Colossians 2:1-4 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹ For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, ² that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴ I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

These devotionals go out into the World Wide Web to be seen by anyone that might find them while they seek God. I can relate to Paul’s words not having seen them face to face. I too struggle with the words to reach them at a time where a word in due season might be used of God.

I have no knowledge of what plausible arguments they might hear which mislead them away from a closer relationship with God. I can only relate to those things which I have seen and heard which are stained with Satan’s breath. I cannot believe that I have experienced all the rich lies of the enemy.

This is why the truth must be repeated over and over again. Only truth can combat all lies.

The one thing Doctor Keith Lamb repeated nearly every sermon was; “Repetition is the price for knowledge.”

What can I repeat that will have the most benefit to any reader?

It might be “Christ in you.”

Colossians 3:15-17 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

1 Corinthians 1:10 English Standard Version (ESV)

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰ I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

Yesterday it was said that God makes Himself known in the manner that we will accept. Consider this, we are all different and how we accept hearing God will be different. It is not a matter of what is true, it is a matter of incremental changes in our hearts and minds.

No one instantly knows all truths. We receive them as we are able to accept them. Even when we agree upon the same truth, how we express ourselves may not be the same. We listen to each other differently than we listen to the Spirit. We are human and our interactions with one another are often clouded by emotional attachments or distancing.

In order for the same mind and same judgment to be one, it cannot be that of an individual for then we become man followers and not God followers. It must be the mind of Christ and judgments that are true. Truth is only by revelation of the Spirit of truth.

All of us are not of the same age spiritually. Spiritual maturity doesn’t have anything to do with age. One that insists on “being right” has a tendency to ignore the words of others. He has stopped listening. Even if he is right, it is wrong to shut down communications. Reasoning with one another means listening to understand how the other communicates and find the source of their understanding.

Does theology come from man’s study of God or God’s revelation to man? Are all church doctrines the same? Where do they agree? Where do they differ? Did we all receive the same instructions in godliness? Do they study alone or in partnership with another?

All these issues and more need to be clarified. That cannot be done in silence.