St Theodore's Sermon 8/11/98

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week

8/11/98

A Model of Christian Experience
Col 1:1-14
John 15:9-17

A number of us went on a bushwalk down near Torquay a few weeks ago. We walked through typical coastal bush. Fairly thick, but every now and then you'd break out of the scrub into a clearing. I remember one particular spot where we had to climb a fairly steep section. When we got to the top we stopped and looked around at the view. (actually to get our breath) From the top of this hill we could see back along the track at where we'd been: the cliff above the beach, where we'd stopped to catch our breath before climbing this hill, the winding path down from the hill opposite us, the bushes through which we'd just walked. And then as we turned around the other way we could see the track disappearing into more bush on the other side of the hill we were on.

It's like that with our Christian life sometimes, isn't it? We stop on occasions to look back over our life with Jesus. To see the way we've come. I don't know how long each of you has been a Christian. Some for many years, some for perhaps a matter of months. Some are still working out whether this is the way they want to go. But if you've been a Christian for some time you can probably look back to those first moments of faith in Jesus Christ, when it was all so new and fresh. Then there may have been times when you powered ahead, when no obstacle could stand in your way. There may have been other times when you struggled like some of us climbing that steep hill. Other times when you stopped for a rest or went off on a side path to explore the bush on your own. Now you've come to the point where you're faced with the question: "where will you go next?" You've all heard the old chestnut that today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Well, that's equally true of our Christian lives. The next step I take is an important step for my future, in my life of faith in God. Where will I go next in my walk with God? This is equally an issue for us as a congregation. Look back over the past 50 years. Sometimes we've leapt ahead, other times we've gone round in circles or had setbacks. Now we're faced with the question where are we going next in our life of faith in God. We tend to think of this as the sort of thing we do at the start of a year or at a significant anniversary like our 50th next year, but no, it's something we do every day. Every time we meet for worship as a church, every time we run a Theo's Crew or a youth group activity, every time we meet in a small group we make that decision about which way we're going.

Well, the church at Colossae had begun well. Epaphras, Paul's good friend, had explained the gospel well, and these people had responded, with faith in Jesus Christ, with love for all the saints and a sure hope of heaven. I may have said this before, but notice that when faith, love, & hope are present it's a sure sign that people are genuinely Christian. That is, they believe in Jesus Christ, they love their fellow believers, and they have an assurance of salvation, a hope of heaven.

So they began well, but now they're faced with a crisis - a dilemma - which way forward? It's like they've come to a cross roads. People all around them are offering a better way forward, with fine arguments, compelling logic, helpful rules, rigorous demands. Theirs is the promise of immediate experience, a new power and self control, and a more mature faith experience. This is a fuller gospel than they learned from Paul and Epaphras. Not that they're dismissing Paul's gospel. Rather they're saying you need to build on it to get a better faith experience, a more fulfilled Christian life.

Now the trouble was, the Colossians were suckers for this sort of thing. They were so used to having some sort of religious mishmash. Taking a bit out of this religion and a bit from that to create a better, stronger, spiritual cocktail. One Colossian woman had the distinction of being ruler of the Jewish synagogue and at the same the high priestess of the Imperial cult. It was her responsibility to protect the Jews and their worship of Yahweh as the one true God, yet at the same time officiated in the public worship of the Emperor.

It's the same dilemma we find ourselves in today really. We live in what's fondly called a multicultural society. And that's a good thing because it means there's no end to the variety of restaurants we can choose for our cheap eats dinners. Seriously, though, most of us are convinced that multiculturalism is a good thing. We get upset when we hear that somewhere between 7 and 15% of the population voted for One Nation and their racist policies. Yes, it's good to mix as many cultures as possible but the trouble is we then move from that to the idea that it's good to mix religions as well. And the result is we end up with syncretism. That is, the mixing of different religions into one. What happens is that people look at all the religions and try to pick out the best from each of them. A bit of Buddhist meditation, some Hindu mysticism, some Native American natural medicine, the healing power of crystals, some Zoroastrian astrology, and so forth. You mix it together and what do you get? Something like the religious beliefs of your average Australian. // The same thing happens in the church. We look at other Christian traditions and try them out to see what's good in them, to see what we can learn that might improve our spirituality.

