Parcel Abiding

 

1 John 5:1-5

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”

Jan and I enjoy Colorado, some of our dearest friends live in Golden, and we always look forward to spending time with them.  This is how those visits go; we bask in fellowship and comfort of John and Brenda’s home in the foothills of Golden, Colorado.  If the visit takes place in the spring of the year, I awake to a morning of beauty, as I look out into the valley below all I can see is green grass down in the meadows and it will be in the low 60’s.  For the few days of each trip we abide together, we walk and talk, we pray, we share, we eat often and play games, it is refreshing and John reminds me that what we are enjoying is what God desires with us, each and every day.  We have been abiding, and to believe that reading a few verses in the morning, and then going about your day with no fellowship with the Father is abiding, that would be a poor understanding of what the Scripture is telling us.

So it seems that many of us who believe by faith that God has given us eternal life; that Jesus Christ took on flesh and became lower than His Creation to buy us back out of the control of sin, still do not abide.  Could that be the answer to why so many are easily taken captive by the worlds system and by the deception of the evil one?  I often blame it on being raised Baptist, because most Baptists believe that doing makes you Christ like.  But after years of doing and doing, I’ve come to the understanding that it is almost impossible to abide while trying to do so much for God.  Oswald Chambers had this to say on doing: “To-day in Christian work we are suffering from a phase of spiritual dyspepsia that emphasizes doing.  The great thing to do is to be a believer in Jesus.  With Jesus it is never “Do, do,” but “Be, be and I will do through you.”   By abiding we become what God has planed for us. Verse two states; “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.”  John goes on to explain the love of God, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.  And his commandments are not burdensome.” 

As I reflect on the above Scriptures, it become clear that not abiding leads to not keeping His commandments and the end of that is a wide road to running my own show, and living independently of God’s authority.  Our victory comes from abiding, from fellowship with the Father, from confession and agreement that we need and we trust His hand and we desire His face.  Verse four tells us who we are and God is clear on this, we are over-comers, we are victorious over life and death, because of our faith.  Verse five states, “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice