Colossians

First One

/ Susie Stewart / 4 Comments

We have people

that we go to first

 

with heartache

and anger

and excitement

 

They are the close ones

who listen to our hearts

 

And what if

we sought God first

 

with heartache

and anger

and excitement

 

That He would be the One

to remind us who we are

 

when we forget

and listen to lies

 

That He would be the One

to laugh with us

 

when all is hilarious

 

That He would be the One

to mourn with us

 

when our hearts are broken

 

That He would be the One

to calm us

 

when unfairness plagues us

 

That He would be the One

to be still

 

with us….

 

God with us

 

He is the first

and the best friend

 

we will ever have

 

And we will hear

the most perfect response

from Him alone

 

– Susie Stewart

 

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective.

Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.

– Colossians 3:1-4 (MSG)

 

So don’t be afraid. I am here, with you; don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, help you. I am here with My right hand to make right and to hold you up.

–  Isaiah 41:10 (VOICE)

 

For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

– Zephaniah 3;17 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

 

Gracious

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Divine Graciousness

is what I desire

 

A gracious attitude

of the heart

 

showing

in the most difficult

of circumstances

 

showing

with the most difficult

of people

 

showing

so that the world knows

it’s not me

 

But YOU

 

for You are gracious

humble of heart

slow to anger

abounding in love

 

Gracious to those

who don’t deserve it

 

Grace personified to me

showing through to them

 

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Let your speech at all times be gracious and pleasant, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer each one [who questions you].

– Colossians 4:6 (AMP)

 

A Christian must always be kind, gracious, and wise in order to conquer evil by good.

– John of Kronstadt

 

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!

– Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)

 

But the Eternal One was gracious and compassionate toward them. He was good and turned His face to them because of the covenant He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Eternal, true to His promise, had protected them and remained near them until now.

– 2 Kings 13:23 (VOICE)

 

And you know, when you’ve experienced grace and you feel like you’ve been forgiven, you’re a lot more forgiving of other people. You’re a lot more gracious to others.

– Rick Warren

 

Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.

– Joel 2:13 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

 

 

Parent Love

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“My love and prayers are always covering you.”

 

A covering

as in

a blanket

a coat

a shelter

 

warmth

protection

enveloping

concealing

from the onslaught

 

Extending over

as a shield

 

A treasured message from my mom

A gift passed on to my children

 

Parental love and prayer

Powerful

– Susie Stewart

 

Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift? The fruit of the womb His generous legacy? Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you; you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep.

– Psalm 127:4 (MSG)

 

Make the things I’m commanding you today part of who you are. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re sitting together in your home and when you’re walking together down the road. Make them the last thing you talk about before you go to bed and the first thing you talk about the next morning. Do whatever it takes to remember them: tie a reminder on your hand and bind a reminder on your forehead where you’ll see it all the time, such as on the doorpost where you cross the threshold or on the city gate.

– Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (VOICE)

 

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making Him proud of you as you work hard in His orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for us.

– Colossians 1:8-10 (MSG)

 

Photo by Olan Mills way back when

Voices

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If you are beginning this day

with the weight of how you’re not enough

with a forboding

with condemnation accusing

 

Know that this is not

the voice of your King

your Savior

your Lord

 

Your life is hidden in Christ

your sins are paid for

your day is new with His possibilities

 

and you are loved unconditionally

 

Know it

believe it

soak it in

 

And when you get to the end of this day

with the weight of how you weren’t enough

with regrets

with condemnation accusing

 

Choose instead

to hear the voice of God

who loves you

and does not condemn you

 

Choose to listen to the life-giving voice

of Truth

from beginning to end

and then start again

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

– Romans 8:1 (NIV)

 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.

– Lamentations 3:22,23 (ESV)

 

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.  Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.  For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.  And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory.

– Colossians 3:1-4 (NLT)

 

Photo by Arik Stewart

Risenness

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A hard day, yes.  Rattled and unglued, yes.  Unable to cope, no.

