John 15:4 "Abide in me and I in you." (All of 15 must be read) We wonder why we're dry, empty, lacking in any way, let us make sure we read and memorize John 15. We WILL bear much fruit if we abide in Christ. The word abide means to continue in a permanent state. Not a state a fluctuation, but a permanent state. If it is permanent, what should that permanency look like? Pure, holy...there are so many words that can describe what is should be, and is.
Does God lack anything, does He miss things, is there any lack that He could possibly have, at all? Who's are we? Who owns us? if we are Christ's what does that mean for us? If we are His, what are our responsibilities, and privileges for being His? As sons or daughters, are we not heirs of His?
As I reread John 15, it seems to all be there. What He has done, what He will do and what we are to do. If it's all Him, and none of us: we're done, for He is all we need. If we are His, and we abide in Him, what more do we need? Can we possibly need more than all of Him? There are reasons why we miss Him. If we are not hearing Him, there's a reason. Let's look to Him, not take our eyes off Him, and return to His ways, cause they are a LOT better.
John 15
New King James Version (NKJV)
The True Vine
15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Love and Joy Perfected
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’[c]
The Coming Rejection
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
Also 2 Cor 5:15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Then in chapter 6 We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For He says:
“In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”[a]
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Passionately holy.
How many passionately holy things have you ever seen? I have seen plenty of passionate things, and I have seen holy things, but they seem to be fewer. The Cross comes to mind. Look at how The Lord has created us to have babies. It's filled with passion, but we have made it very unholy for the most part. Not that we are supposed to see it, but all that we see of it, is almost always unholy. It's filled with passion, but we've made it into something that is not holy. And so many other things follow suit.
I am really into movies. The closest thing I've seen to a holy and passionate movie is Facing The Giants or Fireproof, but Amazing Grace, Ultimate Gift, Chariots of Fire and especially The Hiding Place is the very best we've had to offer as a Church. The Passion, from Mel Gibson comes close, but has so much that isn't holy in it, I just can't even recommend it, and would instead have people see Matthew or John as far as "passion" movies go. Passion (from the Ancient Greek verb πάσχω (paskho) meaning to suffer) is a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Looking over the further definitions of passion below I was confused because of the "real" meaning of the word from its origin; To suffer. Then my wife said I can imagine someone doing that about music, loving it so much that they're willing to suffer to make it happen. So that's where passion can come into music, and if we've heard good music, there's passion behind it.
Most movies are very hard to make, it often takes passion to see it through to the end. The greatest of athletes must have intense passion for what they do. Christ must have had the most incredible passion to have suffered greater than any man ever will for anything, but He suffered for us, He was that passionate about saving us, He literally gave everything. In fact, He gave more than we ever could. He, being God, became a man. He left His heavenly kingdom to come down and live to show us how we should live, and then suffer and die the most horrible death imaginable, the horror and cruelty He suffered, the mocking & beatings. Being left on the cross with everyone having deserting Him, and then to have God leave Him at that last moment; "Why have You forsaken Me?" No one has ever, or will ever be as passionate about anything as he was, and is, about us.
But what if we were to do things that are only holy passionate? What if I only spoke with holiness and passion? I have spoken that way, but what if I only spoke that way, about everything? If I get to produce movies like I've always dreamed of, what if I only produced holy and passionate movies, what would that even look like? A Star Wars or Casablanca that's saved?
Eric Liddell's story, told partly in Chariots of Fire, would be an example of someone who ran with passion. It's funny, as he really gets going when he ran, his head fly's back and he seems to be running with reckless abandon. Maybe that's how we should run.
"Run and not grow weary, walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, . . . honest, . . . just, . . . pure, . . . lovely, . . . of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8)
n.
A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger.
Ardent love.
Strong sexual desire; lust.
The object of such love or desire.
Boundless enthusiasm: His skills as a player don't quite match his passion for the game.
The object of such enthusiasm: Soccer is her passion.
An abandoned display of emotion, especially of anger: He's been known to fly into a passion without warning.
Passion
The sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament.
A narrative, musical setting, or pictorial representation of Jesus's sufferings.
Archaic. Martyrdom.
Archaic. Passivity.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin passiō, passiōn-, sufferings of Jesus or a martyr, from Late Latin, physical suffering, martyrdom, sinful desire, from Latin, an undergoing, from passus, past participle of patī, to suffer.]
