ABIDING IN CHRIST

John 15:5; I John 2:28; II John 9

Abide – to dwell, to rest to continue, to stand firm.

I John 2:28 “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

There is a place to abide. We are to abide in Jesus. All of our assurance and hope and every blessing resides in our abiding in Jesus. Abiding in Jesus indicates a close relationship. Our abiding in Him indicates that within His nearness, we have peace and re-assurance of His care for us and He is watching over us. I fear that sometimes He sees every moment of my life, whether it is joy or sorrow. He has experience all that I could ever experience in this life. He knows every step I take and every obstacle that hinders my walk. When I stumble, He is there to steady me. When I fall He picks me up and brushes me off and heals body and mind.

I cannot have confidence in this world and the rule of man. I cannot have confidence in government that they will always want the best for me. I cannot have confidence in fellow man that they will treat me right and never fail me or desert me. My confidence must stay on and with the Lord Jesus. He is always present when I need Him. I have confidence in His return to take me home one day. In His time, at the right time, I shall see Him in the air and hear the trumpet of victory sound and I shall meet my Lord in the Air. What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see, when I look upon His face . . .

My desire is to not be ashamed before God when I stand before Him. Therefore, I must abide. I don’t know when His return is so I must be ready at any time. I have confidence in his return as a thief in the night and because His appearance will not be announced, I must be faithful and true at all times. I must not be drawn away by worldly lusts or desires. I MUST abide in Jesus at all times.

John 15:5 “I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.”

Abiding is fruit-bearing. The place of abiding is in Jesus Christ the Son of God. Some choose to abide in the world, in sports, arts, education, politics, power or prestige. The propensity of some to always gravitate to worldly things is evident in what holds their attention and receives their time. These days of hectic activity of the world, we hardly have time for Jesus, much less abiding in him. Abiding means to spend time with him. We abide in our house that we call our home. This is where we eat, we sleep and basically live our lives. This is the hub of our life. Jesus should be the hub of our life.

With Jesus, we are “in Him.” We should be just as comfortable being in him as we are at home. Abiding in Him means that no matter where we are He is ever-present. Since we are in Him at work, we should be just as faithful in representing Him at work as we are at Church. Where ever we are, if we abide in Christ, we will produce, not just fruit but much fruit. Notice that statement “… for without me ye can do nothing. If we are not producing fruit, maybe we should examine ourselves to see if we are abiding.

II John 1:9  “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.”

If we are abiding in Christ, we have an overwhelming desire to abide in His doctrine. Truth is so important in a time of lying and deceit. So many distort and twist the doctrine of Christ in this modern depraved age. The Bible says, “ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” John 8:32. We areresponsible for diligently searching for the truth and finding it. Finding the truth tells of the love we have for Christ.

NO HOPE

When there is No hope

on the horizontal level,

There is always hope

on the vertical

level.

Adrian Rogers

GOD

God is Americas biggest threat and OUR ONLY HOPE. – Adrian Rogers

HOPE

My good friend Pastor Jim Harris is Author of this explanation.

 

 

Jim Harris

·

“Looking for that happy, glad expectation, even the glorious appearance of the great God, even our Savior Jesus Christ.”

Titus 2:13 (Harris Translation)

 

There are certain words and certain constructions in the Greek text that should thrill our hearts. The word that is translated “hope” (here translated “expectation”) is one of them. The Greek word is “elpis” and refers to a glad expectation. It expresses the thought of the assurance of some future good. It is not “iffy,” as is often heard in our “wishful thinking,” “I hope it will be good weather today,” etc. We do not know for sure whether the weather will be good or not, but our desire is that it will be so. Instead, “elpis” expresses a certainty. We KNOW that Jesus is coming. We are assured of it. We just don’t know when it will take place. Also, there is a construction in the Greek that presents the word “and” essentially as an equal mark, showing the phrases on each side of it to be equal. That is expressed by the use of the word “even” in the above translation. Our glad expectation is the coming of Jesus, the Son, who is co-equal and co-eternal with God, the Father. “Evenso, Come, Lord Jesus.”

 

GOD GIVE ME JOY

God give me joy in the common things:

In the dawn that lures, the eve that sings.

 

In the new grass sparkling after rain,

In the late wind’s wild and weird refrain;

 

In the springtime’s spacious field of gold

In the precious light by winter doled.

 

God give me joy in the love of friends,

In their dear home talk as summer ends;

 

In the songs of children, unrestrained;

In the sober wisdom age has gained.

 

God give me joy in the tasks that press,

In the memories that burn and bless;

 

In the thought that life has love to spend,

In the faith that God’s at journey’s end.

 

God give me hope for each day that springs,

God give me joy in the common things!

 

Thomas Curtis Clark

CAN YOU SAY?

Can you say in parting with the day
that’s slipping fast,

That you helped a single person of the
many you have passed?

Is a single life rejoicing over what you
did or said?

Does some on whose hopes were fading,
now with courage look ahead?

Did you waste the day or lose it, was
it well or poorly spent?

Did you leave a trend of kindness, or a
scar of discontent?

