Dearest Sisters, we are two days away from the beginning of our Refresh retreat. A small group of intercessors met yesterday afternoon to wait upon the Lord and pray what He would have us pray for us. He led us to pray specifically for our retreat attendees, but also for our body here at HFC. Oh how He loves us and desires us to walk in belief, freedom and hope. Here are some of the themes He led us to pray:
Being still and inquiring of the Lord,
loving others with the compassion and love of Jesus through the power of His Spirit, freedom into joy like King David,
freedom in our identity in Christ,
spirit of humility,
healing of our spiritual, emotional and physical selves,
rest in the finished work of Christ for our justification, relationship with God,
and much prayer for our marriages.
These are the things we were led to pray, and what joy when He leads us to ask for the very things He wants to accomplish! Oh dear sisters, be encouraged! King Jesus is on the throne, and bids us ask for the very things He desires to pour out onto and into us.
The reading today is entitled: Election. I would strongly encourage you that if you choose to read this, read through the entire devotional to understand what he is saying, and what he is not saying.
Ye Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You, and Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit—John 15.16
The branch does not choose the vine, or decide on which vine it will grow. The vine brings forth the branch, as and where it will. Even so Christ says: “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.” But some will say is not just this the difference between the branch in the natural and in the spiritual world, that man has a will and a power of choosing, and that it is in virtue of his having decided to accept Christ, his having chosen Him as Lord, that he is now a branch? This is undoubtedly true. And yet it is only half a truth. The lesson of the Vine, and the teaching of our Lord, points to the other half, the deeper, the divine side of our being in Christ. If He had not chosen us, we had never chosen Him. Our choosing Him was the result of His choosing us, and taking hold of us. In the very nature of things, it is His prerogative as Vine to choose and create His own branch. We owe all we are to “the election of grace.” If we want to know Christ as the true Vine, the sole origin and strength of the branch life, and ourselves as branches in our absolute, most blessed, and most secure dependence upon Him, let us drink deep of this blessed truth: “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.”
And with what view does Christ say this? That they may know what the object is for which He chose them, and find, in their faith in His election, the certainty of fulfilling their destiny. Throughout Scripture this is the great object of the teaching of election. “Predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son.” (to be branches in the image and likeness of the Vine). “Chosen that we should be holy.” “Chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit.” “Elect in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.” Some have abused the doctrine of election, and others, for fear of its abuse, have rejected it, because they have
overlooked this teaching. They have occupied themselves with its hidden origin in eternity, with the inscrutable mysteries of the counsels of God instead of accepting the revelation of its purpose in time, and the blessings it brings into our Christian life.
Just think what these blessings are. In our verse Christ reveals His twofold purpose in choosing us to be His branches: that we may bear fruit on earth, and have power in prayer in Heaven.What confidence the thought that He has chosen us for this gives, that He will not fail to fit us for carrying out His purpose! What assurance that we can bear fruit that will abide, and can pray so as to obtain! What a continual call to the deepest humility and
praise, to the most entire dependence and expectancy! He would not choose us for what we are not fit for, or what He could not fit us for. He has chosen us; this is the pledge, He will do all in us.
Let us listen in silence of soul to our holy Vine speaking to each of us: “You did not choose Me!” And let us say, “Yea, Lord, but I chose You! Amen, Lord!” Ask Him to show what this means. In Him, the true Vine, your life as branch has its divine origin, its eternal security, and the power to fulfill His purpose. From Him to whose will of love you owe all, you may expect all. In Him, His purpose, and His power, and His faithfulness, in His love let me abide.
I chose you. Lord, teach me what this means—that Thou hast set Thy heart on me, and chosen me to bear fruit that will abide, and to pray prayer that will prevail. In this Thine eternal purpose my soul would rest itself and say: “What He chose me for I will be, I can be,
I shall be.”
Amen. Abba, what You chose for us we will be, we can be, we shall be. O joyful truth that enables us to rest in who we are, because of Whose we are. May it be Lord Jesus, just as you say. Amen…
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Christ's Friendship: Its Intimacy
Dearest sisters, thank you for sending in your requests for us to care and pray through. Be encouraged. God is at work in us as a Body, and calls us to pray with and for one another. There is nothing special about those whom God has called to pray for this retreat… we just believe Him, that He is Who He says He is and really can do all He says He can do. We have a passion to see God glorified in our Body, whether you attend HFC or somewhere else. It is true that God exposes what He will for our healing (Heb 4). We have a High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, our suffering, our humanity… He went through great suffering to identify with us, so that we might be identified with Him! At our greatest weakness and failure, He bids us again and again, draw near, draw near to the throne of grace… receive mercy, receive grace! He is willing and He is able to heal our hearts, our fears, our unbelief as we take Him at His word and find Him gentle, faithful and Strong. Compared to the weight of our pain, our sin, our striving, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. So take time today to meditate on His Word below. You will find rest in it, as our Friend reminds us of our position in Him and His intimacy with us.
The reading today is entitled, Christ’s Friendship: Its Intimacy
No Longer Do I Call You Servants; for the Servant Knoweth Not What His Lord Doeth: But I Have Called You Friends; for All Things That I Heard From My Father, I Have Made Known Unto You—John 15.15
The highest proof of true friendship, and one great source of its blessedness, is the intimacy that holds nothing back, and admits the friend to share our inmost secrets. It is a blessed thing to be Christ’s servant; His redeemed ones delight to call themselves His slaves. Christ had often spoken of the disciples as His servants. In His great love our Lord now says: “No longer do I call you servants”; with the coming of the Holy Spirit a new era was to be inaugurated. “The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth”—he has to obey without being consulted or admitted into the secret of all his master’s plans. “But, I have called you friends, for all things I heard from my Father I have made known unto you.” Christ’s friends share with Him in all the secrets the Father has entrusted to Him.
Let us think what this means. When Christ spoke of keeping His Father’s commandments, He did not mean merely what was written in Holy Scripture, but those special commandments which were communicated to Him day by day, and from hour to hour. It was of these He said: “The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he doeth, and he will show him greater things.” All that Christ did was God’s working. God showed it to Christ, so that He carried out the Father’s will and purpose, not, as man often does, blindly and unintelligently, but with full understanding and approval. As one who stood in God’s counsel, He knew God’s plan.
And this now is the blessedness of being Christ’s friends, that we do not, as servants, do His will without much spiritual insight into its meaning and aim, but are admitted, as an inner circle, into some knowledge of God’s more secret thoughts. From the Day of Pentecost on, by the Holy Spirit, Christ was to lead His disciples into the spiritual apprehension of the mysteries of the kingdom, of which He had hitherto spoken only by parables.
