Resurrection Community Church
Col 3:8-11
8-11 But now, put all these things behind you. No more evil temper or furious rage: no more evil thoughts or words about others, no more evil thoughts or words about God, and no more filthy conversations. Don’t tell each other lies any more, for you have finished with the old man and all he did and have begun life as the new man, who is out to learn who he ought to be, according to the plan of God. In this new man of God’s design there is no distinction between Greek and Hebrew, Jew or Gentile, foreigner, slave, or free man. Christ is all that matters for Christ lives IN and THROUGH them all……….
All in all truly means everything. When you say God is All in all you mean He is the ALL in everything that is. He IS the ALL of EVERTHING.
It may take quite a struggle sometimes to come to that place in faith. Because the opposite of the vision of God being All in all is the chaos we see with our eyes and experience in our bodies, minds, and souls. And that’s what seems to be the real thing, and that chaos seems to have no visible remedies. Or at least nothing lasting. While putting out one fire, four more flame up, and fifteen more are smoldering in the background getting ready to flame.
And all that, since we can see it, feel it, touch it, taste it, hear it, seems far more real in its overabundance of problems than any supposed invisible remedy.
And this is the land of temptation. Temptation’s job is simply to get us to believe in the temporal (see it, feel it, touch it, taste it, hear it) rather than God. We’re an easy mark because we’ve always believed in the temporal (see it, feel it, touch it, taste it, hear it), so it’s intimately familiar territory.
But that’s the way it starts, this seeing God as “All in all.” By seeing exactly the opposite, the temporal raising up its head as if it is REALLY a power unto itself and daring us to defy it. The Bible says that the temporal is “passing away” which means it’s just an illusion. It’s just a magic trick and we continue to believe it’s real.
I find there comes a decisive moment in every temptation/struggle in faith …. the moment of declaration of final intent (so to speak) ….
You may argue with yourself, God, or your enemy for quite a while …. say this and that about what you will do, think you should do, believe, don’t believe ….
But grace has brought us to this place of struggle, and grace leads us to believe God as well …. and somewhere in there the faith-moment comes, where in our hearts and minds and sealed with our lips, we let those illusions go and lie down and rest in God.
When we “lie down and rest in God” (by faith seeing God as ALL in all) then comes the Resurrection, which is God as Christ bursting onto the scene of our lives and rising up IN US, not as a merely passive spectator but as a purposed redeemer, healer and reconciler. The Word of God IN US. And that spoken Word that is our lives then is manifested in our world, and the Spirit changes our circumstances and we become confident overcomers living in reality instead of fearful underachievers believing illusions.
And all of it — from initially seeing the opposite to the reconciliation of all things — is God All in all.
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Rev 4:11
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32
Where is the Kingdom?………. Luke 17:20-21 20Some of the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the kingdom of God come?” Jesus answered, “God’s kingdom is coming, but not in a way that you will be able to see with your eyes. 21 People will not say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ because God’s kingdom is IN you.”
Why? Because the Kingdom of God is not a PLACE but a PERSON……. Matthew 3:1-3In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,2 And saying, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3 For this is HE that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
Matthew 6:33 31-33 “So don’t worry and don’t keep saying, ‘What shall we eat, what shall we drink or what shall we wear?! That is what pagans are always looking for; your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your heart on the kingdom and his goodness, and all these things will come to you as a matter of course.