God in / God out

              
Phil. 4:4-9
Always Be Joyful
 4)Always be joyful in the Lord! I’ll say it again: Be joyful! 5)Let everyone know how considerate you are. The Lord is near. 6)Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks. 7)Then God’s peace, which goes beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus.
 8) Finally, brothers and sisters, keep your thoughts on whatever is right or deserves praise: things that are true, honorable, fair, pure, acceptable, or commendable. 9)Practice what you’ve learned and received from me, what you heard and saw me do. Then the God who gives this peace will be with you.


Sunday May 9th 2010 

Phil. 4:10-15
Thanks for your Gifts

  10)The Lord has filled me with joy because you again showed interest in me. You were interested but did not have an opportunity to show it. 11)I’m not saying this because I’m in any need. I’ve learned to be content in whatever situation I’m in. 12)I know how to live in poverty or prosperity. No matter what the situation, I’ve learned the secret of how to live when I’m full or when I’m hungry, when I have too much or when I have too little. 13)I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me. 14)Nevertheless, it was kind of you to share my troubles. 15)You Philippians also know that in the early days, when I left the province of Macedonia to spread the Good News, you were the only church to share your money with me. You gave me what I needed, and you received what I gave you. 16)Even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my needs twice. 17)It’s not that I’m looking for a gift. The opposite is true. I’m looking for your resources to increase. 18)You have paid me in full, and I have more than enough. Now that Epaphroditus has brought me your gifts, you have filled my needs. Your gifts are a soothing aroma, a sacrifice that God accepts and with which he is pleased. 19)My God will richly fill your every need in a glorious way through Christ Jesus.

Mark 7:1-7
Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ [a]  1)The Pharisees and some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2)They saw that some of his disciples were unclean because they ate without washing their hands. 3)(The Pharisees, like all other Jewish people, don’t eat unless they have properly washed their hands. They follow the traditions of their ancestors. 4)When they come from the marketplace, they don’t eat unless they have washed first. They have been taught to follow many other rules. For example, they must also wash their cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables. 5)The Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples follow the traditions taught by our ancestors? They are unclean because they don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
6)Jesus told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites in Scripture:
‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7)Their worship of me is pointless, because their teachings are rules made by humans.’

Mark 7:8-15
Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ [b] 8)“You abandon the commandments of God to follow human traditions.” 9)He added, “You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions! 10)For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.’ 11)But you say, ‘If a person tells his father or mother that whatever he might have used to help them is corban (that is, an offering to God), 12)he no longer has to do anything for his father or mother.’ 13)Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And you do many other things like that.”

14)Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and try to understand! 15)Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 16)Let the person who has ears listen!”

Mark 7:17-22
Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ [c] 
17)When he had left the people and gone home, his disciples asked him about this illustration.

18)Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand? Don’t you know that whatever goes into a person from the outside can’t make him unclean? 19)It doesn’t go into his thoughts but into his stomach and then into a toilet.” (By saying this, Jesus declared all foods acceptable.) 20)He continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 21)Evil thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, adultery, 22)greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, cursing, arrogance, and foolishness come from within a person. 23)All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.”  

Colossians 1: 1-12
Paul’s Prayer for the Colossians
1)From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and from our brother Timothy.

2)To God’s holy and faithful people, our brothers and sisters who are united with Christ in the city of Colossae. Good will and peace from God our Father are yours!
3)We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in our prayers for you. 4)We thank God because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. 5)You have these because of the hope which is kept safe for you in heaven. Some time ago you heard about this hope in the Good News which is the message of truth. 6)This Good News is present with you now. It is producing results and spreading all over the world as it did among you from the first day you heard it. At that time you came to know what God’s kindness truly means. 7)You learned about this Good News from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant. He is taking your place here as a trustworthy deacon for Christ 8)and has told us about the love that the Spirit has given you. 9)For this reason we have not stopped praying for you since the day we heard about you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through every kind of spiritual wisdom and insight. 10)We ask this so that you will live the kind of lives that prove you belong to the Lord. Then you will want to please him in every way as you grow in producing every kind of good work by this knowledge about God. 11)We ask him to strengthen you by his glorious might with all the power you need to patiently endure everything with joy. 12)You will also thank the Father, who has made you able to share the light, which is what God’s people inherit.


Colossians 1: 13-23
What Has God Done Through Christ
13)God has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of his Son, whom he loves. 14)His Son paid the price to free us, which means that our sins are forgiven. 15)He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16)He created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether they are kings or lords, rulers or powers— everything has been created through him and for him. 17)He existed before everything and holds everything together. 18)He is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, the first to come back to life so that he would have first place in everything. 19)God was pleased to have all of himself live in Christ. 20)God was also pleased to bring everything on earth and in heaven back to himself through Christ. He did this by making peace through Christ’s blood sacrificed on the cross. 21)Once you were separated from God. The evil things you did showed your hostile attitude. 22)But now Christ has brought you back to God by dying in his physical body. He did this so that you could come into God’s presence without sin, fault, or blame. 23)This is on the condition that you continue in faith without being moved from the solid foundation of the hope that the Good News contains. You’ve heard this Good News of which I, Paul, became a servant. It has been spread throughout all creation under heaven.