In Christ, fullness lives within you. 🙌

#biblians #bibliansapp #verseoftheday #colossians #christcentered #deityofchrist #newlife #faithfulness #grace

Our expository journey continues through Colossians and Acts at Hamilton Baptist Church 👇
📍23 Kemp Street, Hamilton, ML3 6QL
🕛 10:45 GMT (17:45 PH time) and 18:00 GMT (01:00 PH time)
🖥 https://www.hamiltonbaptist.org.uk/

#churchonline #Baptist #christianity #Colossians #Acts #expositorypreaching

Nicholas Byfield was a Calvinistic, Puritan minister. Here he speaks of compassion as being a proof of our spiritual state, citing bible passages about generosity, watering other peoples, aiding those needing warmth, visiting orphans and widows. These qualities in us prove that we are true neighbors and good Samaritans

Are you following religious leaders who point to other spiritual metrics at the expense of the biblical ones?
#chistian #puritans #calvinist #biblical #colossians #presbyterian

📖📜🕊️✝️❤️‍🔥👑💦☁️🌈☁️💒🏩🛐🌏🤠🌐💁🏿‍♀️*Colossians 1📖 Full Chapter For extra learning👉🤔💌🧐🧐🥸😎💁‍♀️*Greeting Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:Grace to you and peace from God our Father.👉

#Colossians #Full #Chapter #For ##extra #learning

Colossians 1 ESV - Greeting - Paul, an apostle of Christ - Bible Gateway
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians%201&version=ESV

Sunday service 2026 March 1: Lent

On this sun-drenched first day of March, we welcomed many people in the ecclesia hall and in their homes via Zoom.

Lets begin our service looking by joining together in fact, amazing time. We thank God for the blue skies and sunshine.

This morning in particular we share the pain and anguish of our brethren in Iran and other conflict areas, at the balance in enrolment since the start of this year in particular, we share their emotions. What we do know of our brothers in Iran is that the fast moving situation is causing panic, worry and the real struggle to survive.

Tim was talking about ‘Lent’ and what it means to us.

Psalm 105 which is all about the faithfulness of God towards His people Israel and their travelling through the wilderness.

Moses gave praise to Jehovah the almighty Lord. He gave honour to His Name, talking of His doings among the peoples. The psalmist asks to let our voice be sounding in songs and melody. Let all our thoughts be of the wonder of Hs works.

We must have glory in His holy name; therefore let the hearts of those who are searching after the Lord be glad. Let their search be for the Lord of lords and for His strength. We can only hope numerous people shall let teir hearts ever be turned to Him.

We have to keep in mind the great works which He has done; His wonders, and the decisions of His mouth, He is the Lord our God: He is judge of all the earth.

Today we find the Middle East burning, but they and we should remember that Jehovah has kept His agreement in mind for ever, the word which He gave for a thousand generations; the agreement which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac. And He gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an eternal agreement.

The land of Canaan, the measured line of the Jewish heritage was given by God. When they were still small in number, and strange in the land; when they went about from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people.  He Who is the Mightiest would not let anyone do them wrong; He even kept back kings because of them.

We can see that in the past several were tested by the word of God.

God sent Moses, His servant, and Aaron, the man of his selection to let His signs be seen among the people, and His wonders in the land of Ham. Jehovah sent black night and made it dark; and they did not go against His word. God according to His Wish brought several disasters over the Egyptians. Jehovah kept in mind His holy word, and Abraham, His servant.  And He took His people out of Egypt with joy, the men of His selection with glad cries: and gave them the lands of the nations; and they took the work of the peoples for a heritage; so that they might keep His orders, and be true to His laws. Give praise to the Lord.

Remembering what God has done to His people we should be taking care that no one takes you away by force, through man’s wisdom and deceit, going after the beliefs of men and the theories of the world, and not after Christ: for in him all the wealth of God’s being has a living form, and we as followers of Christ are complete in him, who is the head of all rule and authority: in whom we had a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ. Having been put to death with him in baptism, by which we came to life again with him, through faith in the working of God, who made him come back from the dead.

