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.

REVIEWING PAST ASSESSMENTS

William Andrew Dillard
Parson to Person

IT’S A COLLECTIVE ANIMAL WORLD

The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for the various groups of animals. We are all familiar with a Herd of cattle; a Flock of chickens; a School of fish, and a Gaggle of geese. However, less widely known is a Pride of lions; a Murder of crows (as well as their cousins the rooks and ravens); an Exaltation of doves, and, presumably because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls. Now consider a group of Baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive, and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Believe it or not ……. a Congress! Is it not weird how their descriptions parallel? I guess that pretty much explains a lot of the things that come out of Washington! It seems more prominent today than it did years ago.

IT’S A FRUITCAKE WORLD

Well, as the clock struck the midnight hour, officially ending the day, it was much as other days except a few times in recent years those days were supposed to be the end of the world, the return of Jesus, etc. Of course those things did not occur, nor were there many who thought they would, but in retrospect I just need to say: so much for the fruitcakes that know more than Jesus knows (according to them). The world has not ended…..the age is not over…..the rapture has not occurred. Did I think it would? Certainly not on the day designated. Has this sort of thing happened before? Yep! Will it happen again? Yep! Why anyone would pay any attention to it at all underscores biblical ignorance. Well, at least the fruitcakes are proving themselves to be false prophets according to Deut. 18:18-22. Maybe that alone is a good thing.

IT’S AN EDUCATED-BEYOND-INTELLIGENCE WORLD

An intellectual scholar was once described in homespun wisdom as being “educated beyond his intelligence.” Of course, there is humor in the description, but beyond that, it seems there is also some sobering truth. It occasionally appears that the more a few folks are educated, the more they appear to be ignorant of what is truly important in life.
On the other hand, those hearing the words of the truly wise man, Solomon, will have their feet firmly established in true wisdom. He said, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7. Doubtless, the wise man had encountered a few fools in his day, but it is also obvious that he had listened well to his father, King David, who described those who deny their maker in favor of preposterous theories in these words, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God…” Psalm 14:1. The practicality of truth over theory shines so brightly that those who turn from it really do give cause to wonder if they have not been educated beyond their intelligence!

MARCH 7 – Defying the armies of the Living God

MARCH 7 – Defying the armies of the Living God

1Sa 17:26  And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? 

David had a great courage. This courage was on display when a lamb was attacked by a bear and a lion. He had a responsibility to respond to this challenge. Responsibility is a big word with a mature meaning. We must teach our children responsibility. Even though David was young, possibly late teen, he was serious about his responsibility.

David felt that responsibility when he came to the army of Israel. One big, loud mouth bully had caused the men to quake and fear. I remember the preachers of 50, 60 years ago. They were bold against sin. They were bold on the church and what it is. They were bold on membership. They were bold in setting the saved and members on a solid foundation. They never apologized for the Word of God, the Church, and the doctrines that were built on the foundation of God’s Word.

We have a responsibility today. The question to be asked, are we being responsible. Satan opposes all we do. Satan uses every form he can to twist the truths of God’s Word. In the Old Testament, Pharoah, an emissary of Satan, copied the stick to a snake. The separation of the nation into the northern and the southern division, Satan used Jereboam to change the worship and built two golden calves and sent the priests of God packing and brought in his personal, corrupt priests. We know this was not acceptable to God. Ten tribes were led astray from the true worship of God.

Satan is busy today attacking what Jesus has built. The world has been offered on a platter to the Lord’s church. The church is not declining because of the strong preaching of the Word of God. It is declining because the world is creeping in. Many terms are used to make the world acceptable to the church. Some use the term method. Do we not have the Lord’s directive on what method to use? The instruction is very clear, entice them? No. We are not in the enticing business. We are in the going business. We are to carry the gospel to a lost and dying world. We are not called to use the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom of God. Let us stand against the world. Let us stand for God.

Let us do it God’s way.

FEBRUARY 4 – WHY DO WE HAVE THESE PROBLEMS

FEBRUARY 4 – WHY DO WE HAVE THESE PROBLEMS

Judges 6:13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

There are some people that seem to be without a clue. They have difficulty in their life that they do not understand. Tragedy befalls them often. Health is a problem. In and out of Jobs and seem as if they cannot hold a job for very long. Relationships deteriorate. Finances crumble. Life is joyless.

