Gracious Speech

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.”

Colossians 4:6 NET

In the context of what Paul was talking about, he was specifically talking about how we are to behave around others and being a good witness to others for Jesus. In Colossians 4:6, he was saying that we have got to be careful how we respond to and around others. We, as Christians in today's culture, are constantly being watched. This means we have to conduct ourselves in a way that reflects the true nature of Jesus. Well, how do we do that? First we need to be in His word on a regular basis. We need to constantly be getting God's instruction on how to live our lives. Then we need to do what His word says. This may mean we have to practice it over and over and over. Will this make you perfect? Nope! Will this keep you from making wrong decisions? Nope! Will this keep you from being a bad witness to others for Jesus? Nope! But in all my "nopes!" what it will do is grow you so that your wrong decisions become less and less over time and you are making more and more right decisions. It will also make you a better witness over time for the Kingdom. We all make mistakes and we all miss the mark from time to time, go ahead and accept that fact.  Fortunately we have a Savior that has already forgiven us and wants to see us grow. As we grow, we start fulfilling Colossians 4:6...our speech WILL be gracious and we WILL know how to answer everyone.

Take Away: spend time with the Lord on a regular basis, allow Him to transform your mind so that when the opportunity comes, you can speak to others and be a witness to others for Jesus.

When The Cats Away

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in every respect, not only when they are watching – like those who are strictly people-pleasers – but with a sincere heart, fearing the Lord.”

Colossians 3:22 NET

Today's verse talks about slaves obeying their masters, but we can take this to modern day terms and substitute "employee" for slaves and "supervisor or employer" for master. Doing this puts a whole new light on keeping the Lord in our work.  If you are an employee of someone, this means that you are to obey your employer, not only when they are around, but also when they are gone. When you do this, you are keeping the Lord in your work  and setting a good example of what being Christ-like means to other people. Have you ever noticed that when the boss is around, most people are on their best behavior, doing what has been asked of them, working in a more professional manner. But the minute the boss leaves, its like someone flipped the light switch and its party-time. We, as children of God, need to do everything in excellence, not only when people are watching, but even when people are not watching, because really, God is watching and He sees your every move, and just knowing that you should do everything in excellence...and obeying your boss is one of those things.

Take Away: the next time your boss is not around, continue to do your job with excellence, no matter what anyone else is doing.

God's Elect

“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,”

Colossians 3:12 NET

Did you know that if you claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are "the elect of God?" Yes, you are God's elect, you are holy and dearly loved by God! I know for many people this is hard to believe, but whether you believe it or not, it is still true, you are God's elect and you are dearly loved. Yes, I know I said this twice, but this is SO important that it bears repeating...not just once, but every day of our lives we need to hear this. Think about it, the Creator of the universe, the Creator of you and me, the God Who created our planet, the God Who set in motion the winds, the waters, the rivers, the God Who formed you and created you...He loves you...and not just loves you, but DEARLY loves you! When you get this inside your soul, it will change the way you think and by changing the way you think, your behavior will change. God knew this when He had Paul write the second part of this scripture, which says clothe yourself with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Knowing that God dearly loves you will start changing your thinking where you will begin to treat others with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and...yes...patience! If you lack in any of these areas, start thinking about how much God loves you and you will soon start to see a change.

Take Away: remind yourself several times a day how God calls you His elect and how He dearly loves you. As you do this daily, you will see your thinking, and eventually your behavior, start to change.

Speaking into our Lives

“As iron sharpens iron, so a person sharpens his friend.”

Proverbs 27:17 NET

We all have friends, but most of us...and hopefully all of us...have that one special close friend that will not hold back anything if something is needed to be said. Over the course of my life I've had several people that have spoken in my life. These are much needed people as they help me grow in my relationship with God and with others. My wife and my best friend are two people that will speak to me whenever I am needing a "come to Jesus moment." They will not hold back, but they will speak what needs to be said. And when they do this, it is done in love, it is done in a way that the ultimate goal is for me to recognize an area in my life that needs correction. You see, God uses those people in our lives to speak to us. Usually when someone comes to us and points out an area in our lives that isn't right, our first response is to defend ourselves and to put up the walls of security because, "hey, we are perfect, there is nothing in my life that needs to be fixed." Unfortunately when we do this, we no longer are allowing others to help us and we stay in the same mess we are in. When we allow others to speak into our lives, and listen to what they say, we can then go to God and ask Him to help us with this problem. 

Take Away: when someone talks to us about an area in our life they see is a problem, be open to receive what they are saying, don't put up the wall of defenses, but go to God and ask Him to help you.

Never Too Old

“For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known.”

1 Corinthians 13:12 NET

Every day I have an opportunity presented in front of me. Every day I have a chance to learn something new. I am 52 years old, and some people would think that I should no longer be learning things but teaching things to the younger people. While in some respect this may be true, it would be presumptuos of me to think I know EVERYTHING and that I can't learn from people younger than me. There is a saying that goes "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." Well, some people have heard this for so long they actually believe this. The truth is you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. Scripture even supports this. We only know in part. That means we don't know everything. One day we will know everything, but that is on the other side of the grave! Until that day happens, we have an opportunity to learn, we just have to make the choice TO learn.

Take Away: If someone younger than you comes up to you with an idea or with a lesson, open yourself up to learn from them. God may be trying to teach you something through the younger people!

Fear...again

“For you have taken refuge in the LORD, my shelter, the sovereign One. No harm will overtake you; no illness will come near your home. For he will order his angels to protect you in all you do. They will lift you up in their hands, so you will not slip and fall on a stone.”

