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Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. – Colossians 1:24-29
C.S. Lewis noted the difference between a dog and a cat. A dog says, “You pet me, feed me, shelter me, love me. You must be god.” A cat says, “You pet me, feed me, shelter me, love me. I must be god.” This analogy could be made of Christians, too. One disciple says, “Jesus left heaven for me, he died for me, intercedes for me, he’s going to build a mansion in heaven for me, and come back for me. God lives for me.” Another disciple says, “Jesus left heaven to glorify his Father, Jesus suffered and died on the cross to give glory to his Father, Jesus is building mansions in heaven to glorify his Father, Jesus intercedes for his Father’s glory, and he is coming again for his Father’s glory. I am created to live and bring God glory.”
In this cat/dog example we see the essence of spiritual blindness. Selfishness, self-centeredness, and pride can limit vision, and for the believer it’s our vision of the world God’s created and our part in it.. When we seek pleasure and give into our materialistic culture, we perpetuate this ego centricity. If we live for ourselves, we can’t fulfill God’s ultimate purpose. The church doesn’t exist for itself either, but to bring glory to God. God is at work always, in all ways, all around us and has for all of time. Living for God is being aware of his plan and purpose and joining him in his works.
On Sunday, Pastor Ryan gave an example of looking through his first Bible from his teenage years. As he looked through his notes, he was glad God didn’t leave him in that place, but he has grown tremendously since then. Look back over your life, perhaps in some Bible study notes or journals you’ve written, can you “see” how God has grown you, and revealed more and more of himself and his ways to you? What steps of obedience did you take that resulted in greated insight and spiritual blindness being removed? Praise God for all he has shown you of himself.
Now to him who is able to strengthen you
according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages
but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings
has been made known to all nations,
according to the command of the eternal God,
to bring about the obedience of faith.
-Romans 15:25-26
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By Donna Burns
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