Well, that's what the Colossian Christians were being invited to do. To add to the gospel, to improve their spirituality. In particular to add to the number of mediators between God and themselves, to change their religious practices to be more attuned to God, to go back to their Jewish roots and recapture the keys to godliness. But Paul's lesson in Colossians is the great rule that in Christianity, addition is subtraction. You see, the Colossians knew that Jesus had rescued them. They knew that he was the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. Yet here were these new teachers, saying "that's all very well, but here's a complementary insight - here are some angels- view them as mediators as well - be more inclusive, more all-embracing. We don't want to be exclusive and narrow. We need more mediators. We know that Jesus is the only way to be right with God, but here is a new method for controlling your sinful urges so you can live a better life." And so forth. But addition is subtraction - the more mediators you have the less honour you give to Jesus Christ. The more systems you put in place to produce godliness, the less you'll rely on Jesus death on the cross.

It's the same crisis facing Christians across the world today. Do we stick to the Apostolic gospel or move on to new ideas, to fuller hopes, more practical ways of being spiritual.

Now notice, that Paul's response is not mere orthodoxy. It isn't to say you must be right even if you're spiritually dead. This isn't sterile correctness. It's not merely cerebral Christianity. He's not saying "back to the bunkers". There are some evangelical Christians today who do take that line. Who have a siege mentality. But they don't get it from Paul. No in the face of heresy, of damaging ideas, of erroneous doctrines, Paul's response is not mere orthodoxy. No, what he offers is this: a model of Christian experience, in the passage we're looking at today; next week, a great picture of Christ the fullness of God; at the end of ch 1, a vivid picture of gospel ministry; in ch2, a great outline of what it means to live in Christ; in ch 3, he encourages them to give thanks whatever they do, then he provides a pattern for daily life; and in ch 4 he gives a model of Christian ministry. In other words, Paul doesn't just give people a way of putting their fingers in the ears, looking back at the past and remaining in an infantile or immature faith. He doesn't say be sterilely correct. No, what he does is offer a way forward. They think they have 2 options: to stay where they are, or to go forward into this new mix of spiritualities. But Paul says, no, there's a 3rd way: to grow on the basis of the truth. To live what is true. To grow in their experience of God based on the Apostolic gospel. He doesn't say to stand still, but rather offers a way forward that he calls fullness in Christ.

This is an issue for every Christian congregation today. There seem to be 2 options: dead orthodoxy, mere correctness, or else an enthusiastic, yet vague and ill-defined syncretism. Either we stick to the truth and are more dead than alive or we go for life at any cost. That is, at the cost of the truth. But Paul provides the 3rd way, the apostolic way - to live according to the truth - to live in Christ.

One of the sad things about our society that's had a profound effect on Christianity is that we tend to separate intellect and emotion. We think of some people as intellectual and others as emotional. You can be one or the other but never both. We define people as either thinking or feeling. Stereotypically we say men respond with their intellect and women with their emotions. What bunk! Apart from the way it puts people into boxes, the trouble with this sort of stereotype is that it leads to a separation between truth and passion. Martin Lloyd Jones once described preaching as "Logic on Fire." In the same way we could describe the Bible as passionate truth. Because in God, intellect and powerful emotion come together. They're not separated, they're the same thing. He announces the truth and he's passionate about the truth he reveals, whereas we think we have to choose between the truth and emotion. Either go on a dull boring search for truth or else go for an enthusiastic Christianity where you feel things strongly but don't worry about the truth very much . But Paul offers a 3rd way. That is, passionate truth.

Let me ask, how do we fare in this respect as a congregation? Are we concerned about the truth? Do we care if someone says something that conflicts with our reading of the Bible? Do we sit down and think it through to see whether what they've said is true? Do you go home on a Sunday and think about whether what I've said is true? Well, it wouldn't be a bad thing to do. I might have it completely wrong. Or I might have missed something important.

And what about emotion? Do you get excited about your faith? Do you get as emotional about your faith as you get about your football team, or your rose garden, or your children or grandchildren? Or are you like so many Australians, mediocre in your zeal for truth and restrained, even inhibited in your emotions. A little bit of truth and a little bit of emotion. The worst of both worlds. Half hearted about the truth and half hearted about feeling the truth. But God has a truth - Jesus Christ, and God is passionate about the truth. He was willing to die for it. Well, that's the 3rd way Paul presents to the Colossians. Let's look at how he does it in these verses.

