WITNESS ~ INSTRUCT ~ NURTURE / Volume 1 Issue 19
Jun 29, 2005
Hi !
In this issue, you'll read:
THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS - PART FOUR
PSALM 91
WORD FROM THE EDITOR WEEK NINETEEN Unfortunately, the freedoms we seem to be taking for granted are being taken away from us at a much faster pace than we sometimes even notice. However, we don't like to focus on the negative unless it is affecting our immediate circle of life, so we just seem to bury our head in the sand, so to speak! Well, it is time for us Christians to rise up and stand together as we turn to God and ask Him to restore to us that which has been lost! 2 Chronicles 7:14; "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." Joel 2:25; "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you." As you can see from these two Scriptures, it is not too late. God says, ..."if my people..." Are you one of God's people? Then why not join with me and humbly pray during this 4th of July weekend, asking forgiveness for our complacency and healing for our land? If we will truly seek His face and turn from our own ways unto His, He will ..."restore to you [us]...!" Until next time, blessings to all! All editions of The W.I.N. E-Mail Newsletter are available on the Internet. To find them, navigate to www.fcgm.org and click on the "Newsletter" link. Feel free to copy as many as you want and pass them out to family and friends. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, send an e-mail containing your name and e-mail address to winsubscribe@fcgm.org. In your devotions this week, read Psalm 145. As you read this psalm, talk to the Lord about its content. When you have finished, go back and find one or two verses and meditate prayerfully on them. Try to repeat this process at least three times during the coming week. II. Bible Study This week we are going to look at the third section of Colossians - 2:8-23. In this section Paul is particularly addressing the false teaching of the Gnostics (so we suggest you read the section below - Insight: Gnosticism - before you begin your study of Colossians). This section of Colossians divides into two subsections. Read each subsection, answering for yourself the questions associated with them. Type out your answers or jot them down on a piece of paper and place in your Bible for further meditation and study. 1. In the light of the Gnostic teaching that flesh was evil and Christ was spirit being only, why is the declaration of 2:9 so important? Read Colossians 2:15-23 1. Rather than needing "secret knowledge" to break through the powers of darkness, as the Gnostics taught, what is Paul declaring in 2:15? Gnosticism Insight In order to understand Paul's letter to the Colossians it is important to know why he was writing it. A hideous heresy had invaded the church. Paul writes and, detail by detail, refutes and countermands the lies bringing, in their place, the glorious truth of Christ. The teaching that was "ensnaring the Colossians" was called Gnosticism. "The Gnostic bewitchers at Colosse were insinuating that their own inner knowledge added completion to the Gospel (the name 'Gnostic' is from the Greek gnosis, 'knowledge'), and affected to give (a) a fulness or completion to the truth as it is in Christ; (b) a completive inner knowing of Divine realities; (c) a superior "wisdom" or "spiritual understanding." Gnosticism claimed a hidden or secret knowledge - the gnosis - which unlocked the secrets of the universe for the initiated. Many Gnostics taught detailed geneaologies and myths about Adam, Eve and other forebears. For example, they taught that when Eve ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, she received the hidden knowledge that God had kept from man. Rather than calling her act a sin, they praised it. "Gnostic women, considering themselves mediators, were promising godliness if the hearer would follow their teaching." The Gnostics believed that flesh was evil and Christ was spirit-being only. They also believed they had "secret knowledge" that was needed to break through the powers of darkness to the heavenly realms, sharing scrolls with special chants to do so (these are the scrolls the Ephesians burnt - see Acts 19:19). This philosophy of secret knowledge, mixed with Pharisaic legalism, was the heresy that was infiltrating the church at Colossae and is the reason for Paul's letter to them. 1. Ask the Lord to help you remember his Word (see John 14:26). 2. Use the version of the Bible you are most familiar with. What you normally read in your Bible is what you need to be memorizing. 3. Don't just memorize the contents of the verse; memorize its "address" (the verse reference) as well. You can do this by following this pattern: Step 1: reference; Step 2: verse content; Step 3: reference. Then repeat steps 1-3. Note that you are quoting the reference twice as many times as you quote the actual verse content. This gives the verse a clear "reference tag." 4. After you have read your memory verse out aloud several times, try going through your memory verse without reading your computer screen. 5. Look up your memory verse in your Bible. Look at its immediate context and read the verses that come before and after your memory verse. 6. Print out your memory verse or jot it down on a piece of paper. Take this paper with you when you go to work or do other daily activities. Meditate on the meaning of the verse throughout the day. 7. During your noon appointment with the Lord, take out your memory verse and go over it again. Talk to the Lord about what this verse means to you personally. 8. In the evening (at either your evening study or your evening devotions), see if you can quote your memory verse from memory. Then, without looking at the memory verse itself, see if you can find it in your Bible. 