Monday

COLOSSIANS 1:15-20

1. Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. Read the text until you can understand what it says. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.

2. Vv15-17: These verses tell us that Jesus is:

• The physical, visible representation of God
• The first cause of all creation 
• The One who holds it all together

From your perspective that Jesus is your Lord and Shepherd, what do these truths mean to you?

3. V18: “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” He, the One described in the previous verses, is the head of the body; he is the One who conquered death: what do these truths mean to you? 

4. Vv19-20: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” He, the One described in the previous verses, who has the fullness of God in him, sacrificed himself on the cross to reconcile us and all things, to God. What do these truths mean to you?

5. Write down a prayer in response.

Tuesday

COLOSSIANS 1:15-20

1. Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.

2. Read the passage. Review the answers/thoughts you wrote down yesterday. Is there anything that you need to respond to?

3. Review the past day. What concerns/joys/events occupy your heart?

4. Write down a prayer in response.

Wednesday

COLOSSIANS 1:21-23

1. Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. Read the text until you can understand what it says. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down. 

2. In these verses is the Gospel in a nutshell:
   1. What was our original situation?

2. What did God do?

3. What do we need to do?

4. What will be the certain outcome?

3. At the centre of it all, the man on the cross, is that man described in vv15-20. Why is it so important that it is Jesus on the cross—the man whom “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him”?

4. Write down a prayer in response.

Thursday

COLOSSIANS 1:19-23

1. Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.

2. Read the passage. Review the answers/thoughts you wrote down yesterday. Is there anything that you need to respond to?

3. Review the past day. What concerns/joys/events occupy your heart?

4. Write down a prayer in response.

Friday

COLOSSIANS 1:24-29

1. Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. Read the text until you can understand what it says. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down. 

2. Why is the Gospel so valuable that Paul is willing to suffer for it? Why is Paul so willing to be a servant to it? What does he understand the Gospel to be?

3. “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” For Paul, the centre of the Gospel is Christ because it is who Christ is that makes it all possible. What does the Gospel mean to you?

4. Write down a prayer in response.

Saturday

COLOSSIANS 1:24-29

1. Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.

2. Read the passage. Review the answers/thoughts you wrote down yesterday. Is there anything that you need to respond to?

3. Review the past day. What concerns/joys/events occupy your heart?

4. Write down a prayer in response.

Sunday

THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL

The Gospel is not merely a love story to captivate our hearts. It is the bold move of a compassionate God to save the world. This is the ultimate, once in eternity, mystery revealed in Paul’s lifetime. 

Paul tells us that Jesus is God in physical form. He is the cause of all creation: everything, everything you can imagine. The fullness of God indwelt Jesus. The Gospel reveals this audacious mission to open a path for mankind to return to his Creator. On the cross the “fullness of God” sacrificed himself to atone for the sin of mankind and bought that legal loophole for us to be reconciled to our holy, but compassionate, God. Once the path is cleared, the glorious riches of Christ are made available to us.

But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. (Colossians 1:22)

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

Just substitute Jesus and Christ for “the fullness of God” and you will capture the import of the Gospel: The Fullness of God died for us so that we can be presented holy in God’s sight, and now The Fullness of God is in us, our Hope of Glory!

For Paul, this is not a theory or a captivating concept. It is a reality he experienced the moment he repented and called Jesus Lord. And it is for this glorious reality that he willingly expends himself in service of the Gospel.

1. Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.

2. Review the answers/thoughts you wrote down in the past week. What conclusion can you draw from the passages of Scripture you have been considering? Is there anything that you need to respond to?

3. Read the short sharing above. Does it add anything to your conclusion? 

4. Review the past week. What concerns/joys/events occupy your heart?

5. Write down a prayer in response.