Being a mother is a mission, a calling, a profession given to the first woman along with her name. “Mother” means different things to different people; and who they are and what they look like changes in our minds as we pass milestones in our life. The following are thumbnail sketches of different periods of motherhood:

Mother is a young, vivacious girl. She can hardly be more than 20 years old, perhaps less. She is wide-eyed with marvel at the squirming bundle of softness in her arms.

Mother is a sort of middle-aged, nondescript lady whose anatomical proportions have undergone slight rearrangements in the two or three decades since she held her first child. She is watching teary eyed as her own children marry. She is wondering if she was ever so young, so naive, so inexperienced. Good ol' steady, dependable Mom.

Mother is that beautiful gray headed lady who doesn't walk so well any more. She is a bit stooped. She hears a little less distinctly, sees a bit more dimly and forgets a lot more easily; but all the grandkids think that she is the greatest and don't all the kids still say; no one cooks like mom? And Dad - well, he thought he loved her 45 years ago when they got married, but the truth is he hardly had any idea what love was all about. Now he knows love as only a select few in this world have been privileged to know.

Mother is that delicate little lady with the frail body living out the last days of her life under the tender care of her children and grandchildren. The hands of the clock have turned full cycle. As she served her mother before, now it is her turn to be served. Her hair is thin and white; her body is no longer able to perform the tasks her mind commands. It is then, or so it seems, that our God of love and mercy steps in and creates a special world for mother. Whatever else she may achieve in this world, regardless of what other profession she may have pursued, nothing so honors her or ties her so dearly to our hearts as the simple fact that she is mother!

via: Central Church of Christ - Stockton, CA

“And not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God” (Col. 2:19 NKJV).

Since it began, Christianity has contested, not only other religions, but other versions of itself. At Galatia, Paul contested Christianity blended with Judaism. At Corinth, Christianity was blending with some paganism. At Colossae it was Judaism and local folk rituals.

How does this happen?

A man carries baggage to his baptism, including a sinful religion, philosophy or worldview. At conversion, rather than magically disappear, some of these pre-Christian religious tendencies linger. He repented but the old man won’t go away. New habits, reinforced by Bible study, fellowship and prayer, can starve him and kill the old man.

Meanwhile, the old man often negotiates a settlement. He agrees to modification, rather than elimination. The new Christian is asked to marry his new faith to his old faith, to just incorporate the Christian program into his former program, with necessary compromises from each to accommodate the other.

So, some former practitioners of false religion suppose they can compliment Christian “ways” with their old “ways” which seem to be compatible. Pure Christian disciplines, practices and lifestyles get contaminated. The result is a “faith” that looks right but isn’t, a man who looks “Christian” but isn’t, and a “church” that looks like it belongs to Jesus, but doesn’t.

How did Paul persuade the Colossian church members to reject the syncretistic heresy and maintain Christ only? He wrote much. Part of his argument is quoted above: “and not holding fast to the Head.”

By reaching for another “religion,” they would relinquish their grip on Christ. A man can’t hold both. He must grab one or the other.

You can’t have the Father and the world, God and money, the church and a denomination. You can’t have Christianity and astrology, Christianity and capitalism, Christianity and socialism. You can’t have the New Testament faith and any other creed.

Have Christ, and Christ alone, or you can’t have Him at all.

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ONE NAIL

A preacher once illustrated the need for commitment to Christ with this parable: A man wanted to sell his house for $20,000. Another man wanted very badly to buy it, but he couldn’t afford the price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: he would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door. After several years the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the house was unlivable and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.

THE MORAL: If we leave the Devil with even one small peg in our life he will return to hang his rotten garbage on it making it unfit!

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