FROM THE WILDS OF SIN INTO DIVINE LOVE

IN LOVE WITH ALL MY SOUL, HEART AND MIND

I will arise and go to my Father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before You (Luke 15:18)

FROM THE WILDS OF SIN INTO DIVINE LOVE

God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole life there in burning zeal. This is to be known to us in a conscious experience. It is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day~A. W. Tozer

I DWELL IN YOUR LOVE INFINITELY

I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. REMAIN IN ME, ABIDE IN MY LOVE (John 15:4) 

One of Jesus’ most vivid and powerful illustrations for the believer’s relationship with him is the vine and branches. Just as branches can only bear fruit if they abide in the vine, so the only way believers can live fruitful lives is by abiding in Jesus.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

 The vine is Jesus, while we-believers, are the branches. The Father, Jesus says, is the vinedresser – that is the gardener who tends the branches.

He prunes the fruitful branches so they will bear more fruit, and takes away the unfruitful branches, throwing them into the fire. Unfruitful branches appear to be nominal disciples: people who outwardly follow Jesus for a time, but fail to bear fruit.  Think, for example, of Judas Iscariot. The fruit we are called to bear includes both the fruit of transformed character similar to “the fruit of the Spirit”- (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in Gal.5:22-23) and fruitfulness in evangelism as we bear witness to Jesus and his work.

What does it mean to Abide in Christ?

To abide in the vine means to be united to Jesus (connection), to rely on Jesus (dependence), and to remain in Jesus (continuance).

Connection

Abiding in Jesus first of all means having a life-giving connection to him. A branch is connected to the vine, and a vine to the branch as “union with Christ.” This connection, this union, is mutual. We abide in him and he abides in us. If there is no connection, there is no life, no fruit.

Dependence

But abiding also implies dependence. This aspect of abiding, unlike connection, is not reciprocal. The branch is dependent on the vine, but the vine is not dependent on the branch. The branch derives its life and power from the vine. Without the vine, the branch is useless, lifeless, powerless. Sap flows from the vine to the branch, supplying it with water, minerals, and nutrients that make it grow. And believers receive the “sap” of Christ’s grace through our life-giving connection to him. We are completely dependent upon Jesus for everything that counts as spiritual fruit. Apart from him, we can do nothing.

Continuance

Abiding also involves continuance. To abide is to reside. To abide is to continue, to stay, to remain.

Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

Abiding in Jesus means keeping ourselves in his infinite, enduring, sin-bearing, heart-conquering, life-giving love. (Brian G. Hedges)

IN LOVE WITH ALL MY SOUL, HEART AND MIND

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." Matthew 22:37-38

What, however, is love? Can we say that by our efforts to obey God's laws we automatically show that we love him? It is an essential aspect of love towards him not only that we should obey his laws but that we should do so completely out of love and not from self-motivation.