Author Topic: Christ's Ways (Read 10944 times)

Olde Tymer · « **Reply #247 on:** September 24, 2019, 07:46:41 am »

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Col 3:17 . .Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of The Lord Jesus.

In other words; Christ's followers should conduct themselves as Christians as opposed to conducting themselves in any old way they feel like.

A simple way to apply Col 3:17 is just to ask yourself: Can my master put his signature on this? If you know in your heart he cannot, then you do not have Christ's authorization to proceed. If you proceed anyway, then you will be off-reservation, in your own little world of anarchy and rebellion against Christ's sovereign right, as the lord and master of Christianity, to manage your affairs.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #248 on:** September 25, 2019, 08:00:38 am »

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Col 3:18 . .Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in The Lord.

NOTE: Here's a new word for your vocabulary: Womxn. You know what that is? It's the latest desperate attempt by man-hating women to avoid identifying themselves with men in every way possible. I suppose they'll next revise the spelling of their gender to look like this: femxle.

Anyway: in a nutshell; the submission we're talking about here is entirely positional.

For example; we ought to respect senior citizens not because they themselves have done anything to earn it, rather, because it's a respect that their age deserves. (cf. Lev 19:32)

Back when Queen Elizabeth II became monarch, her husband Philip felt humiliated to have to kneel to his own wife till she explained to him that he wouldn't be kneeling to her, rather, to the crown.

In other words: it's the position that deserves the respect rather than the person in it. So, wives give your husbands the respect due to their position in the home rather than the blokes they are.

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to The Lord." (Eph 5:22)

That's a pretty tall order for Christian wives in a modern culture that constantly pressures them to be strong and masculine rather than soft and feminine; to be superiors rather than subordinates; and to be assertive, confrontational, and defiant rather than reasonable, peaceable, and cooperative.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #249 on:** September 26, 2019, 10:35:36 am »

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Col 3:19 . . Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

Harsh can be defined a number of ways.

1• Abrasive
2• Abusive
3• Critical
4• Unfriendly
5• Uncivil
6• Rough
7• Oppressive
8• Cruel
9• Hostile
10• Loud
11• Demanding
12• Intolerant
13• Impatient
14• Insensitive
15• Unyielding

Those behaviors are very effective at making a Christian wife's existence bitter, i.e. a living hell; especially a Christian wife who's making an honest effort to comply with Col 3:18.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #250 on:** September 27, 2019, 08:04:07 am »

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Col 3:20 . . Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases The Lord.

That command pertains only to Christian kids; not to just any kid who happens to be looking in. And it needs to be said that not every kid in a Christian home is a Christian kid. Some are demon seeds: that's just a fact of life and it can't be helped.

The Greek word for "obey" in that verse is hupakouo (hoop-ak-oo'-o) which is somewhat ambiguous. It can mean, variously, to hear under (as a subordinate), i.e. to listen attentively; by implication, to heed or conform to a command or authority.

Too many television sit-coms today portray kids who don't listen to their parents. But of course those sit-com kids typically have no desire to please The Lord.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #251 on:** September 28, 2019, 09:28:50 am »

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Col 3:21 . . Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

The koiné Greek word for "discouraged" is athumeo (ath-oo-meh'-o) which has to do with breaking the spirit. Really bad cases of embitterment can cause a child to lose the will to excel; sometimes even the will to live, i.e. suicidal.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #252 on:** September 29, 2019, 08:38:59 am »

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Col 3:22-25 . . Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for The Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for The Lord, not for men

Some Christians tend to forget that they live in a fishbowl; a sort of Big Brother society where God misses nothing.

"Prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy. Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear." (1Pet 1:13-17)
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #253 on:** September 30, 2019, 09:08:51 am »

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Col 4:1 . . Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

If America's corporations, factories, and businesses would comply with just that one teensy little edict, it would end the need for labor unions. It would also put sweatshops and the exploitation of foreign poverty and immigrant labor out to pasture too.

Most businesses try to avoid giving their employees what is right and fair in order to get better bottom lines on their quarterly reports. Fair and right wages and benefits are expensive, and cut into profits. Herein is one of the evils of corporatism. The ones that have gone public have a fiduciary responsibility (they say) to share-holders to grow and produce profits; therefore they will not hesitate to throw workforces to the wolves in order to fulfill that responsibility.

Whenever big corporation like Boeing asks its workforce to take a wage cut; that is what they are doing-- throwing their workforce to the wolves to protect the corporation from sustaining a loss; the meanwhile taking little thought to the fact that wage cuts make it that much more difficult for workforces to survive in an inflationary economy. Corporations complain that the cost of doing business is hurting them. Well; what do they think the cost of living is doing to their workforces?

A popular corporate business plan nowadays involves moving headquarters offshore, thus sheltering millions, and even billions of dollars of profits from US taxes. What that means is; the US taxes that would have been paid on those profits do not go towards funding the Federal budget and/or servicing the Federal debt. In other words: corporations are not all that civic-minded nor patriotic when it comes to money; on the contrary, they are showcases of greed and selfishness to the detriment of their fellow Americans; while the chief executive officers gorge themselves at the hog trough of stupendous salary and benefit packages, and colossal bonuses.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #254 on:** October 01, 2019, 08:09:13 am »

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Col 4:2 . . Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

The koiné Greek word for "devote" is proskartereo (pros-kar-ter-eh'-o) which means: to persevere; viz: not give up and/or lose interest.