First, he says you're already a Christian church. Some of them were so rattled by these new ideas they were beginning to wonder whether they'd even begun. I've seen the same thing in a congregation with a group of people who'd been touched by the charismatic movement. They were so enthusiastic that others began to doubt their own faith. So Paul reminds them that they are in fact Christians already. But notice the way he does it. He doesn't give them a heavy dose of theology. Rather he tells them how he thanks God and prays for them. Paul says we always thank God when we pray for you - because we've heard of your faith and love and hope. - this is the sign that they're really Christians. And how has it come about ? Through the gospel, the word of truth - later described as God's grace in all its truth. You see, you can't have a Christian without the gospel. You can't have a church without the gospel. The gospel forms us as a Christian as we receive it and believe it. The gospel makes us a church because the gospel forms our life together. Some people think Anglicanism is what it's all about, or Presbyterianism, or some other "ism" but these don't make a church. What makes a church is the gospel. Paul knows they're Christians because the gospel has come to them and has borne fruit as they heard it from Epaphras. They know the truth, so they are Christians. But does Paul leave them there? Does he end his letter there? No, he goes on to tell them how he prays for them. And what does he ask God to do? He prays, v9, "that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding," and he prays this "so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God." And v11, that you "May be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may be prepared to endure everything with patience," and vs 12, that you may "joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light." In other words he's saying you are Christians, you've received the gospel, you love one another, etc., but don't stand still. Don't rest on your laurels. There's lot's to learn, lots to grow, lots to know, lots of good things to experience, and so he prays that this great miracle will happen among them in their congregation. That God would fill them with the knowledge of his will - not just that they'll know in a general sense but that God would fill them with a certain knowledge. A knowledge born of experience of God.

There's a warning for us here. When we hear the bible read, if we find ourselves thinking "I've heard this all before. This is a bit boring," alarm bells should ring. We should be praying for ourselves what Paul is praying for the Colossians: that we'd be filled with the knowledge of God and his will through all Spiritual wisdom and understanding. Next, "we pray," Paul says, that you might lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, (v10). So the reason for knowing God is so you can live a life worthy of God. This is not just knowledge, but a whole life transformed by that knowledge of God. A life that pleases him in every way. That is, that brings pleasure to the heart of God. Do you ever think of it like that? That your life might bring pleasure to God? What sort of life would that be? Well, one that bears fruit - i.e. naturally producing more and more good works which reflect the radical transformation effected in our life by God & the gospel as we grow in the knowledge of God. My guess is most of us have a long way to grow in this respect.

So Paul prays in v11 that you'll be strengthened in all power. What sort of power will you need? The power that's according to his glorious might. With the result that you'll have great endurance and patience. You know, you can remain a member of a church by sheer apathy or stubbornness. By simply not moving. But you can't remain a Christian by apathy or stubbornness. Nor can a congregation stay Christian by apathy. No, it takes the great power of God: "strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and prepared to endure everything with patience." And what will be the result of this patient endurance? We'll "joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has enabled us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light." There'll be joy, passion, emotion. Why? Because "He's rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

So Paul's prayer is that God will fill them, that they'll lead lives worthy of God, that they'll be strengthened by God's power, with the result that they'll joyfully give thanks to God the Father. Even if you've been a Christian for many years I'm sure there's room in your life for growth. I'm sure there's a small area in each one of our lives where God can fill us and enable us to live a life worthy of the Lord and even a little room for a little more joyful thanksgiving.

Over the next few weeks we'll follow Paul's remedy for the Colossian Church in its crisis. But for now, if you're a person who's being tempted in our multicultural, multi-faith society to move away from the apostolic gospel, vs 3-8 are for you. If you're a Christian who's heard it all before, and you're bored to death by it, or dissatisfied with it, vs 9-14 are for you. Because the way ahead that Paul offers the Colossians, and us, is the way of "passionate truth." It's a model of Christian experience where what we know about God is true and the truth changes our lives radically and deeply.


