This morning I was reading Colossians and I came to this passage and just had to stop and think a while: Colossians 1:21-25
"21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:23 If
ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a
minister;"
I felt like this described how I felt in Guatemala. Isn't it a bit disconcerting, but perhaps necessary, that one can grow up learning about and be full of the "knowledge" of God but not really have the heart motivation or love of Him? I see this sort of the difference between training and discipline in some ways, if you are only raised with discipline and no training, you learn to fear the stimulus that is used to control you, but not really understand the motivation behind it... even if the people using it do it out of love and wanting to protect you. Whatever we don't learn keeps cycling back to us, including serving God from the heart out. God challenges our motivations and shakes our foundations until we find where we need to settle for ourselves what we accepted as true from another. In Guatemala those words say exactly how I felt towards God: alienated and an enemy in my mind. It was a peak in cynicism, which I feel is another way to say "enemy in my mind" and because of so many cultural reasons within the church there, one of the most isolated or "alienated" times.
I'm so thankful for the grace that made this next part applicable: "yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." I'm not holy. I'm blameable. He went through death to change that when I didn't and could never deserve it. When I die to self and live to Him, He makes me holy, unblameable, unreproveable: on my own impossible!
The last part sounds as a reminder, a warning of what to hold close: "...continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven." I find it interesting that it's the HOPE of the gospel... the very part I was so cynical about. Hope seems to be one of the first casualties of cynicism. I also appreciate the paradoxical image of faith, a purported flighty thing in society, being grounded and settled. I have been bombarded lately with the fact that God is balanced. He requires faith, something not based on logic and empirical proof, to be grounded and settled. Everything working together to bring us to a pinpointed, God-forseen, balanced place of righteousness.
I once was lost, but now I'm found... in Him.
I felt like this described how I felt in Guatemala. Isn't it a bit disconcerting, but perhaps necessary, that one can grow up learning about and be full of the "knowledge" of God but not really have the heart motivation or love of Him? I see this sort of the difference between training and discipline in some ways, if you are only raised with discipline and no training, you learn to fear the stimulus that is used to control you, but not really understand the motivation behind it... even if the people using it do it out of love and wanting to protect you. Whatever we don't learn keeps cycling back to us, including serving God from the heart out. God challenges our motivations and shakes our foundations until we find where we need to settle for ourselves what we accepted as true from another. In Guatemala those words say exactly how I felt towards God: alienated and an enemy in my mind. It was a peak in cynicism, which I feel is another way to say "enemy in my mind" and because of so many cultural reasons within the church there, one of the most isolated or "alienated" times.
I'm so thankful for the grace that made this next part applicable: "yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." I'm not holy. I'm blameable. He went through death to change that when I didn't and could never deserve it. When I die to self and live to Him, He makes me holy, unblameable, unreproveable: on my own impossible!
The last part sounds as a reminder, a warning of what to hold close: "...continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven." I find it interesting that it's the HOPE of the gospel... the very part I was so cynical about. Hope seems to be one of the first casualties of cynicism. I also appreciate the paradoxical image of faith, a purported flighty thing in society, being grounded and settled. I have been bombarded lately with the fact that God is balanced. He requires faith, something not based on logic and empirical proof, to be grounded and settled. Everything working together to bring us to a pinpointed, God-forseen, balanced place of righteousness.
I once was lost, but now I'm found... in Him.
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