"Abide in Me"

“Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, and you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  John 15:4 & 5  “Do nothing.”  How does that look?  Ezekiel 15 paints an excellent picture of how “nothing” looks.  To put it in a nutshell:  burnt on both ends and charred in the middle.

God, in talking to Ezekiel, asks him if the wood from a vine that has been thrown in the fire and “the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then useful for anything?”  He also tells Ezekiel that really the wood from the vine had not been made into anything while it was intact, how much less when the fire has consumed it and it is charred.  And then He goes on to make declarations that by His grace, I hope we never have to hear but will take warning from this passage: “I have given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem…I set My face against them…I am the LORD…I set My face against them…I will make the land desolate.”  God did indeed fulfill these declarations and Israel suffered much from His absence.  And thankfully, He has also declared that He will bring them back into the fold.  But God tells why He declared His withdrawal from them:  “because they have acted unfaithfully.”

I want to be a faithful follower and I will add “fruitful” to that desire: a faithful fruitful follower.  And Jesus instructs us through His wonderful words to His disciples how to do this.  “Abide in Me.”  The word, abide, means to “accept or act in accordance with; to continue without fading or being lost”.  “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.”   Keep on keeping on; don’t give up.  If you fall, get up.  If you falter, hold on.

Ezekiel 15 gives clear warning of the problem.  John 15:1-11 gives us clear hope of the solution.  And the chief end of man in all this:  “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”  “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”  Man’s chief end is to bring glory to God.  And though our lives all look differently, that should be the number one desire.  May we be resolved to this end.  May our resolve be moment by moment.  And if we fail, then call out to Him who is ready to hear and supply the need of that moment.   Let us be faithful followers.  God will bring forth the fruit!  And He will be glorified!  He is the One that will turn our charred, useless, nothing vine into a flourishing, fruitful, useful vine of beauty.  It doesn’t get any better than that!  Let us spread this word of hope to a desolate, needy, dark world.

The Terror Of Unbelief

As I read the end of Ezekiel 18 (a very good read by the way), I am struck once again by the compassion of the Creator: "'For why will you die, O house of Israel? [or every unbeliever who reads this]  For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,' declares the Lord GOD.  'Therefore repent and live!'"

What is repent?  John MacArthur says in his study Bible from book of Matthew: "Repent is no mere academic change of mind, nor mere regret or remorse.  ... is a radical turning from sin that inevitably became manifest in the fruit of righteousness."

John MacArthur further discusses the need for salvation in his book, Saved Without a Doubt.  (The following are several excerpts taken from different sections of this book.)   "God is the enemy of the sinner, and that enmity cannot end unless and until the sinner places his or her trust in Jesus Christ."   "God is never on the side of unbelievers.  He is their enemy and His wrath against them can be placated only by their trusting in the atoning work of His Son, Jesus Christ.  On the cross, Christ took upon Himself all the fury of  God's wrath that sinful humanity deserves."  "Apart from salvation through Jesus Christ, every human being is spiritually at war with God--regardless of what his or her feelings about God may be.  Through trust in Jesus Christ, a sinner's war with God is ENDED for all eternity."   Those three statements make very clear God's position, man's problem and God's provision.  And I would say very hopeful provision.  If you are reading this and are an unbeliever, you have hope.

But John goes on to boldly and lovingly give a stern warning to those who persist in unbelief:
"Persistent rejection of Christ will result in such persons passing the point of no return spiritually, of losing forever the opportunity of salvation.  That is what always happens to the individual who is indecisive. He eventually follows his evil heart of unbelief and turns his back forever on the living God."
"There comes a time when the lights go out, when further opportunity for salvation is forever lost.  One who rejects the full light can have no more light--no more forgiveness.  May that strike terror into the hearts of all who now reject Christ..."   And as I considered this blog post this morning, I read the following "randomly":  "the axe is laid to the root"(Matthew 3:10)  John explains this verse: "irreversible judgement was imminent".  When that root is cut, the tree will die!

This post is not to depress but to encourage believers as to the work ahead and the seriousness of that work.  Bathe your day in prayer!  And it is to encourage unbelievers that there is time to turn, to repent!  "For why will you die, O [unbeliever]?   For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord GOD.  Therefore, repent and live!!"

GOD

As I finished chapter 17 of Ezekiel, it was yet another reminder of the power we have access to through Jesus Christ.  Listen to these statements from God from the last few verses of this passage:
"I will plant it.  All the trees of the field will know that I am the LORD; I bring down the high tree, exalt the low tree, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will perform it."

There's power behind those statements and security, strength, integrity, truth and on and on I could go.
As I read those statements, I thought "why in the world do I fret and worry?  He has the power to do whatever He wants.  And through Jesus Christ, we have the privilege to bow down and witness the unleashing of that power.  Why do we delay??

The Race Marked Out

I love my morning exercise walk.  It refreshes me physically, mentally and spiritually.  It’s when I walk that I get thoughts to post on the blog.  And it’s my major prayer time.  I’m free from most all distractions: phone, drop in company, computer, work I need to do around the house and falling asleep during my prayer time.   

Since October, I’ve been prevented from walking and have had to use our exercise bike.  I hate it.  I dread it.  It’s boring, tedious and my house is all around me screaming for attention; the same with the phone and drop in company.  But it’s all I have so I need to take advantage of it.   However, I’m not as faithful with it and my body is definitely showing the signs of neglect. 

This morning was the day to start back.  I have one setting that I like.  It has six settings and I’ve tried a few others but I always go back to the one.  Today, I decided to try a new one.  The picture of it and what actually popped up wasn’t exactly accurate.  I’ve included the picture.  The setting had no middle ground, no acclimation.  It’s easy, hard, easy, hard, hard, hard, easy, hard, hard, very hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, easy, easy.  Right away, I wanted to stop and try another or just get mad, excuse myself with self-pity, and walk off.  It was the long series of “hard” that frustrated me.  I dreaded it more than usual.  I didn’t want it to be hard that long without an “easy”.  It was eight tough ones in a row.  How could I get through it when I hadn’t done it in so long?  As I sat there dreading it with desire for flight (quitting! which I’ve done more than once) I thought how the setting was much like the Christian life.  I decided to persevere with that thought in mind.

It made me glad that we don’t see the big picture of life.  Hebrews 12:1 says to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us”.   There is a walk that is “marked out” just for us.  There will be tough times or the writer wouldn’t have told us to “run with perseverance”.  But even if we were to know or see ahead, as believers we would have to say, “Lord, to whom should we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  John 6:68  But even in the midst of tough perseverance, God has given us privilege of prayer, of asking for strength to persevere, and He has given us the Holy Spirit as our Comforter to get us through the tough times.

I made it through the bike session.  It was hard and I hated it but I finished.  I did find out what a big baby I am.  But I’ll work on that another day!