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Colossians 3 Pt. 2

In Pt. 1, I discussed Colossians 3:1-4 and the connection to Ephesians 1:17-19.

Here's the next section from Colossians 3:

5 ¶ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
8 ¶ But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.
9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Again I am called to make a choice. A choice to refuse to be satisfied in anything except Christ; to not drink of any other well in order to numb the pain of life. Paul seems to make two lists or categories: the first appears to be the non-verbal and the second appears distinctly verbal.  My personal thought is that the first produces the second.  As we engage in the activities of the 'earthly nature', our speech patterns are dynamically affected.

The question becomes, how on earth can I possibly makes these choices? How can I on a daily basis rid myself of these things? Surely it can't be the power of my own discipline. I have realized that I simply cannot do it.

I made the point previously that wherever God gives an exhortation to do something, there is a corresponding grace available to us to enable us to obey.  Here's what I mean:  God is telling me to put to death the elements of the earthly nature in v. 5-8, and the key to being able to actually DO that is found in v. 1-2.  (I also believe that a critical part of v. 1-2 is described in Eph. 1-17-19)

Another massive line of thinking is found in Col. 3:10.  I'm a big revival and renewal guy.  I love renewal.  Mostly when we think of renewal we think of events like the Toronto Blessing. Believe me, I loved the renewal that came through the Blessing, and I pray that God would release a new installment of that, but Col. 3:10 speaks volumes to the renewal that is available to me on a DAILY basis.

Paul is saying this: I am spiritually renewed by the knowledge of who God is and what God is like.  

In v. 10 I see Paul connecting back to v. 1-2.  When I set my mind and heart on things above, where Christ is seated, my spirit will be touched and renewed, and the more I do it, the more renewal I will experience.  Given that there's no limits to the 'things above', this could really go somewhere!!

In a sense, the dynamics of this verse remain a mystery.  I don't get caught up in the 'how' of it, but rather I seek to take God at His word, that I will experience a spiritual renewal whenever I encounter the truth about what God is like.

One practical way that I have been doing that recently is by adding this verse to my prayer list and by turning it into a daily request.  I connect it to v. 1-2 and bring those verses into the prayers as well.  Then I can't help but go on to praying v. 5-10 too!

So those are a few more of my thoughts on Colossians 3.

Colossians 3 Pt. 1

Recently our family has been attending Renaissance Community Church.  Pam and I have been enjoying the teaching series that's currently going on which is on the book of Colossians.

I've been spending some time in Colossians and actually will be preaching at Renaissance on March 22 (in case anybody wants to come) :)  I've decided to work towards being able to better articulate some of the thoughts and prayers I've had regarding Colossians 3 over the past while, so I'm going to begin here with a series of posts on that chapter.  I'm doing this as a series of posts in order to break it up a bit and make it more readable (hopefully!).  Again these are just some of my thoughts and things that I've felt God showing me in the Scriptures.  

Here's the first part of the passage:

3:1 ¶ Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Now a few thoughts:

1) I guess the beginning for me was the sense of God inviting me to choose: to voluntarily choose to set both my mind and my heart of things above, where Christ is seated, rather than on the earthly things.  Lately I have been actually speaking out loud my intention, my decision that today I will set my mind and my heart on things above; also that I will choose, by an act of my will, to put certain things to death and to rid myself of other things that are destined to perish.  I declare my intention to obey, or as it says in Rev. 1:3, to read, hear and keep God's Word.

2) I've also been linking v. 1-2 with Eph. 1:17-19 because I believe that they go together.  I think that one of the problems with the concept of continually setting our minds on things above where Christ is seated is the fact that we quickly run out of things to think about!  I believe that this is what Paul had in mind when he prayed in Ephesians that God would give to us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus. He's praying that my mind would receive divine wisdom and revelation of what Jesus is like; and that the eyes of my heart would be enlightened.  Paul prays that our hearts would be enlightened in 3 areas:

1. that we would know the hope that we have been called into (okay, there's oceans of thoughts on that one!)
   
2. that we would know the unbelievable riches of his inheritance in us!
   
3. that we would know the incomparable power that is at work in us (or is available to us)
   

So back to Colossians 3.  I've been praying that God would answer the prayer of Eph. 1:17-19 in order that Colossians 3:1-2 would become a greater reality in my life.  Certainly I am called to make deliberate choices in those verses, but I'm not left alone in those choices: God is at work in me to cooperate with my choices, to empower or enable my choices.  Actually in truth, it's God who created the desire in me to make the choice in the first place, and then empowers me to actually do it... my part in this equation is very small and yet utterly essential at the same time.

