“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:6-7 (Context: Colossians 2:1-15)
I became a Christian at the age of fifteen, while sitting up in a live oak tree. Perhaps the location of my conversion is why this verse from Saint Paul became so important to my walk with Christ right from the beginning. “Rooted and built up,” this is what I’ve wanted most of my life since I surrendered my life to Jesus. Lord, give me deep roots in You and help me to grow up into maturity. It is still a regular prayer I pray, knowing I have a long way to go. The truth is even in the midst of living a calling to pastoral ministry, with all the faith required to lead a congregation to be faithful to the Lord, I am not immune from becoming stalled in my spiritual life. None of us are.
Paul tells the Colossians to continue just as they were “taught.” For years I was resentful that I didn’t have anyone to really disciple me in what it meant to “walk in him.” Of course my family was an encouragement, but because of different circumstances there wasn’t an older youth or youth leader that really met with me on a regular basis. Perhaps that’s one reason why I pray so much for a generation of spiritual mentors to be raised up at SOC. The truth is I’ve had to search far and wide for mentors through most of my Christian life. But even when I didn’t have a human to seek counsel from, Scripture taught me. Colossians 2:6-7 was one of those Scriptures I committed to memory early on in my walk. It reminds me that Jesus must be accepted as a gift from God and that growth is to be expected in the Christian life; it also reminds me the that the most important work I can do is teach people how to move forward – and of course all the above must be saturated in thanksgiving.
With that said, I am so very thankful for each and every member who has shared the various devotional entries during this Advent season. If you’ve read with any consistency, you know that Servants of Christ represents people of every stage of life. Yet the common denominator is that we’ve received Jesus, and we’ve all come to find Scripture as a source of learning, wisdom, and direction. Our prayer is that, as we enter into the wonderful season of Christmas, you too would make a fresh commitment to seeking the blessing of daily Scripture reading to the same end. During the season of Christmas, we will be sending out descriptions of different plans members of Servants have used to keep themselves accountable to reading Scripture. Some involve reading through the Bible in a whole year, but please understand the goal isn’t reading through in a year, but rather to seek daily guidance from God’s Holy Word.
To those who have read our Advent Devotional, I want to thank you for taking time to read. Consider what you might take from your study of Scripture to share with others when we put together another devotional.
Alex +
Alex Farmer is our founding pastor. Alex, along with his wife Jody and three small children, moved to Gainesville in 2002 out of a strong sense of God’s calling to build up the body of believers that ultimately became Servants of Christ.