30-Day Personal Devotion Challenge Day 18

Good Morning Church Family – Day 18

Read Colossians 3:11

Devo Thought: Do you know what happened on August 13, 1961? Construction on one of the world’s most famous walls began on that date. Maybe it was infamous. The wall I’m talking about was used to separate one group of people from another, but more than that, it stood as a symbol for almost 30 years as a barrier between two groups of people who saw the world very differently. Have you figured out which wall I’m talking about? It was the Berlin Wall. The wall that separated East from West, Democracy from Communism, German from German. It wasn’t until November 9, 1989 that the wall that separated so many people one another was broken down. The destruction of this barrier took massive shifts in world history and ideology. In our single verse, Paul is talking about barriers that have come crashing down, barriers that are often far bigger than the Berlin Wall. Paul tells us how this has happened. He writes to the Ephesians: “For he (Jesus) himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility…” What is this wall made up of? In our verse from Colossians, Paul explains that the following categories are what separate us: racial (Greek or Jew), religious (circumcised or uncircumcised), cultural (barbarian or Scythian), and social (slave or free). As we put off old ways of living, we also put off old ways of thinking. We put away these old categories of the world and put on the category of Scripture. Each of us, regardless of race, religion practices, culture, or social standing, are either in Christ, or we are not. From now on, we look at people from the world who may or may not be like us as either a brother or sister in Christ or a potential brother or sister in Christ.

Prayer – Let us thank God that in Christ he has healed and will heal the wounds that separate us from one another.