YouVersion Reformation Reading Plan, day 268

Colossians 1:15-29 §

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Colossians 1:16

My Jehovah’s Witness friends never liked this verse much. This whole passage might be one of the most direct evidences of Christ’s deity in the entire Bible, aside from John 1 and John 14-16 and a bunch of Psalms… pretty much just part of the whole thing.

Colossians 2 §

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily…

Colossians 2:9

Christ is the entirety of the divine, fully God.

This God who became one of us makes us alive (verse 13). He, the one to whom we owed our debts, has canceled them. No one can buy that debt and demand we pay up, years after it’s been charged off. It is nailed to the cross (verse 14).

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Colossians 2:23

I gave up Twitter, Reddit, Imgur, and other social media for Lent this year. Does that discipline in and of itself have any value? No. I am just as much a sinner without those influences as I am with them. The value comes from turning my mind to Christ (and away from myself) instead.

Job 22 §

“Is not God high in the heavens?
See the highest stars, how lofty they are!”

Job 22:12

How much loftier we know they are than just “in the sky”. Humanity joins together in a great effort and we have reached the closest celestial bodies — the moon with our own feet and Mars with our technological wonders. Yet astrophysicists can tell us that there are parts of the universe we will never see; were we to send a probe in those directions at the speed of light, the light from those stars would still never reach the probe because the universe is expanding so rapidly. Even when we look into the heavens we are limited by event horizons and the inverse-square law. We cannot even see the vastness of creation, much less understand its Creator!

Job 23 §

Therefore I am terrified at his presence;
when I consider, I am in dread of him.

Job 23:15

Job 24 §

…