The Remaining, Part 2

**Enjoy the color coding!  OCD woman is at it again!  
Word of God (Jesus is speaking) in red.
Rebecca rambles in black (it's slimming...does that work in writing too?)
Paraphrased Promises in green.


John 15: 6 - 11

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

     As the father has loved me, so I have loved you.  Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  
       
     
   In my last post, I was so moved by just a few verses that I wrote paragraphs and paragraphs about just a few of them.  God is so good that He can do that - speak volumes in just a few words. Sometimes, though, I like to zoom out when I read the Word instead of zooming in.  

   I want some promises from God that I can get into my thought life, some verses, some paraphrases even, to combat insecurity, to clarify my purpose, to remember who I am.  And so sometimes I read a passage like the aforementioned, and I see so much truth, I need to just write down statements that I can cling to. Here's how I hear Jesus speaking to me through these verses, and underneath, you get a glimpse of the inside walls of my crazybrain. Yes crazybrain is oneword. Lookitup. 

1.)  Without me, you will die by fire, so don't get so full of yourself.

       How true I've found this in my own life!  When I am not connected to Jesus, I am a mess of sin.  I am grouchy. I am stressed.  I am selfish. I feel entitled.  I feel deprived.   I am dried up, without a life source, and therefore useless in God's kingdom.  I will either be so wrapped up (like a dead stinky mummy) in myself that I will miss the opportunities to love others, or I simply don't feel like it, and go my own way (finish my book, get the last word, lose my temper because its easier to give into the storm brewing than to try something that would build up others around me).  Apart from Him, I can do NOTHING. 
--At least nothing good.

2.)  When you are connected to me, you will see my work.

       As much as I want to bend this verse to mean - "just read your Bible and follow the ten commandments, and I'll give you magic powers that we'll still call prayer"- it doesn't.  God is not going to suddenly give us anything we ask for, because sometimes what we ask for is really, really stupid.  To God, some of my prayers might seem a little like my son Luke.  He's 2.   When I'm cooking dinner, sometimes he throws fits because he wants to sit right next to the hot stove and touch the electric element. It's orange when it's hot. It's his favorite color, and if you know this kid, you know he brings a whole new obsessive meaning to the term 'favorite'. So he wants to play with it. And my reaction is, "Seriously? Can you believe this kid?  If he only knew how much hurt that choice has in store..."    God is not going to switch on an autoreply that says YES! and RIGHT AWAY! to every one of our prayers, because He sees such a bigger picture than we can. I could start singing Garth Brooks's "Unanswered Prayers"...but I won't. I've been told that sometimes breaking out in song is not the most socially acceptable practice.
         But here comes the beauty:  When we REMAIN in Him, when we are reading the Word and praying and laying the moment-to-moment choices of our lives down at His feet, things are going to start to look different.  He is going to do such a work in us and around us that our desires will be so aligned with His, that we will see AMAZING prayers be answered and see Him working all over the place.  Have you experienced God speaking in echoes in your life? Because it's astounding.  It's like the biggest craziest coincidences - but they happen regularly. So regularly that you begin to recognize these coincidences as His style. So amazing and so loving, and often with such perfect timing that you are brought to your knees because the reality of a Huge. Timeless. Powerful. Omniscient. and Omnipotent GOD can be all those things, but still cares enough to LOVE me? and include me in all of this?  Blow your breath out.  I just did.

         

3.) When you are connected to me, and bearing fruit, you bring glory to my Father.

         Even when no one sees.  Even when it seems meaningless.  Even If I can see it come to fruition.  
     Rarely does anyone see me be patient with my toddler instead of just locking him in his room (I've done both, so no judging) but when I choose patience, it glorifies God and builds up my toddler, and it builds me up too.  
       Even when it seems meaningless, because choosing kind questions and redirections with that student hasn't made one bit of difference all bleepin year, and I'd rather just kick him out and let someone else deal with him, I choose kindness anyway.(Again, I did both)  I choose kindness because it glorifies God. Even though I'm not going to see a difference in that kid this year, God can do immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine with the kindness I worked hard to produce against the tide of my anger and frustration.
     Even if I can't see the difference God might be making through me right now, and may never see it - it brings pleasure and honor to God and (read this slow and with emphasis) HE CAN USE IT FOR GOOD. Every interaction with my family, with my church body, with the lost people I encounter every day, with my students, with  my friends, coworkers and even the people drive around in traffic with - God can use the words of my mouth and the attitudes of my heart for His good and perfect purposes. 

