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By "all treasure of wisdom" Paul is saying that wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ himself and Christ alone. This means that to know him intimately and fully -- the privilege of all Christian believers -- is to possess the full treasure-house of God's wisdom and knowledge, Christ Himself.

Paul's purpose is to help the Church become mature and be Christ-like, preparing them for heaven. We cannot achieve perfection here on earth, however Paul's effort was to see that we daily grow towards perfection, towards being more and more like Christ. Paul achieved his purpose through teaching, preaching publically and proclaimeing the Word of Truth, the Word of God wherever he went and also counseling people in groups or one to one. Paul struggle was through praying relentlesly for the Church.

The mystery Paul talked aboout is that the Gentiles were now included in the plan of salvation and not just Jewas alone. This amazing grace that included the gentiles in the plan of salvation qualified them to partake in the glory of God here on earth and in heaven. God is glorious in character and in all aspects. That we are his children and will be like Him in heaven is hope that should keep us trusting Him.

Paul suffered for the purpose of spreading the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not imply that Christ suffering was not adquate. I think he meant that he would continue to suffer in order to achieve the mission- the Great Commision

Although salvation is by grace, NEVERTHELESS, every believer must reamin IN Christ and be firm without wavering in faith. When a believer turns from absolute trust in the Lord to other gods or ideas, he will drift away and be lost to the evil one, the Devil. Our security lies in remaining/ abiding IN Christ so as to be be able bear frouts else we stand the risk of being pruned away and thrown into fire for fruitlessness.

When God reconciled us through the death of our Lord Jesus and His shed blood that washed and cleansed us from our sins, we ceased to be enemies and rebels. Even when we see ourselves as unclean, He sees us as righteous by the righteousness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Whever He look at me, He sees Jesus first and then sees me through the 'filter' of Jesus; what He sees, is a clean holy and righteous me!! Praise the Lord.

Jesus accomplished reconciliation work by shedding his blood on the cross. He offered himself as a sacrifice because the Bible says that there is no remission of sin without the shedding of the blood. By the reconciliation done through Jesus Christ, we are friends to God and no longer enemies that are seperated from Him. We are presented to God blameless.

To reconcile means to make peace, exchange hostility with friendliness. From being enemies to being friends. Praise God. Before reconciliation, we were sinners, rebels and enemies of God who live according to our own will and desires only. Refusing to obey his command and therefore seperated from the Holy God who had declared in His word that without holinessit it was not possible for any one to please Him. Thanks be to God for His love and grace made us friends through the death of Jesus Christ through the shedding of His blood on the cross.

Since Jesus is the Head of the Church and we are the 'body', we should follow his ways, obey His word. We should work in harmony, unison, same direction, doing his will only. Just as our physical head and body are one, oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ should be our goal in our lives and ministry.

'Powers' 'rulers' 'principalities' 'authorites' refer to both earthly as well as angelic/ demonic beings. These are all created by Jesus to serve him. They are therefore under his authority and he is also their head. We that are Christians should remember that Christ is in us and we are in Him. This makes us secure and we should not therefore fear any of these powers. When we pray, we should remember that the Lord Jesus Christ has power and authority over these powers and has also given us such power to triumph in our spiritual battles.

By referring to Jesus as first born of all creation here does not mean he was the first to be created. The phrase tells of how important and significant (preeminence)He is in/ among creation. He existed before any being was created and He is not created but a creator by whom all things were made. All other created beings were created by him for him, ie created to serve him. He is presently seated on the right side of God and worshiped by all heavenly beings. He will one day come and reign on earth.

God cannot be seen. He is invisible. However, God has allowed us to see Him in Christ because Christ is God's replica. This does not go well with Judaism that believes that God cannot be copied or represented by any image.

Redemtion means buying back. Christ redeemed us by shedding his own blood for us. He died in our place.

The action verbs that described our salvation in Christ are: Qualified, Rescued, Brought us into the Kingdom, Redeemed and Forgiven. God performed the actions through the Lorad Jesus. These actions were performed on the sinner and he was redeemed unto the the kingdom of God, the kingdom of light. He qualified us through our union with Christ which allowed by grace. By rescuing us He pulled us away from the penalty of death.

