DIG for Saturday the 27th of February…..one accord does not mean we have to agree about everything…..Acts 2 v 1

I was looking at this passage of Scripture today and asked myself a question I’ve asked a few times before, “What does of one accord mean?”

Does it mean the disciples and believers were always in agreement about everything?

Is that what is really expected of us as believers today?

I don’t think so; I think it means something else.

In the context of this verse it simply means that they were together in one place (Acts 2 v 1).

Now that may not sound important, however after the seeming catastrophe of the crucifixion and the events after resurrection and ascension of Jesus I think this is quite an important fact.

After all that they had gone through they did not fragment and go their own way; they did not end up in different groups due to differences of interpretation and opinion about what had happened.

They may indeed not have agreed about everything, and there may have been differences and disputes yet they all still met together.

That is a display of unity that impresses me.

In fact I think that not agreeing and still meeting together is a bigger display of unity than agreeing on everything.

Agreeing to differ in love yet meeting in fellowship is unity, and is being of one accord.

We will never agree about everything with other believers, but that should never be an excuse for not meeting together.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and thank you that we can be of one accord”.

Acts 2 v 1…..And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place

DIG for Friday the 26th of February….He came to destroy the works of the devil…..1 John 3 v 8

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard a brother or sister in the Lord saying that God has given an illness or disease to them.

They believe that God is trying to teach them something through pain and discomfort; this is a lie of the enemy and a lie of religion.

In the Gospels we see Jesus healing many, many people.

A number of times we see Jesus healing all the people that came to Him.

Never in the Scriptures do we see Jesus putting an illness or disease on a person.

Also in the gospels we see that Jesus can only do what the Father tells Him, so this characteristic of Jesus can be transferred onto Father God.

Jesus hated illness and so does the Father; we know that as Jesus always healed and never made anyone ill.

In another part of the Word we read that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3 v 8).

So, if we put these things together we can see that illness, sickness and disease are of the devil and not of God.

All sickness is to be fought against as it is never from God; the Bible is very clear about this.

Yes, we can learn from illness and God can speak to us through pain, however it is never sent from Him.

If sickness and disease were from God why would Jesus heal?

Saying that God puts illness and pain on people is not only unbiblical, it is illogical.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you are a God of healing and wants us above all things to live in health”.

1 John 3 v 8…..He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil

DIG for Thursday the 25th of February…..sowing and reaping, a spiritual principle you cannot bypass…..Galatians 6 v 7

God has set in place a number of spiritual laws, in the same way that He has put in place physical laws.

Gravity is an example of a physical law, and sowing and reaping is an important spiritual law.

In the same way that we cannot bypass physical laws such as gravity we cannot bypass spiritual laws.

As in nature, if you want a harvest you have to plant some seeds, and you have to plant seeds of the same type us your intended harvest.

Everyone understands that you have to plant barley seeds if you want a crop of barley; we know we don’t plant wheat seeds for this.

Yet people who want friends for example don’t realise they should go out and be friendly.

I had a dear old friend say to me one day, ”Why are the people in the church so nice and friendly to me”; I replied, “It is because you are nice and friendly to them”.

We will reap what we sow.

God has set up this principle and therefore we cannot mock or sneer at God by trying to bypass this spiritual law.

The main area that people try and “skip” this law is in giving; believers want to receive more in terms of finances yet will not give to others or into the Kingdom.

That is trying to bypass the principle of sowing and reaping and Paul says it is sneering and sticking your nose up to God (Galatians 6 v 7).

Sowing and reaping is a principle or law just areal as gravity.

Don’t deceive your self and don’t mock God, get into the principle of sowing and reaping today.

Speak this out…..”Thank you Lord for your spiritual principles such as sowing and reaping and thank you that we can participate in that principle today”.

Galatians 6 v 7…..Be no deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap

DIG for Wednesday the 24th of February…..you are holy, yes you are…..Colossians 1 v 22

We are often told by people what they think about us, what we are to them through their eyes.

How often do we ask ourselves what we are to God through His eyes?

This verse tells us the answer to that question.

In His sight we are holy; that is we are saints and up to His standard.

