To Know Christ

Since I have had a cold for the past, oh, who knows how many days, it has taken me a while to process all that has transpired since the weekend. It seems that God has a strange way of stringing together a series of events in such a way that they all revolve around one theme. (Perhaps it is to get through to my dense little brain.) Well, this weekend, the theme has definitely been the supremacy of Christ in all things. Even more specifically, Colossians 1 keeps popping up in strange places - in 4 of 5 sessions that I attended at the Collegiate Conference, at church on Sunday morning, and from reading a blog on Monday morning. That would make a total of six direct references to Colossians 1 from Friday to Monday. Oh yes, and it also popped up in Derek Webb song a couple days later. I think that I am finally beginning to get the hint. So, as is fitting, here is Colossians 1:
Colossians 1
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you
have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in
heaven.
Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—
as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the
grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved
fellow servant.
He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you
may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding,
so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing to him,
bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God.
May you be strengthened with all power,
according to his glorious might,
for all endurance and patience with joy,
giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in
light.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created,
in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—
all things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and
through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you,
who once were alienated and
hostile in mind,
doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death,
in order to present you
holy and
blameless and
above reproach before him,
if indeed you continue in the faith,
stable and steadfast,
not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard,
which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which
I, Paul, became a minister.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and
in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions
for the sake of his body, that is, the church,
of which I became a minister according to the
stewardship from God that was given to me for you,
to make the word of God fully known,
the mystery hidden for ages and generations
but now revealed to his saints.
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles
are the riches of the glory of this mystery,
which is Christ in you,
the hope of glory.
Him we proclaim,
warning everyone and
teaching everyone with all wisdom,
that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
For this I toil,
struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me."

More to come in a while. . .