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Saturday, August 5, 2023
Colossians 3:1-4
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Thought for the Day
Sixty-four years ago today I sat in an old army surplus tent set in a field on the southwestern tip of Wales talking with the chaplain of the Christian boys camp I was attending. Graciously and very gently he helped me make sense of the Christ and his Cross, then lovingly he helped me as I made my profession of faith in Jesus. It was all very mundane, but it was the turning point of my life. The bits and pieces of Christianity that had been a confusing muddle in my head slipped into place and I grasped that I should accept his blood was shed for me and that I should kneel, seek forgiveness, and ask Jesus who is seated at the right hand of God, to accept me by his love and grace. That was the beginning of what Paul describes here as being hidden with Christ in God. There are lots of spectacular conversion stories but mine was not one of them and its implication took several years of ups and downs before it sank in. Yet as Paul writes here, I knew my king was Christ, and that glory is the goal.
Thanksgiving for the Day
We praise and thank the Lord for his redeeming love.
Intercession for the Day
Let us pray that we might understand what it means to have a heavenly vision for our lives.
Collect for the Day
O Lord, in you great mercy,
keep us from forgetting what you have suffered for us
in body and soul.
May we never be drawn by the cares of this life
from Jesus our Friend and our Savior,
but daily may live nearer to his Cross. Amen
(A Prayer by Hedley Vicars, an Anglo-Canadian officer who was killed during the Crimean War at Sebastapol in 1855)
Readings for the Day
Leviticus 25:1-17, Psalm 67, Colossians 3:1-4, Matthew 14:1-12
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