Thought for February 28, 2024

Some of you called yesterday to see if I had a mini-stroke because I republished a Thought that was published on February 13. Yesterday afternoon, I published the Thought for February 13 that should have be available two weeks ago. No, no stroke. I create the post and the history section sometimes weeks in advance. Right now that part of the post is ready through most of March. Most of the time I am writing the body of the Thought neither that morning or the night before. Occasionally, a sermon, something I read, something that the Lord says during my quiet time, will trigger a thought that I want to write down immediately. That is what happened with the duplicate thought that you saw yesterday. I wrote the thought for the 13th, then reflected on the pastor's sermon in colossians and pulled up the next history section that I had already prepared--turned out to be February 27. But then, I hit the publish button for that thought rather than the thought I had prepared for the 13th. Long story, but I am aging fast. In any event, I have now published the Thought for the 13th and twice published the Thought for the 27th. Below is the Thought for Today!
  •  1854: Republican Party formally organized in Ripon, Wisconsin
  • 1953: Francis Crick and James Watson discover chemical structure of DNA--double helix
  • 1971: Jack Nicholas wins his second career grand slam
  • 1983: Final episode of MASH
  • Born: Linus Pauling, Bugsy Siegel, Mario Andretti, Bernadette Peters, Luka Doncic
  • Died: Maxwell Anderson, Paul Harvey
Thought:
Well, did you get up and pray the prayer from Colossians 1:9-12 this morning? Praying for me and you and all those of faith to know His will through wisdom only He gives. Knowing His will to walk worthy of the name we bear. Having a walk that bears fruit, relying on His power for endurance, patience and joy in every situation. And living in constant gratitude for His amazing gifts and blessings. 

Interesting how Paul moves from this prayer to a hymn of praise. Makes me question if my prayers lead me to a hymn of praise to Christ. I start with praise, but does my prayer cause me to end with praise. When our pastor preached on these verses he said the question for the church at Colossae was, is He worthy? And that these verses [1:13-23] answer that question.

He is worthy because:
  • He delivered us from darkness to His incredible light. Think about that. Without Him, I grope in the darkness--no direction, no purpose, no stability. I easily stumble and fall. In His light, I see the truth, grasp His will, see His plan--no, I don't completely understand all of that, but He reveals as much as I need to know for today.
  • He transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Jesus. From a kingdom of death to a kingdom of life. Have you seen people on the day their citizenship in the U.S. is official---grateful, excited, thankful, tears of joy. Now think about your citizenship in His kingdom--a kingdom without end. 
  • He is the image of God. We are created in God's image, but we messed that up, distorted the Creator's image with sin. He came to give us a perfect picture of God--this is how God thinks, acts, talks, loves. He is not only the image of God, He is God.
  • He created all things. He is the author of all things. All things were created by Him and for Him. And one day He will redeem all creation. 
  • He is the one who holds all things together. Think about that. Without Him, there is chaos [Genesis 1]. Without Him my life is chaos, our country is chaos, the world is chaos. Wonder why marriages fail, someone has not allowed Him to hold all things together. Churches split, someone is not allowing Him to hold all things together.
  • He reconciles us to God. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God. I was at war with God, in total rebellion, but Jesus came to restore my relationship with the Father by paying the price for my rebellion. 
  • He is our hope. Not a wish, but a confirmed event--He will return to take His followers home. 
Reading these verses makes me want to sing "How Great Thou Art!" Live today in awesome wonder of the Christ who is worthy!

Blessings
Larry

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