Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. John 15:20-21
Praise be to the Lord for he showed me the wonders of his love when I was in a city under siege. Psalm 31:21
One of my church pastors provided me with not only an “ah ha” moment a few weeks ago during his sermon on Philippians but also a “duh” revelation. Here’s what he said, “We have to remember the letters written by Paul to the churches were not written to individuals but to the church body as whole.” As readers and students of scripture we can get caught up thinking a verse was speaking directly to me and my life.
It’s an important change of perspective, especially these days when folks who call themselves Christians promote the idea that we don’t need to go to church. Or we can just do church by watching it on TV. Not only are we directed in scripture to be part of a body of believers we are also to actively participate in that community.
But why? Let’s first look at what happened to those of us who lived in areas where our churches were shut down during COVID — some for two years. People became disconnected, dispirited, lonely and worse. Be completely honest, watching someone on TV preach the Word is not the same as being in the same room with other believers. We get distracted, make a snack, check our phones, etc. Instead of exiting the doors and talking with those who just listened to a powerful message. Sharing our questions, our revelations, or how the message truly lifted us.
When we don’t have that community, we also don’t have the support to sustain us when trouble hits. Standing in the face of trials even when it seems almost unbearable. We don’t have the ability to look around at all the faces of those who know and love Jesus like we do.
God provides every opportunity to help us when darkness wants to have its hand on our lives. When the world calls us crazy, we can stand firm and announce, “there’s quite a few of us crazies and we celebrate our God and Savior every week across the world!”
Just like we can forget the epistles were written to bodies of people, we can also forget every word written to encourage and support them was done so because they were facing trials –greater than any westernized church today. If they could stand while facing death for even meeting, for proclaiming that Jesus is King, then we can stand too. Let’s do it in community, together.
"By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." John 15:8
My pastor yesterday asked a very controversial question of our congregation and the results were surprising to me. ”Raise your hand if you have a fake tree. Now raise your hand if you have a real tree.” The majority of people have a fake tree. I, however, will always have a real tree gracing my living room! He went on to talk about how a real tree is really just a dead tree cut off from the earth. He used this analogy to talk about dead faith and not abiding in God.
However, I wondered, how many Christians out there are actually relying on a “fake faith?” A faith in which we go through the motions and do all the right volunteering and giving. We pray and do Bible Studies. And yet, we also despise our neighbor or that person who hurt us years ago. Forgiveness? Forget about it! We compare ourselves to others, especially during the Christmas season. We give to charities but ignore the person in need that’s right in front of us! We play victim that no one gives us the attention we need and deserve. We make excuses for our language, our thoughts. We look so much like the world but “at least we go to church.”
Today was the first day of my challenge to love and serve others. I wonder how you did? Did you stop and help a person struggling to get a cart loose from the cart corral? Did you let someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery store — without feeling like you deserved a badge? Did you help out that person at work who just is so annoying? But you did it with love? Send a comment about what you did in His name without any benefit to you!
Yesterday, as my church continues through the book of John we focused on John 15:1-17. It’s the famous verses on Jesus declaring Himself to be the vine and His disciples being the branches.
When my husband and I left church I asked Him what new things he learned. He hadn’t realized that Jesus was the root stock and we are the branches that grow out of that stock along the strings which the “vine dresser” makes. As Jesus’ branches we can only exist as an outgrowth of Him. I shared that I learned that the verse John 15:2 isn’t what I originally thought:
"Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." John 15:2
On face value this seems a bit scary. We think we need to work really hard at serving the Lord, serving others and bringing people to Christ. It may seem so difficult that we don’t even try. Or we make halfhearted attempts to love the Lord by serving others. And if the fruits of our labor aren’t successful then chop, chop! But the words “takes away” in Greek actually are “airo,” meaning to elevate. So the Father doesn’t cut off believers when they supposedly fail. No, in His loving and glorious way He picks us up off the ground and gently puts us back along His life giving strings. It is only those folks who consciously choose to hate God that get cut off. (John 15:6).