4.) I love you with a love you will never, ever, ever understand or comprehend.

      Just take some time to sit on that one for a few minutes every day.  Unconditional, unending love that nothing can ever separate you from. 

If you haven't experienced that, don't you want to?


5.) Obedience is the key to staying connected, and joy is the promise. 

    I love that Jesus prefaces this with a statement of his unconditional love:  "As my father has loved me, so I have loved you." And then the command:  "Remain in my love." and then the condition - "If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in His love."
    We have to keep that order in mind - unconditional love, command, condition;  or we can totally miss what Jesus is saying.  It's easy to think that Jesus is saying, You better do what I say if you want me to love you.  But hallelujah!! His love doesn't work that way.  Thank you God, that your love is unconditional. He starts with that!
       I know better than anyone - God's love still shows up, even when I'm completely screwing up.  Even when I was sleeping with my high school boyfriend, even when I was having a big fight with my husband, even when was losing it with my son, even when I drank too much and said stupid things to an unbeliever, even when I was making choices that I have come to regret the most, God's love showed up.  He whispered to me, He coaxed me back to Him, He convicted my heart to change, and resolve to do better next time.  Just look at my life!  And the life of any honest Jesus follower who is open to sharing with you - Jesus is definitely not saying that his love disappears when we sin. 
     When we belong to Him, and stand up and say that we are Christ followers, His love never leaves us.  He never leaves us.  But He does insist on His own way.  If we want to bear fruit and be disciples and do this thing for real, we HAVE to obey.  We have to live inside the boundaries that God sets for us and stay connected to that vine. We have to go against the grain of the world and make choices that may not always be popular with our crowd. And sometimes, it's going to hurt and be uncomfortable.  And sometimes we might end up in our dorm room like a huge dork painting (yes that was me, and it's dorky because I'm like the least artistic person on the planet) because the choices happening down the hall are not honoring God. 
    But after the possibly painful, possibly awkward, possibly easy (because you have awesome friends) obedience comes the promise - the rainbow - HIS JOY.  "My joy will be in you and your joy will be complete."  God will not leave us empty, but filled to the measure every time.  And sometimes, so overflowing with His joy that we have to run to someone and tell them all about it.  And then He is glorified some more.  


Jesus, You are the vine!  You are the source of all the good that comes out of me.  Remind me Father, when I chase the wind, that you are all I need.  That your unconditional love, and your fresh breathing Word is all I need to know how to live my life. Give me a fresh heart to obey so that I can be a part of what you're doing, and so I can experience your crazy love coincidences regularly.  Mostly God, help me live a life always seeking your face - so that one day when I stand before you, I will recognize the smile I see there and hear you say, 'well done, good and faithful servant'. Thank you that your love is unconditional and that I can never be separated from it. Guide me hourly, minutely to live a life of obedience, so I can be filled with your joy and my joy will be complete.   God you are so good. Light a fire in me.

The Remaining (Part 1 of this week's assignment)

John 15: 1-6

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

     Ever since my Pastor went on Sabbatical this summer, He has come back with an addition to his sermons: a weekly assignment.  The obsessive compulsive teacher that lives inside my head squeals with joy, and makes checklists and writes things in her planner to frequently look at and highlight...but enough about her, I need to keep her in a closet and only let her out when its time to clean or study.  

    This week, the assignment was to memorize and meditate on John 15:1-17.  I only went as far as verse 6 today, because it stopped me dead in my tracks.  Like God's Word always does, it speaks so relevantly into my life, pertaining to things that happened this week, or in this instance, less than 24 hours ago.

