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Truly Knowing God’s Grace (Pt.6)
Colossians 1:10 - 12 “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”
When you lead a life that is pleasing and worthy of the Lord there are four outcomes that Colossians 1:10-12 states will be displayed in your life.
Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience is the third effect of asking God for spiritual wisdom and understanding.
We need to be strengthened by the Spirit of God on a regular basis. Ephesians 5 says, ‘Be filled with the Spirit’. What the verb tense is really saying is, ‘keep being filled with the Spirit’. Jesus told the disciples to wait for the gift the Father would send and that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. How encouraging! Who doesn’t need the power of God being activated in our lives?
But there is also a purpose in receiving strength. Through it we will be able to endure and be patient. I personally do not enjoy either of these words, patience and endurance. We live in an instant society where patience is not seen as a virtue. We do not like waiting for anything. However, this is not the way of the Spirit.
James 1 says that we will have trials of many kinds and that they will test our faith. This testing develops patience or perseverance. It goes on to say that this patience is working in us to make us mature and complete, lacking nothing.
The picture that I see in this process is one of making bread. The yeast causes the bread to rise but it needs to be kneaded down. As it rises it is punched down so that the bread can have the right texture and taste. In the same way patience is worked into us through believing God in the midst of life’s trials. Yeast silently goes about the business of producing dough. You can’t hurry the process you just have to let it do its thing.
Patience is the quality of suffering without complaint. It bears the troubles of life without complaint in looks, manner or speech. I don’t know about you but there is one thing I don’t tolerate very well and that is whining. Who likes to be around people that are always complaining? But patience is the result of what the Spirit is doing in your mind and soul.
Endurance on the other hand not only bears suffering and hardship with determination and firmness but requires physical stamina as well. Now wonder we require strengthening with His Mighty Power!
When you lead a life that is pleasing and worthy of the Lord there are four outcomes that Colossians 1:10-12 states will be displayed in your life.
Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience is the third effect of asking God for spiritual wisdom and understanding.
We need to be strengthened by the Spirit of God on a regular basis. Ephesians 5 says, ‘Be filled with the Spirit’. What the verb tense is really saying is, ‘keep being filled with the Spirit’. Jesus told the disciples to wait for the gift the Father would send and that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. How encouraging! Who doesn’t need the power of God being activated in our lives?
But there is also a purpose in receiving strength. Through it we will be able to endure and be patient. I personally do not enjoy either of these words, patience and endurance. We live in an instant society where patience is not seen as a virtue. We do not like waiting for anything. However, this is not the way of the Spirit.
James 1 says that we will have trials of many kinds and that they will test our faith. This testing develops patience or perseverance. It goes on to say that this patience is working in us to make us mature and complete, lacking nothing.
The picture that I see in this process is one of making bread. The yeast causes the bread to rise but it needs to be kneaded down. As it rises it is punched down so that the bread can have the right texture and taste. In the same way patience is worked into us through believing God in the midst of life’s trials. Yeast silently goes about the business of producing dough. You can’t hurry the process you just have to let it do its thing.
Patience is the quality of suffering without complaint. It bears the troubles of life without complaint in looks, manner or speech. I don’t know about you but there is one thing I don’t tolerate very well and that is whining. Who likes to be around people that are always complaining? But patience is the result of what the Spirit is doing in your mind and soul.
Endurance on the other hand not only bears suffering and hardship with determination and firmness but requires physical stamina as well. Now wonder we require strengthening with His Mighty Power!
Truly Knowing God’s Grace (Pt.5)
Colossians 1:10 - 12 “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”
When you lead a life that is pleasing and worthy of the Lord there are four outcomes that Colossians 1:10-12 states will be displayed in your life.
The second result that will be produced in your life is that you will grow in the knowledge of God. This is so vital to our spiritual life because we have an enemy that will constantly question God to us.
In the garden the serpent came to Eve and said, “Did God really say?” The more we get to know the very nature of God the easier it is for us to surrender to His will and ways. Over and over in the Old and the New Testament God’s character is revealed and confirmed. Ps 103:8 states that the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. ! John 4:16 says we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.
