Keep abiding in the Vine!
Tag: Abide
Scripture Picture – Abide
Abide (stay, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, tarry)
in Me,
and I in you.
As the branch cannot
bear fruit by itself,
unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you,
unless you abide in Me.
John 15:4
~Jesus
Scripture Picture – Abide
John 15:4
Who is Shaping Us?
I took a slow day recently and sat down to watch a movie. So-so movie. Classic good guy chases bad guy.
The bad guy, well, let me put that more accurately – the crazed, psychopathic, sadistic killer – enjoys the chase. He’s cocky and thinks he can’t lose.
He decides to make the game even more fun by coming straight to the door of the good guy, and hits him where it hurts most: his family.
The good guy internalizes that pain, that grief, and lets it boil inside him until the hatred turns to bitterness in his quest to hunt down and destroy his enemy.
In one last-ditch effort to mentally manipulate and control from his place of weakness, the bad guy spews to the other, “I…made…you.”
His last words are arrogant, demented, and maybe a little bit true.
In his quest to fight evil, the good guy gives in to the hatred the evil guy wanted him to. He lured the good guy in until he crossed that line before he even fully realized it. Or worse, he realized it but didn’t care anymore.
As their eyes locked and he used his last breath to try to control him and reel him in the rest of the way, speaking those domineering, pompous, mind-bending words, I thought about how the enemy of God does the same thing.
There are no new tricks up his sleeve. Oh, they may take different forms, different plots, different scenarios, but it’s always the same.
Slip in undetected in the shadows, gain our attention, come to our front doors if need be and attack us personally where he knows it’ll hurt most, and if he can time it just right, in the wake of some other trial, when we’re alone, when we’re tired, when we’re sick, when we’re stressed, maybe we’ll react in the flesh.
And if we react long enough, he’ll try to say he made us. He made who we’ve become, from being filled with anger, to unforgiveness, to bitterness, to leaving our faith and the love of Christ behind.
None of us is immune. Christians are his target, because Christ is his target.
Even if he can no longer take our eternal souls, he will still try to take our joy, our witness, and as much of our reward as he can.
But I don’t want the enemy to shape who I am.
I want to be shaped by the Christ who loved us enough to die for us and fill us with His Spirit so that He’s always with us.
I want to be shaped by the One who loves us enough to write His Word, His will, on pages for us to have, to read, to study and pray over, to hear Him speak to our hearts through.
I want every fiber of my being, every molecule, every thought, every word to be formed by the Christ who lives in me.
That can only happen when day by day, minute by minute, we hold onto Christ, giving up our lives for a life of faith hidden in Him.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
This is the new life we’ve been given in Christ. It is no longer our life, but Christ’s living in and through us. To some that may feel a little restrictive, but in reality it’s just the opposite.
We are now free of that destruction, that condemnation, that guilt and shame of sin, free from having to believe the deluded lies of the enemy. We no longer have to be lured in by the thief whose desire is to steal, kill, and destroy us.
Instead, Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
That word abundant is perissos, which means “in the sense of beyond; superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality); by implication excessive; preeminence: – exceeding abundantly above, more abundantly, advantage, exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, vehemently.”
In sharp contrast to the life Christ redeemed us from, we’re now free to live a life of forgiveness, hope, love, joy. We’re free to live in and through Christ forever.
But notice it says that we may have it more abundantly. It is our daily choice how much of that abundant life of Christ’s we want to live. Within those pages, Jesus gave us this to remember:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
Daily.
Daily we must deny ourselves, daily we must take up our cross, and daily we must choose to follow Christ if we want to live the abundant life Jesus died to give us.
We may not have a bad guy to physically chase, but in our hearts and minds we can chase the ones who have hurt us by holding onto unforgiveness and anger and letting it turn into bitterness.
Instead, we can leave the bad guys to God and chase after Christ and His love, joy, peace, hope, and forgiveness. We can choose faith in Jesus, and let Him shape us.
Heavenly Father, we choose to forgive those who have hurt us and leave them in your wise and capable hands. Help us deny ourselves, let go of our “old man” and the world’s ways and abide in you daily so we can be transformed into the image of your beautiful Son and live the abundant life you so desire to give us. It’s in Christ we pray, amen.
