Monday, July 25, 2016

Monday Morning Encouragement - 7.25.16

Good morning!

One of the best gifts I have received was a gallon of Dale’s Seasoning. (Bless you, Vicki Gurley!)  I will not cook a steak without marinading it in Dale’s for at least a few hours. I know the directions say 20 minutes, but… come on! 20 minutes? That’s not long enough for me to get my yearly dose of sodium. When I eat my steak, I don’t want to taste beef; I want to taste Dale’s! 

Vicki learned of my love for Dale’s when I was preaching on Colossians 3:16 which has my favorite image of our relationship to the word of God, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” Allowing the word to dwell in us richly is like marinating your life in the truth and grace of God. Sure, you can soak your life in the Bible for 20 minutes or so and you will surely receive some benefit from it. But if you want your life to “taste” more like Jesus than yourself, then you need to let the word dwell in you richly. 

This is really the only way for us to become like Jesus Christ. It takes time for us to be transformed into his image. And the transformative agent is God’s word. The longer we submerse ourselves in Christ, the more the grace and truth of God will flavor our lives. 

This is also the only way we can be effective at discipleship. The next phrase of Colossians 3:16 tells us what to do with our Word-saturated lives, “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom…” All Christians have a responsibility and obligation to help one another know God and walk in His ways. The flow of teaching and influence is not only from the top down, but also from one “average” Christian to another. 

All of us should be making disciple-making disciples. In order to do that, we need God’s word to dwell in us richly, transforming and flavoring our lives with the tastiness of the gospel. 

So, go get you a big dose of the saltiness of Jesus! Meditate on the word and marinate your heart in it. Take your time. Let it sink in deep. Then go be salt in your world for the glory of God and the gospel! 



Blessings!
Pastor Chris

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