Category: Devotional

I hoisted the ax over my head while fixing my eyes on the precise spot on the log I intended to hit. My right hand slid down the handle as gravity pulled the ax head downward. There was a loud ‘crack,’ then the log split evenly down the middle with each side falling in opposite…

A gentle rain washes my dusty sidewalk and quenches my thirsty grass. The suffocating humidity has given way to cool, crisp air as I head out for my morning run. Green yards are slowly being sprinkled with brown, red and yellow leaves falling from the trees. Fall is here, and I’m all for it. There’s…

Colossians 2:16-17: Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. After laying out the work of Christ through his death and…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

Colossians 2:6-7: Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Yesterday we looked at v. 6, today we’ll focus our attention on v. 7. Paul provides more explanation on how we are…