Be Strong and Very Courageous
Seventeen years ago this month my life turned upside down. Or more accurately, I was already upside down and God was turning me right side up.
A lot has happened in that time. A lot of mistakes, a lot of learning, a lot of growing, and a lot of healing.
Not the kind of healing I originally wanted, but certainly the kind I needed. The kind a good and loving Father knows His child needs, and ultimately wants.
In January 2004 I had some symptoms, but nothing too concerning yet. What did concern me is that I kept hearing one phrase from the Lord – “Be strong and courageous.” I heard it at church, on the radio, and in my own studies. Four times that month I heard “Be strong and courageous.”
The first time: Yes, that’s an encouraging word.
The second time: Yep, I want to be strong and courageous.
The third time: Hmm… “Lord, what are you trying to say?”
The fourth time: A friend at church who I’d talked to about these repeated commands from the Lord turned around during the teaching and we just looked at each other. What could this mean?
Then, long story short, one Sunday afternoon in February, I found myself at the hospital being evaluated.
“Be strong and courageous.”
I have meditated on and prayed about these words ever since. And little by little, the Lord’s helped me understand them. The funny thing is, its meaning is so simple, yet the application can be so difficult.
The phrase can be found eleven times in the Old Testament (and one time in the New, but that’s a slightly different story for a different day), most of them as Joshua was about to lead Israel into the Promised Land.
Moses had just died, and God had called Joshua to lead His people. God speaks to Joshua, letting him know that without a doubt, through every obstacle they would face, He would lead them there.
Joshua 1:6 – “Be strong and courageous…”
Joshua 1:7 – “Be strong and very courageous…”
Joshua 1:9 – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
In each of these verses, the word “strong,” in part, means “to fasten upon; to seize…”
The dictionary says fasten means “to attach firmly or securely in place; fix securely to something else.”
Now, fast forward to Jesus talking to His disciples.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing..” John 15:5
During this conversation, Jesus uses the word abide, or remain, seven times.
The word “abide” means “to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): – abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain…”
He’s driving home the fact that, just as a branch must remain attached to the vine so the branch can receive life, grow, and produce fruit, we must remain in Him. Our growth and ability to produce spiritual fruit hinges on us continually abiding, remaining, making our home in Him.
God told Joshua over and over to be strong, to fasten himself, to hold onto God who would do everything needed to ensure their victory as they crossed into the Promised Land.
Jesus reiterated His Father’s words, telling His disciples, and us, to abide in Him, to remain in Him continually.
Don’t break off from Him out of fear, anger, anxiety, or just being plain confused and not knowing what to do. Remain in Him. Obey Him. Trust Him. Join with Him in prayer. Abide in Him as a branch abides in a vine, so we can grow and bear much fruit.
The word courageous means “to be alert, physically and mentally, to be steadfastly minded, establish, make strong…”
The Israelites would meet enemies along the way, and so will we. As we abide in Christ, we must also remain alert and steadfast, remembering that though we have an enemy who will try to trip us up, the Lord has gone before us, and if we’ll remain in Him, He will make us more than conquerors.
And one more note.
I’ve been going through a group study with a book called Abide In Christ by Andrew Murray. I highly recommend it. It was what drove home the truth of what God was saying to me seventeen years ago, and how He enlightened and assured me further. As I was praying during one of my study times, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “I will sustain you.”
You might guess what I did. Yep, went to look up the word sustain. I found it in Psalm 55:22:
“Cast your cares on the Lord
and He will sustain you;
He will never let
the righteous be shaken.”
Sustain means “to keep in; to maintain, be able to abide…”
Jesus said “Abide in Me, and I in you.”
The Lord’s promise to all of us who abide in Him is that not only will He abide in us, He will enable us to continue abiding in Him. He will maintain us, support us, bear us up under trial or affliction, just like He’s done for me the last seventeen years.
So be strong and courageous. The world doesn’t seem to be letting up on the crazy, and I suspect it won’t. But as we abide in Him, God Himself will abide in us and take us victoriously into the Promised Land.
In Him,
