Welcome to Abiding - Part 1

"Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the Vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in Him bears much fruit." John 15:4&5

As it gets closer to Easter, one of the passages I love to read is John 15. This is the last main teaching that Jesus gave His disciples before He went to the cross. Although it is only mentioned in one gospel, I still believe it must have been pretty important.

With so many other things on His mind and wanting to get to the garden to pray, Jesus still took this time to walk with His disciples and to encourage them. It's not surprising that John was the disciple that recorded this teaching on `abiding'. John was known as `the disciple that Jesus loved', and this confidence in His love was born from deep abiding.

In most Bibles this passage is entitled `Jesus - the True Vine'. Now I am not much of a gardener, so I don't know why I like this passage so much. I think it is the idea of `abiding with Jesus' that really gets me in.

To `ABIDE' means to `remain intimately connected'. As I watch my husband tend his garden and taste the wonderful vegetables it produces, I can see how connecting with Jesus in this way helps me to `tap into his power and presence'*. ABIDE also means to `remain' or `stay'. To me, this believe this means that it is our responsibility to remain in His presence.

God wants to be intimate with us, but we need to make the choice to be intimate with Him. In John 15, we discover 3 ways be can choose to abide.

1) WE ABIDE IN CHRIST.

"I am the Vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in Me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:5

I can still remember how I felt the day I accepted Jesus as my Saviour. This feeling, I might add, has never left me. It was this wondrous experience of being wrapped in the arms of my Father, the knowing that Jesus was now my special friend and that He would not only be with me, but in me, as the Holy Spirit.

"I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counsellor who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads you in all truth." John 14:16

2) WE ABIDE IN HIS LOVE.

When we abide in Jesus' love, we begin to have his love in us. There is a song we used to sing back in the 70's, based on the passage in Matthew 25. When I think about loving as Jesus loved, this song comes to mind.

"When I needed a neighbour, were you there, were you there?

When I needed a neighbour, were you there?

And the creed and the colour and the name won't matter, were you there?" **

3) WE ABIDE IN HIS WORD.

"But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like and it will be granted." John 15:7

By reading God's word everyday we learn more and more about how Christ wants us to live like Him and in Him. We discover anew how we can be `tapped into His power and presence'. *

* "Secrets of the Vine" - Bruce Willkinson, 2002, Multnomah Publishers.

** "You Were There" - Sydney Carter, 1971, Steiner & Bell.