	Contact us	Preaching Program	Home		Last Week's Sermon

	A number of us went on a bushwalk down near Torquay a few weeks ago. We walked through typical coastal bush. Fairly thick, but every now and then you'd break out of the scrub into a clearing. I remember one particular spot where we had to climb a fairly steep section. When we got to the top we stopped and looked around at the view. (actually to get our breath) From the top of this hill we could see back along the track at where we'd been: the cliff above the beach, where we'd stopped to catch our breath before climbing this hill, the winding path down from the hill opposite us, the bushes through which we'd just walked. And then as we turned around the other way we could see the track disappearing into more bush on the other side of the hill we were on.
	It's like that with our Christian life sometimes, isn't it? We stop on occasions to look back over our life with Jesus. To see the way we've come. I don't know how long each of you has been a Christian. Some for many years, some for perhaps a matter of months. Some are still working out whether this is the way they want to go. But if you've been a Christian for some time you can probably look back to those first moments of faith in Jesus Christ, when it was all so new and fresh. Then there may have been times when you powered ahead, when no obstacle could stand in your way. There may have been other times when you struggled like some of us climbing that steep hill. Other times when you stopped for a rest or went off on a side path to explore the bush on your own. Now you've come to the point where you're faced with the question: "where will you go next?" You've all heard the old chestnut that today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Well, that's equally true of our Christian lives. The next step I take is an important step for my future, in my life of faith in God. Where will I go next in my walk with God? This is equally an issue for us as a congregation. Look back over the past 50 years. Sometimes we've leapt ahead, other times we've gone round in circles or had setbacks. Now we're faced with the question where are we going next in our life of faith in God. We tend to think of this as the sort of thing we do at the start of a year or at a significant anniversary like our 50th next year, but no, it's something we do every day. Every time we meet for worship as a church, every time we run a Theo's Crew or a youth group activity, every time we meet in a small group we make that decision about which way we're going.
	Well, the church at Colossae had begun well. Epaphras, Paul's good friend, had explained the gospel well, and these people had responded, with faith in Jesus Christ, with love for all the saints and a sure hope of heaven. I may have said this before, but notice that when faith, love, & hope are present it's a sure sign that people are genuinely Christian. That is, they believe in Jesus Christ, they love their fellow believers, and they have an assurance of salvation, a hope of heaven.
	So they began well, but now they're faced with a crisis - a dilemma - which way forward? It's like they've come to a cross roads. People all around them are offering a better way forward, with fine arguments, compelling logic, helpful rules, rigorous demands. Theirs is the promise of immediate experience, a new power and self control, and a more mature faith experience. This is a fuller gospel than they learned from Paul and Epaphras. Not that they're dismissing Paul's gospel. Rather they're saying you need to build on it to get a better faith experience, a more fulfilled Christian life.
	Now the trouble was, the Colossians were suckers for this sort of thing. They were so used to having some sort of religious mishmash. Taking a bit out of this religion and a bit from that to create a better, stronger, spiritual cocktail. One Colossian woman had the distinction of being ruler of the Jewish synagogue and at the same the high priestess of the Imperial cult. It was her responsibility to protect the Jews and their worship of Yahweh as the one true God, yet at the same time officiated in the public worship of the Emperor.
	It's the same dilemma we find ourselves in today really. We live in what's fondly called a multicultural society. And that's a good thing because it means there's no end to the variety of restaurants we can choose for our cheap eats dinners. Seriously, though, most of us are convinced that multiculturalism is a good thing. We get upset when we hear that somewhere between 7 and 15% of the population voted for One Nation and their racist policies. Yes, it's good to mix as many cultures as possible but the trouble is we then move from that to the idea that it's good to mix religions as well. And the result is we end up with syncretism. That is, the mixing of different religions into one. What happens is that people look at all the religions and try to pick out the best from each of them. A bit of Buddhist meditation, some Hindu mysticism, some Native American natural medicine, the healing power of crystals, some Zoroastrian astrology, and so forth. You mix it together and what do you get? Something like the religious beliefs of your average Australian. // The same thing happens in the church. We look at other Christian traditions and try them out to see what's good in them, to see what we can learn that might improve our spirituality.