How does the life-giving Spirit of the risen Lord manifest Himself on days like that?   In our willingness to stand fast, our refusal to run away and escape into self-destructive behavior.  Resurrection power enables us to engage in the savage confrontation with untamed emotions, to accept the pain, receive it, take it on board, however acute it may be.  And in the process we discover that we are not alone, that we can stand fast in the awareness of present risenness and so become fuller, deeper, richer disciples.  We know ourselves to be more than we previously imagined.  In the process we not only endure but are forced to expand the boundaries of who we think we really are.

Hope knows that if great trials are avoided great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth into greatness of soul is aborted.  Pessimism and defeatism are never the fruit of the life-giving Spirit but rather reveal our unawareness of present risenness.

– Brennan Manning

 

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

– Colossians 3:1 (NLT)

 

God wanted His people throughout the world to know the glorious riches of this mystery—which is Christ living in you, giving you the hope of glory.

– Colossians 1:27 (GW)

 

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called—His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him…

– Ephesians 1:18,19 (NLT)

 

I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.

– Matthew 28:20 (AMP)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Your Mind

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Our thoughts are just as important to God as our actions, and are known to God as clearly as our actions.

Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount that God’s commands are intended not only to regulate outward conduct, but inner disposition as well.  It is not enough that we do not kill;  we must also not hate.  It is not enough that we do not commit adultery;  we must not even entertain lustful looks and thoughts.

Just as we must learn to bring the appetites of our bodies under control, so we must also learn to bring our thought lives under obedience to Jesus Christ.

The bible indicates that our thought lives ultimately determine our character.  Holiness begins in our minds and works out to our actions.  This being true, what we allow to enter our minds is critically important.

– Jerry Bridges

 

O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.

– Psalm 139:1-4(NLT)

 

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

– Colossians 3:1-3 (NIV)

 

…people judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

– 1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT)

 

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

– Philippians 4:8 (NLT)

 

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

– Romans 12:3 (NLT)

 

…let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes

– Ephesians 4:23 (NLT)

 

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”

– 1 Peter 1:14 9 (MSG)

 

The neglected heart will soon be a heart overrun with worldly thoughts; the neglected life will soon become a moral chaos.

– AW Tozer

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Full

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

 

Guilt

Shame

Sin

Judgment

 

make us feel empty

hollow

lacking

condemned

 

and our souls echo back

the sound

of hopelessness

 

But You, God

You are FULL

 

You are everything

You are abundant

You are plenty

and overflowing

 

Your Fullness

replenishes us

with grace

upon grace

upon grace

 

because we need it, Lord

 

We need the Full

that You give willingly

to the ones You created

 

 

Our empty

is met

with grace

accepted

 

and we become beings

overflowing with the love

that You gave us

 

Fully

 

– Susie Stewart

 

Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

– John 1:16 (NIV)

 

The heart overflows in the words a person speaks; your words reveal what’s within your heart.

– Luke 6:45 (VOICE)

 

When I think of the greatness of this great plan I fall on my knees before God the Father (from whom all fatherhood, earthly or heavenly, derives its name), and I pray that out of the glorious richness of His resources He will enable you to know the strength of the spirit’s inner re-inforcement—that Christ may actually live in your hearts by your faith. And I pray that you, firmly fixed in love yourselves, may be able to grasp (with all Christians) how wide and deep and long and high is the love of Christ—and to know for yourselves that love so far beyond our comprehension. May you be filled though all your being with God himself!

– Ephesians 3:18-20 (PHILLIPS)

 

For God in all His fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
and through Him God reconciled
everything to Himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

– Colossians 1:19,20 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart

Love Keeps No Record of Wrongs

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Love keeps no record of wrongs…

– 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV)

 

It is impossible to love somebody and think well of them and at the same time hold the bad things they may have done in the past against them like a register of unpaid debts.

– Richard Savage

 

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have someone to forgive.

– C.S. Lewis

 

But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

– Matthew 6:15 (NLT)

 

Only when we humble ourselves before God, recognizing what He did for us, can we truly offer that same forgiveness…

– Ken & Pam

 

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

– Colossians 2:13-15 (NLT)

 

Photo by Susie Stewart