Middle School! recap of Col. 1:1-17

Hey, since it's mid-December, there's finals, and our brains tend to freeze and/or hibernate at about this time, I decided to post everything we've covered in Sunday School up to this point. Hope this is helpful! If you have any questions, e-mail or IM me.

Background: Col. 1:1-2
The book of Colossians is a letter written by Paul to the church at--you guessed it, Colossae. The new believers in Colossae were struggling with thoughts from the culture around them, called Gnosticism. They believed that physical matter (I.e. things you can touch) was evil, so God would never be man, and therefore Christ was not the Son of God. Another aspect of Gnosticism was they believed they could think their way to knowing God.

Week 1 (12/3): Col. 1:3-8
There are two things: Truth and Untruth. 1+1 = 2. 1+1 = 500. Both cannot be true. In our lives, we believe in all sorts of truths--there are twelve months in a year, etc. Because of this, we’ll never buy a calendar that says one year has thirteen months in it, and we’ll never see ourselves writing the date 13/04/06 on the top of a homework sheet. As believers, we stand on the Truth that Jesus is the Savior, and when we place our faith in Him, we are adopted as God’s children and forgiven of sin. Just like the whole solar system revolves around the sun, we as believers revolve our lives around the Truth that salvation is in Jesus alone, and this impacts everything we believe and do. Just like in the Colossians’ day, knowing the Truth changes lives, and it changes the lives to all who believe--including us; it shifts a me-centered world to a Truth-centered world, which changes everything.

Week 2 (12/10): Col. 1:9-14
God saved you when he did for a reason--he wants to use you! Just like when God called the Colossians to salvation, he did not want to them to sit like bumps on a log and do nothing, he wanted them to know Him and to share this knowledge with others. In Matthew 22, Jesus sums up the Old Testament law by saying that believers should love God with all we have, and then love our neighbors as ourselves. God doesn’t want us to be confused about how we should love, or to study up on creative ways to love, he just wants us to keep our eyes open for opportunities and do it! Loving people goes hand-in-hand with knowing God. The Message Bible paraphrase says it like this: "As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us." How do we know how God works? We pray, we study the Bible, we talk about it with other Christians, and we try it out.

Week 3 (12/18): Col. 1:15-17
Sometimes people today wonder what God would look like as a human being (not just physically, but how he would act). As Christians, we don’t have to wonder--God who was invisible made himself visible as Christ. Christ fully represents who God is, like an icon. Some of us have buddy icons on AIM which represent something about us, and that’s how Christ was to God, only Christ showed us who God was fully. Before Christ came to earth, he was in heaven--and he existed even before the heavens were created. Paul says (as well as John in John 1) that everything was created through Jesus, and for Him. The same goes today--everything happens because of Jesus, and it is only by Him that we’re allowed to do anything: sleep, eat, go to school, hang out with friends, exist. Jesus is so powerful that he sustains everything that goes on in creation, including the earth which would flood/dry out or freeze/burn if something was slightly changed with the moon or its distance from the sun. (If you want to hear more, check out Louie Giglio’s videos on it here & here.)

This Sunday we’ll be studying Col. 1:19-23. Rita will come through as the good Sunday School teacher and bring some goodies for us to eat, and we’ll have our Christmas festivities in the first half hour, so don’t be late!