3) A final thought surrounds v. 3-4.  Certainly there is the main theology of death and resurrection being discussed, and yet as I've been praying it over, something else has been rolling around in my brain.  It's hard to articulate, but here goes:

What if I don't really know who I am?  What if my true identity, the fullness of who God created me to be is still a mystery to me?  Could that be part of what Paul is saying when he declares that my life is 'now hidden with Christ in God'?  Certainly I died and, as Graham Kendrick sings, 'the life that I now live no longer is my own', yet how much do I grasp about all that I have been created to be and do?  God alone knows the depth and the riches of who we have been created to be and only in the resurrection, as we live forever with God (on a redeemed, transformed earth, I might add!) will we be fully known.  Could it be that part of our redemption through the cross is a redemption not only of our relationship with God but also all of our redemptive potential that was lost through sin; the fullness of all that God has in his heart for us when he created us.  

I pray that will appear with Christ in glory!

The Light of the World

This morning I was praying and towards the end of the time I was specifically praying for my friends grandfather who has cancer.

As I was praying I found myself beginning to pray for light to enter his body and that the light of Christ would shine upon him and fill him.  Suddenly my mind went to the end of Revelation where it says that there will be no need for the sun because God will provide the light.  

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its light. 

Rev. 21:23

They wil not need the light of  a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.

Rev. 22:5

I've always seen references to 'light' as being purely spiritual and separate from physical light. In that way I've separated the physical realm from the spiritual realm.  For instance, how will the light of God be able to provide what is needed for the process of photosynthesis?  Our planet would very quickly perish without the light of the sun.  

As this was in my head, it was then that I went to Rev. 21:23.  I believe that I have had a false distinction between the spiritual and the physical.  In this age there is some clear distinctions, but in the age to come, it seems that those distinctions will no longer be there.

Given that Heaven and earth will become one, then the physical processes of the earth that require the light of the sun must continue in some way.  I don't believe that the physical laws of science that have been put in place will suddenly be done away with.

I also looked at 1 Tim. 6:16 where it says that God dwells in unapproachable light.  What is this light?  If it is of a kind that will sustain the physical earth (even the new, transformed earth) will it not provide healing as well? Somehow what we now know of as physical elements will have spiritual properties as well.  Look at the fact that the leaves from the tree of life will be used for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2).  

Of course, all of this depends to a certain extend on my interpretation of Revelation and the fact that I take things somewhat literally (not entirely literally I should add: i.e. I don't think that there is a literal dragons tail that will sweep a third of the stars out of the sky (Rev. 12:4)... given that the stars are billions and billions of miles apart from us).  Thus some may not believe that there are literal physical leaves being spoken of...

So this is becoming more complex than I intended; however coming back to Rev. 22:5, it seems fairly straightforward that God's light will actually replace the role of the sun.  This to me implies a very powerful connection between the physical and the spiritual.. the light is more than just spiritual; it is a physical light that will accomplish physical things.

What then does this potentially mean in terms of our comprehension of what Jesus meant when he said he is the 'light of the world'?

Something to chew on....

Oh Chief Ramsey

Today I was startled to read in the Edmonton Journal that one of my favorite Chinese food kiosks in West Edmonton Mall had been fined $12000 for sanitation and cockroach problems.

The article describes a scene of food being stored on the floor, raw meat soaking in stagnant water and cockroaches scurrying around the kitchen.

Where is Chief Ramsey and one of his profanity filled tyraids when we need him!!

The place makes some of the best ginger beef around, but now the thought of it makes my stomach turn. Who knows what it's been thawing in or where! Then I start wondering if it really is 'beef' in the first place. (enter Eric's favorite name for a Chinese restaurant here)

I've read stories like this before, but it's never been about a place that I eat at with reasonable regularity (no that doesn't make it worse, it just makes me want to blog about it!!)

Clearly this kind of problem is all too prevalent in the restaurant business, as indicated not only by the existence of food inspectors but the ability to Chief Ramsey to devote an entire TV show to cleaning up different restaurants with similar problems.

In all seriousness, I don't think I'll ever be eating at the Szechuan Chinese Food kiosk again. (it's in phase 3 of WEM, beside the Dairy Queen... lest you confuse it with one of the other 2 large chinese food kiosks in the same food court!!)

I guess I'll be eating more Greek and Italian food there from now on!

Here's to coakroaches and....

scratch that...

here's to a large BEER!

Peripheral Vision

Tonight I decided to go down to Kinsman to work out.  Pam bought me a month pass for Christmas, so I'm diligently trying to use it!  Most of the time I go in the morning, but today was totally booked up so I thought I'd go in the evening.

