Jo’s Place

​ God’s Good News May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.  Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith, in Him, is being talked about all over the world.  God knows how often I pray for you.  Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about His Son.  One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you.  For I long to visit you, so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord.  When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.  I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now.  I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles.  For I have a great sense of...

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all  creation, …for through Him, God created everything  …in the heavenly realms and on earth.  He made the things we can see  and the things we can’t see—  such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.  Everything was created through him and for Him.  He existed before anything else,  and He holds all creation together.  Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.  He is the beginning, …supreme over all who rise from the dead.  So he is first in everything.  For God in all his fullness  was pleased to live in Christ,  …and through Him, God reconciled  everything to Himself.  He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth  …by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.  This includes you who were once far away from God.  You were His enemie...

Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others.  God knows we are sincere, …and I hope you know this, too.  Are we commending ourselves to you again?  No, …we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry, rather than having a sincere heart.  If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God.  And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.  Either way, Christ’s love controls us….  Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.  He died for everyone, …so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.  So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.  At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.  How differently we know Him now...

Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before.  You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it.  It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.  I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me.  Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.  He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.  He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.  After that, He was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.  Then He was seen by James and later by all the apostles.  Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw Him.  For I am the least of all the apostles.  In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apo...