and look at what it really means to worship Christ as the Lord like the Magi did. We will also look briefly at other aspects of Epiphany. This will be a great time to set the tone for our relationship with God as we start another year.
"The days are coming, declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land — not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” Amos 8:11
As we march through the book of Amos, we come to more imagery in chapter eight that showed how God was about to judge Israel. We see a basket of ripe fruit. A feast perhaps? No, it meant that Israel was ripe for judgment. But there’s something more to the fruit imagery that is lost on us as people who don’t speak Hebrew. We’ll take a look at that on Sunday. And along with this feast image there is a promise of famine; a famine of hearing God’s word. God’s word was being spoken but the Israelites weren’t able to recognize it because of the hardness of their hearts. God was constantly telling His people to listen and obey, but they didn’t, and they paid a painful price. In preparation for Sunday, let’s prepare our hearts to receive God’s word and not harden our hearts like the Israelites.
The accounts of the kings of Israel and Judah in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings can be frustrating to read: It’s a years-long tug of war between good and evil. Most of the kings of the two nations were bad, but there are a few sprinkled throughout whom the writers call good. In opposition to their culture, and even contrary to the way they were raised, these good kings followed the Lord, or at least tried. And that’s what God always wants - a heart that is turned to Him. This Sunday, we will take a look at the last four major kings of Judah: Hezekiah, Mannaseh, Amon, and Josiah. We will tie into the Psalms for the signs of a heart devoted to God. Despite everything that’s going on around us that would get us off track, let us be those who say, “As for me…”