I will NOT be doing that again.  It was packed. When I first got there the parking lot was so full that I assumed a special event was going on.  I had to park in the overflow lot. (which is actually better because it's closer to the main entrance than the further away spots in the normal lot)

I'd planned on doing some weight training but immediately recognized that my plans needed to change as there were simply way too many people in the weight room.  I decided to ride the bike and go for a brief jog.

As is my custom, I ended with some time in the sauna, but it too was quite full which wasn't all bad but I just don't like being too near other sweaty people.

This leads to the point of all this: later, as I was leaving the shower area, out of the corner of my eye something bizarre caught my peripheral vision.  My head shot to the left only to have my visual senses assaulted by this very large naked man standing on a scale, who was extremely tanned and had the most nasty tan lines..... well I'll let your imagination figure it out....

Damn!

What on earth was this guy thinking?  BTW, he wasn't at all 'buff-in-the-stuff', so it's not like... oh never mind.

Have you ever noticed that in locker rooms it's the older people who seem to wander around in the 'all together'?  Pam says it's the same way in the women's change room too.  I've enjoyed this month long pass to Kinsman, but I have to say that I've definitely had my fill of male nudity!  

Most of the time I am very thankful that I have very good vision.... most of the time!

Short

This morning as I was doing some work around the house an old song came into my head:

'Soon and very soon, I am going to see the King

soon and very soon, I am going to see the King

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, I am going to see the King'.

Believe me, I have not had opportunity to sing that song or even hear it, anywhere in a very long time, so it certainly struck me as odd that this old chorus would come into my head. (as strange a head as I may have!!)  Very quickly I recognized the evidence of the Spirit in all this and began to pray around it all.

Not to worry! I am not speaking of my imminent demise; I sensed God remind me of how short life is in the light of eternity and that this is only a brief internship in this age.  The Spirit whispered to me an encouragement and reminder of the worthiness of devoting my life to pursuing God.

Show me O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.
Ps. 39:4

'Soon and very soon, I am going to see the King
soon and very soon, I am going to see the King
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, I am going to see the King'.

Songs of Deliverance

I've been really enjoying Psalm 32 for the past few days.  There's just so much there to feed the prayer life!

Nearly half of the Psalm is about confession of sin, and while I've been engaged in that there have also been some other things that God was highlighting to me:

1) praying that my spirit would be cleansed of all deceit (v. 2).  Not only do I need to be forgiven (v.1) but I need to have all manner of deceit driven out of my spirit.  This prayer is a new addition to my prayer list.

2) praying for a return to the hiding place (v.7) or as I've called in earlier blogs, 'the secret place'. 

3) I've been focusing a lot on being surrounded with 'songs of deliverance' (v.7).  Each day I have been coming back to this and in the morning asking God to surround me with songs of deliverance.  There has been a distinct touch from God in praying this.  The other day as I prayed around this, I suddenly found myself beginning to sing my prayers.  This went on at length (one of the joys of being home alone!!) as I prayed and worshipped God.

V. 7 is a fantastic verse to pray for others as well; praying that God would surround them with songs of deliverance.

One final note from my prayer time today:  Today is the day that the Lord has made.  In the midst of prayer I found myself making declarations about the goodness of the day, speaking against the fears and curses that surround (however humorously) 'Friday the 13th'.

May today be a day of blessing and goodness, and not fear and evil.  

May the Lord surround each of us with songs of deliverance today!

New Connections

I was at the city prayer gathering today and Jeremiah Abel read out from Eph. 5:13-20. A couple of verses stood out to me as I listened and then read it over in my Bible:

15 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

The passage in verse 18 is a long time favorite because it speaks of being continually filled with the Spirit. As I read on I was struck by v. 20 and the call to always be giving thanks to God, because just yesterday I felt the Lord speaking to me about the great need I have to grow in thankfulness. This morning as I read these verses I sensed God showing me that the two things are very much connected: Being filled with the Spirit and living a life of continual thankfulness.

I am very often a 'cup half empty' type of person. Translated more bluntly, I think that means I'm an unthankful person. I'm just not very good at it (there I go again!)

I usually have thought about being filled with the Spirit in different terms than being continually thankful. Yet the apostle Paul seems to mention the need for thankfulness over and over again (i.e. Col. 2:17 & 1 Thess. 5:18)

I realize that I have some real stereotypes in my head surrounding exhortations to thankfulness and that I need to purge myself of.

That will be quite a process, but for now I'll just say 'thanks' to God for showing me some new connections about being filled with the Spirit.