	Well, that's what the Colossian Christians were being invited to do. To add to the gospel, to improve their spirituality. In particular to add to the number of mediators between God and themselves, to change their religious practices to be more attuned to God, to go back to their Jewish roots and recapture the keys to godliness. But Paul's lesson in Colossians is the great rule that in Christianity, addition is subtraction. You see, the Colossians knew that Jesus had rescued them. They knew that he was the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. Yet here were these new teachers, saying "that's all very well, but here's a complementary insight - here are some angels- view them as mediators as well - be more inclusive, more all-embracing. We don't want to be exclusive and narrow. We need more mediators. We know that Jesus is the only way to be right with God, but here is a new method for controlling your sinful urges so you can live a better life." And so forth. But addition is subtraction - the more mediators you have the less honour you give to Jesus Christ. The more systems you put in place to produce godliness, the less you'll rely on Jesus death on the cross.
	It's the same crisis facing Christians across the world today. Do we stick to the Apostolic gospel or move on to new ideas, to fuller hopes, more practical ways of being spiritual.
	Now notice, that Paul's response is not mere orthodoxy. It isn't to say you must be right even if you're spiritually dead. This isn't sterile correctness. It's not merely cerebral Christianity. He's not saying "back to the bunkers". There are some evangelical Christians today who do take that line. Who have a siege mentality. But they don't get it from Paul. No in the face of heresy, of damaging ideas, of erroneous doctrines, Paul's response is not mere orthodoxy. No, what he offers is this: a model of Christian experience, in the passage we're looking at today; next week, a great picture of Christ the fullness of God; at the end of ch 1, a vivid picture of gospel ministry; in ch2, a great outline of what it means to live in Christ; in ch 3, he encourages them to give thanks whatever they do, then he provides a pattern for daily life; and in ch 4 he gives a model of Christian ministry. In other words, Paul doesn't just give people a way of putting their fingers in the ears, looking back at the past and remaining in an infantile or immature faith. He doesn't say be sterilely correct. No, what he does is offer a way forward. They think they have 2 options: to stay where they are, or to go forward into this new mix of spiritualities. But Paul says, no, there's a 3rd way: to grow on the basis of the truth. To live what is true. To grow in their experience of God based on the Apostolic gospel. He doesn't say to stand still, but rather offers a way forward that he calls fullness in Christ.
	This is an issue for every Christian congregation today. There seem to be 2 options: dead orthodoxy, mere correctness, or else an enthusiastic, yet vague and ill-defined syncretism. Either we stick to the truth and are more dead than alive or we go for life at any cost. That is, at the cost of the truth. But Paul provides the 3rd way, the apostolic way - to live according to the truth - to live in Christ.
	One of the sad things about our society that's had a profound effect on Christianity is that we tend to separate intellect and emotion. We think of some people as intellectual and others as emotional. You can be one or the other but never both. We define people as either thinking or feeling. Stereotypically we say men respond with their intellect and women with their emotions. What bunk! Apart from the way it puts people into boxes, the trouble with this sort of stereotype is that it leads to a separation between truth and passion. Martin Lloyd Jones once described preaching as "Logic on Fire." In the same way we could describe the Bible as passionate truth. Because in God, intellect and powerful emotion come together. They're not separated, they're the same thing. He announces the truth and he's passionate about the truth he reveals, whereas we think we have to choose between the truth and emotion. Either go on a dull boring search for truth or else go for an enthusiastic Christianity where you feel things strongly but don't worry about the truth very much . But Paul offers a 3rd way. That is, passionate truth.
	Let me ask, how do we fare in this respect as a congregation? Are we concerned about the truth? Do we care if someone says something that conflicts with our reading of the Bible? Do we sit down and think it through to see whether what they've said is true? Do you go home on a Sunday and think about whether what I've said is true? Well, it wouldn't be a bad thing to do. I might have it completely wrong. Or I might have missed something important.
	And what about emotion? Do you get excited about your faith? Do you get as emotional about your faith as you get about your football team, or your rose garden, or your children or grandchildren? Or are you like so many Australians, mediocre in your zeal for truth and restrained, even inhibited in your emotions. A little bit of truth and a little bit of emotion. The worst of both worlds. Half hearted about the truth and half hearted about feeling the truth. But God has a truth - Jesus Christ, and God is passionate about the truth. He was willing to die for it. Well, that's the 3rd way Paul presents to the Colossians. Let's look at how he does it in these verses.
