"God was pleased for him to make peace..."

We have not stopped praying for you since the first day we heard about you.  In fact, we always pray that God will show you everything he wants you to do and that you may have all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives.  Then you will live a life that honors the Lord, and you will always please him by doing good deeds.  You will come to know God even better.  His glorious power will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy.

I pray that you will be grateful to God for letting you have part in what he has promised his people in the kingdom of light.  God rescued us from the dark power of Satan and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son, who forgives our sins and sets us free.

Christ is exactly like God, who cannot be seen.  He is the first-born Son, superior to all creation.  Everything was created by him, everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen, including all forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities.  All things were created by God's Son, and everything was made for him.

God's Son was before all else, and by him everything is held together.  He is the head of his body, which is the church.  He is the very beginning, the first to be raised from death, so that he would be above all others.

God himself was pleased to live fully in his Son.  And God was pleased for him to make peace by sacrificing his blood on the cross, so that all beings in heaven and on earth would be brought back to God.

You used to be far from God.  Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things.  But his  Son became a human and died.  So God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent.

                                                                                         Colossians 1:9-22

Contemporary English Version The Holy Bible (New York , NY: American Bible Society 1995)