Transformation - Day 12

"So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it." - Colossians 2:16-19

I love Paul's language here.  All this tacked on religious baggage is only a shadow of the reality yet to come.  (CS Lewis, Shadowlands?)  The rules and regulations that we add on to our faith journey turn relationship into religion.  Rather than giving us freedom in Christ - His reality -  they restrict us, slow us down, because they are not the real thing - just a shadow.

Pursue Christ and his righteousness will be imbued upon you, like Moses whose face was found glowing after spending forty days on the mountain in God's presence.

Christ himself is REALITY.

 Again, all the goody two shoes stuff is not an end in itself or a ticket to heaven.  Self denial is not an end.

Fasting works when you do it because more than anything else you want to hunger for Christ.

Worship works when God increases and you decrease.

Prayer works when your desire is to spend time with God, not try to score some God-points.

Self-righteousness, pride has no place in the Kingdom of God.  Because the Kingdom of God is consumed with only one thing - Jesus.

So pious self denial, church attendance . . . even "don't drink-don't smoke" living is never the end.  And if it becomes an end, you will miss the End, the Omega.

You won't be connected to Christ, "the head of the body."

He's the One keeping everything together.

Spend some time, quality time, thinking about like with and without Jesus Christ.

How connected are you?  How have you let the shadows get in the way of reality?  Change.