Chasing Shadows
Summary of the key points...
Text: Colossians 2:16-23 
You will find yourself the most fulfilled when you are the least concerned with yourself.
Shadows are incomplete pictures in which our imagination fills in the rest. In the case of verse 17 these shadows are meant to point people to Jesus, the "reality". But people have fallen in love with the shadow and missed the savior.
There are people who are the best church people and look like the best Christians in the world who will be "disqualified" (in hell) because they were in love with doing the things you are supposed to do and don't know Jesus.
You have died to Christ. In other words. The things in you that would cause you to die, have been put to death.
peace friends, I hope that you don't just know about Jesus but know Him... for there and there alone is our hope found.
ben
I just received an e-mail from a friend who is homeschooling. We were reading the Pilgrim's Progress (great book by the way) and we were discussing it. She shared with the group that she felt she was saved because she isn't living in a state of mortal sin and that she has been baptized.
Unfortunatley, I am finding more and more people relying on the fact that they are good people, who attend church, they haven't killed anyone, so therefore, they are going to heaven.
Maybe I'm not finding more and more people. Maybe it's the fact that MY realization has changed.
It really makes me grieve for my family members who put their faith in the fact that they go to church (even when we are on vacation, they need to find a church) but then the rest of the week, I am seeing no REAL relationship with Christ.
(Comment this)
He said "I went to my daughter's wedding several weeks ago, so that should count." I said, "count for what?" He said, "Believing. I know I should go to church more but I don't know why I don't."
It's so easy to always try and come up with a list of things you do because you are supposed to do them as a Christian and linking the two is fairly dangerous because it places the idea that you know everything there is to know about Jesus and you can summarize it in fifty somewhat challenging steps. (I know I'm at fault for wanting some neat list or even making excuses why it's not the whole of who I am. Mostly dumb, especially when you think of disqualification which stressed me out thinking about this week and trying to reconcile in my head if I understand what is meant by it.
Ah I know someone has the easy answer but you know if you don't know it yourself - you've got to get there on your own or it's always going to be someone else's belief.
Even when people say to figure out who Jesus is you've got to get into the word, it's convenient to excuse not really getting to know the Bible with some pretty flimsy excuses. I heard someone say two things today that were pretty honest (I'm probably going to do a horrible job quoting but here's what stuck in my head): the first was that no one accidentally pursues Jesus or accidently reads the Bible and the second is that there are a whole lot of people out there who are relying on professionals (pastors etc.) to do the pursuing of Jesus. If we let others do the talking does it ever really sink into that deep part of your heart? (Comment this)