September 13 – Colossians 3:1-2; Galatians 3:3
Mom’s internet was down for a week or so. (Isn’t that about like having to wash clothes on a washboard? Or like doing dishes by hand, in the sink? 🙂 ) We’ll catch up on her daily Notes to Annie by posting two per day for a while.
Mom writes these notes for Annie on 3×5 cards. September 9 through 12 included large direct quotes from Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. We’ll skip those days here because of possible copyright issues.
Colossians 3:1-2
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
So, if we can’t get better by gutting it out, or “will-worship,” as both Paul and Richard Foster have said, what do we do?
John Ortberg, in The Me I Want to Be, says, “Self-improvement is no more God’s plan than self-salvation.”
Seems like the letter to the Galatians is kind of all about that, too.
Galatians 3:3
“Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the (Holy) Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?”
We are saved by—and we live by— Gods’ grace. Paul’s “instead” in Colossians is — look above. Look at Jesus. What He has done, already accomplished, and made available to you. How do we appropriate that?
