We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all Gods people-the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world-just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood Gods grace. Colossians 1:2-6.
I have to say, memorizing these verses has been so uplifting. Oh..if only I could be like the Colossians. They had a grip on the TRUE meaning of the gospel, and they were living it out.
Oh..I want to live it out, too. Don't you?
What really jumped out at me was the phrase...your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all Gods people- the faith and love that SPRING from the HOPE stored up for you in HEAVEN...
Oh...Oh....I want to have that kind of faith. Faith that springs from the hope stored up for me...in HEAVEN.
I started thinking about the word spring. That word is full of life, isn't it?
A spring could be a metal device that stores up energy....or contains energy, or absorbs energy...right? Like the spring you might put on a tire, or a bicycle seat, to keep it from being too bouncy. The spring absorbs the energy the tire is experiencing, so you might not experience it, too. Gee, isn't that just like our hope in heaven? Our hope in heaven gives us peace, doesn't it? When we look at our worries in the light of heaven, our worries kind of get put in their place, don't they? That is what our hope does for us. It absorbs all that bad energy, the lies and deception that pull us away from Christ, and replaces it with the truth! Our hope in the gospel smooths out the bumps in the road!
There is another kind of spring. A spring may feed a body of water. The source of a lake may come from the depths of the earth. Spring fed lakes have the cleanest, clearest water, and are filled with life. Fishermen prefer to do their fishing on spring fed lakes. Our faith springs from hope. Our faith gets it energy from the hope of heaven. The SOURCE of our faith is our hope. Our faith comes from the depths of our hope. Our hope FEEDS our faith. To sustain our faith, we must always go back to the hope of heaven.
And of course, we cannot forget the season of spring, which is by far my favorite season. Spring is the season of new life. The air is full of energy, and all around us nature awakes from its winter nap. It is the season of second chances. Everything wonderful that ever happened to me, happened in the spring. I met my faith friends in the spring, and they led me to Christ. I met my hubby in the spring, and I met every single one of my daughters in the spring.
Spring is when we celebrate Easter. We celebrate our new life in Christ. We celebrate the hope we have in HIM, because HE made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. He died in order to redeem us from our sins, and rose again three days later in order to give us a new life in HIM. This, by the way, is the true message of the gospel. There is no other. Only through Christ may you experience God's grace. Only through Christ may you experience the hope of heaven.
Faith, love and hope are all mentioned in the Colossians passage. The three are intertwined, aren't they? You cannot have one without the other, can you? The faith that leads us to believe in the gospel, compels us to love those around us. Our hope in heaven gives us the patience and ability to continue to love those around us. There cannot be hope in heaven without faith in the gospel, and there cannot be enduring love without hope in eternity!
It is only the faith and love that spring from the hope in heaven that will give you the ability to bear fruit. It is impossible to bear fruit any other way. Only hope in the true message of the gospel will feed you, and feed those around you. You've got to feed on the right food...the life giving waters of the gospel, or you will not grow.
Our prayer is that we all may....
... be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water...
which yields its fruit in its season
and its leaf does not wither... Psalm 1:3
Just a note: I have linked to John Piper's sermon on Joy Purchased. If you are interested in hearing more about the gospel, and what Christ has done for you on your behalf, please take a peek.,
Please feel free to e-mail me at weeklypassages@gmail.com.
You have a beautiful way of breaking down these verses. Very thoughtful. I'm glad I stopped by to visit.
ReplyDeleteblessings
~a