So then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.                                                       See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than Christ.  Colossians 2:6-8 NIV

Let me start with this “…as you received Christ Jesus as Lord”  First of all if you have not received Christ as your savior then I encourage you to spend time in God’s word.  Read the Bible, it is God’s love letter to us.  Pray to Him.  It doesn’t have to be complicated, just talk to Him.  Seek out others that are living their life in Christ, they will be glad to help you.  Contact us through this website.  Reach out to a local pastor. Find a good Bible teaching church. Yesterday we talked about how life is short, if you have not received Christ and made him the Lord of your life then I strongly encourage you to turn to Him.  He is waiting with open arms to receive you.

Now Paul is writing this to the Colossians who have received Christ Jesus as Lord.  Once we accept Christ as our savior then we must live our lives in Him.  Now this is not easy because the devil wants us back.  So he will put people in our paths to tempt us to do wrong.  He will try his best to get us back.  This is why we must be rooted in Christ and built up in Him.  This is why we must be strengthened in faith.  I don’t care how muscle bound and physically strong you are, when the devil comes calling you better be relying on God’s strength because you are not strong enough to handle him on your own.  Now those of you that go to the gym know that you strengthen your bodies by being dedicated to working out, right?  Well we strengthen ourselves spiritually by staying close to God through Bible reading and prayer.  Stay strong!

Now the overflowing with thankfulness is also an important part of this whole equation.  You see once God saves us, we should be thankful.  A Christian with a glass that is half full or just plain empty is an oxymoron.  You see we know as Christians that we are saved by grace(Ephesians 2:8).  We know that Christ died for us while we were still sinners(Romans 5:8)  We know that we were given such an awesome gift that we absolutely did not deserve, so we should always be overflowing with thankfulness even when everything is not going as we had hoped or planned.  We should be overflowing with thankfulness because we know as Christians that all things work for our good as long as we love the Lord and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).  Yes, there will times in our lives when we mourn and grieve, but we must always be thankful.

Now I mentioned earlier about how once we get saved, the devil is prowling around looking for someone to devour  (1 Peter 5:8).  In 1990 Aaron Tippin released the country song, “You’ve got to Stand for Something”  the lyrics say “you’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything”.  So after Paul tells the Colossians to stand firm rooted in the gospel, he warns them not to “be taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy”.  Now pay close attention here.  There are many people out there that are as my pastor would say, “lost as a baseball in high weeds”.  I have had very intelligent people describe their “religion” to me and sat there in wonder.  There are people out there that are preaching junk that has nothing to do with the Bible.  If you are not saved and you are looking to get saved, let me warn you, if you hear preaching test it with the Bible.  If a pastor preaches something that is contradictory to the Bible, run.  Find yourself another pastor at another church.  Make sure that the preaching and teaching that goes on at that church is in line with what is in the Bible.  The Bible is the ultimate authority. There are so many false religions and so many false preachers out there today, we must be careful.

If you are not saved, then run to Jesus, let Him wrap you in his love and be strengthened in your faith.  If you are saved, then live your life in Him.  He loves you unconditionally.  He loves you in a way that none of us deserve so be thankful to Him.  But most of all stand strong. When the storm blows around you, remember that you serve a living God.  You serve the God that the winds and waves obey (Matthew 8:27)

Stay strong.  Don’t allow others to cause you to backslide.  Stand firm in your faith. Be thankful and do your best to lead as many people as you can to Christ!

Have a great day!