the purest of truth

^{I've been reading Colossians 1 this week.  I love the poetry and honesty of it.  I believe it expresses the purest of truth in life: Christ is the physical representation of God, savior of the world, the head of the church, and in Him I am made holy.}   

^{I was drawn to this passage because I needed to stop and remember why I write.  And why relationships are worth the effort.  You see, the world says dating should be exciting.  However, I'm exhausted!  It's hard work but I know it's worth it.  And I needed a reminder of that.}

^{The "for in Him all things hold together..." phrase struck me.  Christ is Who creates relationships and keeps them together.  It's when we forget that, that we mess it up.} 

^{Read on and be thankful...}

⁹For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.  

¹³For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  ¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.  ¹⁷He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  ¹⁸He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.  ¹⁹For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, ²⁰and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.  ²¹And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, ²²yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--²³if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.