    It's that time of year when all of my landscaping is well past it's glory and it's thinking about turning brown.  It's that time of the year when I purposely stop watering things and hope for one night of frost so I can prune everything, dump my pots and haul all the summer's labor to the burn pile in our pasture.  Thank you God, that you have so much more patience, compassion, and competence as a gardener than I do.  You never grow tired of the task - you never long for frost so you can throw me out.

    When I'm reading God's word, He often makes a pre-point that makes opens my eyes to His love and gives me a grateful and open heart.  That's what the gardener reference was today, just a reminder that He loves me.  He is not like me.  His patience and attention to work in me is so much greater than the highest human standard of work ethic.

    

     Then, once He reminds me of some part of His character that makes my heart soft and open, He starts His lesson:  THE REMAINING.   Oh how I have needed to hear again and be reminded again, and be convicted again about THE REMAINING. I pulled out my little notecard book to record the verse (I carry this around in my purse so I can glance at it in stolen moments of quiet), I found this note, in my very own handwriting, defining what God has shown me what it means to remain in Him.

THE REMAINING

"For my faith to flourish, and for my Spirit to depend on God completely- I must have daily discipline.  I must read the Word daily.  I must pray prayers of Trust & Thanksgiving daily.  I must choose joy and dependence and obedience  daily.  Throughout the day. Hourly! Minutely!"

    And so the discipline of THE REMAINING is not new to me, but it is the most essential staple of my faith.  Confession time: my amnesiac soul too often ignores the call to REMAIN.  And my heart longs after idols, like afternoon or evening marathons of my favorite shows on Netflix, or my favorite novels, or Facebook, or Pinterest. And I stay up too late, and I sleep too late, and I hit the snooze button through my appointments with his Presence.  I miss out on THE REMAINING, and therefore miss out on what God is doing.

  Jesus makes some very, very important claims about Himself and about his disciples in this passage.  

1) Jesus says about himself:  

         He is the channel through which my whole Christian life flows. Just like a leaf or a branch could not survive if it was cut off the vine, neither can I survive as a Christian without Christ.  

2) Jesus says about me:

         I cannot bear fruit without being connected to Him or remaining in Him.

 

     If I look at Galatians 5, this means I cannot display love, have joy, experience peace, be patient, be kind, be good, be faithful, be gentle or control my self without being connected to Jesus. Just like a branch on a vine, I need this connection DAILY and without excuse.

     When I don't remain in Him, I growl and yell expletives when my mashed potatoes are too soupy (yes, in the last 24 hours).  When I don't remain in him, I do household chores while wallowing in self-pity and irritation.  When I don't remain in him, I'm short with my husband and children. When I don't remain in Him, I set the mood for my entire household - they walk on eggshells, they have hurt in their eyes, they feel bothersome, helpless and small.

     

      But when I practice the discipline, the beautiful joyful discipline of reading God's Word and praying every day, my perspective changes.  God sends me love notes about gardening, among other topics, and gives me a focus for the day.  I begin my day rooted and established in His love, and I remember who I am and how much I mean to the God of the Universe.  I have a purpose and intentional ideas about how my day will go.  I have the freedom to act, instead of just react. And best of all - the benefits always exceed the effort. He promises with that if I follow Him, His joy will be in me and my joy will be complete.  I will make Him smile, and He will put that smile inside my heart to shine out all day long.  

     I will bear much fruit.  It will occur to me to love my husband and kids on purpose, in the ways I have learned they feel the most loved.  I will be patient with others, instead of mentally demanding my right to move quickly through life. Kindness will trump witty snark, or the need to be right, or the raging desire to gossip.  I'll feel peaceful because God has reminded me of eternity, and lifted me above my circumstances. I'll choose to say good things to others that build them up, instead of bad or degrading things because they have irritated me.  Whatever the situation is, I can bear the fruit of the Spirit because I have recently been reminded that my lot in life is to glorify God. Period.  In any situation He brings my way.  Even if I don't FEEL peaceful, or FEEL patient or FEEL good or kind or self-controlled, I can BE those things, because his Spirit is in me, and because I know who I am.

    I'm grateful to many good friends, of all ages and walks of life, who remind me and encourage me to simply to REMAIN in Him.  God, light in a fire in me.

   

   

Ephesians 1 - Make it Personal

2 - Grace and Peace to you!

A greeting. Do I wish grace and peace upon the soul and day of every other person I encounter?

Confess - more than likely, I do not aknowledge people. I am indifferent to the quality of the day they are having, or I'm so focused on my own agenda or objective that I fail to see them at all. Indifference to others is wrapped in self, not wrapped in Christ.
     Jesus, while on earth, was limited. He had a human attention span, linear time, the ability to only be in one place at one time. He was limited by his need for sleep, eating, drinking and other physiological factors. He had human emotions, and the humanity of becoming overwhelmed by the pain of others - when he wept about the death of Lazarus. YET - He stopped. He saw. He listened. He noticed others' lives and pain. He took the time to eat with them, talk with them, listen to them. He took the time to let children crawl into his lap and just be held. And now - the ressurrected Christ is no longer limited by humanity. He is not limited by human attention. He is not working in only one place or time. He is eternal, He is omnipresent, He is ever listening, knowing and loving His children. He is omni-available. He is ready and equipped to handle any person's pain and ugliness, no matter how ugly, no matter how painful. Hallelujah!

3-Praise to God the Father! You have blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

God this is so much bigger than me, than my twenty-seven years, than my lifespan on the earth as a human being. You have blessed me with Spiritual, rather than carnal, blessings while YOU ARE in Heaven - so much higher are your thoughts and your ways. I certainly do not recognize, call on, or utilize my spiritual blessings in the fullness that you intend. I do not open the gifts you lay at my feet, or inject into my life because my big fat SELF is getting in the way. I do not even understand what you mean by EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ. Open my eyes, and teach me your decrees.

4 - You chose me, in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in your sight.

Predestination is a deal breaker for so many people who hear the gospel. Mentally, it often is for me too. Satan & his team whisper to me - you're unworthy. Why would the God of the Universe ever choose you to be part of his plan? why would he choose you, and not everyone? what is special about you? do you think you're better than others? that's offensive and ugly. Satan even uses phrases tossed on me my whole life to echo and confuse me on this point. Stuck up snob (this is the G rated version). Holier than thou. Fed with a silver spoon, etc.

Our culture, while striving incessantly for earthly riches, priviliges and power, simultaneously denounces and demoralizes the same things.

But I fix my eyes on Jesus. In Ephesians 1:4 - I fix my eyes on 2 words: IN HIM. I -whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, in charge, or an underling, a priviliged princess or starving street urchin - could never ever stand holy or blameless in front of God, unless I was completely wrapped up, covered over, and transformed from the inside out with Jesus Christ. Only the Holy, Ressurrected Son of God who paid for all the things I've done wrong and claims me as His own could present me to God the Father as holy and blameless. That's the only status, privilige, wealth & power that will ever, ever matter. And Thank God, it has nothing to do with any decision, excepting one, that I will ever make. And that decision is simply believing that Jesus is who He claims to be.

I FINALLY have a college degree. I spent seven years in three colleges. Post-secondary education is called a blessing! a springboard! a necessity to survival in a global economy. However, the foundation upon which the vast majority of the post secondary education community stands is SINKING SAND. In some upper level high school and college classes (often labeled "the humanities"), I have been taught that I am a Christian because of the behavior I have learned from my parents, which they learned from theirs and so forth. I learn that my choices and behavior are all a result of my culture -which is made up of many earthly components, none which include a Living, Active, Sovereign, Personal, Transforming Creator.

But You say:

I chose you before the earth ever existed.

I had you in mind long before your college professors' professors' professors had learned their ABC's.

STOP conforming to the thinking of the world, and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. [which only comes by and through ME]

Stop worrying about fitting in and sounding smart and sounding educated with common thinking.