Standing

Last night I had the image in my mind (not a vision) to me being in a shelter and then making the choice to walk outside of the shelter wearing only a pair of shorts. When I did so, dozens of birds suddenly descended on me and furiously pecked at me; they didn't kill me but I was a bloody mess when they were done, as I attempted to crawl back to the shelter.

For me this is a spiritual picture of my choosing to leave the secret place and not having any covering (such as the armor of God).
I do so at my own peril. I've done it before and yet somehow do it again. Such decisions defy logic and reason.

the end.

IHOP intercession - Cory Russell

Click to Play

Cory Russell prays for San Francisco at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City

Feeling like Crap

Today my wife feels like crap. She had a couple of students drop out of one of her classes and she feels like it's her fault; now she's feeling terrible about herself as a teacher (as if she needed to feel like that more often!!)

I can't stand the pressure that the schools put on teachers to pump out kids with great grades. There's so much pressure on teachers... what about the STUDENTS? In my day, if you got lousy grades it was your own bloody fault. The teacher might be a dud (and I had some, let me tell you) but if I got 55% as a final mark, it was MY responsibility.

Today... NOOOO!!!! It's the responsibility of the teachers to make sure that little Mikey get a good grade. We wouldn't want him to fail, even if he skips lots of classes and doesn't even turn in assignments, because we don't want to bruise his precious self esteem.

Today if you want to be able to teach the top level subjects you have to be turn out students who get honors... no matter what. Otherwise it's on your head and you feel like a lousy teacher.

I'm tired of watching my wife work her ass off week after week, working hours and hours making exams and marking and creating assignments only to end up feeling like crap because little mary jane hardly does any work in class and then wonders why she's not getting honors!

I don't think that kids are simply entitled to get good grades; and I don't think that we should expect that every kid is going to get great grades. I was lousy at math in school. I got really average grades in math and guess what: I didn't snivel about it and blame it on my teacher. I'm not good at math. Plain and simple. Not everybody is good at math!

So here's a novel idea: let's evaluate teachers through observing their classes and factoring in ALL the student evaluations, rather than simply looking at the specific grades themselves. Let's have some balance between responsibility on the teacher AND responsibility on the students.

Maybe then we'll have less days like today.

Obama

How could today go by without a blog post on the swearing in of Barak Obama as President?

I'll say up front that I'm pretty impressed by Obama and think he's going to be able to be an agent of new direction in the States.
(so any negative comments about Obama, such as accusations that's he a muslim or the antichrist, will NOT be published on this blog so don't even bother)

What has struck me about Obama winning the election is the power of hope. I think that what will be agent of change in America will not be Obama's decisions as much as the new found sense of hope and optimism that so many Americans feel. So in a sense, change already has come to America (to coin Obama's catch phrase).

It's interesting how things affect us. You can see it when the weather changes and becomes warm, or when the amount a daylight begins to increase. People respond to these things and usually become more positive about life.

I'm not saying that Obama's decisions don't matter; of course they will. What I am saying is that perhaps some of the most important impact has already been seen. Some will argue that the mood of the American people will most certainly change; George Bush's approval was great after 9/11, but has sunk to historic lows. There will indeed be some downward shifts in public opinion for Obama. No question about that.

Obama has a charm and charisma that, in my opinion, George Bush lacked. Obama has a relational manner about him that puts people at ease. Some find this alarming, but the majority of people resonate with it and respond positively, as evidenced by today's events.

For the sake of the America and indeed the entire world, I hope very much that Obama is successful in being able to bring change to the States, both domestically and abroad.

I wish him well.

Ponderings & Comparisons

This weekend was interesting.

On Saturday night Pam and I went out for dinner and then to a movie:

We drove to the theatre where we drove around for a while in search of a parking spot amidst the numerous cars. Then we went inside and found a seat (okay, I DID stand in line for popcorn!), and sat in a large room filled with a lot of people. When we took our seats we said hello to someone that Pam knew who was sitting in front of us. We enjoyed the movie and when it was over we put on our coats and walked out and back to our car and drove home.

On Sunday morning Pam and I went to church:

We drove to the church where we drove around for a while in search of a parking spot amidst the numerous cars. Then we went inside and found a seat (no popcorn available!), and sat in a large room filled with a lot of people. When we took our seats we said hello to some people that we knew who were sitting around us. We enjoyed the service and when it was over we put on our coats and walked out and back to our car and drove home.

While the point I'm making is obvious, the entire weekend experience has left me pondering many things:
(note: in no way am I being critical of the church that we went to. this commentary is more a personal one about my own state of being)

1) I wrestle with feeling that I am now a 'consumer' of a church experience. Was the church service just some kind of religious entertainment that I consumed in much the same manner as the movie?

