“rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
~ Colossians 2:7
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to go to church? If you like to go to church, why do you like to go to church? If you do not like to go to church, why do you not like to go to church? Paul had serious concerns about the Christ-follower communities of guys and gals who were living in Colosse and in Laodicea. Laodicia was located about eleven miles away from Colosse. Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in both Colosse and Laodicea were slipping into bogus belief paradigms that were not centered in simply believing by faith in what an incarnate man – Jesus, did while He was tied and nailed to a cross. Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in Colosse were beginning to adopt a works based belief paradigm while Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in Laodicea were beginning to adopt an intelligence base belief paradigm. Paul – in Colossians 2, uses the letter that he sent to the Christ-followers who were living in Colosse to confront the erroneous teaching of guys who were misleading Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in Colosse and in Laodicea. Guys in both Colosse and Laodicea were attempting to push their own personal belief paradigms while at the same time snubbing their noses at God’s new worship paradigm which God – as God the Father, was revealing to His specially elected people guys and gals through the life and death of Himself – as God the Son, that brought about the cancelation of the worship codes that were in the rules and regulations that He gave to Moses when He met with Moses on the top of Mount Sinai to pass on to His specially chosen guys and gals to obey. When the news reached Paul that guys were trying to influence the guys and gal who were attending the Christ-follower community in Colosse – which had been founded by Epaphras, and the guys and gals who were attending the Christ-follower community in Laodicea with their takes on how to worship God and who were rejecting the new God-ordained belief paradigm that was based on God – as God the Son, by attempting to set rule regulations regarding do not handle, taste and touch – which was the case in Colosse to supersede the faith/grace belief paradigm, and by trying to establish wisdom and knowledge – which was the case in Laodicea as a criteria to reject the faith/grace belief paradigm, Paul sent a letter – which became known as the Colossians Letter, to try to reestablish the brand new worship norms that were based on the work of God – as God the Son, when He defeated death after He was inhumanly tied and nailed to a cross. The beliefs of guys and of gals who were attending the Christ-follower communities that were located in Colosse and Laodicea were also being polluted by these other guys’ personal beliefs which included angel worship, false humility, human tradition and world principles.
Your grandpaa is convinced that guys and gals today throughout the world in Christ-follower communities are experiencing the same kind of misguided, flawed leadership that these two Christ-follower communities of guys and gals that were located in Asia Minor were going through over 1950 years ago. Less than a year after your grandpaa arrived in Bolivia with your grandmaa, dad and Aunt Lynn, your grandpaa was asked by Joe Davids – who was the Field Director for the South American Mission missionary team in Bolivia, to take on a minor allocation which had your grandpaa visiting every six weeks or so a railroad community called Chochís. Chochís is an isolated village. One of the first times that your grandpaa went to Chochís, he was there over a Sunday. A guy who your grandpaa called the rich rancher seemed to have an invested interest in the evangelical church that was in Chochís. The rich rancher spoke one of the first Sunday that your grandpaa was in Chochís. The guy used a hymnal to speak from that Sunday just as your grandpaa would use his Bible. Chochís did not have a Bible educated church leader. The guys and gals who attended the Christ-follower community in Chochís did the very best that they could with what they had and what they knew to do to . . . it was obvious to your grandpaa during that church service that Sunday that the rich rancher – because he did preach or teach from a Bible, that something needed to be done to offer some kind of Bible education to the guys and gals who were going to the Christ-follower community in Chochís. Besides taking Jesús García, Aurelio Cabrera, Raúl Pedraza or . . . or another Santa Cruz church leader – with him to Chochís, your grandpaa would take with him films, recorded teachings or messages and individual Bible studies from a series of Bible studies called Fuente de Luz (Source of Light). When your grandpaa got back to Santa Cruz after spending up to a week away from home on a Chochís trip, your grandmaa would grade each finished Fuente de Luz study that your grandpaa brought back with him from Chochís. Your grandmaa would also make up a diploma whenever a guy or gal in Chochís completed one of the Fuente de Luz’s three sets of studies. It was a big deal for a guy or gal who was living in Chochís to receive a Fuente de Luz’s diploma. Your grandmaa would put a ribbon on the diploma along with stamping an ‘official’ stamp on it and your grandpaa would sign it. Guys and gals who received these diplomas would put them in frames and hang them on a wall in the room where they hosted visitors.
What really motivated your grandpaa to make Bible education the most important thing for him and your grandmaa to do was when your grandpaa heard guys who participated in a weeklong workshop that was ably led and taught by Bill Buckman and Del Juerguson saying that what was taught was good but that it only created an itch to learn more. Verse 7 says, “rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Guides for living a life that reflects God’s glory back to Him can only be uncovered in the Bible.
Colossians 2 (605)