Friendship delights in fellowship. Friends hold council. Friends dare trust to each other what they would not for anything have others know. What is it that gives a Christian access to this holy intimacy with Jesus? That gives him the spiritual capacity for receiving the communications Christ has to make of what the Father has shown Him? “Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you.” It is loving obedience that purifies the soul. That refers not only to the commandments of the Word, but to that blessed application of the Word to our daily life, which none but our Lord Himself can give. But as these are waited for in dependence and humility, and faithfully obeyed, the soul becomes fitted for ever closer fellowship, and the daily life may become a continual experience: “I have called you friends; for all things I have heard from my Father, I have made known unto you.”
I have called you friends. What an unspeakable honor! What a heavenly privilege! O Saviour, speak the word with power into my soul: “I have called you My friend, whom I love, whom I trust, to whom I make known all that passes between my Father and Me.”
Lord, thank You for being our friend, thank You that although we would have been satisfied with salvation, You have called us into Relationship with You, a relationship that began with the forgiveness of our sin, and continues because of Your faithfulness. Lord, we would believe You that You are calling us into deeper intimacy with You. We would believe that it is far easier to walk in obedience with You, out of trust and faith and love and relationship with You, than it is to follow our own sin nature, who simply wants what it wants when it wants it. When we walk by faith in You, listening to all You are saying, as You listened to all Abba Father said when You walked this earth, we can truly believe that we will live a life that honors and pleases You in all aspects. This is our deepest desire, even if we do not yet fully understand it: Your glory Lord. When You are glorified, we have joy. You have created us this way. And O! That You would seek to glorify Yourself through ones such as us? Such joy! O thank You that You glorify Yourself not through our strengths, but through our weaknesses. O teach us, as You taught our brother Paul, to glory in our weaknesses, admitting them rather than covering them up, confessing them to and with one another with the belief of our healing and strength coming not from us, but from Your resurrection power through Your Spirit alive in us. We stumble God, but we stumble forward. O let us believe today that You truly desire intimacy with us, and it is possible to be more intimate with You as our hearts desire, through following You as You lead us by Your Spirit. For the joy set before Jesus, He endured the Cross… and we are His joy! O may we see You as our purest, truest JOY, and be willing to go where You lead, for Your glory and our joy too! O thank You that it is possible to have this joy, and You have made it plain as to how. Abba for the sister who struggles to believe this is true, for the sister who struggles to believe that she is fully known and still, even still, so completely and fully loved… would You apply this truth Abba to her heart? Heal her heart to believe O God, teach her to fight to believe that she does not and cannot earn Your favor… she has it if she has put her faith in the finished work of Jesus. Teach her Lord to fight to believe that she has Your approval, Your hope, Your joy… and teach us to pray for and with one another, that we might strengthen each other through the power of Your Spirit in us, and all the more as we see the glorious Day approaching. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The reading today is entitled, Christ’s Friendship: Its Intimacy
No Longer Do I Call You Servants; for the Servant Knoweth Not What His Lord Doeth: But I Have Called You Friends; for All Things That I Heard From My Father, I Have Made Known Unto You—John 15.15
The highest proof of true friendship, and one great source of its blessedness, is the intimacy that holds nothing back, and admits the friend to share our inmost secrets. It is a blessed thing to be Christ’s servant; His redeemed ones delight to call themselves His slaves. Christ had often spoken of the disciples as His servants. In His great love our Lord now says: “No longer do I call you servants”; with the coming of the Holy Spirit a new era was to be inaugurated. “The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth”—he has to obey without being consulted or admitted into the secret of all his master’s plans. “But, I have called you friends, for all things I heard from my Father I have made known unto you.” Christ’s friends share with Him in all the secrets the Father has entrusted to Him.
Let us think what this means. When Christ spoke of keeping His Father’s commandments, He did not mean merely what was written in Holy Scripture, but those special commandments which were communicated to Him day by day, and from hour to hour. It was of these He said: “The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he doeth, and he will show him greater things.” All that Christ did was God’s working. God showed it to Christ, so that He carried out the Father’s will and purpose, not, as man often does, blindly and unintelligently, but with full understanding and approval. As one who stood in God’s counsel, He knew God’s plan.
And this now is the blessedness of being Christ’s friends, that we do not, as servants, do His will without much spiritual insight into its meaning and aim, but are admitted, as an inner circle, into some knowledge of God’s more secret thoughts. From the Day of Pentecost on, by the Holy Spirit, Christ was to lead His disciples into the spiritual apprehension of the mysteries of the kingdom, of which He had hitherto spoken only by parables.
Friendship delights in fellowship. Friends hold council. Friends dare trust to each other what they would not for anything have others know. What is it that gives a Christian access to this holy intimacy with Jesus? That gives him the spiritual capacity for receiving the communications Christ has to make of what the Father has shown Him? “Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you.” It is loving obedience that purifies the soul. That refers not only to the commandments of the Word, but to that blessed application of the Word to our daily life, which none but our Lord Himself can give. But as these are waited for in dependence and humility, and faithfully obeyed, the soul becomes fitted for ever closer fellowship, and the daily life may become a continual experience: “I have called you friends; for all things I have heard from my Father, I have made known unto you.”
I have called you friends. What an unspeakable honor! What a heavenly privilege! O Saviour, speak the word with power into my soul: “I have called you My friend, whom I love, whom I trust, to whom I make known all that passes between my Father and Me.”
