Salty Zebra

  for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.   Colossians 1:16  Why are you here? Were you an accident? Did your parents plan for you, or were you a surprise? Are you just a random sperm and egg that came together and set a series of consequences in motion? These are questions many ask themselves these days, but I have really good news for you – you are not an accident! You were created on purpose, for a purpose. Yep, you read that right, you were created. You were created by your Creator, Jesus. That’s a pretty big thought!   You see, Jesus wasn’t just born on the first Christmas morning, He existed before the beginning of time and actually created time itself. He is eternal, immortal, forever. He has no beginning and He’ll have no end. The book of John breaks it down for us in the first chap...

He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in who we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  Colossians 1:13-14  Redemption. What does the word mean to you? It’s a big, churchy word. One that we’re familiar with hearing from the pulpit. But what does it mean to us in our day-to-day lives? Back to my friend, Webster : REDEMP'TION, noun [Latin redemptio. See Redeem.] 1. Repurchase of captured goods or prisoners; the act of procuring the deliverance of persons or things from the possession and power of captors by the payment of an equivalent; ransom; release; as the redemption of prisoners taken in war; the redemption of a ship and cargo. … 6. In theology, the purchase of God's favor by the death and sufferings of Christ; the ransom or deliverance of sinners from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God's violated law by the atonement of Christ.  The idea is that there is a price that needs to be paid. ...

being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saint’s inheritance in the light.   Colossians 1:11-12  Patience and steadfastness. That’s kind of the definition of radiation therapy. Six weeks. Six weeks of driving hours to and from the hospital every day. Six weeks of laying down and having a mask pressed down on my face, locking me onto the table. Six weeks of nine buzzes. The first buzz brought the scent of ozone as the radiation “tickled” my olfactory nerve. The fifth buzz drew a blue light across my left eye for ten seconds and the sixth buzz drew a purple one across my right for the same. The seventh buzz was always a little strange as it had a “hiccup” in the middle. The ninth buzz signaled the end of treatment and I would be jerkily ejected from the machine. The mask popped off and I rose from the table wobbly, tired, but ha...

  We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people.   Colossians 1:3-4  When you see something positive in someone else, do you point it out? Do you affirm it? Encourage it? Do you worry that by doing so, you might “puff them up?” Here, Paul takes a very healthy way of encouraging the believers in Colossae, by thanking God for what He has heard about in them.   I first learned this technique through my uncle who worked in missions in India for decades. He was never one to tell me that he was proud of me or that I had done something well, but when we prayed together, He thanked God for the spiritual growth he saw in me and the ways that God was using me in the world. This was an indirect way to affirm what God had been doing in my life without falsely assigning credit to me for it. It gave God the glory for what God had clearly done and ...

  For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Colossians 1:9  Knowledge and wisdom. Two different words, different concepts, that are used occasionally interchangeably (incorrectly) and very often together. Let’s look at them: KNOWL'EDGE, noun nol'lej. 1. A clear and certain perception of that which exists, or of truth and fact; the perception of the connection and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy of our ideas. WISDOM, noun s as z. [G. See Wise.] 1. The right use or exercise of knowledge; the choice of laudable ends, and of the best means to accomplish them. This is wisdom in act, effect, or practice. If wisdom is to be considered as a faculty of the mind, it is the faculty of discerning or judging what is most just, proper and useful, and if it is to be considered as an acquirement, it is the knowledge and use of...

  Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel   Colossians 1:5 What are your deepest motivations? Why do you do what you do? It may be as simple as the reason you get out of bed in the morning to the guiding principles of how you spend your time and money in this world. Are you just running on vibes, or do you have a set of principles and ideals that govern your choices?   I’m going to be completely honest here, my husband and I operate very differently in this area, and I think we complement each other because of it. You see, I’m kind of a “running on vibes” sort of person. When faced with a choice or decision, I’m most likely to lean towards what “feels” right. That’s my reason for getting out of bed in the morning, btw. It hurts too much to stay in it 😩 . If I encounter an opportunity for giving or an invitation to an event, I do a heart check. I pray. I seek the Holy Spiri...

