Abiding in Christ

 

Salvation comes in stages. If we happily camp around the salvation of our spirit, we miss the glory of the sanctification of our soul. One day we will also experience the glorification of our body when Christ appears for His Saints (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Once we realize that the divinity of Christ and all of the power of the complete triune Godhead live within every Born Again Believer, a new enthusiasm produces constant praise from our lips to God’s ears (2 Peter 1:3).

We no longer view our self as a grubby worm inching around in the world of selfishness and sin. Instead, we see our self as beautiful butterflies soaring in the Heavenly, spiritual realm of life.

God calls His elect and then reveals Himself to and in us. He has a purpose for each of our lives (Ephesians 1:11). He loves us with His abundant, unfading and everlasting love (Psalm 25:6; Jeremiah 31:3).

We are totally dependent upon Jesus for our direction, health and provision moment by moment throughout the day (Ephesians 1:9; Philippians 2:12-13). Through our connection to the Vine, the life of Christ flows through us by His Spirit and we produce much fruit for the Kingdom of God (John 15:8).

Through our union with Christ, we shed the shackles of our sin nature and submit to the dealings and leadings of God's Spirit in our life (1 Corinthians 1:30). As branches in the Vine of Christ, we experience God as our husbandman.

He prunes the flesh from us so more spiritual fruit may grow (John 15:1, 5). We walk out of the bondage to carnality and into the glorious freedom of the sons of God (Romans 8:21).

Jesus is our center and God is the focus of our life. We seek to do His will in our job, community, church, extended family and home. If we walk in the darkness of self and sin, we stumble and fail in all of our attempts (John 11:10).

As we walk in the light of Christ, we find fulfillment in living out His will for our life (1 John 1:7). God’s wisdom, grace, love and supernatural abilities reside within us in Jesus Christ and are always available to meet all of our needs and to walk in God's will for us (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Prayer:

Father God, as we abide in You throughout the day, Your wisdom, grace, love and peace manifest in our life and out into the world around us. As we abide in You, You provide us with a dedicated life full of the wisdom, strength and Godly conviction, which we need to further Your Kingdom in our world.

We look forward to the day when we can also walk in Your power, so You can make a true difference in others through our life. As we make every effort to walk in peace with You, You renew our soul and make us blameless and spotless at Your coming (2 Peter 3:14). Our perseverance in our walk with You, guarantees that we will not stop short of Your glorious riches, which You prepared for us before time began (Romans 9:23).

Thought for the Day:

Undistracted devotion to God allows us to tap into all of His power and majesty in order to live our life as Elijah, Moses and Enoch did; and we will steadily walk into complete maturity in Christ. - James 1:4

The Family of God

 

God, our righteous Husbandman, grafts each of us as a branch into the vine of Christ (John 15:1, 5). He teaches us to balance our life. He reminds us to set apart time to worship Him, to fellowship with His Saints, to play with our family and friends and to help other people in their times of need. 

God gives us wisdom during our workweek, and shows us how to improve both the process and progress of our day. God’s Spirit guides us supernaturally. He gives us power, as Christ's Body on the earth, to perform greater works than Jesus did (John 14:12). 

We live for Christ, and He lives in and through us. We no longer strive, because we enter into His rest (Hebrews 4:10). We enjoy the transformed life with the nature of Christ in us. 

We do not rely on human effort and legalistic performances for salvation, but on Christ’s righteousness in us. We are a fellowship of like-mind, authentic, Born Again Believers, and a Body with a common goal. 

We commit to prefer, honor, love, accept, agree with, serve, bear with, submit to, forgive, admonish, encourage, build up and fellowship with one another. We are humble, sympathetic, compassionate, hospitable, and devoted to each other (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 13:34-35; Romans 12:10, 15:7; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 4:2, 5:21; Colossians 3:13, 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 10:25; 1 Peter 3:8, 4:9).

God gives us the discipline of forgiveness to keep our relationships in right standing with Him and one another. We face the wounds and feel the grief deeply in our heart. 

Then we choose not to allow the offender to live rent free in our heart. If we do not forgive, He cannot forgive us (Matthew 6:14). We do not let him/her off the hook, but we put them in God's capable hands to mete our His revenge on them (Romans 12:19).

Prayer:

Father God, You amaze us in Your goodness to us. You think of everything we need; sometimes even before we realize we need it (Isaiah 65:24)! We are so grateful to You for making us fellow citizens in Your Kingdom. 

We are no longer outsiders and aliens in this world, because You made all of us members of Your own household (Ephesians 2:19). Your Word helps us to make sense of this world. We look forward to living with You in the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1).

Thought for the Day:

Behold how good and pleasant it is for the family of God to dwell together in unity. - Psalm 133:1

A Completed Work

We Christians tend to compartmentalize our life into work, family, play, and lastly we worship, if we have time and we are not too tired. If we view God on the throne in heaven, it is easier to compromise our thoughts and behavior. 