Paul to the Colossian church that they were formally living and controlled by the kingdom of satan, kingdom of darkness where evil prevailed. But when they accepted the Lord Jesus Christ they entered the kingdom of light where there is light and their inheritance include life eternal, redmption and hope- the kingdom of light. The two terms used for governing bodies are dominion and kingdom

The elements of Paul's prayer as follows: a. To know God's will (1:9b). b. To have spiritual wisdom and understanding (1:9). c. To live a life worthy of Jesus, one that is pleasing to him (1:10a) The result of the above are d. To bear fruit by doing good works (1:10b). e. To grow in your knowledge of, or relationship to, God (1:10c). f. To be strengthened by God's power (1:11a) so that you have the qualities of endurance, patience, thankfulness, and joy (1:11b-12a).

Paul used the words 'bearing fruit' to tell the Colossian Church that the gospel or good news of the Lord Jesus is active and is bringing many to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. He had to remind the Church to hold firm to the true gospel that has the Lod Jesus as the center instead of turning to another faith where Christ is not its center. In our days, there ae areas where the gospel is shrinking and messages in many churches are more on prosperity, miracles and all the stuff that is more of worldly inclination instead of salvation of souls. This is a dangerous phenominum.

God acted as a shepherd to Jacob by leading, guiding, providing and protecting him wherever he went. He aslo bless and made him very rich. The lord God has been my Sherpherd as found in Psalm 23. He leads me to where I can have good pasture (my good job), He tends and heals me when I fall sick. He has been meeting all my needs. He has delivered me from my powerful enemies. Indeed, today (and every Friday, I wait upon Him to thank and praise Him for His goodness, provision, protection, mercies and favour to me and my family. I also commit myself and my family to Him). My family and trust in the Lord God as our Shephered.

We take for granted that when we are blessed, we will not experience crises in our lives. This is not correct because the Bible says that in this wolrd we will expereience tribulations, trials and temptations. However, we are also told that such crises are supposed to mould us up to depend on God for deliverance and hense builds our faith. If we are not well grounded in the Lord, crises will erode our faith in the Lord as we begin to question if God really exist He would not allow us go through such crises because we are his children.

Jacob crosses his hand so as to place his right hand on Ephraim who was next to his left while his left hand was placed on Manasseh. Ordinarily, his rght hand was supposed to be placed on the first born, Manasseh. But God had ordained that it would be Ephraim who would be blessed as the fisrt born. joseph tried to stop him because he thought his father was too old and had forgotten that it was the first son who should be given the greater blessings. Jacob's blessings were actual prophessy from God because they were in line with God's blessings to Abraham, repeaeted for Isaac and Jacob. The blessings would go from generation to generation.

Life here on earth is like a pilgrimage in the sense that we are here temporarily. Heaven is our permanent abode. When we settle down and get too comfortable here on earth, we loose focus of our heavenly home and can miss eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ. We should therefore continue to look up to Jesus, have fellowship with God and and man. Be guided by the Bible, the Word of God which is light to our path as we journey along the path of life.

God spoke to Jacob, told him not be afraid and promised to go with him to Egypt where He wouold make him prosperous. This was what made Jacob to renew his faith in God. Jacob had stop believing God's promises because he had allowed fear to dominate him. Removing his mind and attention from God and His ability to save, protect and provide made fear to creep into him. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. That is what the Bible says in Romans 10:17. This is exactly what happened to Jacob, he heard God,s words and his faith was renewed.

Joseph seemed to have taken the terrible events that have happened to him as God's plan to raise him to higher levels. He was right. He therefore did not blame his brothers for their wickedness to him as he attributed that to part of God's plan for his life. Jacob on the other hand chose to blame others- his children for the calamities that have happened to him.

Jacob was in a state of depression after the first trip as he remembered the series of deaths- his mother, his father, Rachael his loved wife, Joseph and now Simeon. This was too much for him to bear, he has was very depressed. All these events have paralysed him metally and spiritually. Jacob did not want let his children carry Benjamin to Egypt, a condition given to them if they would be given any grain again. He however changed his mind because their first grain finished and there was hunger threatening.

The blood stained robe beloging to Joseph brought to Jacob showed that his sons sons hated him because of his preferential love of Joseph. The perceived loss caused so much grieve and sadness to Jacob that he thought he did not have any reason to live.