So, again, happy two weeks. That's what's going on around the world.
Paul had a desire for those who hadn’t seen him face to face to be encouraged and be loving.
God’s mystery is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge. Paul was concerned that the Colossians wouldn’t be tricked by others with plausible arguments. Paul is there with the Colossians in Spirit. We should walk in Christ with ____ which it the same way we received him… Grace, faith, repentance… ? It’s our responsibility to make sure that no one teaks us captive to anything anti-Christ. In Christ dwells the fullness of deity. (Divine status) Christ is the head of all rule and authority. Being in Christ is a spiritual circumcision. Our (water ?) baptism is symbolic to Christ’s death and resurrection. God raised Christ from the dead. We were dead in trespasses and God made us alive having forgiven all of them. God was able to forgive us our trespasses by “nailing it to the cross” - We broke the law, and Jesus paid our fine. Because of what God did in Christ, we aren’t to allow judgment from others regarding food, drink, festivals, or the Sabbath. These rules of the past were a shadow of things to come, but Jesus is the substance - He’s the real deal. We don’t need to worship angles (and I’m sure other places tell us to explicitly not). We don’t need to do asceticism, which is severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence, typically for religious (New Oxford American Dictionary) Since we died in Christ, we don’t need to follow rules like “Don’t touch” or “Don’t taste” These rules seem like they might even be beneficial, but they actually don’t help in stopping the indulgence of the flesh… I think this means that they may seem like they would help you with ‘holiness’, but they actually don’t. Paul wrote Colossians along with Timothy.
They wrote it to the fellow believers in Colossae. God is the Lord Jesus Christ’s Dad. Paul and Timothy pray for the Colossians. The Colossians are loving towards other saints. The Colossians love others because of their hope of what’s in Heaven. The Colossians and everyone in the whole world had heard the Gospel at that point. The Colossians understood the Gospel as the grace of God. The Colossians heard the Gospel from Epaphras. Epaphras told Paul and Timothy about how the Colossians love in the Spirit. Paul and Timothy prayed without fail that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. They want them to walk in a way that pleases the Lord; doing good works and growing in knowledge of Him. Paul and Timothy give thanks to God that the Colossians have been qualified by God to share in the inheritance. God delivered us them from darkness and placed them in the kingdom of Jesus. It is in Jesus that we have reception, the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus is the image of God. God is invisible. Jesus was the “firstborn” of all creation. Jesus made everything everywhere for himself. Jesus is greater than all things, and is responsible for holding all things together. Jesus is the head of the church, which is called the Body. Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. The fullness of God dwells in Jesus: which pleases God the father. Through Jesus is reconciliation to all things by the blood of His cross. The Colossians were at one time alienated and hostile towards God, and did evil things. Since Jesus died on the cross for them, the Colossians are now reconciled by the death of Jesus because they are presented Holy and blameless. This will be shown by the fact that you will continue to be stable in their faith. Again, the gospel had been proclaimed in all creation, under heaven. Paul is a minister of the Gospel. Paul is happy about his sufferings because they were done for the sake of the Colossians. His job, given to him by God, is to make the word of God fully known. The mystery which Paul wants to make known to the Colossians is that Christ dwells in the believers, saints. Paul considered the sharing of the Gospel to be “warning people” … so sharing the Gospel, isn’t simply telling the “Good News.” The goal is to present everyone (to God) mature (or perfect) in Christ. Paul works hard to accomplish these goals and he recognizes that his strength is by God who powerfully works in him.  Apple's iTunes Match Failed Me I was so excited to finally buy iTunes Match from Apple. It always seemed like a great service for a good price, but when Apple added ad-free listening to iTunes Radio, it was the push I needed.