Lord, thank You for being our friend, thank You that although we would have been satisfied with salvation, You have called us into Relationship with You, a relationship that began with the forgiveness of our sin, and continues because of Your faithfulness. Lord, we would believe You that You are calling us into deeper intimacy with You. We would believe that it is far easier to walk in obedience with You, out of trust and faith and love and relationship with You, than it is to follow our own sin nature, who simply wants what it wants when it wants it. When we walk by faith in You, listening to all You are saying, as You listened to all Abba Father said when You walked this earth, we can truly believe that we will live a life that honors and pleases You in all aspects. This is our deepest desire, even if we do not yet fully understand it: Your glory Lord. When You are glorified, we have joy. You have created us this way. And O! That You would seek to glorify Yourself through ones such as us? Such joy! O thank You that You glorify Yourself not through our strengths, but through our weaknesses. O teach us, as You taught our brother Paul, to glory in our weaknesses, admitting them rather than covering them up, confessing them to and with one another with the belief of our healing and strength coming not from us, but from Your resurrection power through Your Spirit alive in us. We stumble God, but we stumble forward. O let us believe today that You truly desire intimacy with us, and it is possible to be more intimate with You as our hearts desire, through following You as You lead us by Your Spirit. For the joy set before Jesus, He endured the Cross… and we are His joy! O may we see You as our purest, truest JOY, and be willing to go where You lead, for Your glory and our joy too! O thank You that it is possible to have this joy, and You have made it plain as to how. Abba for the sister who struggles to believe this is true, for the sister who struggles to believe that she is fully known and still, even still, so completely and fully loved… would You apply this truth Abba to her heart? Heal her heart to believe O God, teach her to fight to believe that she does not and cannot earn Your favor… she has it if she has put her faith in the finished work of Jesus. Teach her Lord to fight to believe that she has Your approval, Your hope, Your joy… and teach us to pray for and with one another, that we might strengthen each other through the power of Your Spirit in us, and all the more as we see the glorious Day approaching. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Christ's Friendship: Its Evidence
Good morning sisters! As we draw closer to our time together, the heat is being turned up emotionally, spiritually and for many, physically. As you encounter challenges throughout your day, would you take a moment to pray for yourself, and by faith pray for those who might be experiencing similar things? For instance, if you are struggling with loneliness, would you by faith, talk to the Lord about it and also intercede for your sisters who are experiencing the same thing, even though you might not know it, or know them? This way we pray with more compassion for one another, and pray more thoroughly, perhaps. And know we pray for you. Tomorrow our onsite Intercession Team will meet to pray specifically for you and our body at HFC. If there is anything you’d like us to specifically pray about for you, shoot me an email at nicolechapingiven@gmail.com We would love to bring you before the Lord in prayer.
The reading today is entitled Christ’s Friendship: Its Evidence
Ye Are My Friends, if Ye Do the Things Which I Command You—John 15.14
Our Lord has said what He gave as proof of His friendship: He gave His life for us. He now tells us what our part is to be—to do the things which He commands. He gave His life to secure a place for His love in our hearts to rule us; the response His love calls us to, and empowers us for, is that we do what He commands us. As we know the dying love, we shall joyfully obey its commands. As we obey the commands, we shall know the love more fully. Christ had already said: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” He counts it needful to repeat the truth again: the one proof of our faith in His love, the one way to abide in it, the one mark of being true branches is—to do the things which He commands us. He began with absolute surrender of His life for us. He can ask nothing less from us. This alone is a life in His friendship.
This truth, of the imperative necessity of obedience, doing all that Christ commands us, has not the place in our Christian teaching and living that Christ meant it to have. We have given a far higher place to privilege than to duty. We have not considered implicit obedience as a condition of true discipleship. The secret thought that it is impossible to do the things He commands us, and that therefore it cannot be expected of us, and a subtle and unconscious feeling that sinning is a necessity have frequently robbed both precepts and promises of their power. The whole relation to Christ has become clouded and lowered, the waiting on His teaching, the power to hear and obey His voice, and through obedience to enjoy His love and friendship, have been enfeebled by the terrible mistake. Do let us try to return to the true position, take Christ’s words as most literally true, and make nothing less the law of our life: “Ye are my friends, if ye do the things that I command you.” Surely our Lord asks nothing less than that we heartily and truthfully say: “Yea, Lord, what Thou dost command, that will I do.” These commands are to be done as a proof of friendship. The power to do them rests entirely in the personal relationship to Jesus. For a friend I could do what I would not for another. The friendship of Jesus is so heavenly and wonderful, it comes to us so as the power of a divine love entering in and taking possession, the unbroken fellowship with Himself is so essential to it, that it implies and imparts a joy and a love which make the obedience a delight. The liberty to claim the friendship of Jesus, the power to enjoy it, the grace to prove it in all its blessedness—all come as we do the things He commands us.
Is not the one thing needful for us that we ask our Lord to reveal Himself to us in the dying love in which He proved Himself our friend, and then listen as He says to us: “Ye are My friends.” As we see what our Friend has done for us, and what as unspeakable blessedness it is to have Him call us friends, the doing His commands will become the natural fruit of our life in his love. We shall not fear to say: “Yea, Lord, we are Thy friends, and do what
Thou dost command us.”
If ye do. Yes, it is in doing that we are blessed, that we abide in His love, that we enjoy His friendship. “If ye do what I command you!” O my Lord, let Thy holy friendship lead me into the love of all Thy commands, and let the doing of Thy commands lead me ever deeper into Thy friendship.
Abba again, command what You will, but O grant what You command! The law in our hearts that we still love would say it is impossible, impossible to do all You command through Your Spirit, every moment every day. And Your Spirit says, Yes, I agree. I do not ask you to do it according to Law dear daughter, but by my very present help, my love, my power. O that we would rest in relationship with You Abba! How much freedom we would possess and walk in, if we truly believed You loved us this much! We hear the ancient lie, that we cannot be truly known and truly loved. They are mutually exclusive. If we are truly known, then we are not truly loved because we are so needy, so sinful, so ugly at heart. And if we are truly loved, we must not be truly known, for if we were known, how could we be loved? But Lord! You say we are truly known, AND truly loved by the only one who could say this truthfully, because You are the only one who has the remedy for our sick hearts! You have demonstrated Your own love, true love for us in this, while we were still sinners, while we were still in our diseased and most ugly state, You, fully knowing us, died for us, that we might be rescued and be given a clean heart and Your own righteousness, Your glory within us! Oh God, we believe, help our unbelief. Continue to remind us we are truly known and truly loved, and may we, by faith, lift our eyes to Yours and see the love You have for us. And out of this amazing love, this relationship we have as Your daughters, may we walk where You lead us by Your Spirit, knowing it is because You love us, you speak and lead. And because You love those in our sphere, You desire they experience Your transforming love through redeemed people like us. Let us follow the promptings of Your Spirit because we are so very loved, and experience this Love first hand, and let others experience Your love through us and desire also to believe…. Yes, they are fully known, and fully loved. Only by the power of Your Spirit, Your love, can we say this Abba. O thank You for Your grace and love toward us, and thank You for Your commands to extend this joy toward others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The reading today is entitled Christ’s Friendship: Its Evidence
Ye Are My Friends, if Ye Do the Things Which I Command You—John 15.14
Our Lord has said what He gave as proof of His friendship: He gave His life for us. He now tells us what our part is to be—to do the things which He commands. He gave His life to secure a place for His love in our hearts to rule us; the response His love calls us to, and empowers us for, is that we do what He commands us. As we know the dying love, we shall joyfully obey its commands. As we obey the commands, we shall know the love more fully. Christ had already said: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” He counts it needful to repeat the truth again: the one proof of our faith in His love, the one way to abide in it, the one mark of being true branches is—to do the things which He commands us. He began with absolute surrender of His life for us. He can ask nothing less from us. This alone is a life in His friendship.