After this reading we looked at the letter of Paul the apostle who wrote to the church in Colossae, which is now in modern Turkey.

We being dead through our sins and the evil condition of our flesh, to us Paul said that he gave life together with Jesus, and forgiveness of all our sins. Paul asks:

14 Having put an end to the handwriting of the law which was against us, taking it out of the way by nailing it to his cross; 15 Having made himself free from the rule of authorities and powers, he put them openly to shame, glorying over them in it.”

For this reason let no man be our judge in any question of food or drink or feast days or new moons or Sabbaths: for these are an image of the things which are to come; but the body is Christ’s. Let no man take your reward from you by consciously making little of himself and giving worship to angels; having his thoughts fixed on the things which he has seen, being foolishly lifted up in his natural mind, and not joined to the Head, from whom all the body, being given strength and kept together through its joins and bands, has its growth with the increase of God. (Colossians 2:8-19)

Catholics and Muslims started their fasting, which they each try to fulfil in a different way. For them it is a time for purifying their heart. We ask God to purify our hearts, telling Him how our heart is one of desire, asking Jehovah to set it apart, because we choose to be holy (set apart) ready to do His Will. We ask God to cleanse our hearts from within.

Tuesday it was Shrove Tuesday and Tim had pancakes that evening. He didn’t understand Sue using the eggs and flour to get rid of that stuff, sweets in the house. Tim did not understand why we would do that. The following morning he was getting up it was Ash Wednesday. He looked at his grandchildren he found it was the beginning of  Lent: the seven weeks of prayer, fasting and almsgiving before the arrival of Easter. That morning he learned a person stopped eating chocolates and on the radio there were other things as mentioned as well.

For many Christians, Lent is a season for fasting and abstinence in imitation of Jesus Christ’s fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. In Western churches Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and excludes Sundays. In Eastern churches Lent begins on the Monday of the seventh week before Easter and ends on the Friday before Holy Week (Passion Week) that immediately precedes Easter. This 40-day “Great Lent” includes Saturdays and Sundays as relaxed fast days.

The purpose of it is that of spiritual reflection repentance and inner conversion and often described as a spiritual springtime.

Abstaining from luxuries or vices, that might be chocolates. Increased prayers and charitable acts.

Lent is not mentioned in the Bible at all. Moses in the old time Testament was always telling people of God to be aware of forgetting. Moses was very concerned that we didn’t forget God when they got there in the land. and Jesus himself  used the word beware. He used it quite a lot. And in his case it was normally to do with the teachings of the clerics.

Beware the teachings of the times. And Paul in the chapter Caroline read, gave three warnings, if we are to enjoy a real life in Jesus Christ.

Paul was talking about it what people were undertaking what we might call a severe self-discipline. An extension from all forms of indulgence, identity management, but whatever it was Paul’s warning about abstention was popular in the Middle Ages.

Paul actually tells us that physical trauma is of some value. We know that he disciplined his own body and kept it under control, because he tells us that. And all of us will agree that we need physical discipline in our lives. We need to walk, run, to get up and go. We need to do things. We need to be aware of eating too much, becoming overweight. We need to be aware of drinking  too much coffee and coke. Landing up nervous and dark scent, the possibility of ease. So our temples, as the Scripture tells, are our bodies, we should say , our temples of the Holy Spirit. And yet sometimes we do not care for our bodies as we should.

So the Colossians started to think that disciplining your body would actually sanctify their soul and their position before God. If they didn’t do this, if they didn’t complied with the 7 way of behaving, it would be alright with him up there.