If you don't know, iTunes Match is supposed to totally simplify your experience by allowing you to essentially upload all of your music once to iCloud so that from each of your Apple made devices you can download what you want, or stream, without ever needing to "sync." I really wanted to like, and use iTunes Match. I made the purchase of $24.95, watched and waited as iTunes on my computer uploaded and matched thousands of the songs that I own to Apple's iCloud servers. I then turned on iCloud on my iPhone only to find out that I was missing songs. What's the problem with iTunes Match? Well, for some dumb reason, Apple decided that songs that are uploaded to iCloud must be 96 Kbps. If you don't know exactly what that means, like me, it means Apple demands that your music be a certain quality in order for it to be uploaded to iCloud and work with iTunes Match... I had over 4,000 files ("songs") that didn't qualify because they are spoken messages (Sermons, etc.). Apple's Tech Support only offers you the work-around of re-encoding your low quality files to higher quality 96+ Kbps files... this is just stupid. Besides the fact that there would be no reason to upgrade a low quality song to a higher quality file, because of course that's not possible - plus, in my attempts, it increased the file size almost four times So, for example, there was 317 sermons (Chuck Tracks) that I wanted to upload to iCloud to use with iTunes Match, and they totaled about 2.5 GB. If I was to "upgrade" them to make Apple allow them, they would have taken up more than 10 GB. This means, on my 32 GB iPhone (which really only gives me about 30 GB) I would be using up one third of my storage. Apple, please don't limit what I can upload to iCloud to use in iTunes Match. I really want to use iTunes Match, but these limitations will not meet my needs. I haven't done my normal Bible notes recently, because recently I started Bible Boot Camp with my church, Redemption Gateway. I have still been reading and studying the Bible daily.
Speaking of Bible Reading, he's a new app for those who are involved in the Prof. Grant Horner Bible Reading System. This is an iPhone App for the Prof. Grant Horner Bible Reading System. Check it out. It's available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Matthew 11 - (v. 6) Jesus said "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me" (v. 11) John the baptist was the greatest man born among women according to Jesus (v. 24) There will be different degrees of punishment on the day of judgement based on knowledge and sins.
Genesis 11 - At this time, there was only one language in all the earth, English. (just kidding) All the people were going to build a city and a tower reaching to the 'heaven' (sky scraper?) and God came down and put an end to it all by spreading them all out and causing them to speak different languages. This seems like quite a summary… I would sure like to go back to this time and see how God did this. Abram (Abraham's) dad was Terah who lived 205 years, then died. Romans 11 - Gentiles are grafted in to the olive tree, but it's root is Israel, the chosen ones. 1 Timothy 3 - If you want to be a bishop, that's good. But there are some qualifications that you should meet: Above reproach, 'one woman man', sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, have a well-managed household with submissive children, can't be a recent convert (recent is not defined here), well thought of by outsiders. (That's a lot of qualifications). Then there's deacons. They must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain, they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Also, their wives must be dignified, not slanderers, sober-minded, faithful in all things. Deacons must also be one-woman men with managed children. Job 11 - According to the heading in my ESV Bible, this is Zophar talking back to Job saying that he actually deserves worse than he got. OUCH. Psalms 11 - (v. 5) God's soul hates the wicked and the ONE who loves violence. (God hates people not just sin) Proverbs 11 - (v. 4) Riches do not profit on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. Your money won't save you on the day of judgment, but only the righteousness of Christ will. (v. 20) THOSE of crooked heart are an abomination to the Lord (not the heart, but THOSE who have it) (v. 30) … whoever captures souls is wise ( I wonder if this verse is talking about 'soul winning' / evangelism) Joshua 11 - Joshua was quite a killer. I can't even imagine how many men, women and children he killed. He obeyed the Lord in all that He commanded Moses. I don't know if I would be able to do that. Isaiah 11 - Is this talking about Jesus? A shoot from the stump of Jesse? Acts 11 - (v. 16) This verse was one that makes me wonder if water baptism is for modern day Christians. (Granted, I was baptized with water, just in case). (v. 26) First called Christians in Antioch. Matthew 10 - Jesus sent out his Apostles and told them not to bring money or an extra tunic. Jesus told them if they weren't received in a town or house to dust off their shoes and leave. Jesus didn't say to go and build relationships and earn the right to preach the gospel...
