Jeremiah 6:16-8:7, Colossians 2:8-23, Psalm 78:1-31, Proverbs 24:26
Today is the fourth day of October, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a joy to be back together, around the Global Campfire again today. Today, and every day. As we center ourselves around the Scriptures, come together in community and allow the Holy Spirit to work through the Scriptures and transforming our lives all over the place, what a joy that this place exists and that we can come here and find a place around the Global Campfire and move forward together. We began the book of Jeremiah yesterday. We talked about that then. And so, we’ll continue that journey today. We also concluded Paul’s letter to the Philippians yesterday, so that means that when we get to the New Testament today, we will move into new territory and that new territory is another of the letters of Paul. This one to the church at Colossae, also known as Colossians and we’ll talk about that when we get there. But first, let’s dive back in the Jeremiah. We’re reading from the New International Version this week, Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 31 through 4 verse 18.
Introduction to the Book of Colossians:
Okay, so, we mentioned at the beginning, that we would be moving into another of Paul’s letters, brand-new, fresh and shiny and sparkly today. The letter to the Colossians, which happens to be the 12th book in the New Testament. And Colossae wasn’t a place that Paul had never heard of before. He was obviously writing a letter to people. He was familiar enough; he spent a lot of time in Ephesus, as we know. And Colossae’s about 100 miles from Ephesus, which is in the western part of modern-day Turkey. Actually, Colossae has been discovered; it’s just a mound like so many archaeological sites that have…haven’t been officially excavated professionally. But it has been identified. So, it’s the ruins of what it once was. But during Paul’s life, it wasn’t in ruins. It was a melting pot, a secular city. A lot of mingling of philosophical ideas, a lot of religious exchange. And these things had made their way into the church at Colossae. And so, this letter is a response to that. And it is believed, along with some of the other letters that we have written, this letter to the Colossians was written while Paul was in prison in Rome, making this a prison epistle or a letter written from prison. And we’ve already talked about this, like this trial that Paul is waiting for, is a life and death trial. So, just kind of having that in the back of our minds as the back story, is certainly compelling enough to make us sit up and pay attention. And like most of Paul’s letters, this isn’t an extraordinarily long letter; the letter to the Romans is a pretty long letter, a lot longer than Colossians. But in Colossians, Paul is trying to deal basically with two things. One is an issue of doctrine. It seems that people had visited Colossae and had visited the Colossian church and were teaching the worship of angels and…and other rituals that just were not part of the churches that Paul planted. And so, Paul addresses this by reminding the Colossians that Jesus is supreme over all creation. There is no one, worshiping angels isn’t worshiping God. He tells the Colossians that the whole universe, everything was created by and through Jesus and everything is held together and sustained through the Lordship of Jesus. And then the other issue that Paul’s writing about is an issue that we have seen in other letters. This is the whether or not you have to be circumcised to become a follower of Jesus. And it’s even deeper than that, like circumcision is this outward representation of the idea that one would need to convert to Judaism and come under the…the Mosaic law and follow the rituals and customs and worldview of the Jewish people, and then follow Jesus. Circumcision being this outward sign of that, something that the people were, not to make a pun, that were quite religious about. And from reading other letters, we come to know Paul’s posture about it. We know where he stands. He doesn’t like it and he has, he has similar things to say to the Colossians that we’ve heard before. And it’s good for us to have these letters because these are letters to different communities in different regions, and they have in the space of a similar time period. So, it just kind of reading between the lines, looking at the things that Paul is feeling. Like he needs to tell the church. It allows us then, to look inside the church community of our early brothers and sisters and see what was going on. The kinds of things that they were wrestling with, which then helps us with context, not only to understand the Scriptures, but context to apply to our own lives and the things that we have to wrestle with. So, with that, let’s go ahead and dive in and wrestle together, as we move through Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Today chapter 1 verses 1 through 17.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. Once again, thank You for bringing us into this month and we’re settling into some new territory here in the book of Colossians and in the book of Jeremiah. And we open our hearts fully to what You have to speak to us, we thank You for your patience. Thank You for your guidance. Thank You for Your comfort and correction and we want to be transformed too. Sometimes it’s really painful. And sometimes it’s really, really, really hard work. Like we were talking about yesterday, but the peace that passes all understanding and the fact that we have to collaborate in that. So, we simply recognize our own inability to sustain any of this and we cling desperately to what Paul is saying today in Colossians, that You hold it all together and have us. And so, hold it together for us Lord, thank You for your compassion, while we continue to grow and learn. Holy Spirit come, may we mature, may we grow. We confess we act like little toddlers all of the time, stamping our feet and rolling around on the ground when we don’t get our way. We so often get confused as if You are our servant, instead of that we are Your servants. We are Your servant, Lord. Thank You for letting us be a part of Your story. Lead us into all truth. We pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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Prayer and Encouragements:
Hi Daily Audio Bible family, this is Heather in Ohio. I wanted to call in with some encouragement for our sister who is going through with the foster and adoption process. And feels like she has to prove herself to these people, so that they will be impressed and give her a child. Oh, sweet sister, I just want to encourage you to consider shifting your mindset to remember that God has got you. I’m praying that He will give your heart peace. And the verse comes to mind that He fights our battles for us, we need only be still in His presence. I, like you, went through the adoption process and I know it’s filled with so many hoops. But I want to consider, want you to consider to just come at it from just a place of peace, the peace that only Jesus can bring. And the knowledge that He has chosen this child for you from the beginning of before time began, from the beginning of the world. I just imagine Him putting His hands on your face and turning your beautiful face to look in His eyes that are full of peace and strength and know that He’s got you and that you don’t have to perform and jump through hoops and prover yourself because He’s already done that. And so, yes, you will still need to do paperwork and jump through the hoops that are in place in the system. But I just am praying that God’s peace would wash over you, just knowing that He’s got you and He’s chosen the child for you. Love you dear sister. Hang in there. Love you lots. Bye.
