Abide / Abode

Jesus is our home, when we are instructed to abide in Him scripture is telling us to live in Him. It’s true that this world is not our home but we don’t have to wait till we get to heaven to dwell in Christ. He is here now and we can be right at home with Him.

Refreshment

I love this thought from E. Stanley Jones, “We must not be self-contained, we must be Christ-contained. We must depend on Him for our primary refreshment. Then if anything comes from without it is all something thrown in, a plus. Glance at the refreshments from without, gaze at the refreshment in Christ. We must give refreshment to others if we are to keep it in Him.”

Everyone is not in the same place in their relationship with the Lord as you are. To many, what you receive from Him is the only contact they will have today.

Everything in Jesus has Promise

In Him there are no dead ends; life is wide open, as open as eternity. If we’ll give Him all that we are and seek Him in this moment, He will take care of all our tomorrows. We can count on it.

Glorified

“To glorify the name of the Lord Jesus would be enough for any ransomed sinner, but to be told (2Thess. 1:11, 12) that in the very glorifying of Jesus he himself would be glorified in Him – well, that is just too overwhelmingly good.” – E. Stanley Jones

That’s grace, we were made to live in Him, with Him, about Him and for Him, not for His benefit but because together (He in us, us in Him) was and is the entire goal. It’s the very thing the world desperately seeks and we must be willing to share in word and deed.

Big Fish

We watched the movie “Big Fish” tonight and the following quote really hit me. “The truth is, I didn’t see anything of myself in my father. And I don’t think he saw anything of himself in me.” Think about that for a minute.

While that may be true of some of our earthly fathers, that’s certainly not the case with our heavenly Father, we mustn’t buy into that lie. The truth is that we are made in His image. Don’t let theology complicate that for you, there is much in us that is of Him, He sees it and wants to help us see it too.

Lived Out

Ephesians 1:9 says, He made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ. I came across this verse yesterday while reading E. Stanley Jones’ In Christ and what I love about it is that it clearly lets us know that there’s no huge mystery in understanding God’s will. That Jesus is His will, not spelled out, but lived out. That’s not to say we are to go around “acting like Jesus”, but rather that the relationship that Christ has with The Father is the same relationship He wants for us. The things that we can have in common are intimacy, the peace and security that Christ has no matter the circumstance and the ever-increasing ability to trust. The rest will be as unique as each of us. God’s will looked at through Jesus spells “Love”.