Debbie Taylor Williams
WE WILL BE REVEALED WITH CHRIST IN GLORY
“When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
In our study of who we are in Christ, we learn of our identity both here on earth and in heaven. We’re reminded in Colossians 3:1-4 of two contrasts: things above and things below; things hidden and things revealed. In other words, we live in two spheres. How mindful we are of the spiritual affects our attitude and decisions. For instance, if we’re going through a dismal time, we find comfort thinking on how we will one day see Christ revealed in glory. We find additional comfort thinking of how we, too, will be revealed in glory. All the stresses of life will drop from us. Our “life” with Christ that is now hidden will be revealed in all its fullness. According to The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, reveal means “to make manifest or make actual and visible, realized. Today, we look up at the heavens and know Christ is there, but we can’t see Him. One day, we will, and we will be revealed with Him. That is who you are, believer! Destined for heaven’s glory where Christ will be revealed and YOU WILL BE REVEALED with HIM IN GLORY!
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your great plan in which You have destined us to be revealed with Christ is glory!
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
I AM WITH CHRIST
“For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Are you worried about the future and being alone? There are few words that bring more comfort that those found in Colossians 3:3 – that we are with Christ. In other words, if you’re a Christian, you are not alone, nor will you ever be alone. Jesus picked you to be with Him forever. John 17:21-24 records Jesus’s prayer in which He prayed, “…that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. v23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” You were on Jesus’s mind before and during His arrest, crucifixion, and ascension. He has picked you to be with Him forever.
Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for the comfort and blessing of knowing that I am with You forever!
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
MY LIFE IS HIDDEN WITH CHRIST
“For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Paul explains in Colossians 3:3 that we have “died” – are separated from sin’s power. How is it, then, he now speaks of our lives? Life in this passage is defined as, “the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate.” It’s a reference to absolute fullness of life. It is life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by a more perfect body, to last forever. In other words, our ultimate life – that which spiritually enlivens and animates us – isn’t found in a person, job, child, home, or anything else. It’s found/hidden in Christ. It is spiritual. Those who aren’t Christians and those who aren’t walking closely with Christ, don’t understand the exuberance of life that is possible in Christ. But those who do, rejoice!
Heavenly Father, thank You for the exuberance You give me in Christ; and that my life is hidden/concealed with Him; safe and alive forever.
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
I AM HEAVENLY MINDED
“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
What are you thinking? Has anyone ever asked you that? It’s a good question. Are our thoughts anxious? Are they negative? Or, are they rejoicing on the things above and God’s goodness? This is the second time in two verses that we’re directed to “things above.” Above here means “on high.” Paul explains that, since we’ve been crucified with Christ, we should continuously think on Christ and our higher calling in Him. This doesn’t mean that we ignore our earthly responsibilities. However, it does mean that we take proactive measures to think on and absorb Christ’s perspective, love, and power over earth’s values, emptiness, and weakness. How do we do this? It’s a choice. To set means “to direct one’s mind to a thing.” Every day when we wake, we set our minds on the things above by directing our thoughts to God in prayer. We set our minds on the things above by reading the Bible. We set our minds on that which is outlined in Philippians 4:8. Gravity may pull our feet to earth, but God calls us to set our minds on the things above.
Heavenly Father, help me set my mind on the things above. May I be increasingly heavenly minded rather than earthly minded.
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
I AM A SEEKER of THINGS ABOVE
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
Is your spiritual life dry? If so, perhaps it’s because you haven’t been aware of this verse or known that as a Christian you’re to be a seeker of the things above. In this passage, seek means “to find out by thinking, meditating, reasoning; to strive after or crave.” The verb tense is a command to continuously seek, to keep on seeking as our general habit or lifestyle. Children seek to find eggs at Easter. They eagerly get their baskets and look for hidden eggs. Colossians 3:1 reminds us that we should be just as intentional about opening our Bibles and seeking to better know our Lord, His ways, about heaven, and so much more. When we do, our spirits are whetted, stimulated with desire to know Christ more.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the reminder that my role in life is not to seek earthly things, but rather to seek “the things above where Christ is.”
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
I AM ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST
“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,”
Before salvation, we are dead in our sins and the “uncircumcision of our flesh.” Dead is a metaphor for “spiritually dead, destitute of a life that recognizes and is devoted to God, given up to trespasses and sins, destitute of force or power, inactive, inoperative.” Dead is our spiritual condition prior to salvation. The divine Spirit of God isn’t operative in unsaved people who sin without remorse. Spiritually dead doesn’t mean spiritually annihilated. It means spiritually separated from God. Paul explains that prior to salvation we’re dead in our transgressions. Transgressions carries overtones of “falling beside or near something, a lapse or deviation from truth and uprightness, a sin, misdeed.” Were we to die in this fallen state, we’d be separated from God; fallen eternally in the kingdom of darkness. However, through Christ, God forgives us all our transgressions and makes us alive together with Christ. If you’ve not said, “Hallelujah,” and responded to His offer of salvation, why not now?
Heavenly Father, what a joy to contemplate that I am alive together with Christ for eternity!
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
I AM CIRCUMCISED IN MY HEART
“and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;”
“Circumcised? What are you talking about? I’m not a man nor a Jew,” we may say. Of all the ways that Christians are identified in Christ, this may sound the strangest. What does it mean that believers are circumcised? Romans 2:28 explains, “but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” In other words, when God convicts us that we’re sinners and we repent and confess Jesus as Lord; believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we’re saved. (Romans 10:9) The identifying “mark” of being saved is not wearing a cross or being physically circumcised. Rather, it is that we behave differently because the Spirit has circumcised our hearts and done away with the reigning power and penalty of sin. Have you been circumcised in your heart? If not, repent. Confess to God that you can’t change your heart, but You know He can. Confess Jesus as Lord. Let the Spirit do the inward surgery that only He can do to give you a new heart that beats for Christ.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending Jesus to die on the cross so that the power and penalty of sin would no longer be the reigning power in my heart. Help me live by the heartbeat of my new heart.
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I AM STABLE IN CHRIST
“For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.”
Talk to anyone who has experienced an earthquake and they will tell you how frightening it is. No one likes to feel shaken. One of God’s gifts to us is a firm foundation in Christ. Jesus spoke of the importance of building our lives on Him in Luke 6:47-49. “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, …is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been built well.” What a blessing Christians have in the gift of a firm foundation in Christ and God’s Word.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Christ, the firm foundation on Whom I can build my life and not be shaken.
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
I AM NOT DELUDED
“I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.”
Have you ever had the “wool pulled over your eyes;” in other words, someone lie to you? Perhaps they convinced you that something was true when it wasn’t. Or, that something was false when it was true. In the early church, even as today, there are those who try to dissuade us from believing in and following Christ Jesus. But, I am not deluded in Christ. Rather, my whole realm of understanding opens like a flower the more I plunge into the wealth of knowledge that comes through reading His Word. No, in Christ, I am not deluded. I am freed to think and meditate on the highest of concepts and realities that extend beyond what my eyes can see.
Heavenly Father, thank You that in Christ a wealth of knowledge and truth opens before me. I can come into Your presence through the Bible and sit and absorb knowledge that extends beyond the world’s reasonings. I can not only know truth, but experience truth in my inner man.
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
I HAVE CHRIST, IN WHOM ARE HIDDEN ALL the TREASURES of WISDOM & KNOWLEDGE
“Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Are you a seeker of hidden treasures? Hidden means “secret, stored up.” Treasures is the place in which good and precious thing are collected and laid up. Colossians 2:1-3 awakens us to understand that good and precious things are laid up, hidden, and stored in Christ. Bible commentator Wuest notes the following. “The force of this passage then is this: all, and not merely some of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are contained in Christ; therefore the search for them outside of Him is doomed to failure. But not only are they in Christ, but they are contained in a hidden way. Therefore they do not lie on the surface, but must be sought for earnestly, as men seek for hidden treasure. They are not matters of external observances, such as false teachers enjoined, but to be apprehended by deep and serious meditation.”
Heavenly Father, thank You for my salvation and for the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ. Help me increasingly seek His wisdom and knowledge through deep and serious meditation on Your Word.
From If God in In Control, Why Am I a Basket Case?