Do not submit to its rules. Do not handle. Do not taste. These are all destined to perish with use, which they are based on human institutions. Not having, appears then for they are just another way. Making yourself looking more important. So Paul is telling us that days are of no value, rigorous fleshy discipline for religious purposes.  There is no manual either. So we need to be clearly understanding and be careful in our approach to things like games as well. Indeed what should our approach to this religious festival be? Well there is a sharp distinction  between the days leading up to this history. And the days afterwards. The days leading up to Easter and all our lamenting. The days after Easter all about rejoice. So the weeks either side of Bistro. See, the world history diving into 2 periods. Time before Jesus’ death and resurrection and then the time afterwards. New creation has been launched by the resurrection in the middle of the old, energized with the freshness of your spirit as appointed by Jesus. And this is the distinction between Lents, whatever that might involve an Easter. And it’s not just a question of thinking on Ash Wednesday you start late. We finish that Monday, Thursday. We should be thinking about what Lent is all about and what Easter is all about throughout the whole meeting.

We look internally and we look at the wider church. And we ourselves fail missionaly in our love for God and for one more. And so our lament is to recognise that things are still a mess. And this is perhaps where we can join in with God’s own song on the continuing tragedy of this world, because manual. To contrast that then with importance simply for the celebration of the Easter story.

Once we learn to lament properly, their minds, their hearts, we can praise God for the New Creation which we have bind. Without sanction or treatable.

Set your hearts and things  above where Jesus  is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds to things above, not on earthy things. And when Jesus who is your life. Then you also will appear within the book. He shaped into the kind of people that God wants to be.

Our thoughts must be on set things which are above. No longer concerned with trivial passing things of earth. Jesus Christ, as Paul says, is the most important thing. No more. This is life.

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New on the blog: Lives Hidden With Christ – Grounded

What does it mean to live a life “hidden with Christ” in ordinary, everyday relationships? This reflection explores how Paul moves from high theology in Colossians to practical, grounded faith in marriage, family, and work.

Read here: https://danielmrose.com/2025/12/22/lives-hidden-with-christ-grounded.html

#Colossians #ChristianLiving #FaithAndLife #PastorNextDoor

God is with You, Little Flock

https://youtu.be/XA_-s9JHFCs

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]

Introduction

There’s an innate and good human desire to want to fit in. “Fitting in” and participating in established group rubrics, can create group unity. In acting and thinking similar (not identical) we find attachment and belonging; this helps to reassure each of us in the group that someone will come to our help in times of need, that loneliness will be put on notice, that when calamity strikes there’s a place and a people to crawl back to and rebuild with, and that there’s both comfort and security while being nestled in with these others. Our groups—families, friends, colleagues, and comrades—are a good thing and so is our desire to belong.

But sometimes these groups become Petri dishes for toxic loyalty and obedience. In such septic conditions the individual is erased, and the only identity is the rubric of the group and those powerful enough to enforce it. Believe this, do that, act in this manner, live by these specific means, and all goes well. Break one of these expectations—or any part of these expectations—and all hell breaks loose…or, in other words, you are broken loose from the group, shuffled off, locked out, pushed into the badlands to survive on your own.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at the letter of Paul to the Colossians. In this letter Paul repeatedly emphasizes that the Colossian Christians are to be different in the world. That their citizenship is not only of Colossus but of the reign of God by the power of the Holy Spirit and faith in Christ. This means, for Paul, that ethically—how the Colossian Christians are to act in the world to the glory of God and the well-being of the neighbor—will look differently than their non-Christian, Colossian neighbors (actions previously acceptable now being forever refused). This means that the Colossian Christians will suffer ostracization from their Colossian fellow citizens because they will no longer fit in, and that they will have to remember that their reward is in heaven and not of the earth. In other words, to refer to Luke’s Jesus, For where [their] treasure is, there [their] heart will be also. The Colossian Christians were faced with a choice: value their inclusion in their local socio-political climate of the kingdom of humanity thus investing their hearts in the things below (the things that decay and are devoured) or risk exclusion from Colossus in favor of storing up for themselves treasure in heaven where decay and devouring does not happen and where their hearts are entrusted to the things above, most especially to Jesus who is at the right hand of God.

