Have the chickens in your life come home to roost?

Have the chickens in your life

come home to roost?

The Book of Colossians

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To qualify for welfare, you have to admit you're poor.
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To qualify for bankruptcy, you have to admit you are broke.
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To be admitted to a hospital, you have to admit you're sick.
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And to go to heaven, you have to admit you are hell bound.
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We're willing to do the first three, but the fourth? That's a tough one. That's enough to trip up a fellow. Not easy for a decent guy to admit he's a sinner. Hard for a pretty good girl to confess spiritual destitution.
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Oh, it isn't at first. When we first meet Christ. When life is a mess and the future is bleak. When we don't have anything to lose because we've lost it all. It's not hard to admit at first.
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But then, by God's grace, things get better. Bills get paid. The dog come home. The pantry gets full. The face we see in the morning mirror has a smile on it. And with time, the person in the mirror grows a bit proud. A bit puffy. A bit shall we say . . . cocky?
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We forget where we were. We forget what God gave. We gradually being to think that God is lucky to have us on his side. We begin to see salvation not as a toss of the life preserver to the sinking but as a journey in a rowboat: God's grace handling one oar and our good deeds handling the other. It's not that Jesus isn't necessary, it's just that Jesus isn't enough.
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Slowly, deftly, we being believing in the doctrine of salvation by Jesus plus. Jesus plus good deeds. Jesus plus the right doctrine. Jesus plus the right bible translation. Jesus plus the right charitable activities.
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Or in the case of the church in Colossae, Jesus plus the right religious feast, New Moon Festival, and Sabbath Day. To the Christians in Colossae, the right ritual was just as important as the right Savior.
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Paul would have none of this. He denounced, the philosophy as heretical and stated in no uncertain terms that if we are saved it is because God rescued us and not because we learned to swim. God is the verb and we are the noun. God does the saving and we do the receiving.
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All we do is accept it. We might as well admit it.
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ABOUT this BOOK

Author: Paul

Date Written: c. A.D. 60
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Key Verse: "Since you were raised from the dead with Christ, aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1)

Key Themes:

* Faith, love and hope are the key to following Christ.
* In Christ Jesus, we have been offered freedom.
* Because of Jesus, Christians can be as in touch with the next world as this one.
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Contents:
I. Christ is Superior 1:1-2:3
II. Freedom in Christ 2:4-23
III. Lifestyle of Faith 3:1-4:6
IV. Closing Greeting 4:7-18

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The Devotional Bible - Experiencing the Heart of Jesus, Max Lucado General Editor, New Century Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers