PRAYING FOR WISDOM
The apostle John opens his gospel story by referencing Jesus as “the Word” which “became flesh and dwelt among us”. This Word, is not merely the sound of passing air across our lips, but the power and intent of creation. Therefore, let the vision of Jesus fill your mind as we pray with the psalmist a prayer of declaration, proclaiming what is true back to our Father. This is Psalm 19, adapted from The Message translation.
God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
Professor Night lectures each evening.
Their words aren’t heard,
their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
God makes a huge dome
for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
racing to the tape.
That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
warming hearts to faith.
The revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.
The direction of God are plain
and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
down to the nth degree.
God’s Word is better than a diamond,
better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
better than red, ripe strawberries.
There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
GETTING INTO COLOSSIANS
Watch The Bible Project’s video overview of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, which you can find here.
Now read Colossians 1:15-20 then work through the section below.
REFLECTING ON TRUTH
I have a friend who wants to know if he is going to heaven. In other words, he wants to know if the tradition of faith, religion you might call it, which he has grown up in and to which he has devoted countless hours, incalculable resources, and the very fibers of his soul to; is indeed the right place for his hope.
Like many of us, my friend recognizes the reality and necessity of God, and of living a life in relation to this God who creates, orders, sustains, and fulfills. In many ways, my friend is more pious than I am, more devoted to the ins and outs and minutia of his religion’s traditions and practices. Yet, there is something in him that compelled him to ask me, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”; life with staying power, purpose and substance now and forever more.
And so, we probed, we probed into how he relates to God, to his family, to his co-workers, those in need around him, and those God has established that he should dwell amongst. We probed into his beliefs, what he thinks about God, about salvation, about religion and history and heaven and the like. Pushing down through all the external and internal evidences and ideologies, all the educated answers and emotional assumptions; we finally came down to essence of what he longed for; to the questions that would answer his question. Who is Jesus? and What is Jesus doing?
It is our answers to the same questions that will determine whether or not we inherit eternal life, life with staying power, life of purpose and substance now and forever more as well. It is our answers to these questions that will be the most influential to the way we live and thus the measure to which we experience this eternal life in the present.
Here, in this poem that follows his prayers, Paul paints for us a picture of Jesus that is necessary for his readers, as well as you and I, in order to “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that [they, and we] heard…” Any image of Jesus less than Jesus as the ruling author and essential to our humanity, will not be sufficient enough for enduring hope.
USE THESE QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU PRAYERFULLY REFLECT INDIVIDUALLY AND/OR DISCUSS AS A DNA GROUP.
In verses 15-17, Paul gives us a picture of Jesus who is King. Jesus rules in his shared identity as the One true Creator, and as the author of all that exists. To author, is to give every being its identity, its role, its place in history; to create each and every thing with intent and purpose. What implications does Jesus’ authorial rule have on…
…how we view ourselves and others…
…where we go to determine how to live well…
…what we do to find God…
…and, how we view evil and sin (within and without).
In verses 18-20, Paul gives us a picture of Jesus who is not only special (divine), but essential. He is the firstborn from the dead, the Re-Creator, whose very raised life gives you and I the opportunity at full, complete, whole humanity.
In what ways is Jesus essential to a life of “peace” (the Hebrew word is shalom, and is the idea of wholeness)?
What are the implications for our lives of understanding that Jesus is the firstborn form the dead?
If Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are essential to his Re-Creating, what implications does that have for how you and I who are being re-created?
BE ZEALOUS & REPENT
Repenting is one of the most ordinary and extraordinary practices of our faith heritage. The stories and letters that ground our faith are replete with exhortation to and examples of repentance. In a nutshell, repentance is the turning away from one thing and grabbing hold of something different. It is not merely the ceasing of action or attitude, but the replacement of what is let go with something completely other than what is released.
In Revelation 3, Jesus exhorts the faith family of Laodicea to “be zealous and repent”. He encourages this church family to turn from away from those ways of thinking and living that take them in a direction away from him, and with desperation and awe, to cling to the Jesus revealed and go his way.
The Jesus encouraging zealous repentance in Revelation is very similar to the Jesus described by Paul here in Colossians 1. So, as you reflect on this Jesus (as ruling author and essential to our humanity), prayerfully ask, answer, and share…
In what ways does my vision of Jesus differ from the picture in Colossians 1, and thus lesson Jesus’ authority and essentialness in my life?