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CHRIST FIRST UMC
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Day 327 | Tuesday, 9 February 2021

2/9/2021

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Day 327 - Audio Version

Day 327 | Tuesday, 9 February 2021

Colossians 3:1-4 Your life hidden in Christ CEB

  3 Therefore, if you were raised with Christ, look for the things that are above where Christ is sitting at God’s right side. 2 Think about the things above and not things on earth. 3 You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

The Message
1 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. 2 Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. 3 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life - even though invisible to spectators - is with Christ in God. He is your life.
4 When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too - the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
 
I was intrigued by the following description of the squid and the two different eyes.  I wonder how we would look if we had similar eyes?  I agree with the concept being shared by Kirsten for the most part.  We are Christ’s witnesses who live in this world.  Our focus is on being witnesses to the Love of God and sharing that love with those around us.  I once heard some one say the following that has stuck with me – “We can be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.”

“Looking Up Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2” By:  Kirsten Holmberg; Our Daily Bread, February 9, 2021

“The cockeyed squid lives in the ocean’s “twilight zone” where sunlight barely filters through the deep waters. The squid’s nickname is a reference to its two extremely different eyes: the left eye develops over time to become considerably larger than the right—almost twice as big. Scientists studying the mollusk have deduced that the squid uses its right eye, the smaller one, to look down into the darker depths. The larger, left eye, gazes upward, toward the sunlight.” 

“The squid is an unlikely depiction of what it means to live in our present world and also in the future certainty we await as people who “have been raised with Christ” (Colossians 3:1). In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he insists we ought to “set [our] minds on things above” because our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (vv. 2–3).” 

“As earth-dwellers awaiting our lives in heaven, we keep an eye trained on what’s happening around us in our present reality. But just as the squid’s left eye develops over time into one that’s larger and more sensitive to what’s happening overhead, we too can grow in our awareness of the ways God works in the spiritual realm. We may not have yet fully grasped what it means to be alive in Jesus, but as we look “up,” our eyes will begin to see it more and more.” 

“Reflect & Pray How can you develop your “upward” vision? How can you set your mind on heavenly things?  Prayer Loving God, help me to set my mind and heart on those things that are of You!”

Today: Let’s pray for the farmers who are growing the food we need.
​
121 new COVID cases over the weekend bringing the total to 7,081.  The death total is now at 125.
 

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    Rev. Douglas Knopp, Pastor Emeritus

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