In His sight we are unblameable; that is unblemished and faultless.

In His sight you are unreproveable; that is with no charges against you.

To be honest, after seeing this list I couldn’t care less what a man thinks of me, I am very happy to be seen like this in the eyes of God.

It is God’s opinion of us that we should focus on and not what other men say or think.

In His eyes we are perfect and up to His standard.

Now, this has nothing to do with our works or religious performance but it is because of the finished work of Jesus.

Once we have been born again we become all these things as a gift of grace through faith.

That is the Gospel, and that is the Good News.

Tell yourself that you are a saint, that you are faultless and that you have no charges against you; tell yourself this is your identity in the eyes of God.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the finished work of Jesus Christ and thank you that I am holy and perfect in your sight”

Colossians 1 v 22…..In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight

DIG for Tuesday the 23rd of February…..enemies and alienated no more…..Colossians 1 v 21

We looked at reconciliation yesterday seeing that all men have already been reconciled to God through the shed blood of Jesus.

Paul hammers this point home in this verse and he makes it personal.

Just in case the reader was thinking that this reconciliation was for other people Paul starts the verse with, “And you”.

You need to tell yourself that this verse is for you also.

Paul wrote this letter to believers and it still has relevance for the believer today, and that includes you.

Far too often we can remove ourselves from the good thing of God, thinking that His mercy, love and compassion are for others and not for ourselves.

This act of reconciliation brought about by Jesus was as much for you as for anyone else.

We have to start believing and personalising the great things we see in Scripture and this is one of the first things that you need to grasp.

You need to realise that through the shed blood of Jesus you have been reconciled and therefore you have been forgiven.

There is nothing that you have done that can hold back this reconciliation and forgiveness from you.

The good news is that reconciliation and forgiveness has nothing to do with your works, but all to do with the work of Jesus.

Through your own efforts you are right in that you do not deserve what God has given you, but Jesus’ work was perfect and very worthy!

Speak this out…..”Thank you Lord for the finished work of Jesus Christ and thank you that it is this work that was brought about my reconciliation and forgiveness”.

Colossians 1 v 21…..And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

DIG for Monday the 22nd of February…..reconciliation with God is a done deal…..Colossians 1 v 20

The main mission for Jesus was to bring about the reconciliation of man and God.

There had been a barrier of sin between the two parties and this barrier had to be removed.

Jesus removed that barrier by becoming the propitiation (or payment) for all sin through shedding His blood on the cross (1 John 2 v 2).

As His blood flowed man was reconciled to God and at the same time also forgiven (Colossians 1 v 14 and Ephesians 1 v 7).

Now, not every man is saved, as salvation comes as a gift of grace through faith in this finished work of Jesus.

However everyone has been forgiven and everyone (and everything) has been reconciled.

Scripture is very clear on this.

Jesus came to bring about peace (and therefore reconciliation) between man and God (Luke 2 v 14).

Jesus was successful in His mission, shedding His blood willingly on the cross.

There is now no barrier of sin between man and God, the only barriers left are the barriers that we put up ourselves.

All men have been reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5 v 18) and this is what permits us to move into salvation if we so choose.

Because we have been reconciled and forgiven we can be saved and made righteous, only available because of the shed blood of Jesus.

Speak this out today….”Thank you Lord for me reconciliation and forgiveness and thank you that because of that I could be saved”.

Colossians 1 v 20…..And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven

DIG for Sunday the 21st of February…..see the fullness of God in Jesus…..Colossians 1 v 19

There is a lot of repetition in this passage of Colossians, as Paul tries to get across the importance of who Jesus really was.

Yes, He was a man, yet He was fully God at the same time.

Paul tells us this again in verse 18, saying the fullness of the Father was in Jesus.

The Greek word for fullness means to be completely filled right up to the top, implying that Jesus was fully complete with the characteristics of the Father.

I don’t often use Bible versions other than the King James but for this verse they cam be enlightening.

The English Version says, “For it was by God’s own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God”.

The Amplified says, “For it has pleased (the Father) that all the divine fullness (the sum total of the divine perfection, powers and attributes) shall dwell in Him permanently”.