Hi, I’m a long-time listener, I’ve rarely left messages over the years. I don’t have a name, so I guess I’ll just go by The Mountain is Higher that I. I need to ask for prayers for my family. For many years I’ve been dealing with sexual addiction. I’ve been in recovering for the better part of a decade. And it seems like it’s better than it used to be but it’s still not good enough. I keep testing the lines of my sobriety. And I am really tired of it, I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s hurting my wife and I know my kids feel the strain between us. I just, I’m asking for prayer. Please, please pray that the Lord will help me to surrender my dishonesty, pride and my will. Pray for my wife as she deals with the hurt from me getting honest with her. And pray for our family, that God will heal the brokenness in our relationships, now, before it gets worse. This is a road that I don’t wanna keep going down. Thank you.
Good morning, Daily Audio Bible this is Delights in Me. And I’m doing my weekly call in, even though this is uncomfortable for me. I’m an introvert by nature. I like standing back and observing. I don’t really like putting myself out there. But I am learning that God’s wants us united, and the devil likes us divided. He likes us feeling isolated and unique in a negative way. Feeling like we’re the only ones that feel this or go through that or whatever. And that’s such a lie. We are designed to a part of a community. And so, even though it feels uncomfortable I encourage you to call and be a part of this community. And so, when you call, just call and speak what’s from your heart. Don’t compare yourself with other people. And the same in church. Someone called recently about feeling like they weren’t part of the church, they didn’t feel accepted, they didn’t feel like they can’t fit it. And again, that’s such a lie. Put yourself out there, invite someone home for dinner or tea or whatever. Try to connect because we need that. And chances are everyone else feels the same way as you. Anyway, time is ticking away. I hope you all have a beautiful day. I’m off for the next few days and am enjoying time with friends. So, I’m looking forward to a beautiful day here in New England of hiking. Love you guys, praying for you. God bless.
Hi everybody, this is Kelly from California. And I’m calling to ask for prayer, this time for myself. I’m gonna be 60 tomorrow, September 30th and I don’t want to feel so lonely. I mean, my close family members, a lot of them passed away, including my sister. She did last year in October. So, October is like a month, cause I lost my dad and my sister in October. But I definitely need prayer, I’ve been having bad memories. I need prayer to help block out those bad memories that keep coming back and haunting me. And to restore a relationship I had with a cousin, I kind of can’t blame him for not wanting to talk to me but this mans supposed to be a Deacon of a church and claimed to be a Christian so, just restore our relationship in the future. And God would bring me a good Christian man. I had a bad relationship with my father in the past. But that got cleared up about 5 years prior to his passing. Because of people on my mom’s side of the family, kept trying to poison me against him. Wasn’t really a lot of what she did, I think they were trying to protect her. As a result, my sister and I got pretty messed up. So, but I just need help in how to block out the bad memories when they come. And take care everybody.
Hey DAB family, this is Beloved in Texas. Sitting here in my car, waiting for my daughter to get out of her voice lesson and a lady pulled up next to me with a little kid in the seat next to her. Baby seat in the back and no back windshield. And the lining is coming off the top of her car. She stopped and asked if there was anything, any work that I had for her to do. Cause she’s, she’s trying to find a place to stay. It’s not my area of town and honestly, we’re trying to get out of a financial bind right now. I was more than happy to hand over the cash I had in my wallet and praise the Lord, she did, let me grab her hand and pray with her. Her name is Meeka and she has two little babies. So, if my DAB family wouldn’t mind lifting her up along with me, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you.
Hey siblings, it’s me, your little sis, His Little Sharee. With a prayer request and a confession. So, to start with the prayer request. As you know, my friend Mirna, Miracle Mirna, as I call her, is dealing with bed bugs, again. And so, they’ve told her that they’re gonna spray in her apartment, the end of next week. She’s looking for a place to stay for a couple of days while they do that. She talked to her friend that she stayed with last time and asked if she could stay there again and the friend said, I don’t think so. Because I have bed bugs now. And so, they figure, Mirna, unknowingly brought bed bugs with her when she stayed there last time. So, Mirna called me today and asked, I don’t have anywhere to go, can I stay at your place? And I said, well, if you can’t find anywhere else to stay, yes, you can stay here. Here comes the confession and you can guess what it is. I don’t want her to stay here. I’m deathly afraid of bed bugs and I’ve had an honest conversation with God about it. I’ve told him point blank; I don’t want Mirna to stay here. And I’ve asked Him if He would please find another place for Mirna to stay. I kind of doubt that He’ll answer that prayer, well, He’ll answer it with a firm no. Because I just feel like, you know, I can’t not take her in when she needs a place to stay. So, please join me in praying that if and when she comes, that she will not bring bed bugs with her. There’s precautions that we’ll take but prayer is the most important one.