This truth, of the imperative necessity of obedience, doing all that Christ commands us, has not the place in our Christian teaching and living that Christ meant it to have. We have given a far higher place to privilege than to duty. We have not considered implicit obedience as a condition of true discipleship. The secret thought that it is impossible to do the things He commands us, and that therefore it cannot be expected of us, and a subtle and unconscious feeling that sinning is a necessity have frequently robbed both precepts and promises of their power. The whole relation to Christ has become clouded and lowered, the waiting on His teaching, the power to hear and obey His voice, and through obedience to enjoy His love and friendship, have been enfeebled by the terrible mistake. Do let us try to return to the true position, take Christ’s words as most literally true, and make nothing less the law of our life: “Ye are my friends, if ye do the things that I command you.” Surely our Lord asks nothing less than that we heartily and truthfully say: “Yea, Lord, what Thou dost command, that will I do.” These commands are to be done as a proof of friendship. The power to do them rests entirely in the personal relationship to Jesus. For a friend I could do what I would not for another. The friendship of Jesus is so heavenly and wonderful, it comes to us so as the power of a divine love entering in and taking possession, the unbroken fellowship with Himself is so essential to it, that it implies and imparts a joy and a love which make the obedience a delight. The liberty to claim the friendship of Jesus, the power to enjoy it, the grace to prove it in all its blessedness—all come as we do the things He commands us.
Is not the one thing needful for us that we ask our Lord to reveal Himself to us in the dying love in which He proved Himself our friend, and then listen as He says to us: “Ye are My friends.” As we see what our Friend has done for us, and what as unspeakable blessedness it is to have Him call us friends, the doing His commands will become the natural fruit of our life in his love. We shall not fear to say: “Yea, Lord, we are Thy friends, and do what
Thou dost command us.”
If ye do. Yes, it is in doing that we are blessed, that we abide in His love, that we enjoy His friendship. “If ye do what I command you!” O my Lord, let Thy holy friendship lead me into the love of all Thy commands, and let the doing of Thy commands lead me ever deeper into Thy friendship.
Abba again, command what You will, but O grant what You command! The law in our hearts that we still love would say it is impossible, impossible to do all You command through Your Spirit, every moment every day. And Your Spirit says, Yes, I agree. I do not ask you to do it according to Law dear daughter, but by my very present help, my love, my power. O that we would rest in relationship with You Abba! How much freedom we would possess and walk in, if we truly believed You loved us this much! We hear the ancient lie, that we cannot be truly known and truly loved. They are mutually exclusive. If we are truly known, then we are not truly loved because we are so needy, so sinful, so ugly at heart. And if we are truly loved, we must not be truly known, for if we were known, how could we be loved? But Lord! You say we are truly known, AND truly loved by the only one who could say this truthfully, because You are the only one who has the remedy for our sick hearts! You have demonstrated Your own love, true love for us in this, while we were still sinners, while we were still in our diseased and most ugly state, You, fully knowing us, died for us, that we might be rescued and be given a clean heart and Your own righteousness, Your glory within us! Oh God, we believe, help our unbelief. Continue to remind us we are truly known and truly loved, and may we, by faith, lift our eyes to Yours and see the love You have for us. And out of this amazing love, this relationship we have as Your daughters, may we walk where You lead us by Your Spirit, knowing it is because You love us, you speak and lead. And because You love those in our sphere, You desire they experience Your transforming love through redeemed people like us. Let us follow the promptings of Your Spirit because we are so very loved, and experience this Love first hand, and let others experience Your love through us and desire also to believe…. Yes, they are fully known, and fully loved. Only by the power of Your Spirit, Your love, can we say this Abba. O thank You for Your grace and love toward us, and thank You for Your commands to extend this joy toward others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Christ's Friendship: Its Origin
Good morning friends! I hope you are ready to come into community this morning, to hear Your Abba Father speak through those whom He has placed to speak His word, for His glory and our joy.
Today’s reading comes from John 15:13 and is entitled: Christ’s Friendship: Its Origin
Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends—John 15.13
In the three following verses our Lord speaks of His relation to His disciples under a new aspect—that of friendship. He point us to the love in which it on His side has its origin (v.13): to the obedience on our part by which it is maintained (v.14); and then to the holy intimacy to which it leads (v.15).
Our relation to Christ is one of love. In speaking of this previously, He showed us what His love was in its heavenly glory; the same love with which the Father had loved Him. Here we have it in its earthly manifestation—lay down His life for us. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Christ does indeed long to have us know that the secret root and strength of all He is and does for us as the Vine is love. As we learn to believe this, we shall feel that here is something which we not only need to think and know about, but a living power, a divine life which we need to receive within us.
Christ and His love are inseparable; they are identical. God is love, and Christ is love. God and Christ and the divine love can only be known by having them, by their life and power working within us. “This is eternal life, that they know thee”; there is no knowing God but by having the life; the life working in us alone gives the knowledge. And even so the love; if we would know it, we must drink of its living stream, we must have it shed forth by the Holy Spirit in us.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man give his life for his friends.” The life is the most precious thing a man has; the life is all he is; the life is himself. This is the highest measure of love: when a man gives his life, he holds nothing back, he gives all he has and is. It is this our Lord Jesus wants to make clear to us concerning His mystery of the Vine; with all He has He has placedHimself at our disposal. He wants us to count Him our very own; He wants to be wholly our possession, that we may be wholly His possession. He gave His life for us in death not merely as a passing act, that when accomplished was done with; no, but as a making Himself ours for eternity. Life for life; He gave His life for us to possess that we might give our life for Him to possess. This is what is taught by the parable of the Vine and the branch, in their wonderful identification, in their perfect union. It is as we know something of this, not by reason or imagination, but deep down in the heart and life, that we shall begin to see what ought to be our life as branches of the heavenly Vine. He gave Himself to death; He lost Himself, that we might find life in Him. This is the true Vine, who only lives to live in us. This is the beginning and the root of that holy friendship to which Christ invites us.
Great is the mystery of godliness! Let us confess our ignorance and unbelief. Let us cease from our own understanding and our own efforts to master it. Let us wait for the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to reveal it. Let us trust His infinite love, which gave its life for us, to take possession and rejoice in making us wholly its own.
