While it can be dangerous to attach too much importance to single verses of Scripture -- thereby yanking them out of context -- nevertheless there is something so powerful about certain sentences in the bible.

Especially those that speak of eternal life.

These are the words I read to terminally ill patients and their families as they reach the end of their days.

They're the words I say at funerals and memorials.

They are, as you'll see, even the words I want on my grave marker when my time comes.

These words have formed my faith and blessed my spirit; I pray they do the same for yours today.

5. Romans 8:18 -- "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

4. Luke 23:43 -- "Jesus answered [the thief on the cross], 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.'"

3. I Corinthians 15:51-53 -- "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed -- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality."

2. II Corinthians 5:8 -- "We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord."

1. Philippians 1:21 -- Christ is me is to live; to die is to gain. (This one will be on my marker.)

Hallelujah.

I remember once seeing a church sign that had as its tagline: "that in all things Christ might have preeminence" (Colossians 1:18).

Let's give that one a C for marketing but an A+ for theology.

Colossians 1:15-20 is one of my favorite carried away passages from Paul's work:

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

This is the gospel in a paragraph:

* The divinity of Christ (1:15 and 1:19)as the foundation of all other thinking;
* The central role of Christ in creation (1:16),echoing the affirmation of John 1:1-14.
* The sovereignty of Christ over his creation, including over all pretenders to his throne (1:17).
* The tender care Jesus gives to his creation and to his people -- "in him all things hold together."
* The role of the cross in reconciling people to himself (1:20). Some have suggested that with the phrase "reconcil[ing] to himself all things" Paul is arguing for a universal salvation that includes creation itself. While I'm persuaded by the imagery of an ultimate, expansive restoration of people and things, nevertheless the bible is simply too full of warnings against coming judgment and references to the reality of hell to give universalism serious consideration.

This week's worth of posting had its genesis in the study of another of Paul's carried away moments from Colossians. This one is in 3:11; ironically, I was preparing for a message based on 3:12 -- "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience" -- when I recognized that 3:12 makes no sense apart from 3:11:

Here (the church) there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave for free, but Christ is all and is in all.

Christ is all and is in all.

I pray my spirit and my writing and even my preaching gets carred away to those kinds of heights.

Top Five Tuesday will return next week. I'm carried away with Paul.

In 1986, I was in a dark place spiritually. I was living as a mid-80s yuppie, feeling disconnected from any call into ministry, and wondering at times if it wouldn't just be easier to live without any faith claim at all.

Yet prevenient grace intervened.

I made friends with an assistant pastor in our New Jersey town and he wasted little time before directing me to Ephesians 1:15-23, one of Paul's most emphatic "carried away" sections:

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Notice a few things:

1. According to verse 15, this is a prayer. So Paul is pacing in his dictation room and he becomes so overcome with love for the Ephesians that he breaks into spontaneous prayer for them.

2. In speaking of Jesus in verse 21, Paul escalates the titles of those powers still subject to Christ: "all rule & authority", "power and dominion," "every title that can be given." As high as the human mind can conceive, Christ is higher still.

3. But it was a phrase in verse 17 that snapped me out of my spiritual doldrums: that God "may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation." My New Jersey friend was reminding that God wasn't finished with me; that there are always new things to learn about the depths of his truth and love. So I began to open Scripture anew in that season of life, praying each time for the "spirit of wisdom and revelation."

I have to believe part of the reason I am serving a local church today is because God gave abundant answer to that prayer from 1986.

American culture is wrapped up in the "self.'

There's Self magazine.

A few years ago, many of us believed that infusing teenagers with self-esteem would solve their problems -- or prevent problems from arising in the first place.

Even today, we focus in on self-respect and self-care.

Yet the bible seems remarkably free of such concerns.

Instead, listen to what Paul tells Titus:

Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. (Titus 2:2)

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. (Titus 2:6)

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'no' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. (Titus 2:11-12)

Not self-care, self-esteem, or even self-respect. Self control.

What kind of difference would that make in our society?

What kind of difference would that make in your life? In mine?

If this becomes a series . . . you heard it here first.