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"Rooted in Christ" by Shawna Songer Gaines
Colossians 2:1 For I want you to know how hard I work for you, for those in Laodicea, and for the rest of those who have not met me personally. 2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged, that they may be joined together in love, and that they may have all the riches derived from being assured of understanding and fully knowing God’s secret truth, which is — the Messiah! 3 It is in him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
4 I say this so that no one will fool you with plausible but specious arguments. 5 For although I am away from you physically, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing as I see the disciplined and resolute firmness of your trust in the Messiah. 6 Therefore, just as you received the Messiah Yeshua as Lord, keep living your life united with him. 7 Remain deeply rooted in him; continue being built up in him and confirmed in your trust, the way you were taught, so that you overflow in thanksgiving.
8 Watch out, so that no one will take you captive by means of philosophy and empty deceit, following human tradition which accords with the elemental spirits of the world but does not accord with the Messiah. 9 For in him, bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is. 10 And it is in union with him that you have been made full — he is the head of every rule and authority.
11 Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old nature’s control over the body. In this circumcision done by the Messiah, 12 you were buried along with him by being immersed; and in union with him, you were also raised up along with him by God’s faithfulness that worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins, that is, because of your “foreskin,” your old nature. But God made you alive along with the Messiah by forgiving you all your sins. 14 He wiped away the bill of charges against us. Because of the regulations, it stood as a testimony against us; but he removed it by nailing it to the execution-stake. 15 Stripping the rulers and authorities of their power, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by means of the stake.
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Submerged in the waters of baptism, we enter into the death of Christ. Emerging in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we enter a new life in Christ’s resurrection power. Baptism is our death and resurrection. We die to the old life and rise to new life rooted in Christ.
Looking through the baptismal waters the old life ought to look strange. We no longer recognize possessions as riches because understanding the mystery of God has become wealth beyond measure. Through these waters, what once sounded like fine arguments now ring of deception. Before passing through these waters the cross looked like fear and death but now is a vision of forgiveness, standing tall in triumph over the powers and authorities that hold no sway over those who are rooted in Christ.
How did we once see wealth, wisdom, and power? It all looks so strange on this side of the waters: a faint and murky memory. The waters of baptism saturate the soil of our life, nourishing the roots of faith. Then the picture of our old life becomes strangely dim, washed in water and cleansed in blood.
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Hymn for Today: "The Church's One Foundation by Samuel J. Stone
1. The Church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.
2. Elect from every nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.
3. The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord, to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end.
Though there be those that hate her.
False sons within her pale,
Against both foe and traitor
She ever shall prevail.
4. Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping;
Their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.
5. Mid toil and tribulation
And tumult of her war
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore,
Til with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blest
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.
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Thought of the Day: 1 Corinthians 6:11 Some of you used to do these things. But you have cleansed yourselves, you have been set apart for God, you have come to be counted righteous through the power of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and the Spirit of our God.
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Please Pray: That the people in areas of Africa that are resistant to the Gospel will be strengthen in their faith and filled with the fullness of the Ruach HaKadesh.
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Please Pray: That the people in areas of Africa that are resistant to the Gospel will be strengthen in their faith and filled with the fullness of the Ruach HaKadesh.
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