Phyllis lived in a dysfunctional family; her mother died when she was only eight months old, her father was an alcoholic married to a woman he did not love and her grandparents and great grandparents were not good examples for her. At age 15, Phyllis eloped with a local pizza restaurant owner with only $80.00 between them. Over the next 22 years, they had raised twelve children, and by the next 18 years, all twelve children were married and involved in one profession or the other.

“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.”  Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” (NKJV)

“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” (NKJV)

Abel was the second person born into our world. Eve was not as excited at the birth of Abel as she was at the birth of Cain hence she called him “vapour” or “vanity” which is what Abel means – unlike Cain which means “behold a son”. Abel’s name was like a prediction of what his life was going to be. 

There are a number of things that make the life of Abel very distinct:

Reading: Colossians 3 & 4

In the text, Paul defined for the Church in Colossae what the duties of Christians ought to be. Let us look at this job description with a view to using it to first assess ourselves and then correct ourselves.

Paul defined the Christian job description under TEN headings. Let us take a close look at these headings.

Reading: Colossians 2

In a previous post, we looked at the problems in the Colossian Church which prompted Paul to write the Epistle. We saw how relevant the Epistle is to our Church today because most of those problems exist in our Churches today. Today, we want to look at the solutions that Paul suggested. They were effective in tackling the problems then and I am sure that if we apply the same solutions today in our Churches, we shall have solution to our Church problems.

Reading: Colossians 2

The Church in Colossae was probably founded during Paul’s  Third Missionary Journey; probably by one of Paul’s Students at the Tyrannus Bible Institute – Paul was in the home of Tyrannus  (Acts 19:9-10). Epaphras graduated from the Institute and founded the Church in Colossae. The Church had mostly Gentile members (Colossians 2:13) and was meeting in the home of Philemon (4:9). After its founding, the Church was infected by a very deadly disease called Judaistic Gnosticism. It was a very bad disease in that it attacked the thought life of its victims. What did this virus have?