What Does Jesus Mean To You?

Colossians 1:1-8

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,and Timothy our brother,

2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the loveyou have for all God’s people— 5 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 6 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. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Video for this Service can be viewed @ March 13, 2022

NewDay Friends,

Should you be one of the people who opened this email and started reading this, may you know I am sitting with Jesus this morning asking Him to be especially present with you today. I have been on a quest in the last few months to really get to know Jesus and His desires for us in a much more personal way. I have come to realize that somewhere in the past I made a subtle switch to pour my efforts into "doing" what I believed would please the Lord and began to lose a more intimate connection and joy of "being" with Him. I had begun to spend more time asking Him to bless my efforts instead of spending more time drawing close to Him so I could hear and respond to His Spirit's prompting.

I think Richard Rohr in his book, "Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life" identified my dilemma well.

“Much of what is called Christianity has more to do with disguising the ego behind the screen of religion and culture than any real movement toward a God beyond the small self, and a new self in God. I think your heart needs to be broken, and broken open, at least once to have a heart at all or to have a heart for others. … The real spiritual journey is work. You can make a naïve assertion that you trust in Jesus, but until it is tested a good, oh, 200 times, I doubt very much that it's true.”

This journey of deepening our relationship with Jesus is a life-long venture. The new series we are about to embark upon comes out of a time when the church in Colossae was going through some real confusion and difficulty. The message of Jesus purpose and power were being watered down by other philosophies and ideas. They were losing the foundation of their trust in Jesus as people started to pursue what sounded good to them. People wanted what Jesus offered, but on their own terms. Many were missing the joy of a deep relationship with the Lord who loved them the most. I think the message they were given is very much needed in our lives as well.

I am looking forward to gathering together with you this Sunday whether in person or online. Here is my prayer for you that comes out of Paul's prayer for the church at Colossae...

I continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14

Grateful to draw close to Jesus with you,
Pastor John