"Watch your life and doctrine closely"
“Why am I doing this?” It’s a question I often ask myself mid-run. I was on mile eight and had about four more to go. My legs were already tight and the hill before me loomed large. As I made my way uphill my thighs screamed for more oxygen causing my heart to beat faster…
Colossians 2:15: He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Paul continues to explain what Christ has accomplished through his work. The cross and resurrection of Christ not only defeated our sin, but also all of the evil forces. Perhaps the false teachers were telling…
From the blog: Flattery is Not Encouragement Waiting on the Lord is Not a Waste “Why is waiting so difficult? Because it feels as if we’re not doing anything. And that’s the point. You’re not doing anything, but God is. However, waiting is one of the greatest applications of the Christian faith. You are putting…
Colossians 2:14: …by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. The previous verse argued that Christ has made us alive and forgiven us all our trespasses. This verse provides further explanation as to how something so wonderful has happened. He…
Colossians 2:13: And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses… Before we were in Christ we were spiritually dead. This death was the result of our trespasses. The wages of sin is death and we are all…
Lurking in the shadow of every good gift from God is a twisted perversion that seeks to imitate and destroy. These destructive copycats disguise themselves as good but are actually out to cause chaos and confusion. God creates healthy friendships as a gift, but sin turns them into something codependent or abusive. God blesses a…
Colossians 2:11-12: In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead….
Colossians 2:9-10: For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. The Colossians had accepted a false teaching that found spiritual fullness in something other than Christ. Paul warns against being taken captive by such philosophy and empty…
My son walks around in a Jedi robe nearly 24 hours a day, and at any moment a lightsaber fight is likely to break out among my four children. Even as I type, I look on the table beside me and see a half-completed puzzle of Storm Troopers, Chewie, and Han Solo. The quarantine has…
Colossians 2:8: See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. In the previous verses, Paul encouraged the Colossians to walk in Christ by being rooted in him, being established in the faith,…