Set Your Minds on Things Above: Returning to God's Word in Climax

Today I am starting something new, a lifelong obedience to writing on Jesus. I’ve done a small amount of preaching, and with the demands of my many small children and day job, it has become clear that writing, if even just for myself, is what I must do. I simply can’t not.

So I’m starting with a lectionary segment on this blog. Each week, I’ll study and reflect on one of the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary, which many of us in Climax and the surrounding region will likely hear in church on Sunday. This week, we’re focusing on the Epistle reading, from Paul’s letter to the Colossians—words that remind us where our minds must be set if we’re to weather the world we’re in.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we humbly ask that your Word speak to our hearts clearly today.

Colossians 3:1–11

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth,

for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).

On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.

These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.

But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices

and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.

In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!

What does it mean to set our minds on things above?

This is the Apostle Paul’s command—not just for the ancient Colossians, but for every Christian. But how do we know what those “things above” are? Who gets to say? And how can we live that way when everything around us demands our attention—news, bills, anxiety, decay?

The answer begins with knowing what is true. What is lasting. What is real. In other words, it begins with God’s Word.

“We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” —Small Catechism, Explanation to the Third Commandment

This question of truth haunts the age. It pierces through the headlines, “We all have our own truth”. It trembles beneath our economic unease, and it echoes across our dusty prairie towns like Climax, where church doors are closing and families are shrinking. Suspicion hangs in the air like humidity before a storm. What is real? Who can we trust? How do we live well when every standard seems to shift beneath our feet? If you are in the church currently, you’ve even watched parts of the church change its mind on many such foundations in the last 20+ years!

In Colossians 3, God offers His people a firm answer. His Word. His Son. His Kingdom. All else is grass.

Why trust the Scriptures?

We trust the Scriptures because Jesus trusted them.

He said plainly, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). Our Lord affirmed every jot and tittle. His view of Scripture was not as a collection of inspirational sayings, but as the very breath of God.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, saying, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). That is not a casual affirmation—it is a declaration of divine origin and present usefulness.

Peter likewise insists that “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20–21).

These passages teach what Christians have confessed since the earliest days of the church: that Scripture is God’s Word, not man’s invention. It is self-authenticating, internally consistent, and Spirit-inspired.

“Nothing is so powerfully helpful or necessary as the instruction of young people in God’s Word.” —Small Catechism, Preface

If that feels like circular reasoning to the modern mind, it is worth remembering that every worldview has a foundation. Every authority appeals, at some level, to itself. But unlike human philosophies that crumble over time, Scripture has endured for millennia. It is not merely literature; it is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). Atheists will shout “Tautology!” and walk away, I know because I was one. But you can see the underpinnings of the very fabric of life in God’s Word if you but open your eyes to it.

source Chris Harrison

This is no small thing. In a world that constantly shifts, God’s Word remains a fixed point. It interprets us, even as we seek to understand it. And as we read, the Spirit works—convicting, comforting, converting.

How does this matter for Climax?

We are a small town with a big name. And like many such places, we are at a crossroads. I’m eternally grateful for the faith communities in Climax that welcomed my family in! I value the friendships and fellowship I’ve found here, especially among the Sand Hill folks I’ve come to love. Let’s continue supporting one another as we grow in faith together. Yet the promise of God’s Word is not dead here.

“For where the heart is rightly fixed upon God’s Word, everything else falls into place, and we become full of faith, love, and peace.” —Luther’s Large Catechism, First Commandment

Because when a father can be reshaped by Scripture, so can a family. And when families are reshaped, so can a town. Not by human effort, but by the grace of God working through the ordinary rhythms of Word and prayer. Our hope is not in a new economic policy or cultural trend. It is in Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So we begin here: by returning to the Bible. Reading it. Trusting it. Letting it define reality again. Letting it renew our minds. Letting it clothe us with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Let us pray

Lord God, grant us faith to trust Your Word. Drive out our pride, our anxiety, our restless hunger for what does not last. Set our minds on things above. Teach us to die to self, to live unto Christ, and to raise our children in the fear and joy of the Lord. Rekindle in Climax a hunger for the Scriptures, and through Your Word, bring life to our homes, our church, and our land.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will get neither comfort nor truth — only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair. - CS Lewis