I had SO MUCH more to share yesterday at Cedarbrook. If you were there you saw that I only covered two points on a list of ten. My topic was The Top Ten Reasons You Should Put Jesus First. Download it now...especially if you've ever been caught by a rushing river. (You'll understand if you listen to it).
Paul made reference to a "dominion of darkness" in Colossians one. That's not something we know a lot about. The Bible never goes in depth about it...only makes passing references here and there so we have to piece things together. I wanted to say more but had to cut the following...
I hope this week is a time of reflecting on all that Jesus has done for you and thanking him for it.In chapter two (Colossians) Paul makes another reference to evil powers and he uses an interesting military metaphor that requires a little explaining. Speaking of Jesus’ death he said....And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:15Paul is describing a military victory parade. You know what teams do after they win the Super Bowl? They have a big parade through town. Green Bay is probably going to have another one of these this year. In ancient times when an army came home they had a parade but they made the captives trail behind making a public show of them. Humiliating the enemy was part of the celebration. Imagine the Packers having a parade and then at the end of the parade was the losing team with their heads dropped in shame. That’s the idea.Paul says that’s what Jesus did in the spirit world. After he died on the cross and rose from the dead there was a parade through heaven with all the evil powers. I don’t know if this literally happened or if Paul is just using the metaphor to make his point but the point is that Jesus saved us from a dark world that is out to take us down and we should be thankful. We should put him first in our lives because everything that once had control over us has been defeated!