I love that we can rely on this one thing – that God loves us. His love is not judgmental it is not conditional and it is not finite. It never wears thin and it never runs dry. In fact, His love never fails, it says in 1 Corinthians 13.
We need to know who God is so that we can trust him with what is happening in our lives. He loved us while we were yet sinners. Once we are born again of the Spirit of God we become sons and daughters.
We need to see the love God has for us. How do we learn and grow in that love? We read the word, we listen to the word, we ask the Spirit to reveal the love of God to us and we listen to others’ testimonies of how this great love has touched their lives.
As we grow in the knowledge of God we can be assured of what God does say to us and about us. So, when the enemy comes prowling around your door you can resist him, stand firm and rely on the love He has for you.
When you lead a life that is pleasing and worthy of the Lord there are four outcomes that Colossians 1:10-12 states will be displayed in your life.
The second result that will be produced in your life is that you will grow in the knowledge of God. This is so vital to our spiritual life because we have an enemy that will constantly question God to us.
In the garden the serpent came to Eve and said, “Did God really say?” The more we get to know the very nature of God the easier it is for us to surrender to His will and ways. Over and over in the Old and the New Testament God’s character is revealed and confirmed. Ps 103:8 states that the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. ! John 4:16 says we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.
I love that we can rely on this one thing – that God loves us. His love is not judgmental it is not conditional and it is not finite. It never wears thin and it never runs dry. In fact, His love never fails, it says in 1 Corinthians 13.
We need to know who God is so that we can trust him with what is happening in our lives. He loved us while we were yet sinners. Once we are born again of the Spirit of God we become sons and daughters.
We need to see the love God has for us. How do we learn and grow in that love? We read the word, we listen to the word, we ask the Spirit to reveal the love of God to us and we listen to others’ testimonies of how this great love has touched their lives.
As we grow in the knowledge of God we can be assured of what God does say to us and about us. So, when the enemy comes prowling around your door you can resist him, stand firm and rely on the love He has for you.
Truly Knowing God’s Grace (Pt. 4)
When you lead a life that is pleasing and worthy of the Lord there are four outcomes that Colossians 1:10-11 states will be displayed in your life.
Firstly, you will bear fruit in every good work. When I was a child, my family lived on an apple orchard for many years. Those trees never lifted a finger to produce all the tons of apples that came off those them. However, my father worked hard: pruning, watering, protecting and picking. And so it is with our lives! This very analogy is used in John 15. We see that the Father is the gardener of our lives and he knows exactly what we need to produce the best fruit.
One thing we need to recognise is the times and seasons of our lives. With the apple trees the winter season didn’t look pretty, just dead. There will be times in our lives when the Father is at work in you even though you feel dead. For He knows what is coming and what you is necessary to bring about the fruit for the next good work.
When you are in a winter season it is important to stay plugged into the Lord. Keep your roots covered in Him or you’ll not survive. I remember being in such a season and the last thing I wanted to do was go to church. However we went. I remember Jim and I taking long walks and praying. Everything felt dark and hard but then “suddenly” the Spirit of God hit me. And I truly felt like I was born again, again. Song of Songs says, “the winter is past, the spring has come”. It was a “suddenly” but I still had to live through the darkness.
God is at work in you because His desire is for you to be His planting and a display of His splendour. If you find yourself in a winter season rest in the fact that it is for a “time” and spring will come.
Firstly, you will bear fruit in every good work. When I was a child, my family lived on an apple orchard for many years. Those trees never lifted a finger to produce all the tons of apples that came off those them. However, my father worked hard: pruning, watering, protecting and picking. And so it is with our lives! This very analogy is used in John 15. We see that the Father is the gardener of our lives and he knows exactly what we need to produce the best fruit.
One thing we need to recognise is the times and seasons of our lives. With the apple trees the winter season didn’t look pretty, just dead. There will be times in our lives when the Father is at work in you even though you feel dead. For He knows what is coming and what you is necessary to bring about the fruit for the next good work.