His life for His friends. How wonderful the lessons of the Vine, giving its very life to its branches! And Jesus gave His life for His friends. And that love gives itself to them and in them. My heavenly Vine, oh, teach me how wholly Thou longest to live in me!
Abba we do confess our ignorance of the depth of this friendship You have extended to us through the death and resurrection of Your Son! We confess our unbelief that You have given to us all we need to be in relationship with You! For if we truly believed it, always and continually, we would not strive to work for Your approval after we have a season of failure. If we truly understood and believed the depth of Your love for us in Christ, and through Christ, through His Spirit, we would run to Your throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help us believe that we are Your daughters, and nothing can separate us from Your love, not even when You expose our sin and we see it for the ugliness that it is.
Abba if we truly believed that You have extended Your friendship, our adoption as daughters, we would speak with You all the time, we would delight in Your presence, we would remember we have nothing to give one another if we have not come to You first to receive it. Abba we strive to give to others the bread of Life when we ourselves are starving for it! We strive and earnestly desire others to drink deep of the water of Life when we ourselves are dying of thirst! Forgive us for our unbelief, forgive us our ignorance. We ask again, teach us to pray, teach us to believe and trust that You are who You say You are, and we are who You say we are. “This is eternal life, that they would know Me, and Jesus Christ, whom I have sent.” Abba, we confess we know a lot about You…. But we do not know You nearly enough. Forgive us for trying to impart eternal life to others by knowledge of You, rather than by sharing out of the power of the Spirit of Christ within us, the love which draws others to You. We cannot give what we do not possess.
So do what You will to bring us to drink deeply and eat heartily of You, satisfy us this morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy the rest of the day, and days, and weeks and months and years. And let others see this food You have provided for us, and let them desire to be filled to the full in their own hearts as well. I ask this for myself and on behalf of my sisters dear Lord. We believe, help our unbelief. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Today’s reading comes from John 15:13 and is entitled: Christ’s Friendship: Its Origin
Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends—John 15.13
In the three following verses our Lord speaks of His relation to His disciples under a new aspect—that of friendship. He point us to the love in which it on His side has its origin (v.13): to the obedience on our part by which it is maintained (v.14); and then to the holy intimacy to which it leads (v.15).
Our relation to Christ is one of love. In speaking of this previously, He showed us what His love was in its heavenly glory; the same love with which the Father had loved Him. Here we have it in its earthly manifestation—lay down His life for us. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Christ does indeed long to have us know that the secret root and strength of all He is and does for us as the Vine is love. As we learn to believe this, we shall feel that here is something which we not only need to think and know about, but a living power, a divine life which we need to receive within us.
Christ and His love are inseparable; they are identical. God is love, and Christ is love. God and Christ and the divine love can only be known by having them, by their life and power working within us. “This is eternal life, that they know thee”; there is no knowing God but by having the life; the life working in us alone gives the knowledge. And even so the love; if we would know it, we must drink of its living stream, we must have it shed forth by the Holy Spirit in us.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man give his life for his friends.” The life is the most precious thing a man has; the life is all he is; the life is himself. This is the highest measure of love: when a man gives his life, he holds nothing back, he gives all he has and is. It is this our Lord Jesus wants to make clear to us concerning His mystery of the Vine; with all He has He has placedHimself at our disposal. He wants us to count Him our very own; He wants to be wholly our possession, that we may be wholly His possession. He gave His life for us in death not merely as a passing act, that when accomplished was done with; no, but as a making Himself ours for eternity. Life for life; He gave His life for us to possess that we might give our life for Him to possess. This is what is taught by the parable of the Vine and the branch, in their wonderful identification, in their perfect union. It is as we know something of this, not by reason or imagination, but deep down in the heart and life, that we shall begin to see what ought to be our life as branches of the heavenly Vine. He gave Himself to death; He lost Himself, that we might find life in Him. This is the true Vine, who only lives to live in us. This is the beginning and the root of that holy friendship to which Christ invites us.
Great is the mystery of godliness! Let us confess our ignorance and unbelief. Let us cease from our own understanding and our own efforts to master it. Let us wait for the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to reveal it. Let us trust His infinite love, which gave its life for us, to take possession and rejoice in making us wholly its own.
His life for His friends. How wonderful the lessons of the Vine, giving its very life to its branches! And Jesus gave His life for His friends. And that love gives itself to them and in them. My heavenly Vine, oh, teach me how wholly Thou longest to live in me!
Abba we do confess our ignorance of the depth of this friendship You have extended to us through the death and resurrection of Your Son! We confess our unbelief that You have given to us all we need to be in relationship with You! For if we truly believed it, always and continually, we would not strive to work for Your approval after we have a season of failure. If we truly understood and believed the depth of Your love for us in Christ, and through Christ, through His Spirit, we would run to Your throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help us believe that we are Your daughters, and nothing can separate us from Your love, not even when You expose our sin and we see it for the ugliness that it is.
Abba if we truly believed that You have extended Your friendship, our adoption as daughters, we would speak with You all the time, we would delight in Your presence, we would remember we have nothing to give one another if we have not come to You first to receive it. Abba we strive to give to others the bread of Life when we ourselves are starving for it! We strive and earnestly desire others to drink deep of the water of Life when we ourselves are dying of thirst! Forgive us for our unbelief, forgive us our ignorance. We ask again, teach us to pray, teach us to believe and trust that You are who You say You are, and we are who You say we are. “This is eternal life, that they would know Me, and Jesus Christ, whom I have sent.” Abba, we confess we know a lot about You…. But we do not know You nearly enough. Forgive us for trying to impart eternal life to others by knowledge of You, rather than by sharing out of the power of the Spirit of Christ within us, the love which draws others to You. We cannot give what we do not possess.
So do what You will to bring us to drink deeply and eat heartily of You, satisfy us this morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy the rest of the day, and days, and weeks and months and years. And let others see this food You have provided for us, and let them desire to be filled to the full in their own hearts as well. I ask this for myself and on behalf of my sisters dear Lord. We believe, help our unbelief. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Even As I Have Loved You
Good afternoon dear sisters! Sorry this is so late in getting out… I didn’t time my morning very well before heading out the door, and am now just getting back home. A long day, but one filled with wonderful, encouraging conversations and Jesus at the center of it all. He is good.
