Colossians, Holman Christian Standard Bible

 Two passages stuck out to me in this little epistle written by Paul, one in chapter 2. Starting at verse 8, "Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of this world, and not based on Christ."

There were so many other religious and philosophical ideas and teachings at that time, as there are today, that people not versed in God's word (back then the Old Testament and the accounts of the apostles including Paul) that they were mixing theology together and losing the Gospel of Christ. On one hand you had those mixing in paganism, then on the other hand you had Jews insisiting  obeying every letter of the Torah, including the 600 some extra laws that the Pharisees put on top of that, with the idea that their salvation was based partly on Jesus, and mostly obeying all these laws. Both were making salvation into something other than what it should have been.

We need to be careful to understand God's word, including the law and His covenant with Israel, but not forget that it is by grace that we are saved, not by our works or our ability to follow the law to the letter. However, knowing the law and the entirety of God's word will help keep us from falling for false teachings. Some sound very good, but put against the standard of God's word, they don't line up.

The other passage was starting at 3: 5 "Therefore put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God's wrath comes on the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self."

This is a good reminder of things which current society is normalizing, should be things that we have nothing to do with. It's a good reminder to check ourselves, and see if we are allowing these things to enter our minds and lives. Are we participating in these actions? Time to remove them and step it up.

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Ezra. Holman Christian Standard Bible

 The book of Ezra in the Old Testament occurs during Israel's exile and involves the rebuilding of the Temple. 

One thing that caught my attention in this book is the last two chapters, it talks about the people of Israel intermarrying with the pagan people of the surrounding countries. When this matter was brought up, the people of Israel repented and it was decided that they would send away their pagan wives and the children they had with them.

In our own culture, this seems harsh. And maybe it was in their culture as well. The point I took from it is this: God made a covenant with the nation of Israel to remain separate, including racially separate from those around them. Not as a matter of racial supremacy, but because God wanted them to be defined as His chosen people, chosen to bring salvation to the world. There were exceptions made in His law, but the non-Israelites intermarrying had to completely forsake their gods, religion, and culture and follow the law of the covenant to be accepted.  In this case, that is not what was happening. The pagan wives were drawing their husbands away from God into idolatry. The end result, I am sure was messy and devastating, as I am sure in some way they must have loved their wives and children. 

Sometimes hard choices have to be made when it comes to obedience to God. Sometimes we may do something that we know is outside of God's will and will never be accepted in God's eyes. Sometimes we embrace those relationships, those choices, and paths, until it becomes intertwined with us and it just seems normal. But it isn't and if we want to be right with God, we have to align ourselves with God's word and his will, and have to let it go. It gets messy, and it's painful, but then God can begin healing us, and redeeming the situation.

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