When you are in a winter season it is important to stay plugged into the Lord. Keep your roots covered in Him or you’ll not survive. I remember being in such a season and the last thing I wanted to do was go to church. However we went. I remember Jim and I taking long walks and praying. Everything felt dark and hard but then “suddenly” the Spirit of God hit me. And I truly felt like I was born again, again. Song of Songs says, “the winter is past, the spring has come”. It was a “suddenly” but I still had to live through the darkness.
God is at work in you because His desire is for you to be His planting and a display of His splendour. If you find yourself in a winter season rest in the fact that it is for a “time” and spring will come.
Fishing for Men
On Sunday, January 22 Joel Inkster shared the message entitled ‘Fishing for Men’. This series of teachings is inspired by that message. I will follow his thoughts adding my titbits (Br. sp. versus Am. ‘tidbit’) to the mix too.
Matthew 4:18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
This passage is descriptive of Jesus recruiting the first of his disciples as part of His strategy for fulfilling His mission here on earth. A disciple is somebody who strongly believes in the teachings of a leader, a philosophy, or a religion, and tries to act according to them. The key in this definition is that “they try to act according to what they have been taught”. Jesus in this passage is calling Peter, Andrew, John and James to become fishers of men. He is taking their natural skills and transferring it into the realm of salvation. He spoke in their vernacular when he called them to be his disciples.
If Jesus wanted them to do what he did, then we must ask the question: “What did Jesus do to fish for men?” The best way to train someone in anything is to have them participating with you while you do it. So having called these men to follow him and become a fisher of men we can see what Jesus immediately did by continuing to read Matthew 4.
Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Jesus did three things: taught in the synagogues, preached the good news of the kingdom, and healed the sick. As I said to train disciples we must have them participate in what we are doing. Jesus empowered his disciples to do what he had been doing:
1. Engage people where they gather,
2. Share the message of the kingdom of God,
3. Demonstrate it by setting people free from demons and diseases.
We can see this in effect in Luke 9 and 11 where he sent out the 12 and then the 72.
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
This was the main and plain of being a fisher of men as Jesus taught and demonstrated. He passed it on to his disciples, and not just the 12, but to 72, and most like more.
If we aren’t getting results when we go fishing, maybe the problem is we aren’t where the fish are or we are using the wrong bait. It’s not the church but the kingdom. It’s not in words only but in the demonstration of power. Then we will be “fishers of men”.
Matthew 4:18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
This passage is descriptive of Jesus recruiting the first of his disciples as part of His strategy for fulfilling His mission here on earth. A disciple is somebody who strongly believes in the teachings of a leader, a philosophy, or a religion, and tries to act according to them. The key in this definition is that “they try to act according to what they have been taught”. Jesus in this passage is calling Peter, Andrew, John and James to become fishers of men. He is taking their natural skills and transferring it into the realm of salvation. He spoke in their vernacular when he called them to be his disciples.
If Jesus wanted them to do what he did, then we must ask the question: “What did Jesus do to fish for men?” The best way to train someone in anything is to have them participating with you while you do it. So having called these men to follow him and become a fisher of men we can see what Jesus immediately did by continuing to read Matthew 4.
Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Jesus did three things: taught in the synagogues, preached the good news of the kingdom, and healed the sick. As I said to train disciples we must have them participate in what we are doing. Jesus empowered his disciples to do what he had been doing:
1. Engage people where they gather,
2. Share the message of the kingdom of God,
3. Demonstrate it by setting people free from demons and diseases.
We can see this in effect in Luke 9 and 11 where he sent out the 12 and then the 72.
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
This was the main and plain of being a fisher of men as Jesus taught and demonstrated. He passed it on to his disciples, and not just the 12, but to 72, and most like more.
If we aren’t getting results when we go fishing, maybe the problem is we aren’t where the fish are or we are using the wrong bait. It’s not the church but the kingdom. It’s not in words only but in the demonstration of power. Then we will be “fishers of men”.