The reading today comes from John 15:12, and is entitled Even As I Have Loved You
This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One Another, Even as I Have Loved You—John 15.12
This is the second time our Lord uses the expression—Even as I. The first time it was of His relation to the Father, keeping His commandments, and abiding in His love. Even so we are to keep Christ’s commandments, and abide in His love. The second time He speaks of His relation to us as the rule of our love to our brethren: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” In each case His disposition and conduct is to be the law for ours. It is again the truth we have more than once insisted on—perfect likeness between the Vine and the branch.
Even as I—But is it not a vain thing to imagine that we can keep His commandments, and love the brethren, even as He kept His Father’s, and as He loved us? And must not the attempt end in failure and discouragement? Undoubtedly, if we seek to carry out the injunction in our strength, or without a full apprehension of the truth of the Vine and its branches. But if we understand that the “even as I” is just the one great lesson of the parable, the one continual language of the Vine to the branch, we shall see that it is not the question of what
we feel able to accomplish, but of what Christ is able to work in us. These high and holy commands—“Obey, even as I! Love, even as I”—are just meant to bring us to the consciousness of our impotence, and through that to waken us to the need and the beauty and the sufficiency of what is provided for us in the Vine. We shall begin to hear the Vine speaking every moment to the branch: “Even as I. Even as I: My life is your life; and have a share in all My fullness; the Spirit in you, and the fruit that comes from you, is all just the same as in Me. Be not afraid, but let your faith grasp each “Even as I” as the divine assurance that because I live in you, you may and can live like Me.”
But why, if this really be the meaning of the parable, if this really be the life a branch may live, who do so few realize it? Because they do not know the heavenly mystery of the Vine. They know much of the parable and its beautiful lessons. But the hidden spiritual mystery of the Vine in His divine omnipotence and nearness, bearing and supplying them all the day—this they do not know, because they have not waited on God’s Spirit to reveal it to them.
Love one another, even as I have loved you—“Ye, even as I.” How are we to begin if we are really to learn the mystery? With the confession that we need to be brought to an entirely new mode of life, because we have never yet known Christ as the Vine in the completeness of His quickening and transforming power. With the surrender to be cleansed from all that is of self, and detached from all that is in the world, to live only and wholly as Christ lived for the glory of the Father. And then with the faith that this “even as I” is in very deed what Christ is ready to make true, the very life the Vine will maintain in the branch wholly dependent upon Him.
Even as I. Ever again it is, my blessed Lord, as the Vine, so the branch—one life, one spirit, one obedience, one joy, one love.
Lord Jesus, in the faith that Thou art my Vine, and that I am Thy branch, I accept Thy command as a promise, and take Thy “even as I” as the simple revelation of what Thou dost work in me. Yea, Lord, as Thou hast loved, I will love.
Abba teach us this mystery of “even as I”. Show us how to appropriate the truth that we are crucified with Christ, and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. Show us how to appropriate the truth that the life we live in the body, we now live by faith in Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us. We long to grow into who we are, but so much of self is in the way. We want what we want when and how we want it, but we are soon weary and find ourselves in great need when we follow self. Oh be King again in the throne room of our hearts, and let us walk in the freedom of the Son, as we follow You and love whom You love with the love You give us! How good to know we cannot well this kind of love up on our own; we have tried, we have tried and failed and You simply wait for us to cease striving and know that You are God, You are the one who fulfills every command in us, through the power of Your Spirit as we abide, rest and seek Your face. Again O God we pray, command what You will, but grant Your command. We ask this by faith in the name of the King of Kings, Jesus the Son, our Savior and Redeemer, amen.
The reading today comes from John 15:12, and is entitled Even As I Have Loved You
This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One Another, Even as I Have Loved You—John 15.12
This is the second time our Lord uses the expression—Even as I. The first time it was of His relation to the Father, keeping His commandments, and abiding in His love. Even so we are to keep Christ’s commandments, and abide in His love. The second time He speaks of His relation to us as the rule of our love to our brethren: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” In each case His disposition and conduct is to be the law for ours. It is again the truth we have more than once insisted on—perfect likeness between the Vine and the branch.
Even as I—But is it not a vain thing to imagine that we can keep His commandments, and love the brethren, even as He kept His Father’s, and as He loved us? And must not the attempt end in failure and discouragement? Undoubtedly, if we seek to carry out the injunction in our strength, or without a full apprehension of the truth of the Vine and its branches. But if we understand that the “even as I” is just the one great lesson of the parable, the one continual language of the Vine to the branch, we shall see that it is not the question of what
we feel able to accomplish, but of what Christ is able to work in us. These high and holy commands—“Obey, even as I! Love, even as I”—are just meant to bring us to the consciousness of our impotence, and through that to waken us to the need and the beauty and the sufficiency of what is provided for us in the Vine. We shall begin to hear the Vine speaking every moment to the branch: “Even as I. Even as I: My life is your life; and have a share in all My fullness; the Spirit in you, and the fruit that comes from you, is all just the same as in Me. Be not afraid, but let your faith grasp each “Even as I” as the divine assurance that because I live in you, you may and can live like Me.”
But why, if this really be the meaning of the parable, if this really be the life a branch may live, who do so few realize it? Because they do not know the heavenly mystery of the Vine. They know much of the parable and its beautiful lessons. But the hidden spiritual mystery of the Vine in His divine omnipotence and nearness, bearing and supplying them all the day—this they do not know, because they have not waited on God’s Spirit to reveal it to them.
Love one another, even as I have loved you—“Ye, even as I.” How are we to begin if we are really to learn the mystery? With the confession that we need to be brought to an entirely new mode of life, because we have never yet known Christ as the Vine in the completeness of His quickening and transforming power. With the surrender to be cleansed from all that is of self, and detached from all that is in the world, to live only and wholly as Christ lived for the glory of the Father. And then with the faith that this “even as I” is in very deed what Christ is ready to make true, the very life the Vine will maintain in the branch wholly dependent upon Him.
Even as I. Ever again it is, my blessed Lord, as the Vine, so the branch—one life, one spirit, one obedience, one joy, one love.
Lord Jesus, in the faith that Thou art my Vine, and that I am Thy branch, I accept Thy command as a promise, and take Thy “even as I” as the simple revelation of what Thou dost work in me. Yea, Lord, as Thou hast loved, I will love.
