Colossians 2:16-23 Angela

Father God, I am feeling tattered and worn. I want to feel joyful and excited. I am feeling overwhelmed and burdened. I want to feel confident and free. I feel sad and lonely. I want to feel happy and surrounded by your love and the love of those who love me. I feel disconnected today. I want to feel connected. Thank you for Tina's words of encouragement. My heart aches to feel the truth of her words spoken over me. I keep thinking this dark cloud is coming from somewhere outside of myself, but I don't think so anymore. I think this dark cloud is of my own issues. I release all these burdens and fears to you. Thank you that you are bigger than my circumstances, and thank you that somewhere in the depths of my cold and scared heart I know that you are planning something so big and so amazing for my little family. Please, please renew the strength of my song today. ~Amen.

2:16-17 "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

"Don't let anyone judge you." Some of those voices are me letting other people judge me. I was feeling so defensive yesterday. I thought it was because several of my friends are struggling and I was in intercession for them, but now I realize it was mine...I am feeling so uneasy about all these things and so many of the people I talk to have been sowing into that uneasiness. Eric's family is concerned about the low pay we're going to Redding for. Apparently, I'm allowing their concerns to fortify my concerns, rather than leaning on Christ for the reality that He is going before us. We have done our very best to surrender this whole thing to Him at every turn. This is where the rubber meets the road for my faith. I know what I know, but deep inside I still believe He is setting us up to show us where our motives are wrong. All that talk I talk about how good He is,  and on some deep level I still don't believe it!!! I am so desperate to feel the healing balm of His love wash all that yuck away, and yet He is asking me to trust, to wait, and to be patient. I cannot speed my healing process. Truly, I really don't want to. I don't want to do anything ahead of him. And here I am, partnering with that enemy voice in my head telling me I'm not as far along as I think I am.

Okay, I guess I'm a mess today. I am so glad we are doing this. I am so glad that this is the time that "we" chose to study this particular book of the Bible. What I like about these verses is that it says that religious rites and festivals are a shadow of the intimacy and celebration we're going to have with Jesus. After over 400 years of silence from God, Jesus comes into the world and brings with Him a revival of the religious festivals. I imagine that many of these festivals were done by rote and without much remembrance of what the point was. The people had given up hope and joy. Even after Jesus came, Paul was speaking to folks who were still under that black cloud of ritualism without life (sounds a little like myself right now). Paul was offering them freedom from that dark cloud of empty religion. He was giving them a taste of the freedom that belonged to them in Christ already!! I want this to become so real to me.

2:18-19 "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow."

These verses have weight significance to me. I've been one of these people in the last year. I got so distracted by the signs and wonders that I lost focus on the love of God. It is a long story that I don't want to relate here, but I know exactly what Paul is talking about here. I am so grateful that He gently showed me the error of my ways and put me back in line with Him and my husband.

2:20-21 "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 'Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"

Again, I think of diets. Probably because this was a verse quoted often in The Weigh Down Workshop, which was my diet of choice for many years. The first thing is that I died to the basic principles of this world! I want to examine that for a minute. I died to the principle that there isn't enough for everyone on this planet. I came alive in Christ to the truth that God rains his goodness on the righteous and the unrighteous. I came alive in Christ to the truth that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and that he is the most generous beings in the Universe, and He is IN the universe. Yeah! God with us! Immanuel. I died to the principle that God is angry with me, and I came alive in Christ to the truth that He sees me as His dear, sweet, delightful daughter. I died to the principle that the Universe is working against me (curse of Adam), and I came alive in Christ to the truth that there are riches untold and resources always coming my way to encourage me and draw me into the purposes and plans God has for me. I have all that I need to do what He has called me to do.

I know I am still embroiled in this struggle to come out of the darkness of the world's principles into the glorious truth of God's principles. Father, I pray that you help the four of us really get this, really draw your principles deep into our beings so that we can walk out of your principles and no longer fall under the weight of the rules of this world and religion. I pray that as we four begin to really walk upright in your kingdom principles, our children will learn and follow after us. Thank you that we can see your goodness in the land of the living!

2:22-23 "These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence."

Harsh treatment of the body...His Body! The Church! Human commands and teachings. There is so much human wisdom and teaching going on in the church today, and it's killing the church. I know it is fear, and I do not judge harshly. I know God is at work, breathing His fresh life and the truth of freedom into the church. I'm seeing it in many bodies and in some subgroups of bodies around here in the Skagit Valley. When I hear the phrase "harsh treatment of the body," I think of all the people coming into the church and being turned away because they don't "tow the line" of mainstream Christian rules. In some ways, it seems that many of the Christian churches are beginning to look a lot like the Pharisees. And it's NOT working to curb sexual indulgence. Marriages are suffering, pastors are stumbling, and secrets are being kept all in an effort to maintain the false humility. I am so hungry to see things turn around for the church as a whole.

I am so glad that God has shown me how similar we all are in our woundedness and in our struggles against sin and strongholds in our lives. I am so grateful to begin seeing that one person can make a difference if they start walking against the grain with Jesus. And that His freedom is really free...free from the regulations that don't deliver the power and truth of the Spirit of Jesus. Father, I pray that where we are still under these regulations that don't have anything to do with your love and your power, we would begin to see the truth. I pray for a quieting of those rules and regulations floating around in our minds. I pray that you would show us how to walk free of the world's principles with finality. Help us make the full transition to your Kingdom principles. ~Amen.