True love for Jesus, true “abiding in Him” means thinking on Him every minute of the day. It means asking Him when we wake up to place people in front of us to serve. It means before we head out to work that we ask Him to help you be at peace in traffic and to guide you in being kind and loving to those challenging people you encounter. It means when you are tasked with something difficult you immediately turn to Him for strength and wisdom.
We glorify God when we tap into every ounce of power and wisdom He has available to us. Like an inert seed placed in the ground, it can’t do anything without the soil around it, the water to feed it, and the sun to give it life. WE are that seed. And when we stay close to the Lord we grow and produce fruit, not on our own, but because of the work He has done through us.
Jesus’ love and care for us produces fruit. Our love and abiding in Him gives Him the opportunity to serve the flock. And the results for us personally?
"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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." John 15:10-11
And I don’t know about you but I want and need joy in my life. A joy that is so deep and everlasting that only our Glorious Savior can provide. Let us all, as we approach the celebration of our Lord’s birth this week remember to abide so closely in Him. Allow Him to shine out of you so brightly that the world wants to know more.
I told a friend recently that maybe I should apologize to the world for the COVID pandemic. You see I had for years been praying to God for patience and joy to be cornerstones of my life. I thought if I just tried really hard at not doing certain behaviors I would succeed at this task. While I had found some success in listening to God and obeying when He asked me to take certain actions, I bucked and kicked at fully surrendering myself to Him. And then the pandemic came upon us.
As most of us experienced, our lives were thrown into chaos. Some people almost completely shut down. Loved ones lost not only their jobs and communion with family and friends, but their very lives themselves. We were placed in a state of intense fear and uncertainty. Where I live the government restrictions became egregious, almost to the state of Marshall Law. People were afraid to leave their homes. In some areas you could be fined over $1,000 just for sitting in your parked car on the street next to the beach. In another, the city “outlawed” people from driving up to senior care facilities and waving at them from their windows. Despair, anger, fear, was thick in the air whenever you made the allowed trip to the grocery store. And boy was I angry.
I became angry with the media for putting out confusing messages. At government officials who chastised us for wearing masks then not wearing masks. At neighbors who jumped to the other side of the street as though we each were walking around with deadly leprosy. I despaired over my church closing indefinitely and not seeming to care of the state of their members. I wanted to rage on social media, to my friends and my husband. Discord, not joy, was my refuge. While each day I spent hours doing my various Bible studies no less! I told my Bible study ladies, “I’m a great Christian when I’m at my house, until I walk out the front door.”
Then one day my husband, the chief operations person for a group of Alzheimer’s care facilities, came home looking completely undone. The exhaustion on his face confirmed his first words to me, “That’s it. I can’t do this anymore.” The long days and nights keeping his residents and staff safe while managing the ever-changing governmental rules had taken its toll. I realized he needed joy not discord from me. He didn’t need to hear me complaining at dinner about the latest news announcement. He didn’t need to feel my anger over something that happened at the grocery store. No, he needed me to be a mirror of the Holy Spirit.
“Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” James 3:5-6
So, my true journey of seeking joy began thanks to the pandemic. It was a test for many of us Christians. I knew my past failures meant a new approach was needed. One that was Holy Spirit directed. We can no better wish for, pressure ourselves, think into action, joy than a tree can try really hard to make cherries. But what does a cherry tree do in order to create that beautiful fruit? It allows its very essence, it’s holy purpose to do its work inside the roots, trunk, branches, leaves and blossoms. Effortlessly in full submission to its Creator.
“A Christian new birth brings a change made in the views of his mind and relish of the heart so that the regenerate person seeks his interest and happiness in God.”
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections
You see, when we seek real change from the ugliness this world grows in us it means we seek to become who God intended us to be. People close to Him, loving Him and being immensely loved by Him. It’s no wonder “love” is listed first as a fruit of the Spirit. Without it, the rest would be impossible. In researching Christian joy, I discovered these three characteristics of a joy-filled life in full bloom.
