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We are not what we do, and God doesn't see us through our accomplishments. God sees us through the bloody lens of his son's blood, and who we are is defined by our belongingness to Christ Jesus.

And I think sometimes that's our biggest struggle, because we see God as someone who sees us

according to what we do, how we perform, and what we accomplish. But Colossians is a reminder to us that Jesus is everything.

He's the beginning, he's the end. He, as Scripture says, is the one who holds all things together.

Hello and welcome to renewing your mind. Well, let me begin by asking this question. How would you define yourself? Would it be by what you do for a living, your accomplishments, your experiences in life? In his letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul reminds us as believers that our identity

is in Christ.

He is not merely part of our life.

He's everything.

At Ligadier's National Conference, I sat down with our teaching fellow Reverend Joel Kim

to discuss his series, Everything in Christ.

We began by considering why Paul's message to the Colossian Church remains so important

for Christians today.

It's hard to say that a particular book in the Bible is necessarily better or more lovable

than anything else, but I have been teaching on campus at Westminster

Seminary, California for about 20 plus years. And one of the courses I do teach is the Pauline

Epistles. And in particular, while there are so many things one can gain from each and every single

book, Colossians is unlike the others in terms of how it tackles.

Some of the challenges and joys when it comes to following Jesus Christ in the environment in which we find ourselves. So there is a particular, I think, touch points here that affect me in terms of how I understand my own faith and practice of faith and how I hope not just the teaching series, but the book itself

may be remembered and taught by others as well.

You point out early on that it's not clearly evident, at least on the surface, what was going

on in the church at Colise that caused Paul to write this letter. But can we deduce it?

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