What Has Jesus Done For Me Lately?

Col 1:17  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. NIV

Col 1:17  Before anything was created, he was already there. He holds everything together. NIrV® Copyright © 1996, 1998 by Biblica

The NIV and NIrV both say the same thing. The "He" in each is referring to Jesus, the Son of God, which is shown in the verses that lead up to verse 17.

Notice that in the NIV it does not say He was before all things, it says He is before all things. It is written that way because Jesus made it clear that He has always existed, even before anything was ever created.

In John 8:58-59, when Jesus said that "before Abraham was, I am." the Jewish leaders picked up stones to kill Him because they knew that He was declaring Himself to be God. They weren't able to kill Him at that time because it wasn't yet time for Christ to be put to death for our sins.

The NIrV® translation makes it abundantly clear that Jesus was already here before anything was created. Since He is the Creator then of course He was there. Indeed He is before all things.

Christ not only created everything that was created, He also holds all things together. He is that powerful.

It seems to me that I should be thankful that Christ holds everything together. What if He didn't hold air together? Or water? Where would I be, then?

We owe a lot to Jesus. I want to be ever mindful of being thankful to Him for salvation and for everything that He sustains that make it possible for us all to live and breathe.

Let's think about Him even more than we already have thought about Him. After all, His holding everything together is doing a lot more than we could ever do for ourselves. Thank You, Lord Jesus.

Don't Be Deceived

Col 2:2-4  My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.   NIV

Fine sounding arguments deceive many people every day.

Without the correct information, and a proper understanding of that information, anyone can be deceived.

Many people have opinions about Christ. The opinions they have may be casual or strong. They might even think Jesus Christ doesn't even warrant a second thought.

People can feel quite comfortable in what they think about Christ even though they've never take even a few hours to check out what the Bible says about Him. After all, they've heard other people say those stories about Him are fiction. Nobody could have really done those things.

Heal a man born blind? Bring dead persons back to life? Multiply bread and  fish? Walk on water? Resurrect from the dead with a body that could never die again?

There are fine-sounding arguments that Jesus was just an ordinary man and what is written about Him in the Bible is untrue. But before you accept those arguments, ask yourself why Christ's followers were persecuted, tortured and put to death rather than deny what they testified about Jesus and His resurrection.

They weren't put to death simply for a noble cause. They were put to death because they were totally convinced about what they had seen and heard and no fine sounding argument was going to get them to deny what they knew was true.

You need to know who Jesus really is. What you do for the rest of your natural and spiritual life is connected with your relationship with Christ. Don't take this matter lightly. Don't risk being deceived by arguments that may sound quite harmless but in reality may be quite deadly to for all eternity.