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Eternity 98 - Life In The Kingdom Of God
(Colossians 3:15-17 NIV) Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. {16} Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. {17} And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The Kingdom of God is a lifestyle of "righteousness, peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17) and that is what Paul is describing
here in Colossians.
Firstly Paul calls us to being at peace with one another: "Let the peace
of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called
to peace.". This is the corporate peace of Christians in loving unity.
(This verse is often taken out of context to refer to about personal peace
in guidance issues). We are to create a community in unity that experiences
God's Shalom peace and wholeness. Division an squabbling is not appropriate
since we are "one body" and our fundamental calling is "to
peace".
Three times Paul calls the Colossians to a life of gratitude and thankfulness
- in verses 15, 16 and 17. Gratitude is one of the keystones of Christianity
and one Catholic author has written a book called "Gratitude The Heart
Of Prayer". Our right relationship to the creator Christ of Colossians
chapter one means we must be grateful for all He has made.
Frustration and obstruction can eat away at our spiritual lives - so we need
to learn to be thankful in the midst of life's irritations.Where I live in
Palanan in Manila, Philippines, we have been having frequent blackouts. In
the middle of doing something the computer screen goes blank, the light goes
out, the fan stops and a silence descends - today it went from 9:30am to 5pm
- effectively wasting an entire day. How do you be thankful for an irregular
power supply? I took the opportunity to journal, to have a mini-retreat and
to start on marking some papers. I turned it into thankfulness for a "nice
quiet day".
The heart is the center of the Christian life and where all the big battles
are fought. And our hearts are to be full of four things - God's Word, wisdom,
song and gratitude. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you
teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns
and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."
God's word, the word of Christ, is to dwell in us richly - producing fruit
and Christian character. In order for this to happen we need to be taught,
and we need to be wisely admonished by mentors and disciplers. We need the
personal one-to-one exhortation that touches us at our core and helps us see
our blind spots and what we need to work on.
This teaching and admonishing is an every member function. Its a "one
another" command. Its not just the pastor's job, its everyone's job.
The husband can teach and admonish his wife and the father can teach and admonish
his children and the wife can wisely instruct the husband and the bible study
leader the group and friends can encourage and exhort each other in the faith.
Music is a big part of the Christian life - but let's not just leave it to
the experts on stage! Paul would have even "groaners" like me sing
for joy to the Lord! (Once, when I was young and singing in the shower the
tune was so bad that my father rushed out of his bedroom thinking I was dying!)
Despite our different talents, Paul assumes we all will be making music! "as
you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to
God." The Christian life is supposed to be a happy life of singing and
joy and worship in the Holy Spirit.
Even our work life and the washing up and mowing the lawn is to be soaked
with praise! "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
The whole of our words and deeds are to be done from gratitude to God in Christ.
This is the Kingdom lifestyle - abounding in love, rejoicing in all things,
filled with the word of Christ and singing songs! A life lived in a community
in harmony dwelling in God's Shalom peace. That might be along way from your
experience or mine but if we let the Holy spirit fill us and guide us, if
we launch out on it anyway, we can start to bring it to pass, in us, in our
homes, in our bible study groups, our church and eventually in our city or
town.
(For those in the USA celebrating Thanksgiving - have a happy thanksgiving
in Jesus! The above is "coincidentally" an appropriate message for
you!)
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