A Challenge of Biblical Proportions

Colossians 3:1-4 is a challenge to followers of Christ. The gauntlet has been thrown down, and it's time to step the game up! The chapter starts..."If then, you have been raised with Christ"...so, if you have experienced Christ's resurrection, you should be acting this way. Wednesday night at Overflow, we were talking about Christ's resurrection, and what that means for us as His followers. A short summary is that we are dead to sin, because of Christ's victory over death, we cannot be held captive by sin. But more important than that (because yes, that is very important), because of Christ's victory over death, He is our King and our God, we owe all of our allegiance to Him. That being said, we should live our lives in the way that Christ instructs us through His Word.

The verse goes on to say that we should be seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and that we should set our minds on the things that are above, not the things that are on earth (click the link and check it out yourself, don't take my word for it). Now, I don't want to make light of the current economic situation, but let's be real, if we are seeking Christ's Kingdom, are we really going to be focused on what the news says about the stock market, or about which part of the auto industry is seeking a bailout? Once again, I don't want to make light of this, because these events have real consequences in people's lives, and followers of Christ should be ready and excited about the chance to reach out to these people in their time of need. My point is that we should have peace about the whole situation, we should be filled with the joy that people need to see in a time like this, we should be prepared to share our hope with those who need it. If we are just as worried about America's economic falterings as people who are not followers of Christ, then we are not doing a very good job of being a light in the darkness, bringing hope to those who have none.

We have to be prepared to share the Truth with people who are seeking it more than ever in a time when hundreds of thousands of people in our country are losing their jobs and are going through financial storms, they NEED to know the God that can calm the storms and can give us peace in the middle of a war!

So, Scripture's challenge to all of us (myself included), is: "are we living like a people who have died to themselves and their own little worries, and live in the power of a resurrected King, and are we following that King to spread His kingdom here on earth?"