As Pastor began this series (I use the word as because it was originally going to be 1 message that turned into a 4 week series) My mind raced back to a place I have not been in 15 plus years …..the second college that I attended. They had as their motto or it’s institutional verse Colossians 1:17-18 - and as I have gotten older this passage of scripture has become one of my 4 or 5 favorite passages. I so love Paul’s prayers for the churches ( Ephesians 3 is my #1).
Colossians 1:9-21 [BHCB]
“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [to Him], bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation;
because by Him everything was created,
in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
so that He might come to have first place in everything.
For God was pleased [to have] all His fullness dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself
by making peace through the blood of His cross —
whether things on earth or things in heaven.
And you were once alienated and hostile in mind because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him — if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith, and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard…”
In my Bible before the portion I bolded the notes say ” The Centrality of Christ” It just throws that out like it is understood and accepted … just sort of like ‘matter of fact’. But what a huge truth with such a needed daily application. We (I) need to keep Christ as my ‘center’ my focus as I try to ‘walk worthy of the Lord’ in my ‘missional’ life. ‘Central’ is not only my goal or my focus, but my very being - my heart - my passion the fuel that gets me out of bed, that gives meaning and purpose to life.
That in all things Jesus Christ - might be Central {may have the preeminence. - NKJV)
Center Lyrics - Charlie Hall
You’re the center of the universe
Everything was made in You Jesus
Breath of every living thing
Everyone was made for You
You hold everything together
You hold everything together
Christ be the center of our lives
Be the place we fix our eyes
Be the center of our lives
You’re the center of the universe
Everything was made in You Jesus
Breath of every living thing
Everyone was made for You
You hold everything together
You hold everything together
You hold everything together
You hold everything together
Christ be the center of our lives
Be the place we fix our eyes
Be the center of our lives
We lift our eyes to heaven
We wrap our lives around your life
We lift our eyes to heaven, to You
We lift our eyes to heaven
We wrap our lives around your life
We lift our eyes to heaven, to You
O Christ be the center of our lives
Be the place we fix our eyes
Be the center of our lives
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace
-b
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