Abba teach us this mystery of “even as I”. Show us how to appropriate the truth that we are crucified with Christ, and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. Show us how to appropriate the truth that the life we live in the body, we now live by faith in Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us. We long to grow into who we are, but so much of self is in the way. We want what we want when and how we want it, but we are soon weary and find ourselves in great need when we follow self. Oh be King again in the throne room of our hearts, and let us walk in the freedom of the Son, as we follow You and love whom You love with the love You give us! How good to know we cannot well this kind of love up on our own; we have tried, we have tried and failed and You simply wait for us to cease striving and know that You are God, You are the one who fulfills every command in us, through the power of Your Spirit as we abide, rest and seek Your face. Again O God we pray, command what You will, but grant Your command. We ask this by faith in the name of the King of Kings, Jesus the Son, our Savior and Redeemer, amen.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Love One Another
Good morning sisters. One
week from today we head up to Camp
Hebron
Today’s reading is entitled
Love One Another and is from John 15:12
This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One
Another—John 15.12
God is love. His whole nature and
perfection is love, living not for Himself, but to dispense life and blessing.
In His love He begat the Son, that He might give all to Him. In His love He
brought forth creatures that He might make them partakers of His blessedness.
Christ is the Son of God’s love, the
bearer, the revealer, the communicator of that love. His life and death were
all love. Love is His life, and the life He gives. He only lives to love, to
live out His life of love in us, to give Himself in all who will receive Him.
The very first thought of the true Vine is love—living only to impart His life
to the branches.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. He
cannot impart Christ’s life without imparting His love. Salvation is nothing
but love conquering and entering into us; we have just as much of salvation as
we have of love. Full salvation is perfect love.
No wonder that Christ said: “A new
commandment I give unto you”; “This is my
commandment”—the one all-inclusive
commandment—“that ye love one another.” The branch is not only one with the
vine, but with all its other branches; they drink one spirit, they form one
body, they bear one fruit. Nothing can be more unnatural than that Christians should
not love one another, even as Christ loved them. The life they received from
their heavenly Vine is nothing but love. This is the one thing He asks above all
others. “Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples...love one
another.” As the special sort of vine is known by the fruit it bears, the
nature of the heavenly Vine is to be judged of by the love
His disciples have to one another.
See that you obey this commandment. Let
your “obey and abide” be seen in this. Love your brethren as the way to abide
in the love of your Lord. Let your vow of obedience begin here. Love one
another. Let your intimacy with the Christians in your own family be holy, tender,
Christlike love. Let your thoughts of the Christians round you be, before
everything, in the spirit of Christ’s love. Let your life and conduct be the
sacrifice of love—give yourself up to think of their sins or their needs, to
intercede for them, to help and to serve them. Be in your church or circle the
embodiment of Christ’s love. The life Christ lives in you is love; let the life
in which you live it out be all love.
But, man, you write as if all this was so
natural and simple and easy. Is it at all possible thus to live and thus to
love? My answer is: Christ commands it: you must obey. Christ means it: you
must obey, or you cannot abide in His love. But I have tried and failed. I see
no prospect of living like Christ. Ah! that is because you have failed to take
in the first word of the parable—“I am the true Vine: I give all you need as a
branch, I give all I myself have.” I pray you, let the sense of past failure and
present feebleness drive you to the Vine. He is all love. He loves to give. He
gives love. He will teach you to love, even as He loved.
Love one another. Dear Lord Jesus, Thou art all love; the
life Thou gavest us is love; Thy new commandment, and Thy badge of discipleship
is, “Love one another.” I accept the charge: with the love with which Thou
lovest me, and I love Thee, I will love my brethren.
Abba, this is too hard. And You
understand this. You are not asking us to love one another through our own
strength, or through law. You Lord, are asking us to abide in Your love, and as
we do, to receive all we need from You to carry out the command to love one
another. Forgive us for believing the lie we must do this in our own strength.
Forgive us for believing the lie we can only love the lovely. Forgive us for
believing the lie that others must be worthy of our love for us to love them.
And forgive us Abba for believing the lie that love is more of an emotion,
rather than an action empowered by the One who is Love. Abba, You are our Life,
and You are Love, and You are Strength, and Your life is flowing in and through
us. O let us lay down self life, abide in You, abide in Your love, and let the
natural outflow be: we love one another. May we start simply with those in our
sphere, and may they see Your love as we interact with one another. May the one
who feels unloved and lonely, see Your love through me, through each one
reading this today. Command what You will O God, and grant what You command, we
ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Joy
Good morning dear sisters. We are about one week out from our Refresh Retreat. We are asking Abba Father to help those who are to attend this retreat but have not signed up because they are unsure, or wary or because they allow the lack of comfort (physical, emotional and spiritual) to keep them from saying yes to listen to His Voice and attend. The retreat itself is just the conduit for the work He would like to do in us individually and corporately. We all have expectations as to what a retreat is, or should look like. We are praying He and He alone would be our expectation. We are praying that those whom He has called would listen and come, and those who are attending would lay down all expectations except that He would speak, and we would have ears to hear and by His Spirit, walk out what He says. My personal prayer is that those in whom the Spirit is drawing to walk a more intimate walk with Him, would not miss this. He is the Giver, and He gets the glory for what He desires to impart to us through all the elements at the retreat.
These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That Your Joy May Be Fulfilled—John 15.11
If any one asks the question, “How can I be a happy Christian?” our Lord’s answer is very simple: “These things,” about the Vine and the branches, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” “You cannot have My joy without My life. Abide in Me, and let Me abide in you, and My joy will be in you.” All healthy life is a thing of joy and beauty; live undividedly the branch life; you will have His joy in full measure.
To many Christians the thought of a life wholly abiding in Christ is one of strain and painful effort. They cannot see that the strain and effort only come, as long as we do not yield ourselves unreservedly to the life of Christ in us. The very first words of the parable are not yet opened up to them: “I am the true Vine; I undertake all and provide for all; I ask nothing of the branch but that it yields wholly to Me, and allows Me to do all. I engage to make and keep the branch all that it ought to be.” Ought it not to be an infinite and unceasing joy to have the Vine thus work all, and to know that it is none less than the blessed Son of God in His love who is each moment bearing us and maintaining our life?
That My joy may be in you—We are to have Christ’s own joy in us. And what is Christ’s own joy? There is no joy like love. There is no joy but love. Christ had just spoken of the Father’s love and His own abiding in it, and of His having loved us with that same love. His joy is nothing but the joy of love, of being loved and of loving. It was the joy of receiving His Father’s love and abiding in it, and then the joy of passing on that love and pouring it out on sinners. It is this joy He wants us to share: the joy of being loved of the Father and of Him; the joy of in our turn loving and living for those around us. This is just the joy of being truly branches: abiding in His love, and then giving up ourselves in love to bear fruit for others. Let us accept His life, as He gives it in us as the Vine, His joy will be ours: the joy of abiding in His love, the joy of loving like Him, of loving with His love.