  to the saints, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you from God our Father! Colossians 1:2  Saint. What does the word bring to mind? Do you see someone with a glowing halo about them? A disgusting picture of a person being tortured to death? An alcove in a cathedral dedicated to their story?   The book of Colossians is addressed to the, “saints, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, at Colossae.” Paul is clearly addressing the letter to all of the brothers and sisters in the congregation, not special people set apart by the church due to miracles or wonders. In our modern era, the idea of a “saint” has been influenced by the catholic church and its practices, but biblically, we are all saints that have found our righteousness in Christ Jesus.   This letter was written to the “saints,” our brothers and sisters in Colossae, but it was also written to us. Like them, we heard about the message of truth, the gospel ...

   It’s wild how people take a basic truth and start to shift and change it. We mold it to become more palatable, more in line with what we want or desire. It happens subconsciously. It happens intentionally at times. Someone brings in a new thought or idea and it sounds right, so it gets worked into our beliefs. Oftentimes, it’s just a matter of how we were raised or what we “understood” before coming to a saving belief in Christ that influences our thoughts and understandings of the gospel.  In our next study, Christ is All I Need, we’ll be focusing on the book of Colossians. This is a letter that Paul wrote to the church in Colossae while he was imprisoned in Rome. Paul had never been to Colossae before and did not plant this church, but rather someone he had preached to, Epaphras, went on to Colossae and planted a church there. Paul had heard about some of the teachings and influences that were going on there and he wanted to reach out and point them back to the basi...

   It's been an interesting season as I followed this study during the course of my brain radiation therapy. I stepped into my treatment in faith, believing strongly that God had pointed me to it. And this is a treatment of faith because there is no "proof" no markers that show whether it worked at all. Best case scenario? It doesn't grow anymore, or much more. You see, I don't have the type of tumor that gets "zapped" away by radiation. Mine just gets angrier (think inflammation and scar tissue) and then, hopefully, dies. Can it go wrong? Can worse things happen? Yep. But it was growing anyways, which was already worse, so this was worth a shot! Where He Leads I Will Follow  walks us through examples in the Bible of obedience. It gave me a chance to look at both good and bad things that people had done - don't you appreciate how God left all those in there? It also opened my eyes to areas in which I need to obey. Let's take a walk back through t...

  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”   Matthew 28:19-20  When you think of a mission field, what comes to mind? People who look very different from you and live very different lives from you in a very different place far, far away? For some people, that is very much the case. My dear friend, Kris, for example flies all over the world to the most remote and inaccessible regions to bring the hope and love of Christ to people. She’s one of my biggest heroes! But that’s not everyone’s calling. Not everybody is sent far away, some of us, most of us in fact, are tasked with a mission field at our very doorstep.   At the beginning of the book of Acts , just before Jesus ascends into heaven, He tasks the disciples – and us – with carrying the message of His lo...

  For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.   Romans 5:19  Adam. Poor guy got a bad rep. He made the biggest mistake any of us can, choosing to disbelieve and disobey God, and with it he brought us all down with him. You know he had no idea the breadth or consequences of his choice before he made it, but do we ever? Only God has the whole picture, knows all that will come from a given choice or action. But the point the scripture is making here is that it only took one guy, one sin from one guy really, to bring down the many – every person after him.   That’s a pretty dark, sad thought, but the verse goes on! Because this was all brought on by one man, it could also all be undone by one Man, but it had to be the right Man, a perfect Man. It had to be the One without sin. Since we were so far past that even being a possibility, God had to come down a...

  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”   John 14:21  The order, the progression of things, matters. We love God because He first loved us ( 1 John 4:19 ). We obey God because we love God ( John 14:21 ). God loves us > We love God > We obey God. This is a very clear and important flow. When those arrows get moved around, when people try to put things in a different order, it goes poorly.   At times in my life, I mistakenly had the impression that God loved me only when and because I obeyed Him. Like His love was dependent on my actions. If I was obeying Him, I was in His favor or love and when I was making poor choices, I was out of it. The first fallacy of this thinking is it puts me in charge of God – how ridiculous! The idea that God’s choice to love me would be dependent on something as fallible and inconsistent as myself is so f...

  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!   Philippians 2:8  Let’s be real. Jesus didn’t have to do anything He did for us. He is God. He is above all. He is all. He has all. He needs nothing. He DIDN’T HAVE TO DO IT. But He did. That’s the hugest, coolest part of it all. He didn’t have to, but He did. Jesus demonstrated for us the height and perfection of obedience to the Father and today’s passage ( Philippians 2:1-11 ) breaks it down for us.   Jesus, being in very nature God, emptied Himself when He came down from heaven to be implanted in Mary’s womb. He set aside His Godhood, His power, His immortality, His omnipotence. All the things that made Him God, He set aside for a time. Yes, we still have the mystery of the Hypostatic Union where Jesus was fully man and yet fully God, but certain aspects of His Godhood were removed from Him for a season.   Jesus took on the form of a sla...

  For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.   Luke 1:37-38  At Christmastime we read this story and are filled with awe and wonder that an angel appeared to a young girl, Mary was likely in her early teens, telling her that she would be the mother of the Messiah. It is a beautiful story, but when you slow down and look at it from Mary’s perspective, there is so much more to it!   By accepting what the angel said to her, she recognized that a great deal of risk of life and limb came with it. You see, Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph. Unlike today’s engagements, this betrothal was far more serious and binding. Mary coming up pregnant would brand her as an adulteress since she had not yet come together with her husband. In that day in age, she could be stoned to death for this! At the very least, her good reputation would be deeply soiled. The road ahead would ...

  Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”   Daniel 3:28  When I was a child, we sang a song in Sunday School about Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. I looked it up and it was way more niche than I had imagined. Here’s a link if you’re curious. The thing is, those weren’t their real names. Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah were renamed upon their indoctrination into the Babylonian court. According to David Guzik’s commentary , their names were changed in this way: The name  Hannaniah  (meaning  Beloved by the LORD ) was changed to  Shadrach  (meaning  Illumined by Sun-god ). The name  Mishael  (meaning  Who is as God ) was changed to  Meshach  (which may mean  Who is like Sh...

  But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel,   Daniel 1:8-9   Lest we be deceived into thinking that only these four (Daniel, Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah)  faced this fate, we must consider the account of this defeat in 2 Kings 24:14-16 . Here we learn that there were in fact 10,000 captives carried off to Babylon at this time, many of whom were taken to the King’s court ( Daniel 1:3-4 ). Of these, we only hear about Daniel and his three friends requesting to be excused from the provisions of the king’s table. I’d imagine that the others felt all sorts of excuse or validation for consuming it. Perhaps they felt as though God had abandoned them. Perhaps they thought that if God had brought them to this place, He was giving them permission to make exception to their dietary restrictions...

  This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “Oh, LORD, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! – because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgement.  Jonah 4:1-2  There are so many lessons we can learn from the book of Jonah, but today I believe our study’s authors are pointing us to the heart of the matter, Jonah’s heart that is. You see, Jonah was a prophet, someone tasked with bringing the Word of the LORD to the people. He did it all the time. One day, though, he received a Word that he didn’t want to bring. It was a message of destruction he was instructed to bring to the enemies of his people. You’d think this would be right up his alley! Fire and brimstone! Curse the heathens! But no, Jonah knew God better than that. As it sa...

  After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’   Acts 13:22  “Let it be done according to God’s will.” We say it, but do we mean it? When it comes down to the wire, when things don’t look like they are going to turn out the way we hoped, does our tune change? Today we look at two different kings who had two different answers to this question.   Saul, Israel’s first king, had his share of idiosyncrasies. To start with, he was exactly what Israel wanted in a king. He was tall and handsome and strong. He was charismatic and drew people to himself. Shortly after being anointed king, Saul set out to defeat Israel’s enemies that had attacked and shamed his countrymen in Jabesh Gilead ( 1 Samuel 11 ). The country fell in behind him and they saw success because the Spirit of the LORD was upon him ( 1 Samuel 11:6 ). But it didn’t take long b...