As you close your eyes in slumber, do you
think that God would say —

You have made the world much better
for the life you’ve lived today?

Unknown.
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Spiritual Gifts 7

SPIRITUAL GIFTS 7

The love chapter is the way most see I Corinthians 13. Verses 1-7 and 13 are really keyed upon when this chapter is discussed. This is fine as far as it goes. We must examine the reason for writing verses 1-7 What end is Paul trying to achieve?

To do this we must examine the writings a little at a time. Paul is saying there is something greater than the gifts that the Church at Corinth was using and abusing. Verse 13 does a lot to clue us in. “

1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. “

Paul is telling the Church there is something greater and better than the gifts that are only partial. Notice that prophecy, understanding all mysteries, all knowledge, and all faith to remove mountains are gifts that are inferior to the gift of love. If we don’t love the Lord and His people above all of these gifts we are what? Paul said we become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. Does he mean we are ding-a-lings? Just a little humor. What it means is a cacophony, a harsh and discordant sound. Not a symphony of well arranged notes and chords that are pleasing to the ear but disharmony and harsh, displeasing noise that has no rhyme or reason. These, certainly are not words of recommendation.

A further examination reveals what Charity does and what it does not do. What it does do is suffer long and is kind. What it does not do is vaunteth not itself, nor is puffed up, behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil: Rejoiceth not in iniquity. What have we seen with those that claim different gifts? Lets look at the vaunted and puffed up. Those that have claimed the gift of tongues and to a certain degree, other gifts;take pride in their accomplishment. There is the sense that they are more righteous because they do these things. They seem to want all others to engage in the gift of tongues, particularly. This is totally contrary to chapter 12 which states that not all have the same gift. Yet the prevailing thought is that everyone should speak in tongues. This has to be classed as heresy. Paul declares the sovereignty of God is giving the gifts to the ones He chooses. Notice particularly, verse 6, “rejoiceth in the truth: Can we not simply accept chapter 12 as Paul wrote it instead of vainly trying to explain it away. I Corinthians 12:6-11 amply explain that not all have the gift of tongues, or wisdom, or healing. The word is plain.

I Corinthians 13:8, Paul makes a clear statement about the partial gifts. “…they shall fail;.. they shall cease;…it shall vanish away.” It behooves us to find when these gifts shall fail, cease, vanish away. In the finding, we must be honest. In I Corinthians 13:6 “…but rejoiceth in the truth:.” We need to examine verse 10 because Paul is letting us know that he is telling us of when this will take place.

1Co 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

Look at the construction of the sentence. Those that want to live with imperfect and partial knowledge state that this refers to the second coming of Jesus. For this reason we still have these partial gifts. May I contend with you that if this is the meaning of this passage, Paul is reviling Jesus by the term that. The love and respect we know Paul to have to the Savior would demand that Paul use the term He to cause this passage to read – “ But when He which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. “…that which is perfect…” is a common noun and is neuter. That means it is not masculine or feminine. My “Idiot’s Guide to Grammar & Punctuation says that common nouns refer to things such as – hair, emeralds, keys, time, whatever – things and stuff that have words for what they are but don’t have their own specific names. After checking my English, I then turned to the Greek language and found that this phrase could not possibly be speaking of a person such as Jesus. Those that would argue for this phrase being Jesus is making up, totally, a false argument based upon what that person wants this phrase to be. This would be tantamount to adding to the scripture which is forbidden in Revelations.

May we continue our search for the meaning of this passage by going to James 1:25.

Jam 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Look at the word perfect. What does this word mean? There are those that would use this to refer to Christ as the only perfect one. One must remember this is an Old English word.

G5046

τέλειος

teleios

Thayer Definition:

1) brought to its end, finished

2) wanting nothing necessary to completeness

3) perfect

4) that which is perfect

4a) consummate human integrity and virtue

4b) of men

4b1) full grown, adult, of full age, mature

Part of Speech: adjective

A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G5056

Citing in TDNT: 8:67, 1161

The above meanings are fulfilled today. The Word of God having been completed has given us all we need to know today. It is complete as to it’s instruction in salvation, in how to live, in what the Church is and is to do, in who Jesus is, in who God is and how He wants to be worshiped. Let us add one more verse to make even more solid that Paul is talking about the Completed Word of God. James 2:12.

^{Jam 2:12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.}

^{We have to agree that this verse is speaking of the same thing that James 1:25 speaks of.}

^{Both speak of the law of liberty. James 1:25 relates that the one that looks into the law of liberty and continues in it will be blessed. Where else but the Word of God is it spoken how we should live our lives. James 2 states that we will be judged by the law of liberty. One only needs a short time of research to find that the Word of God will be used to judge all. Now that which is perfect in I Corinthians 13 can only refer to the perfect law of liberty that will judge the saint and sinner one day, Gods Word, the Bible.}

^{Paul compares the desire for the partial gifts as childishness. He calls us to put away childish things. There will always be those that do not grow in the Lord and live their lives as “bottle babies,” never able to eat the meat of the Word of God.}

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