Colossians 3:12-16“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.  Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts”.

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom”

Rev Dr. George Mulrain in a recent sermon spoke to allowing the word of God to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16).  He made the point that the word of God is an active word that brings goodness.  In creation (Genesis) God’s word was sufficient to create action.  In Isaiah 55:11, God speaks about His active word “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it”.  Rev. Mulrain made the point that when we made the choice to allow God’s word to dwell in us; it allows the word to be active in our lives.  We therefore must be God’s active word in the world.  We are called to be agents of healing, reconciliation and to foster harmony.  God’s active word must dwell in us richly as well: operating in the context of Christ’s abundance, it must be evident all the time and overflow in our beings just like Christ when He was here on earth.

It is clear that the world in which we live needs us to live like this.  The active word of God needs to be clear to all peoples and cultures in the world.  When we allow God to live in us then the qualities of compassion, patience, forgiveness, kindness, gentleness, humility, love and peace will be cultivated not only in our lives but nurtured in the lives of those in our spheres of influence.  Think about those persons in your spheres of influence and realize that they have other people in their spheres of influence that are influenced by you indirectly.  It is critical that we practice God’s active word of goodness so that the entire world will know that there is a God, who loves them, came to die for them and rose to bring them to abundant life: Jesus Christ.  When we don’t spread God’s active word of goodness which is sufficient in itself, we are contributing to the spread of evil and darkness in the world.  Let us therefore put up resistance by letting God’s active word dwell in us and then we will overflow to the world at large.  Let us start right now.

What action has God asked you to perform to spread his goodness that you have not done? Write down a plan to perform it and find an accountability partner to keep you on track.  Remember that Jesus is right now interceding for you at the right hand of the Father so you have divine intervention on your side. Hallelujah. 

PRAYER

God you alone are God.  We bow before you and say Abba.  Transform us from within with your active word so that we can transform the world without.  We look to your all Sufficient Word, the Incarnate Word Jesus Christ whose sacrifice made all of this possible.    Amen