What I Learned in 2010

Matthew 21:21-22 (AMP)

21 And Jesus answered them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith (a firm relying trust) and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done. 22 And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and [really] believing, you will receive.

Needless to say 2010 has been a very different year for me.  For the first time, really, I've had to deal with the frailty of the human body.  The parts sometimes wear out and need repair or replacement; like the frame on my 2001 Toyota.  Or the retina (repair) and lens (replacement) in my eye. 



In spite of it all, I don't think I'd ask for anything different or seek to change any of the events of the past year.  God has been good to me; I mean really, really good. I've had lots of quality quiet time to spend with Him.  I feel like I'm just learning to study God's Word and interact with it.  This blog has been part of that experience.  If it has been a blessing to you, the blessing is from God.  My blessing doesn't mean much in the scheme of things.

If there is one big lesson I've learned, it is the correlation between being a student of the Bible and confidence in prayer.  I've learned that often we don't know how to pray because we don't fully understand how God acts or what He wants for us and others.  I can easily fall into the trap of making the will of God into a huge mystery.  When we study scripture, we know that we are naturally separated from God and that it is His will to redeem us through the giving of His Son on the cross.  It is His will that we should love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as much as we love and care for ourselves.  It is God's will for us to meditate on His Word, and to pray about everything with thanksgiving in our hearts.  We are to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth and speak the truth in love. 

This is part of the revealed will of God.  There is no mystery here.  He wants us to know clearly His plan for us.  While God has some plans that are still hidden from us, like when He will return to earth, much of His will is made plain if we take the time to look for it.

E. M. Bounds said, "Unless the power of prayer is supplied by God's Word, prayer, though earnest, is empty."



That is what I've learned.  Knowing God's Word and prayer go hand in hand.  Knowledge of God through scripture breathes life into prayer.  Now the challenge for me is to know God so intimately that prayer becomes second nature to me.  To be at a place where I don't have to wrestle with how I should pray is what I really long for.  My desire for 2011 is to witness the power of God in answer to prayer.

I want to declare, "That's something only God can do.  No plan of mankind could produce that result."

Have a Merry Christmas.  God bless us, every one.

All Things

Colossians 1:15-20 (NASB)



15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
 
We all have Christmas songs that we like to play on our stereos and iPods that remind us that "Christmas Time Is Here."  That one that will do it for me from Charlie Brown's Christmas.  Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas" is another.  Music from the movie "Polar Express" will turn me into a kid in an instant and gets me pumped for Christmas.  Moving from the secular to the sacred, I love Michael W. Smith's first Christmas Album.  Ray Charles' rendition of the familiar Christmas song, "What Child Is This?"  is running through my head as I reflect on the passage above that was part of my devotions this morning.  If you are familiar with it it's probably in your head now, too.
 
What is the apostle Paul telling me and telling the church at Colossae about this child we know as Christ the Lord?
 
He tells us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  The invisible is made visible.  What we could not see or fully comprehend, we now can see and begin to understand.  He was not created as we were.  He was involved in the Creation itself.  All of creation is for Christ.  Paul refers to Jesus as the "firstborn of all creation."  The hearers of Paul's letter would have understood this term not as the first thing God created, but as have the same rank, privilege and position of the firstborn.  As we read our Old and New Testament we read over and over the value God places on the firstborn. So therefore, we can understand the statement that all of creation is for Christ.  It's His.  It was created for Him.
 
He is the head of the church.  The church is His.
 
Not only is Jesus the image of God.  All of God, "the fullness of God", dwells in Him.  In our culture we place a lesser value on a copy of the original.  We may find the copy to be interesting, but we don't value it as highly as the original.  The fullness of God dwells in Christ, who was involved in Creation. 
 
Jesus was not only fully God, He was fully human.  In Paul's account we see the terms "fleshly body", "blood", and "death." 
 
Colossians 1:21-23 (NASB)



21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
 
Here's the best part.  The Firstborn, the Creator of all things, was given so that all things could be reconciled to Himself, the One to whom all things belong.  He came to restore broken relationships with God.  He came to restore broken relationships with His people, even though we "were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds."  Though we were ugly and undeserving, He gave Himself through death "in order to present [us] before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach."
 
What a gift we are given!  The God of all things is given as a ransom for us.  This is reason to celebrate!