	First, he says you're already a Christian church. Some of them were so rattled by these new ideas they were beginning to wonder whether they'd even begun. I've seen the same thing in a congregation with a group of people who'd been touched by the charismatic movement. They were so enthusiastic that others began to doubt their own faith. So Paul reminds them that they are in fact Christians already. But notice the way he does it. He doesn't give them a heavy dose of theology. Rather he tells them how he thanks God and prays for them. Paul says we always thank God when we pray for you - because we've heard of your faith and love and hope. - this is the sign that they're really Christians. And how has it come about ? Through the gospel, the word of truth - later described as God's grace in all its truth. You see, you can't have a Christian without the gospel. You can't have a church without the gospel. The gospel forms us as a Christian as we receive it and believe it. The gospel makes us a church because the gospel forms our life together. Some people think Anglicanism is what it's all about, or Presbyterianism, or some other "ism" but these don't make a church. What makes a church is the gospel. Paul knows they're Christians because the gospel has come to them and has borne fruit as they heard it from Epaphras. They know the truth, so they are Christians. But does Paul leave them there? Does he end his letter there? No, he goes on to tell them how he prays for them. And what does he ask God to do? He prays, v9, "that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding," and he prays this "so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God." And v11, that you "May be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may be prepared to endure everything with patience," and vs 12, that you may "joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light." In other words he's saying you are Christians, you've received the gospel, you love one another, etc., but don't stand still. Don't rest on your laurels. There's lot's to learn, lots to grow, lots to know, lots of good things to experience, and so he prays that this great miracle will happen among them in their congregation. That God would fill them with the knowledge of his will - not just that they'll know in a general sense but that God would fill them with a certain knowledge. A knowledge born of experience of God.
	There's a warning for us here. When we hear the bible read, if we find ourselves thinking "I've heard this all before. This is a bit boring," alarm bells should ring. We should be praying for ourselves what Paul is praying for the Colossians: that we'd be filled with the knowledge of God and his will through all Spiritual wisdom and understanding. Next, "we pray," Paul says, that you might lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, (v10). So the reason for knowing God is so you can live a life worthy of God. This is not just knowledge, but a whole life transformed by that knowledge of God. A life that pleases him in every way. That is, that brings pleasure to the heart of God. Do you ever think of it like that? That your life might bring pleasure to God? What sort of life would that be? Well, one that bears fruit - i.e. naturally producing more and more good works which reflect the radical transformation effected in our life by God & the gospel as we grow in the knowledge of God. My guess is most of us have a long way to grow in this respect.
	So Paul prays in v11 that you'll be strengthened in all power. What sort of power will you need? The power that's according to his glorious might. With the result that you'll have great endurance and patience. You know, you can remain a member of a church by sheer apathy or stubbornness. By simply not moving. But you can't remain a Christian by apathy or stubbornness. Nor can a congregation stay Christian by apathy. No, it takes the great power of God: "strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and prepared to endure everything with patience." And what will be the result of this patient endurance? We'll "joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has enabled us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light." There'll be joy, passion, emotion. Why? Because "He's rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
	So Paul's prayer is that God will fill them, that they'll lead lives worthy of God, that they'll be strengthened by God's power, with the result that they'll joyfully give thanks to God the Father. Even if you've been a Christian for many years I'm sure there's room in your life for growth. I'm sure there's a small area in each one of our lives where God can fill us and enable us to live a life worthy of the Lord and even a little room for a little more joyful thanksgiving.
	Over the next few weeks we'll follow Paul's remedy for the Colossian Church in its crisis. But for now, if you're a person who's being tempted in our multicultural, multi-faith society to move away from the apostolic gospel, vs 3-8 are for you. If you're a Christian who's heard it all before, and you're bored to death by it, or dissatisfied with it, vs 9-14 are for you. Because the way ahead that Paul offers the Colossians, and us, is the way of "passionate truth." It's a model of Christian experience where what we know about God is true and the truth changes our lives radically and deeply.

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