At a local conference this weekend, we covered the book of Colossians. One point that I enjoyed is from Colossians 1:15, 18 regarding preeminence. God's intention is to give Christ the preeminence in all things, to cause Christ to have the first place in everything. However, He is not preeminent in the entire universe until he is preeminent in you and I.
How do we do this? We have to love Him. If we give Him preeminence in our love, then we can easily cooperate with Him and give Him preeminence in our being. When we give Him preeminence, then we are in the expansive territory of Christ (the good land) and are living in Him. Then, as He is preeminent in our living, he has preeminence in our whole personal universe. In other words, once He has preeminence in our whole personal universe, then our universe is Him.
One example of the Lord's universal preeminence is in Daniel 4 and what Nebuchadnezzar realized.
And at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me; and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored the ever-living One; For His dominion is an eternal dominion, / And His kingdom is from generation to generation; And all the inhabitants of earth are considered as nothing, / But He does according to His will in the army of heaven / And among the inhabitants of the earth; / And there is no one who can resist His hand / Or say to Him, What are You doing?Daniel 4:34-35 RcV
