Are you abiding? If not - why not?

The power, the glory, the majesty, the beauty and the mystery of Jesus captivate our souls!

Recently I’ve been thinking about a very familiar portion of Scripture.  Familiar, yes – but this Truth is so basic, so supremely essential, the very foundation (John 1.1-4, John 1:14) of our faith and unshakeable assurance.  Jesus is God, He is the Word of God, He is the Creator and He is the Life, which is the Light for all mankind.  This is how we know, without a particle of doubt, that Jesus is (Psalms 118:22, Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11) the Cornerstone, the Head Stone and the Chief Stone of the entire foundation.  Being the Word of God, Jesus clearly expressed God’s thought, will and purpose, that the Word would become flesh, would actually clothe Himself in a totally human body and live among us.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to be (Hebrews 2:17) like us and still be the only One of us Who could die for all of us; He is our (Ruth 2:20) Kinsmen Redeemer so that we could discern (1 Timothy 3:16) the mystery of godliness which is (Colossians 1:27) Christ in you, your only hope of glory.  This speaks to me not only of the glory of heaven but also of our holy privilege of reflecting the glory of God now while we are still here on earth-time.  Why else are we still here?  One day we will (Daniel 12:3) shine like the stars, glittering with the reflected radiance of Jesus but for now we are to shine as lights in this dark world.

I cannot change my circumstances or handle, on my own, the unexpected things that make up life.  Life happens. Whatever my circumstances, whether painful, hectic or peaceful, contentment is built right into the knowledge that my Sovereign God, my loving heavenly Father is arranging my circumstances and always for my spiritual benefit.  Therefore, I can accept the ‘inevitables’ of life and be most concerned (Colossians 3:1-2) about the things that have eternal significance.  Self-interest can be a landmine.  The secret of poise and also of peace is to (John 15:4) abide in Jesus.  The secret of the Lord (Psalms 25:14) of the sweet satisfying companionship of the Lord, is for those who fear, revere and worship Him.  Uninterrupted abiding in Jesus is to be the law of my life.

(Oswald Chambers) “No matter what my circumstances may be, I can be as sure of abiding in Jesus in those circumstances as I can in a prayer meeting.  My circumstances are God’s business – my business is to trust and obey”.

Consider this:  God made (Jeremiah 51:15-16) the earth by His power, He establishes the world by His wisdom and He stretched out the heavens by His understanding.  He made the lightning and the rain and He brings the wind out of His treasury.  His power, His wisdom, His understanding, His Word.  Are we so utterly foolish as to think that He, Who loves us, can’t engineer our circumstances?  Which He does because He loves us.  The Lord takes thought (Psalms 40:17) and plans for me.

The abiding life is the crucified live (Galatians 2:20) the – not I but CHRIST-life as we abide in Jesus we enjoy the reality of His precious companionship and are enveloped in the surpassing sweetness of His love.  I want to be so deeply in love with Jesus that I can’t get my mind off Him.  We are here to obey the Lord by realizing our responsibility to share in (Matthew 28:18-20) the Great Commission.  We are obligated debtors (Romans 1:14) to spread the gospel and encourage believers in order to serve God’s purpose (Acts 13:36) through us for our generation.

That is why we are still here, so that Jesus can be satisfied when He sees (Isaiah 53:11) the travail of His soul paying out rich dividends in and through you and me, whom He has justified.

One by one three ‘greats’ set up camp in my mind and took over my expanding thoughts this morning.  They were – great mystery, great gain and great fullness.  They painted a great picture and then this trio of greats sang a great song.  Great is (1 Timothy 3:16) the mystery of godliness, godliness with contentment (1 Timothy 6:6) is great gain and the great privilege of being filled (Ephesians 3:19) to all the fullness of God.  These greats are the building blocks of my character as Jesus lives His Life in and through me as I yield consistently to the control of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit can make the song of the GREATS to be the vivid reality of our lives.  So where do we begin?  Here is the starting gate.  Seek the Lord (Deuteronomy 4:29, Jeremiah 29:13, Isaiah 55:6) with all your heart, while He may be found.  Make it your concentrated focal point.  Don’t waste time dabbling in lesser pursuits and distractions.  Use the shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16) to quench Satan’s fiery darts.  It will take time but what better or more profitable way could we invest our NOW time?  ‘While He may be found’ – is a warning reminder that our NOW time is limited.  We know that the next event on God’s calendar is (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) the Rapture of the Church.  We don’t know when but we must be ready.  I’m sure you remember what Jesus said about abiding (John 14:20) you in Me and I in you.

It is critical how we spend the currency of our NOW time.  (Dr. Jeremiah) “If all the things that are happening in the world at the present time are a build-up (Matthew 24:6) to the Great Tribulation, what does that tell us about the nearness of the Rapture?”  We can see that all over the world Creation is declaring that God is doing something.  The answers Jesus gave in response to the 3 questions (Matthew 24:3-8) of the disciples, (Dr.Stanley) predicted what John heard then when he was a young man.  About 70 years later he was instructed to write it down (Revelation 6) – the beginning of the wrath and judgment of God.

Wouldn’t it be marvellously great if, when we actually see Jesus for the first time, we already know Him so well that we have an intimate, personal, deeply loving relationship with Him?  This very One, Who was crucified in weakness and resurrected in power!  Don’t we find that the power, the glory, the majesty, the beauty and the mystery of Jesus captivate our souls?

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