Luke 12:32-40

In our Gospel passage, Luke brings into Jesus teaching his disciples. Immediately after exhorting the disciples not to worry (vv.22-31), Jesus tenderly encourages not to fear, Do not be afraid, little flock, because your Father is well pleased to give you the realm (v.32). For the disciples, according to Luke’s Jesus, they do not need to worry because God cares, deeply, for their needs. Thus, the exhortation not to worry, which we didn’t read this morning, affirms that one’s bodily needs are divine concerns. [2] But not just their own needs, but the needs of their neighbors, too; in being exhorted not to worry for themselves, the disciples are also being exhorted to strive for the reign of God where God’s will is done (on earth as it is in heaven).[3] In other words, the disciples—those grafted into the vine of Christ—are the means by which God’s material provision is procured for those who are lacking.

Why mustn’t the disciples worry? Because God is with them and they are with each other necessitating an alertness to need. And as Jesus said, the realm is now given to them not so that they will do whatever they want, but that they’ll see it as the space through which the mission of God will overhaul the temporal realm to the glory of God and the well-being of the neighbor. And this is why they shouldn’t fear, either—they are stronger and more secure together with God, following the way of Christ, and empowered by God’s own Spirit.

Then Jesus commands, Sell your things that are at hand and give alms; make for yourselves enduring purses, unfailing treasure in the heavens where a thief cannot approach and a moth cannot utterly ruin (v.33). For the disciples to sell their possessions is how they begin to participate in the reign of God that is marked by a new order and a new orientation and focus. The selling and alms giving builds up a means to meet the needs of the neighbor. It should be mentioned that this isn’t an expectation to render oneself extremely poor, but to let the overflow and surplus to spill over and out rather than be hoarded and gathered in. A mark of a disciple of the reign of God following Christ will be incredible generosity both in spirit and material; when a disciple gives to anyone in need, they are (quite literally) giving to God, [4] and this causes God’s name to be hallowed in the world.

How and why should the disciples entertain such actions? Because, as Jesus said, For where your treasure is, there your heart is also (v.34). First, they can do this because their hearts are oriented toward and focused on heaven where the things above are, especially Christ. Their treasure is Christ and if it is Christ then it is also the neighbor because to serve one is to serve the other; and if their treasure is Christ then their hearts are in heaven and not stuck on earth coveting earthly rewards that put the neighbor and the self at risk for violence and even death. Second, they should do this because to give alms is to demonstrate that the disciple of Christ isn’t investing in the treasures of the earth (the storing up of grain and the collecting of gold) where such things can be stolen and devoured. Rather, the disciple of Christ is investing in the treasures of heaven that have enduring and eternal presence, untouchable by thief and moth.[5] Thus, the disciples will navigate the time marked by Jesus’s departure and his coming again,[6] while participating in the mission of God in the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation.

Jesus then says, Let your loins be girded and lamps burning, and you [be] like people confidently waiting for their lord returning from the wedding feast, so that when he comes and strikes [the door] at once they may open [the door] to him (v.35-36). With this exhortation toward alertness and preparedness, the disciples are to be expectant and in being expectant are to be prepared: oil in their lamps to keep them burning and their loins girded. As good representatives of Christ, the disciples are to be those representatives now while they still have him and especially when he’s gone. Jesus is preparing his little flock for when he is gone; they must be consistent in their persistence and that means being prepared and keeping alert.[7] And not just prepared, but actively participating in the work of the reign of God (mentioned above).[8] Thus, why Jesus then says, blessed [are] those slaves when their lord comes and finds them watching, and if in the second and if in the third watch he might come and find [them] in this way, blessed are those ones (v.37-38). To be found watching is to be found both prepared to watch while keeping an eye on and a giving hand toward one’s neighbor because we expect to be found by Christ ready and acting.[9] For, as Jesus says, you, you become prepared because you, you do not know the hour the son of humanity comes (v.40). The disciples are to be caught dressed and acting like the one whom they represent.

Conclusion

Just as Paul told the Colossians last week, so does Jesus tell his disciples this week: you no longer get to live like everyone else. This is not the news we—social creatures and creatures desperate to fit in—want to hear. Neither Jesus nor Paul advocate for the Christian blending in or flowing and vibing with the kingdom of humanity. “Fitting in” is no longer applicable; standing out is expected, being reviled is expected, being persecuted, shunned, and ostracized by the citizens of the kingdom of humanity become the new normal for those who dare to follow Jesus out of the Jordan and head to the cross.

Those who are new creatures by faith in Christ, baptized in the waters and the Spirit of God, and joined to God are now, according to both Jesus and Paul, to live differently in the world. Where others build silos to store grain, we take whatever we have left over and share it; where others burry gold, we scrounge a few cents together to see how far it can go; where others sleep, we are to remain alert and prepared; where others are controlled by fear and worry, we are to be confident while trusting in the provision of God through our siblings in Christ; where others side with indifference, death, and captivity, we are to side with love life and liberation to the glory of God and the well-being of our neighbor.

[1] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[2] Justo L. Gonzalez, Luke, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2010), 161-162. “Since it is God’s will that even the ravens be fed, and the lilies clothed, to strive for the kingdom is among other things to make certain that all are fed and all are clothed. We are not to worry about securing such things, for they are important to God; but precisely because they are important to God we must oppose everything that precludes all from having them. This is why in the very passage about not worrying over food or clothing Jesus invites his followers to give alms (12:33), that is, to provide for those who are hungry or naked.”

[3] Gonzalez, Luke, 161. “The alternative to worrying is not a happy-go-lucky, careless attitude. On the contrary, it is a serious struggle, striving for the kingdom. This does not mean, as some might surmise, simply being more religious. And pious. The kingdom of God is a new order, the new order that has come nigh in Jesus. It is an order in which God’s will is done…”

[4] Gonzalez, Luke, 162. “Verses 33-34 give clear guidelines as to how this is to be done: ‘sell your possessions’—your earthly treasure—and ‘give alms’—thus building up a treasure in heaven. In early patristic literature, one constantly finds the assertion that ‘when you give to the poor you lend to God,’…”

[5] Gonzalez, Luke, 162. “…it’s a matter of where one’s treasure is. If on earth, as in the case of the rich man who decided to build bigger barns, it will have no lasting value. If in heaven, it will have lasting value, for in heaven neither do thieves steal one’s treasure, nor do moths eat at it.”

[6] Gonzalez, Luke, 163. “Significantly, the theme of stewardship will appear repeatedly as Jesus prepares for his departure, his ‘exodus’ in 9:31. This is because stewardship, properly understood, is the life of believers in the time ‘in between.’”

[7] Gonzalez, Luke, 163-164. “In this passage, that eschatological sense of expectancy or in-betweenness comes forth in the image of lamps that must remain lit…Thus keeping the lamp lit, as this passage instructs, is a matter that requires constant attention and watchfulness.”

[8] Gonzalez, Luke, 164. “In this last section, speaking to his disciples, Jesus intimates that, since they know what the master wishes, and since they have been given responsibility over the rest of the household, when the master returns they will be judged on the basis of their faithfulness to the absent master’s wishes. Those who knew those wishes will be judged more severely than those who did not. Thus, while we might think that because we are Christians, we have the advantage of knowing what God’s intentions for the world are, the truth is also that any such advantage in knowledge also leads to a greater weight of responsibility.”

[9] Gonzalez, Luke, 163. “Stewardship must not be divorced form eschatology; too often the typical stewardship sermons says simply that all we have God has given us to manage. This leaves out two fundamental issues. The first is that we must not simply affirm that all we have has been given to us by God. We live in an unjust world, and to attribute the present order to God is attribute injustice to God. it may well be that we have some things unjustly, and not as a gift of God. … The second issues that should not be left out of our discussions on stewardship is the crucial dimension of hope and expectation. We are to manage things, not just out of general sense of morality or even of justice, and certainly not just to support the church and its institutions—which we certainly must do. We are to manage things in view of the future we expect.” Striving to build up treasure in the kingdom of heaven.

#Colossians #Discipleship #Jesus #JustoGonzalez #Paul #Representation #Representatives #TheDisciples #TheGospelOfLuke