How Shall We Live; Whom Shall We Please?

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." (Col 2:6-8 NIV)

How shall we live then? Shall we live to please the world or to please God? If indeed Christ abides in us and we in him we will strive to please God even as Christ pleased our Father in heaven.  For when Jesus was baptized by John (Matt 3:16-17) and when he was transfigured on the mountain (Matt 17:1-5) a voice was heard from the heavens: This is my Son, with him I am well pleased. 

It is difficult to not follow in the ways of the world. We live here. We experience the hollow and deceptive philosophies and human traditions on a daily basis. It is all around us. But, that does not excuse us from following Jesus. In Christ it is possible to know the difference between the elemental spiritual forces and the Spirit of Christ. We are called to take up our crosses and to follow in the way of Jesus to please our Father in heaven. We may fall on the way; many times. But, as we live in faith in Christ, he will pick us up and put us on his path over and over again.

Even as Joshua admonished the people of God to consider whom they would serve; let each and everyone of us ask ourselves whom we shall serve, as well. 

     “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  (Josh 24:14-15)

For our own sake and for the sake of all people, may God help us to follow in the way of Jesus which is pleasing to our Father in heaven; rather than in the ways of world.

God's Peace - Pr. J