FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Sunday, June 28, 2009,9:53 a.m.
THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD
I've been reading Colossians 1:15-23 this morning, and thinking about our God and the way we often relate to Him. His is infinite, we are finite - it makes sense that at times we feel we must grasp what we can wrap our minds around in regards to who He is or what is our relationship with Him, and for a while work within that framework.
But even as I find myself doing just that from season to season, I eventually recognize that He is MORE. He is larger, and even the word "larger" is too finite to adequately describe what I am thinking. Jesus is, in fact, the IMAGE of the invisible GOD. That sentence alone stopped me in my tracts for quite a while this morning.
Thinking about the immenseness of God leads me to thinking about many of the messages or sermons I have heard in the last while. A good number of them have had to do with living out our faith, or doing the works to which we are called, or, as my own pastor loves to put it, "talk's cheap." I agree - it is. But even in hearing so much of this important aspect to our faith I feel the need to balance it with a knowledge of the immensity of God - His being the One that created not only our physical earth but all of the kingdoms, thrones and powers that any man has ever had. He created these! I want to remind myself of and soak in the words, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness" and He died "in order to present [me] holy and blameless and above reproach before Him."
I think that being exhorted to walk out our faith in the way that the scriptures command is important, and goodness knows that we as the church need to do this. But when I don't take the time to remember the vastness of God, and the incredible sacrifice that He has made so as to be able to be with me - ME - I begin to do the works of faith more out of either habit or obligation, or even just because I know that I want to, even if I have lost some concept of why I want to. I don't believe that if this is the way we are executing scriptural commands that they are, in fact, works of faith any longer. I think at that point they are just good morality or good works. But when married to even the tiniest perception of the love of God for us, and our responding love for Him, these works are the active living out of our love relationship and our awe for the majesty of God.
We must not lose sight of the majesty of God - either in our intimacy with Him or our working for Him. But by retaining this knowledge of the Indescribable, our desire to live out lives as He asks becomes a sincere act of love, faith and worship. And in this constant wrestle in our earthly lives with the tension between what we can grasp physically or conceptually and what is too big for us to even mentally grasp, we have this hope: that if we remain in the hope of the gospel we have heard, we will one day not long from now see the Firstborn of all creation face to face, and our struggle between the tangible and the intangible will be over for eternity.
Hallelujah.
But even as I find myself doing just that from season to season, I eventually recognize that He is MORE. He is larger, and even the word "larger" is too finite to adequately describe what I am thinking. Jesus is, in fact, the IMAGE of the invisible GOD. That sentence alone stopped me in my tracts for quite a while this morning.
Thinking about the immenseness of God leads me to thinking about many of the messages or sermons I have heard in the last while. A good number of them have had to do with living out our faith, or doing the works to which we are called, or, as my own pastor loves to put it, "talk's cheap." I agree - it is. But even in hearing so much of this important aspect to our faith I feel the need to balance it with a knowledge of the immensity of God - His being the One that created not only our physical earth but all of the kingdoms, thrones and powers that any man has ever had. He created these! I want to remind myself of and soak in the words, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness" and He died "in order to present [me] holy and blameless and above reproach before Him."
I think that being exhorted to walk out our faith in the way that the scriptures command is important, and goodness knows that we as the church need to do this. But when I don't take the time to remember the vastness of God, and the incredible sacrifice that He has made so as to be able to be with me - ME - I begin to do the works of faith more out of either habit or obligation, or even just because I know that I want to, even if I have lost some concept of why I want to. I don't believe that if this is the way we are executing scriptural commands that they are, in fact, works of faith any longer. I think at that point they are just good morality or good works. But when married to even the tiniest perception of the love of God for us, and our responding love for Him, these works are the active living out of our love relationship and our awe for the majesty of God.
We must not lose sight of the majesty of God - either in our intimacy with Him or our working for Him. But by retaining this knowledge of the Indescribable, our desire to live out lives as He asks becomes a sincere act of love, faith and worship. And in this constant wrestle in our earthly lives with the tension between what we can grasp physically or conceptually and what is too big for us to even mentally grasp, we have this hope: that if we remain in the hope of the gospel we have heard, we will one day not long from now see the Firstborn of all creation face to face, and our struggle between the tangible and the intangible will be over for eternity.
Hallelujah.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:15-23)
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:15-23)