They never seem to understand that the choices one makes in life either beautifies or uglifies life. The mind that dwells on sin often makes choices that bring terrible results. I can tell you why your life is a mess, your state is a mess and our nation is a mess. It is called sin because man makes wrong choices. When man chooses to ignore God and His Son, Jesus Christ, that man chooses the wrong path in life. It is only natural for the lost to choose sin. When the saved choose sin, we have serious problems.

The saved have been forgiven and are then to serve. When they turn away from service, it is rebellion. Rebellion is sin. When the saved agree with worldly culture in aborting a baby and agree with homosexual marriage we have serious problems. These problems are even greater when we practice close communion and baptism without proper authority. These are directly against Biblical statement and practice. We have minimized the ordinances that Jesus gave to the local Church. We have taken upon ourselves to “correct” Gods error.

We need to get back to the true walk, the true worship and the true doctrines that God has given us in His Book, the Bible.

A GREAT MAN ONCE SAID:

It is for us to dig the well, it is for God to send the rain and the water.

It is for us to plant the seed; it is for God to make it sprout and grow.

It is for us to cultivate the field, it is for God to give the harvest.

It is for me to witness, it is for God to give the increase, to save the soul.

When I have done the best I can, then God must do the rest, and He will.

 

Unknown Author

Detecting False Prophets

 

1 John 4:1-6

 

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” 1 John 4:4.

 

 

Our family has a secret password. It is a word we have shared with our children that will confirm to them that they can trust the adult with whom they might speak in case of an emergency. So, if an emergency arises and we must recruit the help of someone else to pick up the kids from school or from the house, the kids will ask for our family password. If the person does not know the password, it will be obvious to our children that the messenger has not been sent from us but is most likely an imposter.

 

As children of God, we have the same relationship and a similar way of knowing whether a messenger, preacher, teacher or even a friend, represents our Father or is an imposter. If a person behaves in a way that brings glory to Jesus Christ, we can feel confident in that person’s identity as a child of God. We can know the difference between spiritual truth and error, safety and danger, by simply analyzing whether or not the message honors Christ as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. These days there are many messages vying for our attention, and many of them seem to be harmless at first glance. Satan has had plenty of time to configure a counterfeit Christianity that looks like the real thing, but when it comes down to the root of any thought, belief, action, or spoken word, if God’s glory is not the main motivation, there is no truth present, no matter how right it may seem.

 

 

 

JUST A THOUGHT

 

Will you test every message to see if it brings glory to God today?

 

 

Mark Clements

 

 

He Takes Away Sin

 

John 1:29

 

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” John 1:29. 

 

 

 

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him” (Psalm 103:12, 13).

 

“And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat . . . Then shall he kill the goat of the sin-offering, that is for the people, . . . he shall bring the live goat: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness (Lev. 16:7, 8, 15, 20-22).

 

God has demonstrated from Genesis to Revelation, that before the world was created, He had a plan to take away mankind’s sins. He put them on His Son who carried them away when He died on the cruel cross. That’s why the repentant sinner feels liberated; the Holy Spirit has lifted the burden of the consequences of his sin.

 

 

 

Just Saying

 

Ever hear your grandmother say, your chickens have come home to roost? We must truly repent.

 

 

 

Robert Brock

 

 

 

Greater Is He

 

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” 1 John 4:4.

 

This marvelous sentence hangs on one word because.

 

Because Christ has sealed Himself to the believer’s spirit, the believer lives in a state of supernatural power. He has access to the throne of God and to the compassionate Mediator who knows exactly what His child is going through.  He has been there, “I feel your pain, little one.”

 

The title little children shows a relationship. Little shows dependence on God the Father who willingly offers all the grace and strength necessary to overcome Satan and his forces. This same promise of powerful supernatural resources is made to every little child of God.

 

Little children who know their position compared to God, their Creator, have a great deal of confidence. “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone” (Isa. 6:1, 5). He then said, “Here am I; send me” (verse 8).

 

I have a grandson who was frightened out of his wits when his mother left him in someone else’s care. However, he began to realize that she would always come back and learned to relax and enjoy the innocent life of a helpless child. His mama and daddy had his back.  Jesus taught us to pray for God to deliver us from evil. This word evil in the Greek language is an adjective used as a noun and could be translated, deliver us from the evil one. When we stand toe to toe with the devil, we need to know that the Creator of the universe has our backs. We need to put on the rest of the armor to fight with all His might the good fight of faith. Do not give Satan an inch or he will take a mile (Eph. 6:10-18).

 

 

JUST A THOUGHT

 

Everyone can have victory and be an overcomer.

 

Robert A. Brock