Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Ecumenical Sunday 

Unity: GOD’S Wholesome Design for True Restoration of HIS Image: The Highest Order of Creation 

Bible Reading:   Col. 3:9-17 (NIRV) 

 

Key Verse:  Verse 14: And above all these things put on love which is the bond of perfectness.

DEVOTION

You have gotten rid of your old way of life and its habits. You have started living a new life. Your knowledge of how that life should have the Creator’s likeness is being made new.  
Let the message about Christ live among you like a rich treasure. Teach one another by singing psalms and hymns and songs from the Spirit. Do everything you say or do in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Over all these good things put on love. Love holds them all together perfectly. 

Colossians 3 NIRV - Teachings About Holy Living - You have - Bible Gateway

Paul beautifully encapsulates the tug-of-war between our human nature--the sinful flesh, and the Unification that a HOLY SPIRIT-filled life brings. As we read verses seven to the end, remember biblical figures who prioritized their selfishness to  secure their interests at the expense of   friends, foes or even family. Think of how our contemporary world and  current events show division and disagreement, and yes, how we often put ourselves ahead of others rather than behaving as we know is right. This is The ugly head of our flesh and its “same old, same old habits” (see VV. 5, 7-9). 

In the context of this hopeless, vicious division, our gracious LORD crashes on to the scene in a humble manger  throne, as THE ONE WAY to TRUE LIFE. Jesus, in the fullness of his love, demonstrated that we are GOD’S perfect image, not just in principle, but in every day as his light for our peers and colleagues to see, admire and desire to know. Consider the life of brother Paul. Saul, the mass terrorizer, was on a master mission to divide and conquer GOD’S church and squash  the “Jesus movement” for good. Again, our LORD Jesus gradually unifies Saul, now called Paul for GOD’S full purpose: so eloquently expressed in the pages of this and other letters to the churches. Jesus’ perfect life of love, challenge to humans’ frailty, and crucifixion was the cataclysmic collision  with the blinding calluses of societies past, present and future in unifying, and restoring GOD’S IMAGE, HIS people to the good, faithful, loving ones we were always meant to be for evermore. All Praise and Honor to YOU LORD. 

   PRAYER

 Most perfect LORD, we cannot express enough Thanks to YOU for pursuing and saving us from sinking into selfish, stubborn hopelessness, through the awesome power of your love. 


Thought of the day

 Remember: as GOD is LOVE, true fullness and unity is only achieved today when you and I put LOVE as the foundation and the building block of our relationships.  

Roni Mathew, 
Long Island Mar Thoma Church: Merrick, NY

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