Fully Divine: Peace Through Christ

Fully Divine: Peace Through Christ

Christmas Letters: Part 4
December 21, 2025

Colossians 1:15-20, Psalm 96

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the one who is first over all creation, because all things were created by him: both in the heavens and on the earth, the things that are visible and the things that are invisible…

… He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the one who is firstborn from among the dead so that he might occupy the first place in everything.

~ Colossians 1:15-16a, 18

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 Excerpts adapted from The Christmas Letters, by Magrey R. DeVega.

Throughout the Old Testament, God was revealed to the Israelites in visible ways.  God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve.  God spoke to Moses through a burning bush and led the people of Israel through the wilderness in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.  But in this hymn, Paul takes God’s self-revelation to a whole new level.  Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  Everything we need to know about God can be seen most directly in this singular human life. 

The letters we have looked at this Advent were written before the gospel accounts, and Mark, the earliest gospel, does not include a nativity story.  When the author of Matthew adapts his own telling, and later the writers of Luke and John, they connect Jesus’ birth to the signs of divinity recognized by the ancient world.  Whereas the mother of Alexander the Great was presumably impregnated by Zeus, so Mary conceived by Divine action alone.  Just as a bright star shown to mark the birth of Augustus Caesar, we get a star and a shy full of shining angels at Jesus’ birth.  And everyone who encounters the Christ child is transformed by his presence, from hopelessness into hope, from fear into courage, and from darkness into light. 

The Christmas story is not just about the physical birth of a baby in Bethlehem.  It is about the first over all creation entering into creation to establish God’s reign over every other ruler on earth.  No matter what changes and challenges came their way, this Christmas message assures them of God’s faithfulness. 

How is this message transforming you?

Life as a Musical: Tuning our Hearts to Sing God's Grace

Life as a Musical: Tuning Our Hearts to Sing God’s Grace

April 27, 2025 - Hymn Sing Sunday
Colossians 3:15-17

The word of Christ must live in you richly. Teach and warn each other with all wisdom by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him.                

 Colossians 3:16-17

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John Wesley and his brother Charles were prolific hymn writers who believed singing was central to the ministry of the gospel. They produced multiple hymn collections, including Wesley Hymns and the Collection of Psalms and Hymns, which were widely distributed among early Methodists. Wesley strongly encouraged every home to have a hymnal, envisioning singing not just as part of Sunday worship, but as a way to maintain a spiritual rhythm throughout the week.

“Sing all, sing heartily and with good courage,” Wesley wrote. “Lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sang the songs of Satan” (first published in Sacred Harmony, 1781). For Wesley, music was not about performance, but about presence — offering one’s whole self to God through song.

A worship leader I knew in college once told a story about a piano that had one horribly out-of-tune key. It drove him crazy, until he sensed God asking, “What if that note is the only one in tune, and the rest of the piano is off?” Of course, the whole piano wasn’t out of tune, but the question lingered. What if what we assume to be “off” is actually the voice of the Spirit, trying to get our attention?

Sometimes, our lives of faith can drift out of tune, off key from God’s purposes, out of rhythm with God’s grace. Singing together helps bring us back, grounding us in truth and harmony with the Spirit. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, we are called to “teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit… and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Life is a bit like a musical — one person starts singing, and somehow, everyone else joins in, singing and dancing as if they’ve always known the song. It defies logic but reveals something deeply true: music has the power to draw us into something larger than ourselves. In the same way, as we join our voices with others in worship, we are drawn into something greater,  becoming more fully part of one another and the body of Christ. Music weaves our individual stories into a shared narrative of grace, hope, and redemption.

“Above all, sing spiritually,” Wesley urged. “Have an eye to God in every word you sing… see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually.”  May our singing today not only fill this space, but draw us more fully into the Spirit’s harmony, tuning our lives to God and to one another.

Come Thou fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise!

Feel free to join us in our Celebration of Music below:

Stay in Love with God

Stay in Love with God
August 4, 2024
Psalm 105:3-6, Colossians 2:6-7

Give praise to God’s holy name!
    Let the hearts rejoice of all those seeking the Lord!
Pursue the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always!
Remember the wondrous works he has done,
    all his marvelous works, and the justice he declared

Psalm 105:3-5 (CEB)

So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him. Be rooted and built up in him, be
established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught.

