PT-2 "Introduction to Colossians 1:12-14"

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/6/2017 10:59 PM

My Worship Time                                            Focus:  PT-2 “Introduction to Colossians 1:12-14”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 1:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

            As I was listening to John MacArthur’s message on these three verses it made me think of Thanksgiving as he went over many verses that speak of giving thanks, something that as I have been mentioning that we really don’t do that much in our prayer lives today.  I know that I have been convicted on different fronts that this is something that I need to improve on, for after all I would have nothing if it was not given to me by God and so that shows me that I need to give thanks to the Lord as a part of my prayer life each day.

            In the NASB I looked up how many times “give thanks” is used in that Bible translation and it is 34 times, 27 in the OT and 7 in the NT, with 19 of the OT times found in the book of Psalms, a place where it would be normal to find this.  “Giving thanks” is found one time in the OT, and four times in the NT.  The word “thanks” is found 71 times and thankful three times and finally thanksgiving is found 27 times in the NASB translation. 

            We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is God who came in the flesh to do His Father’s will which was to go to the cross to purchase our salvation, but when we study the four gospels we can see how the Lord lived His life while on planet earth and so we can then after seeing this follow His examples and while on earth the Lord Jesus gave thanks to His Father.  “At that time Jesus said, "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants (Matt. 11:25), and here we see our Lord praising His Father.  In John chapter six before feeding the 5,000 Jesus gave thanks “Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted (John 6:11).”  John 11:41 says “So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.”

            We can see from the book of Revelation that even the angels give thanks to God, and David also gave thanks to the Lord on many different occasions.  One thing we don’t see is that evil men do not give thanks to God “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Rom. 1:21).”

            The following is a list of things that comes from the Bible that shows us when we as believers are to give thanks.  First we are to thank Him for who He is. Psalm 30:4 says “Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name.”   Psalm 75:1 instructs us “We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks, For Your name is near; Men declare Your wondrous works.”  In 1 Timothy 1:12-13 we read “12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, 13  even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief,” Paul is thanking God for his salvation here.  In 2 Thessalonians 1:3 Paul gives thanks for the spiritual growth of others, and this also is very important.  Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that we are to give thanks in everything. 

            John MacArthur concludes his introduction by writing “What makes Christians most thankful is the work of Christ.  In 2 Corinthians 9:15, Paul exclaims “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  Yes Jesus Christ is an indescribable gift for sure, the greatest gift of all.  “He gave thanks for the result of the work of Christ, which is our salvation (cf. 1 Cor. 1:4).  That is also his theme in Colossians 1:12-14.  Paul sums up the doctrine of salvation in three great truths:  in heritance, deliverance, and transference.  They are both a description of salvation and a cause for thanksgiving.  He unfolds the specifics of his gratitude in those verses.”  That is what we will begin to look at in our next SD from Colossians.

1/6/2017 11:29 PM