Update.. It has been quite a while

Hey guys,

It has been quite a while since I have posted on this blog, so many things have happened since then. Over the next few days, I plan to post about a few different topics that I have been mulling over in my mind for some time now. Recently, I have been reading the letters of Paul to the churches. It is amazing to me, no matter how many times I read them, I always learn something new and valuable to my daily walk with Christ. The passage that struck me the hardest was Colossians 3, where Paul talks about rules for holy living. It is a pretty simple passage, but it holds sooo much meaning!

In this paragraph, I am just going to list the rules that he states and break a few of them down a little bit.

1. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
2. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
3. Do not lie to each other.
4. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
5. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.
6. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
7. And Over all of these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
8. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
9. Be Thankful.
10. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
11. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Now, all of these rules are important, but I want to focus on #7, 10 and 11. As you read through Colossians 3 your head could start to spin, because it seems like Paul is throwing a lot of rules at us. It seems a little much for the human mind to process all at one time. Well, I have a few suggestions for you. First, Look at number #7. Paul is basically saying, " if you do nothing else, learn to love another". What he is saying makes sense, because if we learn to love one another, we will want to make all of these sacrifices for one another. "Above all, love one another, as Christ has loved you". #10 is also great because I feel like, a lot of times, we just read the Bible and what it says because we are forced to or feel pressure to. Stop(I am talking to myself, too), if we let the word of God come in and change our lives that will overflow and also affect other people's lives. # 11 is probably my favorite because it is fairly similar to 1 Corinthians 10: 31, which states, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." It is very important for us, as Christians, to, always, live for Christ, in every situation. You never know who is watching and being impacted. You may be the only Bible anyone ever reads!

Finally, like I said above, I know how much information is in Colossians 3, about rules for holy living. My goal is to take on rule each day and try to apply it to my life. Each day, take one of the rules that Paul gave and burn it into my mind, heart and soul. I know... I may need to take extra time on some of these :-). I encourage you to do the same; take one each day and apply it to your life, if you would like. I am definitely not trying to tell you how to live your life.. I have enough trouble with my own!! Sidenote: If you guys would like to leave a comment about this post or just say hi that would be great! Also, by leaving your name, I can pray for you! Thanks for reading!