"And he spoke a parable unto them to this end: that people ought always to pray, and not lose heart." (Luke 18:1)

For many of us, prayer is a last resort; a grasping at straws because we simply have nowhere else to turn. We wish for success with prayer, while not really expecting it because we already know from plenty of experience that prayer too often leads into a cul-de-sac of perplexity and discouragement; so then, what's the use? In other words: prayer is very difficult for some Christians because it's often so futile.

Why doesn't God respond? And if He's not going to respond, then why keep on making a fool of ourselves trying to get through to an imaginary playmate when all the while its phone is off the hook?

It was this very issue that led Mother Teresa of Calcutta to question whether there really is a God out there. During virtually her entire five decades in India, Teresa felt not the slightest glimmer of The Lord's presence and suffered a good deal of anxiety wondering why Christ abandoned her.

I'm not making this up. You can read it for yourself in a collection of Teresa's private letters titled Mother Teresa / Come Be My Light; The Private Writings of the "Saint Of Calcutta" published with Rome's approval by Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, director of the Mother Teresa center and a postulator for her canonization.

In one of Teresa's private letters, penned to a Father Picachy, Teresa complained: I am told God loves me; and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.

In yet another letter, penned to a Father Joseph Neuner, S.J. Teresa again complained: Now Father-- since 1949 or 1950 this terrible sense of loss-- this untold darkness-- this loneliness, this continual longing for God-- which gives me pain deep down in my heart-- Darkness is such that I really do not see neither with my mind nor with my reason-- the place of God in my soul is blank-- There is no God in me-- when the pain of longing is so great-- I just long & long for God-- and then it is that I feel-- He does not want me-- He is not there-- God does not want me-- Sometimes-- I just hear my own heart cry out-- "My God" and nothing else comes-- the torture and pain I can't explain.

In yet another letter, Teresa complained: When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. How painful is this unknown pain-- I have no faith.

If the most pious nun the 20th century ever produced found heaven's phone off the hook for virtually five decades, then why should John Q and Jane Doe pew warmer persist with prayer? Well; primarily because it's commanded. I would suppose that's reason enough for most. I mean; were God were to ask you to throw a baseball at the Moon every so often; wouldn't you comply just to please Him, even knowing you couldn't possibly hit it?
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #255 on:** October 03, 2019, 08:27:09 am »

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Col 4:3-4 . . And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

Proclaiming the mystery of Christ clearly as one should means to avoid educated words, terms, and verbiage not in common use. (1Cor 2:1-5)

When physicist Stephen Hawking set out to write his fabulously popular book "A Brief History Of Time" he determined to make an effort to speak of complicated cosmological concepts in layman's terms. Well; he succeeded, and consequently just about anybody with an average IQ and the ability to read can pick up Stephen's book and get something out of it.

NOTE: In my opinion it is far better to appeal to common folk than the educated elite because most of them are a lost cause no matter.

"For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh." (1Cor 1:26)
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #256 on:** October 04, 2019, 08:12:28 am »

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Col 4:5 . . Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.

I once heard a story about a well-meaning sidewalk evangelist who was handing out Gospel tracts. A man came by and asked the side-walker what he was doing. The side-walker handed the man a tract and said: Here, read this. Well, the man was illiterate. So he told the side-walker: I can't read your tract, so I'll just watch your tracks.

In other words; don't just talk the talk; walk the walk too: live it because for some people, your life speaks volumes.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #257 on:** October 05, 2019, 08:15:29 am »

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Col 4:6 . . Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt

Grace can be defined as kind, courteous, inclined to good will, generous, charitable, altruistic, compassionate, sympathetic, thoughtful, cordial, affable, genial, sociable, cheerful, warm, sensitive, hospitable, considerate, and tactful.

It seems to me from the language and grammar of Matt 5:13, Mark 9:50, Luke 14:34, and Col 4:6, that the purpose of salt is to enhance flavor and make otherwise naturally insipid and/or bad-tasting things palatable, viz: diplomacy; which can be roughly defined as conversation that makes an effort to maintain peace rather than provoke conflict and/or annoy people and make them uncomfortable.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #258 on:** October 06, 2019, 09:10:10 am »

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Col 4:16 . . After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.

That directive has little application today except to point out that the epistles are meant to be studied in every Christian church; not just special Christian churches.
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Olde Tymer · « **Reply #259 on:** October 07, 2019, 08:58:07 am »

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1Thess 4:1-2 . . Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in The Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of The Lord Jesus.

The commandments instituted in the apostle Paul's letters are given to the Lord's followers for the purpose of taking the guess work out of walking and pleasing God; viz: nobody should expect to excel in the Lord's commandments when they don't even know what they are.

"Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame." (1Cor 15:34)
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Author Topic: Christ's Ways (Read 10944 times)

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