Blogging Bible Study: Colossians - Background

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The epistle written to the church at Colosse was one of Paul's prison epistles, written during his first imprisonment at Rome...the one where he was in a house with a guard (Acts 28:30), waiting for the appeal to Caesar, not the one where he was languishing in the horrible Mammertine dungeon, waiting for his execution. 

Colosse was about 100 miles east of Ephesus, where Paul had lived and preached for about 3 years (Acts 19; Paul said it was three years in Acts 20:31).  Apparently some folks had traveled to Colosse with the Gospel (among them was Epaphras, Col. 1:7) and founded the church there.  As was typical, after the church was founded there were other folks who came in with twisted doctrines who were confusing the new believers, so Paul was moved to write to them, even though they didn't know him personally.  So, we can expect to see Paul's brilliant discussions of the glory of the gospel and the dangers of false doctrine.

Counting today, lol, we will have eight weeks to poke through the book and see what we can see.  Here's the plan:

May 7   - Col. 1:1 - 12::   Paul's intro

May 14 - Col. 1:13 - 23:  The Glory of Jesus

May 21 - Col. 1:24 - 2:5   Paul's concern for the church

May 28 - Col. 2:6 - 23:       Warnings against false teaching

June 4   - Col. 3:1 - 17:      Living as a follower of Jesus

June 11 -  Col. 3:18 - 4:6 - Living rightly related to others

June 18 - Col. 4:7 -18  -     Final greetings and instructions

The next weekend  (June 25 - 27) I will not be online...that will be The Flute Player's wedding weekend...I expect to be rather busy, lol.  Kinda eye opening to see that the study will run right up to it.

But it should be a good one!  Grab a 4-color pen and come along!

 

New Study Coming....Colossians

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

A few weeks ago, I suddenly realized that I have done studies on Galatians, Ephesians and Philippians...but never really dug into Colossians.  I kinda thought in the back of my head that it might be a good little study to follow up the year-and-a-half Desert Digging.  

And then in a recent message, our pastor encouraged the congregation to read through the 'little book of Colossians'.

Finally, about two days ago, driving home from work I passed a church with a sign promoting their upcoming study...with COLOSSIANS  on the marquee in big ol' lit up letters.

Ok, ok, I am getting the message here.

So...that's the next study.  I'll post a syllabus next week and we'll dig into it starting May 7th.

It's been a minute since I made a syllabus, lol.  But it's time.

For Whoever Needs This...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Sometimes, listing to a sermon sparks a whole train of thought.  That happened this morning...sitting at my table, watching online, listening to a sermon taken from 1 John 3 and 4.

Pastor made a reference to people who believe that, because of what they have done in their past, the choices they've made, the people, they've hurt, whatever, God could not possibly love them.

Suddenly, the train left the station.

I don't know who might read this at any point ...whether it's ten minutes from the time I hit the Publish button or ten years later...if you found yourself agreeing with the statement 'God could never really love me,' Then this post is for you.

The point that stuck me suddenly is....you are not what you do.  In our culture, it's common to consider someone according to their occupation...housewife, engineer, nurse, teacher, janitor, waitress, etc.  It's one of the first questions we ask when we are getting to know someone. 'What do you do?'...and we have all heard the chiding from folks who study these things that say it's not good for us to sink our identity into our profession...into what we do.  Because, while we may be someone who teaches, or someone who has medical knowledge to care for the sick and injured, or someone who knows how to run complicated mathematical algorithms to build amazing vehicles or buildings...that's is still just what we do.  It is not...identity.

By the same token, someone who has made bad choices, who has deceived or hurt others for their own advantage, who has been angry at God and deliberately undertook to get back at Him for some perceived injustice, who has [you fill in the blank with your particular issue]...is not what they did.  That is not their identity.  It is just what they did.

Now, humans don't see past that.  We are limited in our vision. We judge, point fingers, write people off...God help us.  But God...God sees through the murk and mess of bad choices and reprehensible actions.  He looks through the layers of consequences that seem to trap people in their error.  He shuts out the lies of the enemy declaring that the actions have made us unloveable.  

Because He knows every human child is created in His image.  He knows that every person who has breath has value.  

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. -- Rom 5:8, NIV 84

People love conditionally.  God loves unconditionally.  While we were still in rebellion, still living according to our own agendas, still refusing to listen to Him or even appreciate what He was doing...Jesus died on our behalf so we could be restored to Him.

And that has nothing whatever to do with anything any individual walking around on the planet did or did not do.  He has already done it for you.  It is already there.  He loves YOU, and whatever you have done, whatever pain you have caused, whatever foulness you have gotten involved in doesn't matter.  

You do.

All you have to do is receive that love and let Him straighten everything out.  Because that's what He does.

Watching Season Two...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

 I wrote about watching Season 1 of The Chosen during Holy Week last year, and how impressed I was by the whole production.  So, naturally, when we learned that Season Two was coming, starting on Easter Sunday, we re-watched Season 1 during Holy Week again, watching the last episode just before the Season 2 premiered.

Episode Two (and Three, as it turned out, but I had a conflicting zoom meeting and so we haven't seen Three yet) debuted this week.  

No spoilers, but I believe that episode will speak loudly to Creative Types.