2) Is this the way that most people experience church? It's quite a new position to be in and not one that I'm particularly enjoying.

3) How much of church services are designed to simply get people in the doors? Meaning, do we cater to this consumer mentality? I'm not so naive as to believe that this wasn't the situation at The Canopy. No, the same stuff was happening, but wow is it a wake-up call to experience it this way! Yuk!!

4) I know that we're on the fringe of this church. We're not involved or invested in it. We've got a great small group but it's from The Canopy, so it's totally separate. I'm not leading or serving in any way. So I'm on the fringe and it's a really hard place to be. I'm left feeling like some kind of spiritual leech.

5) It's hard right now to get excited about going to church. This is a totally new experience for me. I'm suddenly making mental evaluations about the service, the kids ministry, the service time, the available parking, and of all things the sermon, etc. etc. As I'm having all these thoughts in my head, suddenly the other side of my brain kicks in and says, "What the hell are you thinking? What's wrong with you?" Having spent the last 10 years of my life working in a church and strongly disliking such consumeristic mindsets, I am amazingly finding myself on the other side of the fence! (and clearly NOT liking it)

Well I think that's enough for now. I could keeping going, but these posts really shouldn't go on and on...

At this point all I have is some observations of my own experience but no real idea what exactly they mean.

More musings later!

Well...

Well a few people have emailed some thoughts about the previous post on 'you troubler of Israel'.

Strangely enough I've been distracted by other things and haven't had much time to think and pray on it. (how's that for sad!!)

Yesterday was quite a hard day for me. Beth and I spend the entire day cleaning up the remnant of stuff at The Canopy and it was the last time we would ever be in that space. It's funny that spaces are so important. People today love to say how the church isn't a building; I understand what they are saying, but the reality for me right now is that the physical space known to most people as 'The Canopy' has been very important to me. Lots of memories.... good memories... mostly.

Today I will give in my pass-card and key. There's nothing there anymore. Just memories. I can take those with me.

I don't want to sugarcoat the memory of The Canopy. The last couple of years have been hard. Really hard. And towards the end it was quite painful. That pain is over now, but a new kind of pain, a mourning has taken its place. I'll take the mourning though, as it will, in time pass.

Jesus do you really comfort those who mourn?

God, will you really turn my mourning into dancing?

Lord, will you really bring restoration to my soul?

a thought in my brain

Tonight as I was coming home from a very good conversation with a friend of mine, a phrase came into my head: "you troubler of Israel".

I was pretty sure it was from the life of Elijah the prophet and I just looked it up and sure enough, it is:

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
1 Kings 18:16-21

The conversation with my friend was a powerful God conversation and I left with my spirit quite stirred. As I travelled home I felt there were some things God was bringing together which I won't go into here, but it was in that context that the phrase 'you troubler of Israel' came to my mind.

There is much to process in all of this...

It's time

Well it's time to get back to the world of blogging.

I took a break for the past while because I simply couldn't think of anything to blog about. Certainly there was lots to say and I was not lacking in thoughts and questions, but most of them were too private and personal for the internet! (I like blogs but I'm still a fairly private person and utterly refuse to allow this blog to be some sort of public journal for anybody to peer at... obviously there is a 'journal' dimension to any blog, but I do have my limits)

On that note, here is a bit of a 'journal style' blog update:

I am now unemployed and spend much of today applying for work.

The last 2 weeks have still been filled with many Canopy things: as with the death of a family member, so too it is with the death of a church community. There are all sorts of things to be cleaned up and details to be seen to and loose ends to be tied up. It's a process that seems to prolong the pain of death, but that's just part of life.

This Thursday will, in all likelihood, be the final day of it all for me. I will have removed all my belongings, cleaned up the last bits and turned in my key. That will be hard. There will be a finality to closing the door for the last time that I am sure will hit me.

This past weekend our small group went out of town together for good time away. It was a lot of fun, (although I'm still trying to remove the mothball smell from my clothes...LOL) On Sunday we had a 'cleaning bee' at The Canopy, which also was really good. So its felt a lot like things are still continuing, even though they are not.

It's strange getting up in the morning and not rushing off to the church or meeting with people in the day. Today I spent down in my new 'study' at home and didn't talk to anyone. I had lunch alone. I drank tea, applied for jobs and enjoyed the warmth of my space heater in my study.

I've applied for employment insurance, but there's a 6-8 week processing period. Hopefully I'll have something figured out by then...

I think I'll leave it there for now, but hopefully I'll get back into blogging and be able to share some of my other, more normal kind of thoughts.