This page contains inspirational thoughts by various members, most of which have appeared in our church bulletin, Harmonizer.

IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM

Truer words were never spoken. I’m taking about a phrase in Colossians 3:11, where it says, “…but Christ is all and in all.” I was skimming my Bible for a “Cross Training” inspiration, when I came across Colossians, where my Bible is splattered with orange highlighting. I began to look and see why I had done this when it became clear that I had marked every phrase that referred to Jesus, and what He is, was, and will be doing. It’s everywhere! We triumph through Him (2:15); we are reconciled to Him and through Him (1:20); His power works in us (1:29); He is the mystery which we preach (4:3); we are raised up with Him in baptism (3:1); His peace should rule in our hearts, (3:15); we have received Him and are built up in Him (2:6,7); all things are created by Him and for Him (1:16), etc. Believe me, I could go on and on, because Paul does so in Colossians.

In this epistle, it’s not hard to figure out the point (try highlighting as I’ve suggested!), it’s all about Jesus. I wonder though, how my life stacks up against this model of focus. How many of my thoughts are about Him and His Kingdom, how central to my life is He, really? Very much so I’d say, but is He my all in all? Not yet, I must confess. I still have work to do in filling my life up with Him.

Maybe a more realistic question is, “Does He have more of me than He used to?” In this life I may never be “filled” with Him, due to human weaknesses and the influence of the world around us. God’s grace is sufficient! But it should be growing. We ought to be giving more and more of ourselves to Jesus and His Kingdom, rather than being about me and my desires.

I think maybe my chart looks more like a stock chart, than an Apollo launching - periods of rising, interspersed with times of tapering off, even falling. We could all do better I’m sure, I know I could, but it was helpful to me to see that this is what God desires of me, to fill my life. Lord, fill me up with you!

Let it be Lord, let it be.                                                       Jim Coehoorn, from the Harmonizer 1-29-12