Series: Jesus Manifesto
Message: Getting the Mystery Revealed
Preacher: Rebecca Murdock
Reflection: Japhet De Oliveira
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Zan Long
Live Beyond: J. Murdock
Live Purpose: Lydia Svoboda
Editor: Becky De Oliveira
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.
Read: Colossians 1:24-2:3 in the New Living Translation (NLT). Note 1–3 insights or questions.
Reflect: Becky often teases me about being super excited about many things. While she is a remarkably steady personality, when she laughs it is riot and we can set each other off. To be fair, I do get kind of giddy about most Bible texts, about restaurants, about the latest Apple innovation, and about the perfect starch finish on a shirt I am ironing. This does not happen without a personal cost—my emotions tend to the extremes. I may be easily excited, laugh often, or demonstrate exuberant expressions, but I am also equally likely to be somber and cry easily over a Biblical text, a worship song, or a movie line.
Those two reactions are my automatic go-tos. You don’t really find me in the middle, and since I am not in tears all the time, I would say that it is fair to say that I am on the excited side more often than not. This has to be positive! Right? Honestly who wants to be around the “downers” and “naysayers”? You know those people—super critical, super negative. Always pointing out what can’t be done or what will never work.
In my quieter moments, when I reflect on all the conversations I’ve had that day, I really wonder about them. I hope that is one of your spiritual practices as well. Just before you sleep, in prayer, simply review how your day went. What conversations did you have? What interactions took place either in person or through social media? What was behind them? Did you connect with others in the way you thought you should? It is in these daily reviews—what I deem as part of my prayer life—that I often wonder what makes certain people so negative. Better yet, I also wonder what makes others so positive. I have to admit that I have made some people my personal targets. Not in a creepy way, as you know me by now, but in the most positive form. I make them a target to see if the next time I connect with them whether my joy, my exuberance, can rub off on them.
Do I see Jesus in them? Yes! Can I give them the time and space to pull through? Yes! This is the attitude Paul displays in this passage. After he had just completed the most epic poem about who Jesus is, he felt the need to take that joy and pass it on.
Recalibrate: Paul, while in prison, kept raising hope for others. Are you able to find joy and raise hope while you are suffering? What could make that possible?
Respond: Pray for the Jesus joy in your life.
Research: Read Psalm 19, in particular Verse 4.
Remember: “This truth is Christ Himself, who is in you. He is our only hope for glory” (Colossians 1:27, ICB).
Japhet De Oliveira is administrative director for the Center for Mission and Culture at Adventist Health in Roseville, California.
Play a game of Hide and Seek with your child. So often our little ones put their hands over their eyes so they cannot see anyone and that is how they hide. I love calling out their name and asking “where are you?” even though I know they are right in front of me. Jesus does not hide from us. This Is For You asks this question: “Can you hear it, see it too? This world of love is made for you.” When we say “Yes, Jesus, I want you” love lives inside our hearts. When we help each other, we see what love looks like. That is when we can hear love and see love.
You will need six plastic cups, a tray, and a jug of water for today’s Daily Walk. Make a plastic cup pyramid on a tray. Start with three cups in a row. Then put two cups on top of them and then one more on top of the two. Now, pour water into the top cup and see where the water goes. Did you stack your cups right side up or upside down? What would happen if you poured the water into the upside down cups? Jesus is pouring out all the time. Are we right side up or upside down? Whichever one we are, let’s ask Jesus to pour into us today and that our hearts will be right side up and ready to be filled.
I am a big fan of escape rooms! There is something really cool about sitting in a locked room trying to solve riddles and puzzles that will reveal a key or a phrase that will grant access to the next piece of the equation. The added pressure of a ticking clock makes the experience such an adrenaline rush. When I was growing up, I watched Legends of the Hidden Temple on Nickelodeon where teams of kids were doing physical challenges to make it to Olmec’s Temple at the finale to compete for awesome prizes. Running through mazes, putting together puzzles, and trying to avoid obstacles with their friends looked like the most fun a kid could have.
The problem with escape rooms is that once you run through the room and solve the riddles, they don’t reset. They are always the same. You can’t put everything back to the way it was and have the same surprises you had the first time. Now you know the strategy, you know how the story ends, you know how to put it all in the right order—the puzzle is fully known. And the solution is a part of you now because you hold the key to solving it over and over again.
Paul talks about this same idea in Verse 25 of Chapter 1 when he says that his goal is to “make the Word of God fully known.” Not just something they know about, but fully, inescapably understood. So much so that the people who hear the Word are forever changed because of it. What do you know about the Word of God? How well do you know Jesus? What would it take to go from where you are to a place where God is fully known?
“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28). We mature through Christ, so by pointing people to Him, we set them up for an encounter that will change their lives. Proclaim Him, tell about all the wonderful things He has done in your walk and your relationship with Him. Then others too will turn their eyes on Him and behold One who will fill their lives with the utmost meaning, hope, and grace.
Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
J. Murdock is associate pastor at Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder, Colorado, where he focuses on youth and young adult ministry.
Lydia Svoboda is a junior theology major at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.