via TJC
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”
—Colossians 1:15-18
The church at Colossae had many faithful saints and followers of Christ. But… as with other churches Paul was shepherding, they had their share of dangerous false doctrines. Not the least of those was Gnosticism.
The Gnostics separated matter from thought. To them, matter was evil and non-matter (thought, knowledge, spirit) was the path to salvation. They believed Christ came to earth as a spiritual manifestation. Long story short, in this way, they could separate their connection to God from what they did in their material life. This made it easier to practice unrestrained indulgence of the body without the guilty feelings. Somewhere in the background I hear the “Church Lady” saying “Well, isn’t that convenient?!”
This was problematic on its own. In addition, Gnosticism encouraged its followers to seek holiness through self-centered personal efforts to control their human instincts. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know this idea did not come from Paul’s teachings, leave alone from Jesus. Christ commands us to bring our sin to Him and lay it at His feet.
We are to place our affections on Jesus and, in doing so, all our rebellious nature and self-will is replaced with mercy and grace. That exchange could only be brought to men by a Christ who was 100% human and willing to pay for our lives with His life. Abundant, eternal life could only be given to us by a Christ who is 100% God.
“Explain that,” you say? I can’t. Paul does a much better job of that in the words at the top of this page.
DAILY BATTLE ORDER:
Even as a Kingdom Man, you can’t fix yourself. However, you have the privilege of handing that task over to the incomparable Jesus Christ.
Do it as often as needed. Today. He’s waiting.
…
Please receive this Christmas Present from TJC:
We join you in celebrating the amazing gift of our Savior, who became like us, so we could become more like him.
We want to personally thank you for being part of The Joshua Commission in 2023. This year, we focused on deep change in our lives and building great men out of conflict. We expanded that theme into our Battlefield Campaigns at Chickamauga, Manassas, and Gettysburg. Our Daily Battle Orders have taken us on a journey through every book of the Bible, concluding this April.
The Daily Battle Orders for the rest of 2024 will then focus on our very first ministry, in our homes and community. We will dive deep into becoming better disciple-makers as husbands, parents, mentors, and neighbors. We will be introducing new battlefield programs that will then include our wives, children, and family as our first line of responsibility which must be done together as family and community.
Our gift to you this Christmas is a free registration to join us on a Battlefield for your spouse or family member. When registering for one of the Battlefields, please use GIFT2024 as a coupon code to register that person.
We are very fortunate to offer this gift to your family through the generosity of dedicated and generous donors who know and help expand our ministry. We invite you to help extend our outreach by donating so others may be gifted through this link:
Our Daily Battle Orders reach several thousand readers each day, and several hundred men have joined us on a Battlefield. We pray our gift to you this Christmas will be used and loved as you join us in person in 2024.
From everyone in The Joshua Commission, we pray and share with you a wish for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Via TJC
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