My Journey 9/14/2010

God's insight to me:

Excellent devotional today. I believe a lot of Christians and also very soon to be ones, can relate to what Dr. Charles Stanley is writing about in this devotional. We think that we have to be the one controlling what we are doing for God. But in reality we must let Him work through us. Now as you read the last paragraph the word that stood out to me is "surrender". What a key word that is. What that tells me is I give up being the vine, by choice, and agree to be the branch, which to me is also the vessel that contains the Holy Spirit, and let Him do the works for the Kingdom through me. Praise God!

Is About

Christianity is about love.
Christianity is about the truth.
Whether you believe that or not
is really all up to you.

The Father is about mercy.
The Father is about grace.
His wonderful love now flows out to us,
because of our sins, Jesus took our place.

Jesus is about salvation,
Jesus is about healing too.
When He went to the cross
it was because of me and you.

The Holy Spirit is about teaching.
The Holy Spirit is about guiding us too.
So pick up and read the Bible my friends,
for there you will find, it is all so very true.

E. P. Shagott
9/13/2010

From God's heart, to mine, to yours,
Ed Shagott


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9/14

The Abiding Life
by Dr. Charles Stanley

John 15:1-5

15:1 I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.
15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit.
15:3 Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you.
15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
15:5 I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Yesterday I shared with you about the time when God reminded me, "You are not the vine, Charles. I am the vine." For years I tried to accomplish by myself what Jesus Christ wanted to achieve through me—in other words, I attempted to produce fruit by doing good works. My desire was to impress God and earn His approval. His goal, on the other hand, was for me to act like the branch that I am and just abide.

The Holy Spirit's job is to live the life of Christ through us. This process is known by a variety of names, including the exchanged life, the Spirit-filled life, and the abiding life. All of these monikers describe the joyful existence Paul spoke of in Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God." The apostle meant those words literally.

Seen from the outside, a branch does not appear to be doing anything. But don't get the idea that the abiding life is passive. Jesus was the perfect example of a Spirit-filled life, and He certainly didn't sit around! He worked hard out of a reservoir of divine energy (John 8:28). All of Christ's wisdom, knowledge, and courage was drawn from God through the Holy Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit does not pop out of believers through effort; Christians bear fruit through surrender. We "take root" in the Lord by meditating on His Word, praying, and serving. We reserve nothing for ourselves to control but fully rely upon Him. That's not passive living; it's an abiding life.