Colossians Ch. 3

Colossians Ch. 3
• So in small groups we read a chapter a week.... and I’ll admit I didn’t really read this time...until the last minute...but I did read!
I have a Student Applications Bible, it gives little incites about verses and stories, or testimonies if you will, on certain verses or even chapters. There was a couple that kind of stuck out to me....A section called “Here’s what I did"

And it reads:
For a couple of years in High school I didn’t get along very well with my dad. I’m not sure why now it just seemed like everything he said irritated me. Dad seemed old fashioned too restrictive. I began to rebel. Not openly but more in my heart and on the sly. For instance I would tell him that I’d do something he had asked me to but then I never would get around to doing it. Then when he’d get angry id tune him out or I would tell dad I was going somewhere that I knew he would approve when I really was with friends he didn’t like very much
I knew things weren’t great between us but I didn’t think much about it until our youth group was doing a study on relationships. When we talked about parents we studied Colossians 3:20 and Ephesians 6:1-3. We talked about why we should obey our parents and what it means to obey.
I felt cut to the heart I realized that dad was a good dad and suddenly I understood that his restrictions were because he loved me. If I was honest with myself a lot of them (not all of them but a lot) made sense. I was being disobedient and rebellious. I cried some knowing that I had bent hurting my dad for a long time.
That evening I asked my dad to forgive me for all the ways I’d gone against him. It was hard to apologize but it cleaned the air. Dad took my apology well--he even admitted to some areas where he might have been too hard on me. That was the start of a much better father-son relationship which has continued
BRAD...age 18

After reading all of that I was curious to see what each of the verses were that got mentioned... Colossians 3:20 and Ephesians 6:1-3...my versions say this...
• Colossians 3:20 - You children must always obey your parents for this is what please the Lord.
• Ephesians 6:1-3 - children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. "Honor your father and mother" this is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends in a promise. And this is the promise. If you honor your father and mother, "you will live a long life full of blessings."

I flipped back to Colossians...and I noticed in big honking bold black letters, work had and cheerfully at WHATEVER you do, as though YOU were working for the Lord...Col 3:23 ..I found that to be both cool and true! We should do everything as if we were doing it unto God...because really each of us has a bit of him in us.... Well I got to thinking and I figured might as well gone this deep better read so I did. I stumbled on....
• Colossians 3:13 - You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you so you must forgive others.

Some People had a Student Leaders meeting to go to...and we talked about John...we had to read the whole book as our homework. The part in that, which caught my eye was John 6:30..but before I read it there is a RESOURCES in my Bible talking about verse[s] 8 & 9..i don’t like those verses..They say...then Andrew, Simon peters brother spoke up, "there’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with the huge crowd"
Well... in the RESOURCES it goes on to say this: the disciples are contrasted with youngsters who brought what he had. They certainly had more resources than he did, but they knew they didn’t have enough. So they didn’t give anything at all. The youngster gave what little he had and it made all the difference. If we offer nothing to God, he will have nothing to use. But he can take what little we have and turn it into something great

Now bring your attention to the verse...
• John 6:30 - "they replied, "You must show is a miracles sign if you want us to believe in you. What will you do for us?"

To me that is saying like if I don’t get a brand new car tomorrow...God I don’t believe in you... but turn your attention back to the resources...it says "IF we offer NOTHING to God, HE will have NOTHING to use. BUT HE can take what little WE have and turn it into SOMETHING great" now I don’t know about you but I think that pretty stinking awesome!

Conclusion:
That got me thinking...if we don’t forgive other people then how are we supposed to expect God to forgive us? Like honestly... If we expect things from God...shouldn’t he expect us to do the same as what he would do? And like it says in Matthew about the mustard seed, if we have faith as small as a mustard seed he can still do great things with us...but if we don’t not have faith in others or ourselves how will we ever get anywhere?! Also in JOHN chapter 6 it has a resource and there were some questions I thought were relevant...."what would Jesus do?" and "what would Jesus have me do?"

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