SYNONYMS passion, fervor, fire, zeal, ardor. These nouns denote powerful, intense emotion. Passion is a deep, overwhelming emotion: "There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy" (Richard Brinsley Sheridan). Fervor is great warmth and intensity of feeling: "The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal" (William James). Fire is burning passion: "In our youth our hearts were touched with fire" (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.). Zeal is strong, enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal, or goal and tireless diligence in its furtherance: "Laurie [resolved], with a glow of philanthropic zeal, to found and endow an institution for ... women with artistic tendencies" (Louisa May Alcott). Ardor is fiery intensity of feeling: "the furious ardor of my zeal repressed" (Charles Churchill).
I am really into movies. The closest thing I've seen to a holy and passionate movie is Facing The Giants or Fireproof, but Amazing Grace, Ultimate Gift, Chariots of Fire and especially The Hiding Place is the very best we've had to offer as a Church. The Passion, from Mel Gibson comes close, but has so much that isn't holy in it, I just can't even recommend it, and would instead have people see Matthew or John as far as "passion" movies go. Passion (from the Ancient Greek verb πάσχω (paskho) meaning to suffer) is a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Looking over the further definitions of passion below I was confused because of the "real" meaning of the word from its origin; To suffer. Then my wife said I can imagine someone doing that about music, loving it so much that they're willing to suffer to make it happen. So that's where passion can come into music, and if we've heard good music, there's passion behind it.
Most movies are very hard to make, it often takes passion to see it through to the end. The greatest of athletes must have intense passion for what they do. Christ must have had the most incredible passion to have suffered greater than any man ever will for anything, but He suffered for us, He was that passionate about saving us, He literally gave everything. In fact, He gave more than we ever could. He, being God, became a man. He left His heavenly kingdom to come down and live to show us how we should live, and then suffer and die the most horrible death imaginable, the horror and cruelty He suffered, the mocking & beatings. Being left on the cross with everyone having deserting Him, and then to have God leave Him at that last moment; "Why have You forsaken Me?" No one has ever, or will ever be as passionate about anything as he was, and is, about us.
But what if we were to do things that are only holy passionate? What if I only spoke with holiness and passion? I have spoken that way, but what if I only spoke that way, about everything? If I get to produce movies like I've always dreamed of, what if I only produced holy and passionate movies, what would that even look like? A Star Wars or Casablanca that's saved?
Eric Liddell's story, told partly in Chariots of Fire, would be an example of someone who ran with passion. It's funny, as he really gets going when he ran, his head fly's back and he seems to be running with reckless abandon. Maybe that's how we should run.
"Run and not grow weary, walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, . . . honest, . . . just, . . . pure, . . . lovely, . . . of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8)
n.
A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger.
Ardent love.
Strong sexual desire; lust.
The object of such love or desire.
Boundless enthusiasm: His skills as a player don't quite match his passion for the game.
The object of such enthusiasm: Soccer is her passion.
An abandoned display of emotion, especially of anger: He's been known to fly into a passion without warning.
Passion
The sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament.
A narrative, musical setting, or pictorial representation of Jesus's sufferings.
Archaic. Martyrdom.
Archaic. Passivity.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin passiō, passiōn-, sufferings of Jesus or a martyr, from Late Latin, physical suffering, martyrdom, sinful desire, from Latin, an undergoing, from passus, past participle of patī, to suffer.]
SYNONYMS passion, fervor, fire, zeal, ardor. These nouns denote powerful, intense emotion. Passion is a deep, overwhelming emotion: "There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy" (Richard Brinsley Sheridan). Fervor is great warmth and intensity of feeling: "The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal" (William James). Fire is burning passion: "In our youth our hearts were touched with fire" (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.). Zeal is strong, enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal, or goal and tireless diligence in its furtherance: "Laurie [resolved], with a glow of philanthropic zeal, to found and endow an institution for ... women with artistic tendencies" (Louisa May Alcott). Ardor is fiery intensity of feeling: "the furious ardor of my zeal repressed" (Charles Churchill).
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Jesus The Healer
Acts 4: 28b ..."grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness."
"Lord, let this be our prayer, let this be our desire, the desire that is in You, to reach the lost, the hurting, and to bring them to You, The Healer, in Jesus Name, Your mighty name, the Name above all names. Amen. "
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness."
"Lord, let this be our prayer, let this be our desire, the desire that is in You, to reach the lost, the hurting, and to bring them to You, The Healer, in Jesus Name, Your mighty name, the Name above all names. Amen. "
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