The Greek (from the word dwell) also implies that this fullness has been there permanently, it was not something that God added to Jesus; He has always had this divine fullness.

Once again we can be amazed that Jesus, who always was and always will be fully God, came to this earth for you and me.

Jesus was God (and still is) yet came because He loved you and wanted to see you come into salvation.

And once saved there is another amazing truth for you to meditate upon; that fullness that was (and is) in Christ is now in your born again spirit through the in dwelling Holy Spirit.

Now that’s good news!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for Jesus and His finished work and thank you for my salvation, and thank you that the fullness now dwells within me”.

Colossians 1 v 19…..For it pleased the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell

DIG for Saturday the 20th of February……there it is, talking about being born again…..Colossians 1 v 18

In an earlier DIG in this mini-series I wrote about Jesus not being born, He was pre-existent and He will always exist (Colossians 1 v 17).

This verse also talks about Jesus being born, but this time it is about being firstborn from the dead.

Again this is not talking about literal birth, it is talking about being the most important and having pre-eminence.

It actually says that in the final part of this verse (Colossians 1 v 18).

Jesus was not the first person to be brought back form the dead in the Bible, we can read about at least 6 people being raised from the dead before God performed a similar miracle with Jesus.

But, and this is the crux of the matter, Jesus was the most important person raised from the dead.

In the list of people brought back to life He has preeminance.

Through His resurrection we can all have resurrected life.

We can share in His resurrection; we cannot share in the resurrection of the others, marvellous as they were.

Jesus came as a man, yet was God, and was perfect when He died thus dealing with sin.

Coming back to life meant He had defeated death, a defeat that we can all share in with Jesus.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the death and resurrection of Jesus and thank you for all that it means for me”.

Colossians 1 v 18…..And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence

DIG for Friday the 19th of February…..He is in charge, He is in control; or He should be…..Colossians 1 v 18

I’m sure you don’t need to be told that your head is one of, if not the most important parts of your body.

The brain is in charge, it controls everything we do from thinking to breathing to moving; the brain is the director for the rest of our body.

In this verse Jesus is described as the head of the church, with the church being described as a body.

The church here is rightly defined as the mass of people making up the church, it is not talking about the building that we meet in.

If the church is described as a body, then Jesus is the head.

In this sense He is like the brain, in control, in charge, or rather He should be.

This analogy falls down when we think about our natural body and brain.

Our body has no choice; if the brain communicates and tells it to do something it cannot refuse, it must obey; it has no free will.

We, as a member of the body, as a member of the church, have free will.

Jesus, as our head, can say something and we can choose whether to do it or not.

Jesus, via His Holy Spirit, is talking to us, communication with us, trying to guide us every second of every day.

We choose whether to listen and then choose whether to obey; this is our free will.

I would suggest it is a good idea to let our Head decide what is best for us and go along with His will.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that Jesus is the head of the church and that He knows exactly what is best for me”.

Colossians 1 v 18…..And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence

DIG for Thursday the 18th of February…..He was and is and always will be…..Colossians 1 v 17

There are some things in this world that I do not understand, there are also some things written in the Bible that I cannot explain.

This verse in Colossians is one such verse.

Paul says that Jesus was before all things, meaning that He was in existence before anything else.

Of course He was, as we’ve seen already he was the agent of Creation and He is God, so He must have been before all things.

Jesus said He was the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 1 v 8).

By this He means that He was in existence before all things and He will still be in existence after all things end.

Now I cannot explain how this can be; however this is what the Word says.

Jesus is also the reason the world and universe is still here.

We are told that by him all things consist.

Jesus holds everything together; He is the reason that there is a world in the first place but also the reason that it is still here.

Physicists will tell you that they have found “this particle” and “that particle” helping to explain why matters sticks together and has mass, spending billions of pounds, dollars and euros in the process.

I can tell them how things stay together; it is by the will of Jesus.

The more I understand about what Jesus has done and is doing the more I marvel that He has time for me!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for Jesus and for His amazing work”.

Colossians 1 v 17…..And he is before all things, and by him all things consist