Colossians 2:6-7 (CEB)

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The third simple Rule from John Wesley is to “attend upon the ordinances of God.”  In short, this means to attend to regular spiritual practices like prayer, fasting, Bible Study, participation in worship, etc.  These are the practices that helps us nurture our ongoing
relationship with God.

In modern times, we don’t think as much about “ordinances,” so it is often reframed as “Stay in love with God.”  In other words, do whatever you need to stay in love with God.  Consider any loving relationship you have; a marriage, another family relationship, a friendship, etc.  Every relationship takes work.  You have to spend time together.  You have to communicate with each other.  You have to have a genuine interest in one another’s lives.  You even have to serve one another, which sometimes requires sacrifice. 

Spiritual practices or disciplines are the ways we do all of these things with God.  They are like a trellis that supports our relationship with God and helps us grow more deeply in love with our creator.  Without these regular spiritual practices, it is nearly impossible to live out the first two rules, to do no harm and to do good.  Why?  Because it is our love for God and God’s love flowing through us that produces the fruit of good works. 

Here are a few questions to consider as you think about your own trellis, or “rule of life.”

1. What rhythms / practices is God inviting you to establish or strengthen at this time in your life?

2. Tinker with arranging your calendar to  accommodate your chosen practices. Rearrange where necessary. Experiment. Revisit and revise it.  A rule of life is to support growth in holiness of heart and life.

3. What do you feel are the challenges you might face as you seek to live into these new rhythms?

4. Consider the arrangements that will need to be made. How will you need to adjust your schedule in order to consistently choose this rule of life?  What conversations or arrangements do you need to make with those with whom you live and work?

5. How do you need prayer from another as you move forward?

“IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS there is nothing we can do to transform ourselves into persons who love and serve as Jesus did except make ourselves available for God to do that work of transforming grace in our lives”  (Robert Mulholland, Invitation To A Journey).

#BeUMC - Following Christ

Following Christ

#BeUMC - Part 3

Sunday, July 9, 2023
Matthew 28:16-20, Philippians 4:8-9, Colossians 3:12-17

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.

Matthew 28:19-20

And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.  The peace of Christ must control your hearts—a peace into which you were called in one body. And be thankful people.  The word of Christ must live in you richly. Teach and warn each other with all wisdom by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts.  Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:14-17

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

Most of us are familiar with the Great Commission - “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a).  It’s easy to think of “making disciples” in terms of teaching, peaching, baptizing, etc.  In other words, this is the role of pastors, Sunday School teachers, small group leaders, Christian Educators and others in some form of vocational ministry who are trained to preach and teach and baptize. 

When we turn to the rest of the New Testament, however, we clearly see that the role of making disciples is not actually limited to the apostles.  Rather, it is the work of the apostles to continually equip others to do the work of making disciples.  If we want to know whose job it is to make disciples, the answer is simple… other disciples.  Part of discipleship is multiplication.  Disciples naturally make other disciples because that’s how Jesus and his followers taught us as we have been discipled.

“But,” you might say, “I can’t teach or baptize.  I don’t know enough.  What if I don’t have the right answers? 

Let me encourage you now, you don’t know enough and you don’t have all the right answers.  Neither do I.  Neither did Billy Graham or Mother Theresa or Peter or Paul.  And neither has any disciple or disciple-maker throughout history.  Our task is simply to pass on what Jesus has taught us.  The best way to do this is not by passing on our knowledge of Jesus to others, but by  modeling by example the way of life Jesus taught us to live. 

Paul writes that as Christians, as followers of Christ, as disciples, we must “put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”  We must be tolerant with each other and forgive each other as Christ forgave us.  We must live in the unity of love, encouraging and building one another up in the name of Christ with a spirit of gratitude and praise. 

In other words, making disciples is less about what  we do, or what we say, and more about who we are and our way of being in the world.  When we “put on Christ,” or to put it another way, when we allow the Spirit to remake us in Christ’s likeness, our natural way of life will be so beautiful and compelling to others that they will want more of these Christlike attributes in their own life as well.  As we grow together in developing Christlike character and love, our fruit continues to multiply and bear more fruit.  We don’t make disciples by trying to convince people that they need to think or believe everything exactly like us.  We make disciples by living out Jesus’ example of love so that others will want to follow, just as we have chosen to follow Christ. 

So here’s the big question: Do we hang our Christian discipleship more on the fact that we “believe” in Jesus, or on the fact that we are actually following his teaching?  And which one do others most see in us?