1. Submission: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5
This submission is not slave to master as some non-Christians like to portray. No, it’s a loving mentor, teacher, parent who sincerely knows and wants the best for us. But unlike those relationships we never grow out of needing the Lord to guide us. He just guides us through more difficult and more beautiful experiences. His loving omniscience is where we must put our trust.
2. Seek to Glorify God’s Will: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2
With each word we speak, each action we take, even every thought it should be with turning ourselves over to God in worship. When we wake in the morning, prayer sets us on the right path in seeking ways to glorify Him to our family, friends, co-workers and strangers. In other words, the old saying, “What would Jesus do?” should be on our minds in conversations with the Spirit throughout our day.
3. Seek God’s Glorious Beauty: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” Hebrews 13:15.
Jonathan Edwards’ theological focus through the entirety of his life was God is the foundation of beauty. Nature doesn’t exist for itself but for the glorification of God. I took up a challenge to think on God every 30 minutes earlier this year. Whether in my car, cooking dinner, shopping, I stop for a minute, look around and thank God for the amazing creation around me. The beautiful sky or quenching rain. The child’s laughter nearby or even the opportunity to sit in traffic so I could listen to the rest of a podcast. He is all around us in full color and glory, especially during our trials. Praise Him!
Friend, our joy comes from the love God has shown us with the work His son has already done for us. It comes from the work the Holy Spirit is doing in us. The blossom? The fruit? That’s the work He is doing through us for all the world to see.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I 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.
John 15:9-10
As His (Jesus’) love for His Father was the source of obedience, and the motivation of His faithfulness to the work that had been committed to Him, so He declares that the love of His followers, imitating His love for them, was to be the source of their obedience. Further, through their obedience, would come all the good that can come to human beings, including their love for one another. Self-sacrificing love is the essence of the Christian life, its incentive being the self-sacrificing love of Christ himself. On the Emotional Life of Our Lord, B.B. Warfield
“For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”2 Corinthians 1:20
Perfect and majestic Father! How is it that you open your heavens, reach down and invite us in to your perfect world each and every minute of every day? I don’t want to miss a chance to say “yes!” back to you when you put out your glorious hand to me. Holy Spirit, I RSVP today to you, “Yes and Amen!”
A few weeks ago, my church was studying Proverbs 27 and the theme of friendship which runs throughout it. It hit me how God is always inviting us into relationships that mirror what He wants with us. Jesus, himself, changed the status of His relationship with the disciples in John 15:15 when he said, “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends.”
The role that Jesus plays in the work of the Trinity allows us to create a personal relationship with the most holy of all holies – God almighty. In fact, a few of my friends who have spent years in Christian denominations where fearing God the Father is placed higher than other parts of the Trinity, recently discovered that it’s this close, personal friendship with the Lord that has brought them farther along in their sanctification.
God knows the value of friendships. He has defined what a healthy, beautiful friendship is through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus provided gentle honesty, selfless attentiveness, stubborn loyalty, and intentional pursuit. He didn’t overlook sin and He didn’t call out sin without love. He doesn’t lie to us or betray us.
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”Proverbs 27:17
Jesus didn’t meet a couple of guys, sit around having a beer listening to their woes and their sins then sign off for the day with a “see ya!” He invested. He pursued. He sharpened. Isn’t it amazing that God wants this type of relationship with little ‘ole us?
The sermon that day about friendship featured a pin drop moment. The pastor said, “Me and Jesus, it isn’t enough.” The crowd was silent. We’ve always heard that’s all we need, right? But we were made to be loved and to love. We were made to be in communion with other believers; to be friends, loyal, intentional and wise. We know that because it’s what God wants with us and models for us.
Friend, today ask the Holy Spirit to put someone on your heart to reach out to. Someone that you need to make an effort to get to know. Let’s honor and glorify God by making a new friend to whom we can sharpen and they will sharpen us, in His name.
emboldened.net 