However, the reality of the Christian life is that Christ lives within us. If we partake in some activity that would grieve the Lord, we cannot separate our self from Him to experience it. 

He must endure our most sinful acts with us. We drag Him right down into the pit of degradation. That puts a whole new perspective on our activities.

We inherited our penchant for sin from our first father, Adam (1 Corinthians 15:35-48). However, the new Adam, Jesus Christ, frees us from these base and self-defeating tendencies. The husbandman of our garden prunes our life until we express the nature of Christ through the fruit of His Spirit (John 15:1; Galatians 5:22-23). 

Gradually, we express nothing but His character. We abide in Christ and He abides in us and produces His holiness in us (Hebrews 12:14).

With a dual mindset, which separates the human and spiritual life, we walk alone through life’s disasters, which claim our attention, time and energy. 

Once we recognize our union with Christ, however, we experience them all through the power and wisdom of God. Focusing more on spiritual matters requires that we trim down our hectic schedule and our accumulation of things. 

We start to withdraw from any activity or contemplation that would grieve His heart. His Spirit provides for and directs us in the midst of whatever calamity comes our way.

God equips us with His wisdom and ability to perform the work, which He created for us to do before the beginning of time (Ephesians 2:8-10). 

He intends for our entire life to be lived as a form of worship to Him. Paul exhorts us to do even the most mundane things, such as eating and drinking, for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). 

We do not withdraw from life in order to worship Him, because worship is our life. Our whole life is lived in devotion to God. We live our life as a praise to His name. We forsake sin and worship Christ in us.

Prayer:

Father God, we thank You for Your complete work in our life (Ephesians 1:14, 4:30; Romans 8:21-23). Christ is both our redemption and our sanctification. We are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). Through Christ in us we experience, even now in this earthly realm, all the power and glory of the spiritual realm. Christ, who is our life, sits on His throne in glory, so that we may now experience the earnest of our inheritance of things to come. 

Remind us to perform our duties in life as an act of worship to Christ in us, no matter how mundane they are, how much we dislike them or how time consuming they tend to get.

Thought for the Day:

When Christ faced Golgotha, He cried out to God for deliverance; but He faced the cross, triumphed over sin and death, and we now reign with Him in glory.

Centered Focus

 

Salvation comes in stages. If we happily camp around the salvation of our spirit, we miss the glory of the redemption of our soul. One day we will also experience the glorification of our body when Christ appears for His Saints (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Once we realize that the divinity of Christ and all of the power of the complete triune Godhead live within every Born Again Believer, a new enthusiasm produces constant praise from our lips to God’s ears (2 Peter 1:3). We no longer view our self as a grubby worm inching around in the world of selfishness and sin.

Instead, we see our self as beautiful butterflies soaring in the Heavenly, spiritual realm of life. God calls His elect and then reveals Himself in us. He has a purpose for each of our lives (Ephesians 1:11). He loves us with His abundant, ageless and everlasting love (Psalm 25:6; Jeremiah 31:3). We are totally dependent upon Jesus for our direction, health and provision moment by moment throughout the day (Ephesians 1:9; Philippians 2:12-13). Through our connection to the Vine, the life of Christ flows through us by His Spirit and we produce much fruit for the Kingdom of God (John 15:8).

Through our union with Christ, we shed the shackles of our sin nature and submit to the dealings and leadings of God in our life (1 Corinthians 1:30). As branches in the Vine of Christ, we experience God as our husbandman. He prunes the flesh from us so more spiritual fruit grows (John 15:1, 5). We walk out of the bondage to carnality and into the glorious freedom of the sons of God (Romans 8:21). Jesus is our center and God is the focus of our life. We seek to do His will in our job, community, church, extended family and home. If we walk in the darkness of self and sin, we stumble and fail in our attempts (John 11:10).

As we walk in the light of Christ, we find fulfillment in living out His will for our life (1 John 1:7). God’s wisdom, grace, love and supernatural abilities reside within us in Jesus Christ and are always available to meet all of our needs (1 Corinthians 1:30). As we make every effort to walk in peace with God, He renews our soul and makes us blameless and spotless at His coming (2 Peter 3:14). Our perseverance in our walk with God, guarantees that we will not stop short of His glorious riches, which He prepared for us before time began (Romans 9:23). We will steadily walk into complete maturity in Christ (James 1:4).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, as we abide in You throughout the day, Your wisdom, grace, love and peace manifest in our life and out into the world around us. As we abide in You, You provide us with a dedicated life full of the wisdom, strength and Godly conviction, which we need to further Your Kingdom in our world. We look forward to the day when we can also walk in Your power, so You can make a true difference in others through our life.

Thought for the Day:

Undistracted devotion to God allows us to tap into all of His power and majesty in order to live our life as Elijah, Moses and Enoch did.