“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” – Colossians 2:6-7

Receiving Christ – putting your trust and faith in Him as Lord – is meant to be the beginning of an incredible lifelong adventure! Our moment of salvation is the start, not the finish line. We don’t just get saved by Jesus, we are to “walk in Him”. We must live every moment, of every day, of every month, of every year in Christ, honoring Him, reflecting His goodness, kindness, righteousness, holiness, mercy, justice, and grace.

We must seek to become more and more like Jesus is EVERYTHING we do (work, school, marriage, parenting, neighboring, etc). We must be rooted in Him, learning and growing in Him, and most important, being like Him.

We can’t be one person on Sunday morning and a different person the rest of the week. Everyone we encounter should see Christ in us every time. This isn’t a chore or burden, it’s the delight of having the Living God within us as He is. For this privilege of walking in Christ 24×7 we give thanks more and more!

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” – Philippians 4:8

Philippians chapter 4 provides wonderful advice on how to cope during difficult times. Verses 6 and 7 tell us to turn all our anxieties over to the Lord in prayer and experience the supernatural and incomprehensible peace of God no matter our circumstances. We could all use more of that right now!

Then Paul says to replace the overwhelming thoughts about our fears, anxieties, problems, and negativity by thinking about the good. We live in an age dominated by bad news. Partly that’s because there are truly bad things going on in the world. Partly that’s because bad news and outrage are good for ratings. Thus we easily get overwhelmed by the endless bad news cycle of TV, print, and internet media.

While we shouldn’t ignore the problems of our world (after all, Christians are to be salt and light in our culture working to heal these evils), we also shouldn’t spend every waking moment thinking about them as our thoughts spiral downward in despair or ratchet upward in outrage. We must instead discipline our minds to contemplate the good things God has blessed our world and our lives with.

God is the source of all truth, so contemplate what is true, particularly the Bible, rather than the rampant falsehoods of our post-truth culture. God is a God of honor, justice, purity, beauty, and excellence and the author of these things. Contemplate Him, contemplate them, contemplate the honorable people and things of the world, celebrate the justice of Christ’s cross, the beauty of God’s creation, the excellence that flows out of His creation and the human bearing of His image.

There is much good to think about. There truly is. We just have to work harder than in the past to see it. Think about these things! Make that effort and discover the peace that comes from a mind disciplined to look upward rather than downward.

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” – Philippians 3:8

Knowing Christ. Do you know Christ? That doesn’t just mean do you know about Christ. Do you know Christ? Knowing Christ may be the supreme treasure of the Christian faith, though one too-seldom talked about.

When we embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior, we don’t simply change our eternal destination. We enter into an ongoing and eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. Do we realize this? Do we treasure this?

We’re adopted by God and thus become siblings to Jesus. We become His friend. His Spirit lives within us and we are united with Him. He promises that He is with us all of our days. Do we take time to notice, appreciate, and treasure this reality?

We’re able to talk with Him in prayer. We walk with Him. We experience His love and His transforming power. We have the opportunity to get to know Him better each day as we read of Him, meditate on Him, pray to Him, worship Him.

Do you know Christ?

“Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life.” – Philippians 2:14-16a

Are we in a crooked and perverted generation? Yes! Therefore we must confront this reality that as followers of Christ we’re required to be blameless, pure, and faultless. And we have to do EVERYTHING without grumbling and arguing. That’s a tall order!

As the world crumbles, we must commit to proclaiming Christ by our words, actions, and character. We must shine the light of Christ by our good deeds so that people will take notice and praise God. When every temptation and frustration of the world is calling for us to just slide into our culture’s ever-growing cesspool of complaint, bitterness, and ugliness, we must resist forever. We are to be faultless – beyond reproach in the eyes of the world.

That’s true in our homes, on the road, in the office (or on Zoom), on our phones, and on the internet. All this sounds impossible in such a frustrating and maddening time. It is impossible if we rely only on our own strength, virtue, and self-discipline. We will fail in our humanness, which is why Paul says we must do this by holding firm to the word of life.

We must hold firm to God’s Word, the Bible, and we must hold firm to the Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ. We must embrace His Spirit Who lives within us, comforts us, strengthens us, corrects us, and transforms us. We are to be better than this messed up world around us, but only by the power of Christ within us!

“Has a nation ever exchanged its gods?
(But they were not gods!)
Yet my people have exchanged their Glory
for useless idols.
Be appalled at this, heavens;
be shocked and utterly desolated!
This is the Lord’s declaration.”
– Jeremiah 2:11-12

In the New Covenant, God’s people are those who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith. The application is no longer to a nation state, but to Christians individually and churches collectively. Unfortunately, we can still make the same mistakes. As God’s people we must be on guard not to repeat the errors of ancient Israel!

We must not exchange the Glory of God in Jesus Christ – His truth, His character, His Word, His will, His design, His power, or His presence for anything. As churches and individuals, we may be tempted to exchange God’s glory for the useless idols of popularity, social acceptance, comfort, legal protection, political influence, earthly power, safety, wealth, nice buildings, large congregations, temporary fame, or earthly reputation. We must always resist this temptation!

We must never let our desire for these things, even when they are good things, outweigh our living and proclaiming the true Glory of God in Jesus Christ, no matter the cost!