What God looks like

When I was in high school, I worked for a grocery store where an impressively large man used to shop with some regularity. One day someone asked me, “You know who that is, don’t you?” “No.” “That’s Keith Fahnhorst; he’s an offensive tackle for the San Francisco 49ers!” From then on, this football fan was […]

Sermon: We Give Thanks to God

We Give Thanks to God Colossians 1:3-8 October 13, 2013 Picture Charlie Brown sitting at a desk and writing. In the second panel he utters the single word, “Rats,” and crumples up the paper. It joins a large pile of crumpled up pieces of paper in the third panel. And in the final panel he […]

Who’s who in the early church

The apostle Paul’s letters often conclude with lists of greetings from or encouragements to particular people. The list of generally obscure names in Colossians 4 is typical and reveals the kinds of people God uses to accomplish his purposes. Consider Aristarchus, a captive man. He was from Thessalonica and went with Paul and Tychicus to […]

Why seeking God is so important

Colossians 3 says that the believer is to “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth” (v. 2). To ask a question that a three-year-old might ask — Why? Why should we set out minds on God and seek Him (v. 1)? The passage offers five reasons […]

Satan and sin — two defeated foes

Many believers live day-to-day in discouragement and even despair over their sin. They erringly believe that they cannot escape their sin. They rightly believe that there is forgiveness and cleansing for every sin, but they wrongly believe that their sinful habits and patterns cannot change. In Colossians 2, Paul articulates two glorious truths for the […]

The sufferings of Christ — and our sufferings

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col 1:24). Too often the misconception that the Christian life is a life of ease and simplicity without trial and […]

Sunday Leftovers — The Supremacy of Christ

Christ is supreme over all things. He always has been. When creation began, He was already in existence, co-eternal with God the Father. He was, in fact, the One who created all things. And one week after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, He demonstrated that supremacy for all men to see with His resurrection. That […]

Reading Colossians

All written from during his first Roman imprisonment, Paul’s four letters of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon all carry similar themes and messages. Each of them stresses in some manner the work of Christ and the unity of the church. Yet perhaps no two letters are more similar than Ephesians and Colossians; so reading Colossians […]