STAND FIRM.

Your heart is mine. It is unique, it is strong enough to be changed by me, and it is needed for the purposes of my Kingdom.

And Jesus, that's enough for me. You are enough for me.

vs. 5 - He predestined us to be adopted as his sons [and daughters] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

You are not an impersonal God making business decisions in a holy corporation. You want to be my father, because it gives you pleasure. It makes you smile. You are big enough to know tiny me, and delight in the fact that I am your child. Thank you God.

The Fall of Man
Genesis 3:1-6

Now the serpent (1) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, 
       "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  (3)
       The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
    "You will not surely die, " the serpent said to the woman, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (4)

    When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing tot he eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

God had perfection set up for his children in the Garden of Eden.  One decision introduced sin, separation and alienation from God.  One bite.

What can we watch for as we are offered forbidden fruit that may take us down an entirely different path than we wanted to go?

   1)  Satan comes in disguise.  He is beautiful. He is sly.  He never offers temptations as what they truly are, but will deceive and insinuate and accuse with a lovely, flattering tongue, and shiny, desirable sin.

2)  Satan tries to convince us that we deserve it, and it won't hurt anyone.  In Genesis, he "insinuates a falsehood and portrays rebellion as clever, but essentially innocent, self-interest"(NIV Study Bible commentary).   He tries this with Eve, he tries it with us.
    When weighing a decision, the moment that entitlement and the excuse "It won't hurt a thing" enters our mind, all red flags should be waving.

3) Satan causes Eve to doubt God's word.  The moment we start to buy into worldly philosophy of any kind that goes against the Word of God, thinking maybe we misunderstood, misinterpreted, or were taught by our Church leaders to believe something that isn't modern enough for today's world, we are on his hook.  
      I believe we have to make three commitments when it comes to God's word. First, we must read it, and study it, and know it well enough that the spirit can prompt us with it when we are at a crossroads wondering which is the path of temptation and which is the path of righteousness.
    Second, we have to believe that God knows what he's talking about.  He is the designer of the Universe, He is the designer and arranger of all matter.  He is the creator of Science.  He may not have revealed every detail to us in His Word, but we better believe that His understanding of the world, our human relationships and all the workings of the universe far surpasses any thought, theory, even "scientifically proved facts" that the human brain could individually or collectively conclude. And with that understanding, we need to submit to the commands and revelations He did reveal, and trust Him with the details we don't understand.
    Third, if we don't know the answers, we have to have the tenacity, the resourcefulness, the courage to seek answers from the Word.  The moment we believe human wisdom is truth without checking The Truth, we are gullible and complacent fools.
        I'm the first to admit, sometimes I earnestly seek answers in the Bible, and come up gasping for air and thinking, huh?   If this happens, I have to seek guidance from godly leaders who have shown the fruit of the spirit in their lives consistently are living by God's word.  The fruit proves to me that these leaders know God and know His word, and can be trusted to point me in the right direction.

4) Satan accuses God of having unworthy motives. He brings a full attack from all sides.  He attacks our thoughts and emotions, he attacks God's word, He even has the audacity to attack God Himself.  Just like a lawyer sometimes needs to destroy a witness's credibility, Satan attempts to destroy God's credibility.  Fortunately for us, actions always speak louder than words.  Satan proves himself a liar and a destroyer every time, while God's compassions NEVER fail.  Everything He does from Genesis to Revelation, and in our own lives, sings a sweet melody of redemption and love every time.

     Just like we are trained to drop everything and get out of the building in a fire drill,  we need to build in fire alarms in our brains, and be open to the spirit to set them off.  Watch out for Satan's tactics.  He's not very original, and he keeps trying the same things over and over.  Just like a coach can spot patterns in an offense, we need to spot Satan's plays, and set up our defense to stuff Satan before he convinces us of his lies. The good news is, through the blood of Jesus, we are already on the winning team.  Satan is vanquished and Jesus is King.  He's just trying to lead us astray.

1 Timothy 6:11  
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.