I love the way Paul starts out his letters. What a way to greet someone! I wish that I had the confidence to address people like this. Let me explain why his greeting is so significant. Paul says that he's "an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God". That's powerful. The idea behind the word "will" is that Paul is in his plan to bless mankind. This is the same word used when Jesus gives us His example of prayer in Mark 6:10. He says "Your will be done". Again, the insinuation is that it is of God's plan. So essentially, Paul is saying "I'm a follower of Christ, not of my own doing, but of God's perfect plan." Again, what a way to introduce yourself.
After Paul introduces himself, he goes on to pass on some recognition to his fellow believers. He calls them "saints" and "faithful brethren". Paul went out of his way to recognize that the believers were also God blessed and part of His plan. This is a pretty cool thing since Paul was known as a bit of an abrasive man at times.
Paul sets a great example for me in faithfulness of prayer. This guy must have constantly been praying. I'm not sure how he had time to have a regular conversation with someone since he had so much to pray about. Maybe that's a challenge to me that all of my speech needs to be in a spirit of prayer and worship even when I am not explicitly doing so. Paul continues on by giving a brief history of his relationship to the Christ followers in Colossae. An interesting phrase in this section is the part about "previously heard in the word of truth". The greek translation literally means that they had hope in salvation before they realized its working out in Christ. It's pretty awesome that God places in our hearts a desire to be saved from the crap that we live in everyday. God directs our most secret desires to Himself. What an amazing God we serve!
Verse 6 has some very powerful words about the living aspect of our faith. All around the world, at this very moment, hundreds of people are coming to Christ, some people are having revelations about God's heart, others are losing their lives for the sake of our living Lord. This happens constantly. Every minute of every day. All of these events show God's grace as reality, not some distant love, not an acquaintance, but a loving father who understands our hurts, desires, hopes, and fears. This Loving Father holds us when we fall, encourages us when we're on the edge of depression, saves us when death stares us in the face. He died for us even when our hearts were hardened. Even when our every thought was AGAINST God. This Christ Following lifestyle is real. It's relevant. It's powerful. It's alive.

Join me in living out true hope.

Colossians 1:1-6