As I watched a new character struggle with his failure to see the one thing he felt called to do come to pass, I felt like I was watching a depiction of my own similar struggles.  I have, in fact, taken a manuscript and left it torn in pieces on an altar...although, being as how my manuscript also existed as a computer file that I didn't delete, that was more symbolic than an actual sacrifice. But I understood what was happening on screen on a gut level; like the character portrayed, I've wondered why God gave me a burden to write something that Just. Goes. Nowhere.

But as the scene unfolded I realized that I wasn't the only one with such an experience; all creative people have that moment at some point.  Dallas Jenkins even said later that it was HIS story, when he was at a very low point wondering if he would ever tell stories on the screen as he dreamed.

As I thought it over later I recollected a moment I had whilst walking recently.  Normally My Sweet Babboo and I walk together, but for some reason that day he was tied up so I walked alone.  And I kinda had a discussion with God about all that creative stuff that goes nowhere...the blog posts, the songs, the play...all of it.  And I remember saying something to the effect of 'God, what if I never get to do the stuff?  All of this stuff that you gave me...and I never get it OUT THERE.  It never really does anything for the kingdom."  It seemed like that would be a true tragedy...to have been given creativity that failed to reach folks.  In my performance-orientation, I  felt rather sad about it. But what I heard in reply rather shocked me."When will you realize that it isn't what you produce that matters to Me?  What matters to Me is that is that you and I grow closer and closer."  At that moment, something shifted in my spirit. So what if no one hears the songs or sees the play or the book never gets published...if I learn to drop all pretense at busy productivity and just seek Him.  For a bit, I caught the true meaning of it and it kinda took my breath away.  I pondered it the rest of the walk and have been pondering it ever since.  

I may slip back into the productivity mindset again, but hopefully not for long.  Because what I do for him isn't nearly as important as what I do with Him...or what He does with me.  

If you haven't watched The Chosen yet...it's free on the App.  Or the website.

https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen

It will challenge you.  Go and see.

Opinions Solicited, lol

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi     

 

Ok, it's late Wednesday and I just realized that I have promised myself a weekend to see if I can get through phase one of the Great Sewing Room migration (moving my production area from the nook at the end of the laundry room to a now-unoccupied bedroom upstairs)...which is cleaning out the room I am using as a cutting room so that we can get the bunkbeds out and I can actually begin to seriously consider how I'm going to arrange the room for sewing purposes.

Which has nothing to do with the faith blog, but everything to do with why I'm not likely to be putting up a post on Friday.  I have accumulated enough hours that I can leave work pretty early tomorrow and get a running start on it, so that's the plan.

But I did think I would brave the crickets and do a little audience brain picking...I have no idea what I'm going to focus on for the next study...as random as it sounds, so I thought I'd just ask and see if anyone has any topics that you'd  like to wander through in my typical 'join me as I explore this' manner.  I'm not asking what you want to seriously study...because if you feel called to do a serious study that likely means you need to pull out your own tools and dig that garden yourself.  No, this is more of a brainstorming session in which I'm looking for a random inspiration.  Most of the studies I've done have be been rather randomish, bee-in-the-bonnet kinda things that took on their own life as we dug into them.  So, if you want to throw some random something in the comments, I'll put it in the stewpot and see if something equally random or surprising comes up.

Otherwise, I may just close my eyes and pick a book, lol.

I used to do week-long quarterly internet breaks; that doesn't seem to fit into the current lifestyle for some reason, but maybe a four-day break is doable.  Hopefully it will be productive enough that I can get all the fabric, scraps, patterns, etc that have migrated into that room cleared out enough to remove the last remnants of  'kids bedroom' so it can take on a new life as the sewing den, lol.  

So...what out of the box thing sounds like an interesting Friday ramble?  Go! :-D

Because Facebook wants a pic to post with the link...and just to hint at why I missed posting two Fridays in a row...here's a picture of me and My Sweet Babboo vacationing just two weeks ago today.  It seems like it was ages ago already. If you had told me on Jan 1 that we'd be hitting the Disney parks in March I would've laughed uproariously at the absurdity of that idea.  But somehow, without really intending it to happen, we found ourselves in Orlando.  Where every photo of us hides our faces, lol.  What a memory to look back on.

Blogging Bible Study - Digging in the Desert ...Final Reflections

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

 I am looking at that photo...the one that has been the icon, more or less, of the desert study, and realizing that this is probably the last time I'll link it.  It feels odd; we've been in the desert since August of 2019.  There has been a LOT of stuff happen since we embarked on this little exploration. The world is not the same place at all.

And it's uncanny to me how many times the very place we happened to be looking in a given season matched up to the events of that season (especially when we were in Jeremiah).

I also found it interesting how the passages that mentioned 'desert' seemed to connect; it was, after all, just a kind of random selection...but still,  even though the verses may have come from different chapters of a book or even a different book all together, somehow...they worked together.  And more than once I saw a connection that I had never noticed before.

This is the first time I've ever done a word study on this scale; I am very glad to have done it, and will recommend to anyone if you have an inclination to do a word study through the whole Bible...do it.  So what if it takes a year and a half?  You'll see stuff you wouldn't have seen otherwise.

As for me, next time I find myself feeling like I'm in a  desert season or a dry place...I'll know it's time set apart for me to dive into my relationship with God, to learn to trust him and lean on him and become closer to him.

I was talking to my mom on the phone a few weeks ago and she asked me what I was going to study after I finished the desert series.  I told her 'I have no idea.'  I still have no idea what's coming next...but I don't doubt that something will be stirred up pretty soon. 

Thanks for hanging with me on the journey!