Genesis 10 - Noah's offspring. I've never heard the phrase "Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD." ;) Romans 10 - (v. 13) Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (v. 17) Faith comes through hearing the word of Christ. 1 Timothy 2 - Paul urges we should pray for all people. (v. 4) The Bible says that God desires all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. (v. 5) One God. One mediator between God and Man, that's Jesus Christ. (v. 12) Women shouldn't teach, or be in authority over man. Job 10 - More of Job hating the fact that he was born. Psalms 10 - It's always funny when in the Psalms I read things like "Break the arm of the wicked." Maybe I'll pray that in my next community group. Proverbs 10 - Lots of great comparisons between a righteous wise person and a foolish person. Joshua 10 - Joshua had God on his side so fighting and destroying many cities wasn't difficult. God helped by killing many with giant hailstorms. Joshua killed five kings that hid themselves in a cave, then threw them back in the cave they hid in and put a large rock in front of it. Isaiah 10 - I'm not really sure what this chapter is about. Acts 10 - Cornelius is told to have servants go get Peter. Peter has a vision about unclean meats. Peter then went to Cornelius's house and shared the gospel with them and the Holy spirit fell on the gentiles then Peter commanded that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm not sure how I let 3 days go by, but I think I read at least on of the days. It's interesting how I would never let even a single day go by where I forgot to eat... The good news is I'm saved by Grace, not daily Bible reading. ;) Matthew 9 - Jesus healed a paralytic after forgiving his sins. Jesus healed a woman with a blood flowing issue. Jesus brought back a rulers recently deceased daughter. (v. 37 - 38) The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefor pray to the Lord of harvest to send out laborers.
Genesis 9 - (v. 6) God supports the death penalty. (v. 8 - 17) The rainbow is a covenant between God and Man, and animals, never again to kill everything and everyone via flood waters. Noah died when he was 950 years old. Romans 9 - (v. 5) Christ is God over all. 1 Timothy 1 - (v. 8,9) The law is good if used lawfully, for the purpose which it was given, which is to show men their sinfulness and their need for a savior. Job 9 - Job wishes that there was someone in-between him and God. (v. 21) Job said he was blameless. This is confusing to me, unless he means specifically for this recent group of tragedies he has not done some specific sin to deserve them. Psalms 9 - God is good and He judges the nations. Proverbs 9 - (v. 10) the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… Joshua 9 - Smart move, the people of Gibeon tricked Joshua and the leaders. They got crumbly bread, old wine skins and old sandals, and put them on to trick them and make them believe they were from a far country, and not, in fact, their neighbors. Joshua and the gang eventually found out and made them wood cutters and drawers of water to serve the people of God. They did it so they wouldn't be killed. Isaiah 9 - (v. 6) For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Jesus) (v. 17) when everyone is evil and godless, God doesn't have compassion on them. Acts 9 - Saul meets Jesus. Peter brought Dorcas back to life. Matthew 8 - (v.1 -4) Jesus heals a leper, (v. 5 - 13) The faithful Centurion. (v. 22) Let the dead bury their own dead. (v. 23 - 27) Jesus calms the storm. (v. 28 - 24) Jesus heals the two demon possessed men and sends the demons into the pigs.
Genesis 8 - Noah and family leave the Ark. Romans 8 - Life in the Spirit means there's no condemnation. We are, or will be, joint heirs with Christ. Nothing can separate us from the Love of Jesus Christ and for us, because we are called by God, all things work together for good (or God works all things together for good). 2 Thessalonians 3 - If a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. And if a man is a busy body, instead of busy at work, and disobeys other commands in this letter, and he claims to be a believer, we as Christians should have nothing do with him. The goal of this is to bring shame to the man, and hopefully repentance. Job 8 - Bildad says some stuff to Job. Again, for some reason, I'm not really understanding what he's talking about. The notes say he's telling Job to repent. Psalms 8 - God is glorious and marvelous. He shouldn't regard mankind, or rather it would be understood if He didn't, but He does. He made us a little lower than the angles and gives us dominion over the earth. Proverbs 8 - (v. 13) The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil…, (v.36) "… all who hate me, love death" This isn't saying all who hate God love death, but it seems to be saying all who hate wisdom. (see v.12) Joshua 8 - God devised a plan for Joshua against the city Ai. They tricked them by some of the men going to the front of the city, but 30,000 men hid behind the city, then they overtook the city and burned it. That's a really good plan. Isaiah 8 - Great baby name idea: Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Just kidding. I don't really know what this chapter is talking about. Acts 8 - Saul was a hater of the Christian church. (v. 5) says that Phillip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them Christ. Unlike what some churches teach, (v. 5) Phillip didn't go down and build relationships with people, earn the right to share the gospel with them, and then wait for them to invite him to speak of spiritual things… (v. 27, 35) another example of Phillip not building a relationship before speaking of spiritual things. |
Photo from Dustin and Jenae
