Mizpah-Ministries

May Newsletter!

Would like to thank everyone who participated in the Mizpah Ministries annual golf tournament at the Brooksville golf and Country Club. Beautiful course! Great Day! Great turnout! Great food and fun!

Colossians 1:9-17
LIVING ABOVE THE SNAKE LINE
Intro: There is, in nature, an invisible, yet very real and definite, line above which you will never find a snake. Early settlers in America referred to this line as “the snake line”. Often, when they were purchasing a property, they would ask the seller whether or not the property was above “the snake line”.
They knew the land on the mountain was more rocky, harder to clear, and not as fertile as the land in the valley. But, they also knew the land in valley was infested with rattlesnakes, adders, and copperheads. Many settlers chose to raise their families on the higher ground, above “the snake line”, rather than risk snake bites for themselves or their families.
Just as the Lord has drawn an invisible line in the mountains which the snakes can’t pass, there is a spiritual “snake line” as well.
• There is a level of living that is higher than that of the world.
• There is a level of life available to God’s children that allows them to live lives that are holy, pleasing to the Lord, and free from many of the problems that cause “the way of the transgressor” to be “hard.” (Proverbs 13:15)
This first chapter in Colossians speaks about that spiritual “snake line.” Here, we are told how we get above “the snake line”, and how we can stay there. I want to share three facts with you about Living Above The Snake Line.
FIRST, (vs. 12-14, please read) We Have Been Elevated Above The Snake Line;
The Word of God is teaching us that every lost person in the world lives below “the snake line”. They prove it every day they live by the way they live, and by the things they do. Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, (Numbers 21), the lost have been bitten by the serpent of sin and all are in great danger. You are placed above the snake line when you get saved!
SECOND, (vs. 9-10, please read) We Have Been Enlightened About The Snake Line;
Those who have been saved by grace and placed above “the snake line” understand the difference between the new life they have been given in Jesus and the old life they lived in sin.
• The power and privileges of the new life in Jesus stand in striking contrast to the old life of sin lived below “the snake line”.
• The character and quality of our new life in Jesus clearly exposes the emptiness and futility of the life lived in the lowlands of sin.
THIRD, (vs. 11, 15-17 please read) We Have Been Empowered Against The Snake LIne.
These verses teach us that we are not on our own in our fight against sin. Verse 11 tells us that we are “strengthened” by “His power”. His “power” works to give us “patience” and “longsuffering with joyfulness”.
These verses help us understand the the truth that we do not have to live like we use to live anymore. We have been place above “the snake line”, and we have the Lord’s help to stay there.

The Lord Jesus Christ enables us to live for Him by extending to us His awesome, omnipotent ability. This makes it possible for us to live above “the snake line”, not in our own “power”, but in His. His “power”, working in us, gives us the “authority” to live lives that are “pleasing” to God, “fruitful in every good work”, and ever “increasing in the knowledge of God.”