Psalms 91:9-12 NET

I've talked about fear and protection before, but I think it needs to be repeated, mainly due to the fact that the Holy Spirit brought this verse back to me over the past several days. We all have fears, everyone of us. Some fears are healthy, like the fear of fire will keep you from putting your hand in it and getting burned. But I would say most of our fears are not healthy fears. Most are based in the lack of trust in God and His word. We are afraid that we will be in an accident and getting hurt, we are afraid of losing our job, we are afraid of dying, we are afraid of living in a world set against the church, we are afraid of this and afraid of that. These fears are not based in God, they are based in lies that we have believed over the years from our experiences and from what others told us. We need to get our focus back on to God. He loves us and He wants to protect us. In Psalm 91 He even says He will send His angels to protect us!  But I want you to see something before you start saying "Kent, things still happen to me." The qualifier to this protection is in verse 9...you have taken refuge in the Lord. This  means you trust Him like no other, no matter what your surroundings dictate, no matter how you feel, no matter what someone told you...you have got to trust Him. If you do, then the rest of todays scripture will play out in your life.

Take Away: Trust in God with all your being, no matter what is going on around you or how you feel. If you do, you will have nothing to fear!

The Walking Dead

“And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions.”

Colossians 2:13 NET

Before we were saved, we were the walking dead, some of us not even knowing that we were dead. But then, when we got saved, Jesus, through His death on the cross, made us alive. Why is it, then, that after we have been saved, we are still walking around like the walking dead? We say things like "whoa is me, things will never get better, guess I'll just sit in my chair and watch the rest of the world go by, no one loves me, wish I could be like those other people, wish I could do this and that." God  didn't send Jesus to die for us just so that we would sit around still looking like dead people. He sent Jesus to set us free from sin and to make us alive! A lot of people seem to have a lot of wish bone but they got no back bone. If you are one of those people, you need to stand up, make a choice and say "my life is going to get better starting now, I'm no longer going to sit around wishing for things, I'm going to start taking control of my life, the life Jesus died for, and start living the life He wants me to live!" We, as Christians, need to learn that we have a life worth living because God thinks we have a life worth living, so much that He sent Jesus to die for us!

Take Away: God thinks I have a life worth living, so I am going to start living my life, the life He wants me to live!

Pray or Smack?

“For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”

Colossians 1:9 NET

One of our main duties as Christians is to pray for one another. But for some reason we find it much easier to talk to other people about what's wrong with someone. We can sit down with a friend or co worker and as we start talking, we inevitably start talking smack about someone...it may even be another friend or another co-worker or even your pastor!  The result of this is stirred up feelings of either superiority toward the other person or a renewed anger against someone. This is TOTALLY opposite of what God told us to do...and that is pray for one another. Instead of talking smack about others, we need to be praying for each other. And in Colossians 1:9, do you see what the result of your prayers are...God filling people with knowledge of His will! When we pray for another, we can ask God to fill the other person with knowledge of His will. By doing so, we encourage each other and in the process this builds up our faith. So instead of talking smack about someone where the result is anything but filling each other up with the will of God, start praying for each other!

Take Away: the next time you have the opportunity to talk about someone, make a choice to pray for them...and then let it go!

What Are You Dwelling On?

"...and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ.”

2 Corinthians 10:5 NET

Easy to say...hard to do. We have so many thoughts coming into our minds, it seems like we cant control them. While we can't control what is coming into our minds, we can control what we choose to think about. When a thought enters our mind, we have a choice. We can either dwell on that thought or we can replace that thought with a Godly thought. This doesn't mean that we are walking around, looking all spiritual singing the Hallelujah Chorus all the time in hopes. What this does mean is that when a thought comes into our mind that is contrary to what the word of God says, we need to replace that thought with a thought that is in agreement with the word of God. For example, my wife and I were needing to buy a house that was big enough for my mom to move into but yet we had a budget. As we were looking at homes, those that were in our budget were too small. Now I could have started dwelling on the thought that we were never going to find a house that met our needs, which would have put me in a defeatus attitude which would have led to other bad attitudes and so on and so on. But we decided to dwell on God's word which says "my God will supply all my needs (Phil 4:19)." The result...we kept looking, God DID supply us with a house that met our needs and was actually below our budget.  

Take Away: the next time a thought enters your mind, compare it to the word of God. If it doesn't match up, replace that thought with a Godly thought and dwell on that.

Righteous or Sinner

“God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 NET

There is a statement that I hear way too often from Christians. It is a statement that, when I hear it, it is most often when people are praying. It goes something like this..."Oh Father, we who are not worthy to be in your presence," or "Dear God, I know I am a lowly sinner, but please hear my voice." These are statements made by those who claim to be Christians. The truth is, when Jesus died and rose again, when He took all of the sin of the world on Himself, He did it so that when we would call on Him as Lord (become a Christian, a believer), we would no longer be sinners, but righteous! If you are a Christian, a believer, a follower of The Way (as the first century Christians put it), then you ARE righteous and not a sinner. In fact, you can be no more righteous than you are right now. This goes back to knowing who you are in Christ. Now follow me on this one...you may say, "but Kent, I call Jesus my Lord but I still do things wrong, I don't do what I should do, I still continue to sin." Those are things you do, not who you are in Christ. Before you became a Christian, you were a sinner who occasionally did things right. But since you became a Christian, you are righteous in the sight of God but who occasionally does things wrong. When you begin to see yourself as righteous in the sight of God, your behavior will begin to change, and the things you occasionally do wrong will slowly become less and less over time.

Take Away: Start seeing yourself the way God sees you, righteous I and not a sinner. As you do this, your behavior will slowly change.