What's Going On?

Daily Reading: Colossians 3

Scripture Focus: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3.3)

Devotional Thought: In Colossians 2, we saw how we who were once dead have been made alive with Christ. In Colossians 3 - just a few verses later - we read that we have died once again!

What's going on?

Let me give you an analogy from marriage. Thirty-nine years ago, I stood at the altar of the Church of the Nazarene in Fairmont, WV and married my sweetheart. The moment I said I do, I died. In marriage, God makes of two people one flesh, so I ceased being just myself and took on the identity of a new entity. I was we; me was us. The Lana/Scott thing! (Poor girl!)

Though I did not lose my personhood, I became swallowed up in a whole new reality. I still had (and have) the freedom to make my own choices, but no longer were decisions mine alone. No longer could I do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, with whomever I wanted. I had to consider the woman beside me, the other to whom I had pledged my life and my love.

A funny thing happened, too. More and more, when someone saw me, they saw Lana. When someone saw Lana, they saw me. I was 'hidden' inside us. She was 'hidden' inside us.

The Bible says we are hidden with Christ in God. Whenever someone sees us, they should see Christ. We are new creatures. "For me to live is Christ."

Is your life hidden with Christ in God?

Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, for taking on our nature that we may take on the very nature of God. Hide us in your love, O Lord. "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me!" Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 18.1-6

I love you, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; 5 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.