Thursday April 8, 2021
Today’s Scripture: Colossians 1:18-22
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
Today’s Devotional
Westwood’s calling statement begins with the words “God is calling Westwood Church to be the presence of Christ.” One place we see the Biblical basis for that calling is here in verse 18 of Chapter 1 of Colossians. The church is the body of Christ.
The church universal is the body of Christ, of course. But we also believe that our particular expression of church is also the body of Christ. This means that we, as the gathered believers of Westwood, are in reality working and serving and living and breathing as the body of Christ. Westwood is Christ’s presence in the world.
This is a pretty big responsibility! It means that everything we do as a church must be measured against what Christ would do. It means that we live as Christ would live if he were here today: welcoming the stranger and the outcast, working for justice, living with grace and love, meeting needs both physical and spiritual. This is our calling.
But it’s not just our calling as a church. It’s also our calling as disciples. We as individuals should also be living our lives with the knowledge that we are “little Christs” to use CS Lewis’ words.
How are you being the body of Christ lately? How are you living your life as a “little Christ?”
Today’s Prayer
God keep the fact that we are Christ’s body in the forefront of our thoughts as we walk through our day and the weekend ahead. Give us the strength and courage to live and act as Christ would.
Amen
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