Abide in Me

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” (John 15:4)

This is a wonderful picture of our relationship with Jesus Christ. This verse shows us that we cannot bear fruit by ourselves but if we abide with Jesus there is much we can do and we will experience much growth in being with Him. Jesus is the one that connects us to the Father. Through Jesus we are part of His family. “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” (John 15:8) This is an amazing gift and those of us who have accepted Jesus into our hearts and feel His presence realize how much we have changed and how different we are from the world. I believe this is becoming more and more apparent as the world changes so dramatically. The world most of us grew up in feels like a distant memory as so many of the values we grew up with are thrown away and replaced with many things we find hard to understand. We are also looked upon as different and not co-operating with the worldly ideas. This is the way the world thinks though and we are to “abide in Christ,” which means we are the branch which abides in the vine. We are connected and Jesus is feeding us life compared to the world which is feeding us death. We must always return to our home which is in Jesus. This is where we abide. “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” (John 14:23) This is our permanent home with our family.

The world thinks differently. Their whole life revolves around this world and all they can do in it. They have no thought about the coming Kingdom on earth with Jesus ruling and reigning. To them this idea is repulsive and does not fit it with their worldly view of life. Just as Jesus was hated when He was here on earth we are thought of as traitors to this world that they love. They do not like us and this is unfortunate because what they hate is actually the thing they need the most. Without the Holy Spirit living in them they don’t seem to be able to see God’s love for us. They then look at Him as an enemy and therefore begin to hate Him. They are lost and don’t even know it. It is very sad but as the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. Most of the world today has heard of Jesus and most of them have also rejected Him. Most of our Israel nations have for years been living under the blessing of our Lord but since they have decided to reject Him they have lost most of those blessings.

We must pray for our families and friends and fellow Israel nations to cry out to God to have mercy upon us and to open the eyes of those who do not know Jesus and the wonderful hope that He brings us. It is only through abiding (dwelling) in Jesus that we can change.

The world today is in a mess and every day brings something new that is hard to understand. Our eyes though are not to be on the world but to be on Jesus. It is depressing keeping our eyes and ears tuned to what is happening in the world. It is changing so fast it is hard to keep up but if we keep our eyes and ears tuned into Jesus we have hope and can rest in him.

“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15: 9-12)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:16-19)