Well I haven't been keeping up with this well at all. I think I might jump around a bit more because I am lazy and I can't stay motivated though a book with 42 chapters. We'll look at Colossians for a while and see what we can get out of that.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Chris, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

That will do for today. So we get the intro, Paul and Timothy writing. I guess they wrote quite a few of the new testament books together, or else Paul did and Timothy was near him when he did it: at least Philipians, Colossians, 2 Corinthians, and 1&2 Thessalonians.

The first thought I have is, what would Paul pray about me if he wrote me a letter?

I doubt he would say "since we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven."

I don't think my faith is very well known, especially among unbelievers. And I don't think my love of the saints is very noteworthy.

But note what motivates the Colossians' faith and love! It is the hope they have laid up for them in heaven! How often does that motivate us? But it should be the only motivating factor.

Most of my motivations for loving others is to look good in front of them, or to gain approval, or to get something back. Rarely (if ever) is it out of a genuine love of them and a hope in Christ.

Hmm. Ok well that's all for now. Let me know if you think of anything else in that section.