May20Written by:Sergie Dezhnyuk
5/20/2010 12:48 AM 
We will begin Chapter 2 of Colossians this week in our group’s Bible Study.
There are many different beliefs today about what Christianity can offer someone. Just exactly what do you think people assume Christianity offers? Health, wealth, success, good grades, popularity, many friends, attention from others, peace of mind, pleasure, perhaps the promise of a better job, a better career, the fulfillment of your dreams and ambitions and desires, perhaps even everything you can think of and articulate, that would be a fairly common presentation of Christianity that is presented these days.
That is a very confusing message as well as a very unbiblical one. Instead of what should be a very simple answer, this message presents a very distorted and confusing view of Christianity. In a word, what Christianity offers you is Christ, Jesus Christ, that’s what Christianity offers. That is a very simple, straightforward, one word answer to what has become a very complicated issue. We offer Christ in offering the gospel. The theme of the Scripture, the theme of the New Testament, in particular, is Jesus Christ. And in not having Christ, you have nothing. And in having Christ, you have everything.
I’d like for us to become more and more captivated by and saturated with Christ so that we could say with Paul, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Cor. 2:2 as well as “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” Philippians 4:7. In particular we will look at Col. 2:1-5, where we read “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Wow, Christianity offers us Christ! Praise God for offering us Himself! God is the Gospel. Why do you even want to be forgiven? Afraid of hell? Well the reason why you want forgiveness, is because you get Christ, and if/when you have Christ, you have everything, since He is everything, the preeminent one! I’m excited for this Bible Study.
