STOP!

Our Daily Bread
STOP! Screech! Red lights glaring! BAM!  These are the sights and sounds of a few Mondays ago when a guy rear ended my car while in traffic.  A semi pulled over in front of me suddenly so I stopped as gently as I could.  The guy behind me didn't notice and slammed into the back of my car.  Fortunately, no one was hurt. His car was damaged more than mine.  I was fortunate to get my car into the body shop and get it back in a week or so.

Why am I telling you this story?  It shouldn't take an accident or a semi cutting us off (this is obviously a life metaphor) to get us to STOP!  ha!  We can run ourselves ragged with all the things we think we need to do.  All the things that we think life requires of us.  I understand.  I do.  My schedule has been wicked busy the past few months.  I stopped to rest last weekend because I didn't feel I could move my tired old body another step that day!  As a Ken Medema song says: "let it all go for a while. do you need your strength to be renewed?  He who saves you will not let you fall!"

Take time for yourself.  Take time for God.

Lord, we thank you and praise you for our time on this earth.  Please help us spend as much as we can with you so we can practice for eternity!

Teaching Tuesday
We studied the books of Colossians and Philippians this week.  Very interesting stuff.

Colossians
This book contributed a lot to the development of Christian doctrine, especially Christology (the branch of Christian theology relating to the person, nature, and role of Christ).  The book describes who Christ is as well as any other book in the Bible.  It also talks about the Christians' place in this world.  It talks about taking care of this world, our Earth, as we look forward to our eternal home with Christ in the afterlife.  The book was probably written by Timothy or by a member of Paul's following who expounded on Paul's outline of beliefs.

Philippians
We joked in class that Paul must have been on some anti-depressants when he wrote this book!  Ha!  It is amazing the could have written a book like this while in prison.  He was very encouraging as he talked about his faith in Christ.  One of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:13.

He also talked about false teachers or folks who would teach something other than the gospel he proclaimed.  There was an explosion of growth in Christianity during this period.  That scared and confused a lot of folks, especially mainline Jews who were converted and many who weren't.

There is even a hymn text in chapter 2:6-11.  Read that sometime!

-- Excepts from Introducing the New Testament by Mark Allan Powell

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You are a success in God’s kingdom if you are faithful where He has placed you. - Our Daily Bread