9. The next day, before you begin committing a new verse to memory, rehearse your previous day's memory verse and see if you can remember it (without cheating!). 10. Finally, at the end of the week (possibly on Sunday), collect all your week's memory verses, rehearse them and see if you can recall them without reading them. Spend a little extra time on any verses you have difficulty recalling. 11. Remember: Don't just memorize a verse. Put it into practice (James 1:22). It is not being able to quote a verse from memory that counts. It is His Word abiding in your heart that counts (John 15:7). When you actually apply a verse consistently to your daily life; that is when you truly know that verse! This article is Copyright © 1999, The Online Bible College. It is used by permission and formatted for presentation in this newsletter. This is not unusual because I very often receive encouragement and/or "words from the Lord" from one person or another. But today, I was in a hurry and was trying to multi-task [I am sure some of you know what that is like]. Therefore, I just glanced over the familiar words and placed the e-mail in my saved file. But what I did not know was that waiting in our mailbox was a document with an attached letter which contained false and unjust statements about my wife. And I will admit that my emotions jumped to the surface and tore my attention away from completing the ministry work that I was concentrating on at the moment. All I could think about was how to come against this thing that had attacked my wife! But not only is God all knowing, He is very gracious as well. He allowed me to vent my feelings and frustrations and then when I was finished, He brought back to my mind this e-mail I had received earlier in the day. This time, I went back to my file and really read the Psalm again. If you take time to read it now [printed below, in New King James], I am sure you will agree with me that God's love is greater and more powerful than any attack from the enemy and He truly cares about His people. I hope this will become a reminder to each of us to watch for God's comfort and provision more closely in the future. It can and will come in the most unexpected ways! Let's stop taking Him for granted and place all of our trust in Him! Blessings to you all! Psalms 91:1-16 1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Unless otherwise noted: All Scripture is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Welcome to this week's edition of the W.I.N. E-Mail Newsletter. As I am writing this introduction, my mind is wandering to July 4. While it should be a day to celebrate our independence as a nation, most of America seems to have forgotten the reason why and simply celebrate because it is a holiday from work.
Rev. Sam T. Leigh
Presiding Bishop
Freedom Covenant Global Ministries
E-mail: ambassador@fcgm.org
Website: www.fcgm.org
Bishop's eCorner: www.fcgm.org/ecorner/
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THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS - PART FOUR
I. Devotional Reading
Read Colossians 2:8-14
2. Why is 2:10 so significant for the believer in Christ?
3. In 2:11-13, Paul gives the Gospel's answer to sinful flesh. What is it?
4. In 2:13-14, what was canceled and nailed to the Cross in Christ?
2. What does Paul call all the rules, festivals and celebrations of the Law? And where is the reality found? (2:16-17).
3. Paul says the Gnostic's "unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions." Why is that the case and therefore what is the answer Paul gives? (2:18-19).
4. In 2:20-23, do the strict regulations to try to control the sinful flesh work? Paul gives the Colossians God's answer to the problem of sinful flesh. What is that answer? (2:20).
"What then was the heterodox teaching which was ensnaring the Colossians? It bore the name of a 'philosophy' (2:8), and had a 'show of wisdom' (2:23), thus appealing to the higher intellectual tastes. It paid regard to 'tradition' (2:8), which gave it further attractiveness to those who reverenced the past. It also practised asceticism* and affected a false humility (2:23) which gave it the appearance of a superior sanctity. This strange mixture of Jewish traditionalism and Greek philosophy stressed two things: reverence for angelic powers (2:18), and a contempt for the body (2:20-3)."
*Asceticism is the practice of severe self-discipline, involving rigid abstinence and austerity.III. Memory Verse
Colossians 2:15; "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."
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PSALM 91
Earlier today, I received an e-mail from one of our Freedom Covenant Ministers which read [in part]..."just wanted to say Hi and that she (and I) hope that your feeling better, and for you to read Psalm 91."
Bishop Sam T. Leigh
2 I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.''
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your habitation,
10 No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.
12 They shall bear you up in their hands, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot.
14 Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.
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This newsletter Copyright © 2005 Freedom Covenant Global Ministries. All Rights Reserved. Individual articles displaying copyrights from other ministries are used by permission, have been formatted for use in this publication, and remain the property of respective ministry. Permission is granted to copy, print, and distribute this newsletter for ministry purposes, whether whole or in part, so long as ALL copyrights remain in place and no copies are printed or distributed for sale or commercial purposes.
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