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.

Eveything was Created For Jesus

Col 1:16  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. NIV

This little verse of Scripture is quite direct in what it says. The preceding verses make it clear this is referring to Jesus. Therefore Jesus created everything that was ever created, both physical things and spiritual things.

Furthermore this verse declares that all things were created by Him and for Him.

That could be quite a blow to my ego. Weren't some things created for me?

Well, if in one sense something was created for me it would in a greater sense be to fulfill a purpose that Jesus has for me. After all, both I and the "something" were created by Him and for Him.

Jesus is the Creator and He knows exactly why He made everything in creation. When we give thought to what we do with our possessions we ought to first acknowledge that both we and what we call our possessions actually belong totally to Christ.

When we have the correct perspective of Who owns everything we can turn to Scripture to learn from it what Jesus wants us to do with whatever we have temporary stewardship of.

While He was here in the flesh, Jesus taught that when the master and owner returns He is going to take actions based on what His servants did with what belongs to Him.

It seems to me that a good first step toward properly using what belongs to Jesus is to acknowledge and remember at all times that everything belongs to Him.

Who is this Jesus who created everything for Himself? He is the One who is Creator, Savior, and Lord.

Shouldn't we seek to know Him better? Let's do that.