I have been reading in 1 Samuel, but I like to keep one tab open by default to a chapter that I want to spend more time on. It was Romans 12 before, now it is Colossians 3. I am reminded of many key things in the Christian life. Specifically...
- That we are to set our minds on eternal things (verse 1-2).
- That Christ is our life... He isn't just part of it (verse 4).
- That we are to leave our sinfulness behind and let ourselves be renewed through Christ into His image (verses 5-11).
- That we are to live in unity, not the worlds idea of unity (which is called tolerance), but the unity that comes only through Christ being the complete authority of our every action displaying compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiveness, and love (verses 12-15).
- That we are to let the Word dwell richly in us so that it comes back out in the form of wisdom, teaching, admonishing one another, and thankfulness (verse 16).
- That we are to say and do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and to give thanks to Him. To do something in His name means that we are doing it with His authority. It reminds me of times where dad said something like, "tell your sister that I said you could do this." I think that we can have great boldness in knowing that we are doing what He tells us to do in His Word!
- That in order for my future wife to submit to me like she is supposed to, I need to love her as Christ loved the church (verses 18-19). The phrase, "as Christ loved the church" is mentioned in Ephesians 5, but I thought I should mention it here because it is clear that love has been distorted in our culture, and this is the love that He is talking about--loving as yourself and as He loved the church and was willing to die for us.
- That I need to remember my place as a child. While I am a man to some extent, I still need to be completely submissive to my parents (assuming they are leading in a Biblical way)... (verse 20).
- That I need to be encouraging to the younger kids that I interact with. Although I am not a father, I need to be preparing for the day when I will be (Lord willing)... (verse 21).
- That I am not to work because it makes my parents happy or my boss happy, but rather work hard in all those little things as well as the big things because He is the One whom we are serving (verses 22-23).
- That although there be great rewards for obedience and working hard for the Lord, there are also consequences for not doing these things and for doing wrong... and God doesn't pick favorites in His punishment (verses 24-25).
I hope this is as much of an encouragement to you as it was to me.
7 comments:
That was a great summary of Colossians 3, Daniel. :-) I'm actually reading through and (rather slowly) memorising Colossians at the moment. It is so encouraging...(as is every other part of Scripture, of course!)
You talk like computer science major. Ordinary people don't know how to reformat their drives in RAID 5 configuration. Most people don't even have multiple drives!
But what do you actually have to learn to for a computer science major? I assume it's more than than the basics of RAID and some Unix commands like rm -rf /
Thanks Anika and Joshua. Computer science is actual a very broad field that varies by a lot depending on the school. Some schools put more focus on software, others put more emphasis on hardware, and others are focused on things like networking and OS configurations. I'm sure there are more too, but those are the main things. I didn't learn raid at school. Actually, most of the things that I do on the computer, I did not learn at school. It was a matter of spending many hours of my own learning new things. I decided a couple years ago that I would build my own computer. That was an interesting challenge. Let me tell you... google becomes your best friend when it comes to doing things that you've never done before. It's also good to have a friend to whom you can turn to if all else fails. :D
I know exactly what you mean. A friend of mine introduced me to Linux a few months ago and it's good to be able to turn to him for help. And when that fails, of course there's Google. I'm only sixteen, so everything I know about computers, I learned myself. I guess college would teach you what you need to know in a real computer job with a company. At least, I would hope it does. What has been the emphasis of your studies?
Just so you know, I'm Josh. I usually use this account when commenting. I don't know why. I must have still been logged into my email.
I love the part about being renewed by Christ into his image. I don't know why I had felt so deeply how awfully bad I really am lately, and then God showed me that he has glorified me, and that I shouldn't dwell on how bad I am because he is making me like him. Great overview! very encouraging.
Room moving is always interesting. Sounds like a nice arrangement.
How many siblings do you have? I love all of mine. Can't wait to get back home to them.
Josh, I would say that with computer science, the degree will not necessarily prepare you for your job. Computer science is constantly changing, so the degree is more to get you feet wet and enable you to learn more about whatever you choose to dive deeper into. They give you the basics, but you need to know specifics for working... but once you have the basics down, you can apply them in many areas.
Laura, I have three siblings... two of which live at home right now. :)
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