Colossians 1: Part 2 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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All this week, John North says what the Bible teaches us guards us against false “truths”. The apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in Colossae, highlighting the true message that came to them through Jesus.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Colossians 1:3-8

Transcript

Good morning. I wonder as you come into this day, what is your expectation for the day?

Do you have your mind on all the things you have to get done and you’re wondering how you’ll get them all done by the end of the day, or maybe you’re taking care of children and your day is just kind of this ebb and flow of busy times and not so busy times. Maybe as you’re coming into this day, you’re thinking on a bit of a deeper level about the meaning of your life and what really matters in life. That’s a great way to start every day.

Stopping and saying God has a purpose in this day for me, and I want to be right in the center of God’s will for my life. I want to experience God’s blessing on my life, and that blessing comes because I am walking God’s way in life. I am submitting my life to His leadership.

And how else am I going to discern what his leadership is and what God is doing and saying into my life, but to spend some time every day reading God’s word, the Bible, and allowing Him to speak to me and before I read, stopping and saying to him, God, I’m listening.

What do you want to say to me in my life today? Well, that’s what we do every morning just for a few minutes here on the radio, and I hope it helps you and inspires you to get your own Bible and get it out and start reading it every day and inviting God to lead your life.

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This week we’re looking at a passage at the beginning of the book of Colossians in the Bible where Paul is writing a letter to the church in Colossi, and he says to them, We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ and the love which you have for all the saints, and saints just means other Christians.

Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Well, Christianity is based on this that we call the gospel, which means good news. And the good news that is the foundation of all of Christianity is that out of our bad news that we are separated from God and have problems in our lives that we can never solve and we are alienated from God and so God is not involved in our lives. The good news comes to us that Jesus Christ has made a way for us to come into a personal relationship with God that is good and loving and where he’s involved in our lives and leading and guiding us and also enabling us and encouraging us and strengthening us in our inner person as we face life and making our lives meaningful so we’re not just trying to survive and make it through, but we’re making. A good difference in this world for God.

Well, the way into that is simply by understanding that Jesus died on the cross because of His love for you.

That you had this weight of guilt before God the Father, the judge of the universe, that you could not remove and could not deal with, and Jesus Christ took that guilt on Himself, He who did not have any guilt, and he suffered the judgment of God so that you wouldn’t have to, and he offers to you now the forgiveness, that makes you right before God. That lets you into this incredible relationship with God.

That’s something to be thankful for, isn’t it? And I hope that if you never have before, you’ll simply take a moment now and pray and thank Jesus for what He did for you and invite him to become the leader of your life and change your life from the inside out, not just with new religious expectations, no, but with a change of heart that changes everything about you.

I’m John North.

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