And that your joy may be fulfilled —That it may be complete, that you may be filled with it. How sad that we should so need to be reminded that as God alone is the fountain of all joy, “God our exceeding joy,” the only way to be perfectly happy is to have as much of God, as much of His will and fellowship, as possible! Religion is meant to be in everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy. And why do so many complain that it is not so? Because they do not believe that there is no joy like the joy of abiding in Christ and in His love, and being branches through whom He can pour out His love on a dying world. Oh, that Christ’s voice might reach the heart of every young Christian, and persuade him to believe that His joy is the only true joy, that His joy can become ours and truly fill us, and that the sure and simple way of living in it is—only this—to abide as branches in Him our heavenly Vine.Let the truth enter deep into us—as long as our joy is not full, it is a sign that we do not yet know our heavenly Vine aright; every desire for a fuller joy must only urge us to abide more simply and more fully in His love.
My joy—your joy. In this too it is: as the Vine, so the branch; all the Vine in the branch.Thy joy is our joy—Thy joy in us, and our joy fulfilled. Blessed Lord, fill me with Thy joy—the joy of being loved and blessed with a divine love; the joy of loving and blessing others.
How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure….. Oh to rest as a branch is our desire O God, to know that we know that we are loved, to know that we can truly love others with Your love. Abba, for those who struggle to believe they are fully known by You and fully loved by You, would you impart to them what they need to receive this truth fully? Would you bring clarity and help us see the walls of protection we build to protect our hearts, to protect us from further wounding? Lord those walls might keep our emotions from overwhelming us, might keep us from being hurt by others, but they also keep You out Abba. We cannot selectively build walls of protection in our hearts without keeping You out as well. O God, You are the gentle Shepherd. Gently remove the bricks we have placed to protect wounded areas of our hearts, and bring Your healing in. Lift our eyes to see Your face Jesus. Let us look deeply in, and believe once for all that You are good, and You mean good to us, and You desire us to receive all the love You would pour into our hearts, and then be the conduit to pour out onto others. We cannot help but have joy when we believe we are truly, wonderfully, wholly loved by You. Allow the painful truth of our lack of joy reveal our lack of belief that we are truly, wonderfully and wholly loved by You. We believe, O help our unbelief again, and again, and again until we believe it. Then may we walk in that joy of believing love, and may we be Your agent of grace as You pour out Your love through us onto and into others by the power of Your Spirit, the Seal of Your Love for us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That Your Joy May Be Fulfilled—John 15.11
If any one asks the question, “How can I be a happy Christian?” our Lord’s answer is very simple: “These things,” about the Vine and the branches, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” “You cannot have My joy without My life. Abide in Me, and let Me abide in you, and My joy will be in you.” All healthy life is a thing of joy and beauty; live undividedly the branch life; you will have His joy in full measure.
To many Christians the thought of a life wholly abiding in Christ is one of strain and painful effort. They cannot see that the strain and effort only come, as long as we do not yield ourselves unreservedly to the life of Christ in us. The very first words of the parable are not yet opened up to them: “I am the true Vine; I undertake all and provide for all; I ask nothing of the branch but that it yields wholly to Me, and allows Me to do all. I engage to make and keep the branch all that it ought to be.” Ought it not to be an infinite and unceasing joy to have the Vine thus work all, and to know that it is none less than the blessed Son of God in His love who is each moment bearing us and maintaining our life?
That My joy may be in you—We are to have Christ’s own joy in us. And what is Christ’s own joy? There is no joy like love. There is no joy but love. Christ had just spoken of the Father’s love and His own abiding in it, and of His having loved us with that same love. His joy is nothing but the joy of love, of being loved and of loving. It was the joy of receiving His Father’s love and abiding in it, and then the joy of passing on that love and pouring it out on sinners. It is this joy He wants us to share: the joy of being loved of the Father and of Him; the joy of in our turn loving and living for those around us. This is just the joy of being truly branches: abiding in His love, and then giving up ourselves in love to bear fruit for others. Let us accept His life, as He gives it in us as the Vine, His joy will be ours: the joy of abiding in His love, the joy of loving like Him, of loving with His love.
And that your joy may be fulfilled —That it may be complete, that you may be filled with it. How sad that we should so need to be reminded that as God alone is the fountain of all joy, “God our exceeding joy,” the only way to be perfectly happy is to have as much of God, as much of His will and fellowship, as possible! Religion is meant to be in everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy. And why do so many complain that it is not so? Because they do not believe that there is no joy like the joy of abiding in Christ and in His love, and being branches through whom He can pour out His love on a dying world. Oh, that Christ’s voice might reach the heart of every young Christian, and persuade him to believe that His joy is the only true joy, that His joy can become ours and truly fill us, and that the sure and simple way of living in it is—only this—to abide as branches in Him our heavenly Vine.Let the truth enter deep into us—as long as our joy is not full, it is a sign that we do not yet know our heavenly Vine aright; every desire for a fuller joy must only urge us to abide more simply and more fully in His love.
My joy—your joy. In this too it is: as the Vine, so the branch; all the Vine in the branch.Thy joy is our joy—Thy joy in us, and our joy fulfilled. Blessed Lord, fill me with Thy joy—the joy of being loved and blessed with a divine love; the joy of loving and blessing others.
How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure….. Oh to rest as a branch is our desire O God, to know that we know that we are loved, to know that we can truly love others with Your love. Abba, for those who struggle to believe they are fully known by You and fully loved by You, would you impart to them what they need to receive this truth fully? Would you bring clarity and help us see the walls of protection we build to protect our hearts, to protect us from further wounding? Lord those walls might keep our emotions from overwhelming us, might keep us from being hurt by others, but they also keep You out Abba. We cannot selectively build walls of protection in our hearts without keeping You out as well. O God, You are the gentle Shepherd. Gently remove the bricks we have placed to protect wounded areas of our hearts, and bring Your healing in. Lift our eyes to see Your face Jesus. Let us look deeply in, and believe once for all that You are good, and You mean good to us, and You desire us to receive all the love You would pour into our hearts, and then be the conduit to pour out onto others. We cannot help but have joy when we believe we are truly, wonderfully, wholly loved by You. Allow the painful truth of our lack of joy reveal our lack of belief that we are truly, wonderfully and wholly loved by You. We believe, O help our unbelief again, and again, and again until we believe it. Then may we walk in that joy of believing love, and may we be Your agent of grace as You pour out Your love through us onto and into others by the power of Your Spirit, the Seal of Your Love for us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)