Dear God thank you for this time to share with you each day. I ask for you to just be with us today, give us your strength and wisdom in all matters. I pray especially for Ioni who is struggling right now with depression, please Lord give me your discernment and knowledge to know what is the right path to take with her concerning schooling. Lord be with Angela, give her some peaceful moments with you today. Thank you Lord for your wonderful creation all around us, without your son Jesus I know that all of creation would fall apart.
Amen
16: Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see-kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him.
This verse is actually underlined in my bible because I love it! Christ existed before there was anything on land or in the sky. The part I love about it is that he made everything on land and in the sky (heaven). He created the things we can see, the physical world and he created the things we can’t see, the spirit world which includes angels. I think this verse is so important because it gives evidence to the verse before it that said Jesus is Supreme. Since Jesus is greatest in power, authority, rank, ultimate and final, this explains why. He is the creator, the maker of heaven and earth. All things were made to give him glory, to praise his name. I reminded of Luke 19:40 Where Jesus was arguing with the Pharisees and he said, “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” The stones which Jesus made would cry out in praise to him!! Every time it rains, thunders, and lightning I can’t help but wonder if the earth is crying out to him.
17: He existed before every else began, and he holds all creation together.
I think these verses are so important!! Whenever we go through times when we feel like Jesus doesn’t care or isn’t watching out for us, when our faith is tested we need to turn back to these verses and understand that Jesus is the glue that is holding everything together, without him every thing would not exist or fall away. Christ maintains the physical world. This is why it works well. The sun, moon and stars stay in their correct places in the sky. Every day has the same number of hours. People in the world live because Christ keeps them alive. Christ also maintains everything that is not physical. Without Christ, everything would break down. Christ is the ruler of everything that he created.
18: Christ is the head of the church, which is his body. He is the first of all who will rise from the dead, so he is the first in everything.
The church is people throughout the world and throughout history all of which have Christ living within them, creating a physical body here on earth. Christ is the head which leads this body; he is our higher brain function. Christ is the first to rise from the dead, other people in the bible were raised too but they only spent a short time here on earth and then they died again for the second time. Christ will never die again, he lives eternally in heaven.
19: For God in all his fullness was please to live in Christ,
Jesus Christ was not just a man. Jesus Christ is God. God lived in Christ’s human body. And God continues to live in Christ for ever. God put everything that he has into Christ. And God put everything that he is into Christ. This includes all God’s character, his nature and his power. Christ was full of God the Father. No part of God was missing from Christ’s life.
20: and by him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross.
In the beginning Adam and Eve were God’s friends, when they sinned they separated themselves and all humankind from God. Because we had sinned we could not be united with God, God despises sin. Romans 5:8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment.
"Every time it rains, thunders, and lightning I can’t help but wonder if the earth is crying out to him." I love this imagery! This will now be what I wonder. I have also seen the winds and storms as the angels warring in heaven.
ReplyDelete"And God put everything that he is into Christ. This includes all God’s character, his nature and his power. Christ was full of God the Father. No part of God was missing from Christ’s life." And we have this same filling through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Whenever I contemplate this I am amazed. We are colaborers, coheirs, royalty at its finest!
Father God, I lift up every single one of my dear friends in the Thomas household. I command, by the authority of a daughter of the king, that every spirit and principality of depression would leave in the name of Jesus. I pray for an infusion of joy and strength to come first into Mark and then trickling down from the head into Tina and the girls. Father, I pray for an infusion of your affection and truth to flood over Mark's mind. I pray for a breakthrough, a breaking of the lies and fears that have been plaguing him since his experience in Texas. Lord, I ask that you would minister truth into the deepest places of his heart, that you would break through all the barriers and bring a sweet whisper of your love and affection. I pray that you would build him up in love. That this burden to bring him out of this would rest solely upon you and that Tina would be able to rest in faith that you are at work in the darkness. Father, I pray for this burden for her girls also to be lifted off her shoulders. May she, like you, sit calmly as she assesses the situation and sees that from the beginning of time you knew what would be happening with their family and that you cared enough to die for them. You care enough to be intimately involved. I pray for the ministry of your Holy Spirit to begin to penetrate the lies in Echo and Ioni's hearts to. I pray for a once-and-for-all final breaking of the strongholds of oppression and depression off this family. Get to the roots, take an axe to every branch that does not bear fruit in keeping with righteousness. Father, I thank you for your pruning process. I thank you that you love each one of us and are so careful to only prune to the point we can handle. Release your peace over these who are in the midst of the painful refining and pruning process. ~Amen.