Category: Abide

Galatians 5:4-6 MSG
4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

Francis Chan writes in Crazy Love,
It’s not about achievement; it’s about fellowship.
It’s not about obligation; it’s about love.

“For John, and for us today, this is what it means to be a resident Christian. We share in the Holy Spirit, and through the Spirit living in us we know and accept the truth of who Jesus is, and therefore do not try to import, perform, manufacture or manifest our own understanding of who God is. Instead, we are to, as it says in 1 John 2:24-25 MSG:

24-25 Stay with what you heard from the beginning, the original message. Let it sink into your life. If what you heard from the beginning lives deeply in you, you will live deeply in both Son and Father. This is exactly what Christ promised: eternal life, real life!” (P.Wayne)

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the interior work in our hearts so we can be released to live! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s sing, “Great Things” by Phil Wickham (click here).

-AW

 

1 John 2:18-27 NIV
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

“16th century theologian John Calvin writes that ‘it is impossible that they should be separated from the Church, for the seal which God’s Spirit engraves on their hearts cannot be obliterated; the incorruptible seed, which has struck roots, cannot be pulled up or destroyed.’ God has sealed our hearts with the Holy Spirit. It is a done thing. John is reminding the ancient church that the source material of our hearts, the space that we have taken residency in, is Jesus’ space. This is the truth that John says we already know in v.20-21.” (P.Wayne)

Prayer: Lord, thank you we know and can live in this way because we have been anointed. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s sing, “Anointing” by Jesus Culture (click here).

-AW

John 15:7-11 NIV
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 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. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

“Our spiritual security cannot be found in the latest theological trends, or performative faith that move beyond the need for the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, Son of God. We can’t bring the world’s residencies into God’s space because it simply doesn’t work. The basis of our faith is rooted in the truth of the gospel and acted upon through the Holy Spirit. Just as the ancient church needed to hear this, so do we in modernity in which our faith is daily challenged. This is the basis of our humility not to describe, decode or capture God (antichrist behavior) but to submit and trust that God is who He says He is.” (P.Wayne)

Prayer: Lord, may we remain, live in your love. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s sing, “Abide With Me” by Matt Redman (click here).

-AW

Let’s read aloud together:

Psalm 139 NIV
1 You have searched me, LORD,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

Prayer: Lord, we praise you for your works are wonderful. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s sing, “Psalm 139 (Far Too Wonderful)” by Shane & Shane (click here).

-AW

Romans 8:14-17 NIV
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

“The good news for us today is that we can live in the truth of the gospel, fully enjoying the freedom, love and hope of Christ, not by our own agency but through the Holy Spirit that lives in us. The Holy Spirit is the active agent in how we live and function. This living in, or abiding, is to be the innate, intrinsic and inherent behavior; and to abide is the Spirit performing His given duty in our hearts and lives.” (P.Wayne)

Prayer: Abba, Father, thank you for this truth that we are no longer slaves and don’t live in fear again. The Holy Spirit testifies that we’ve been adopted and are now children of God. May we abide in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s sing, “No Longer Slaves” by Jonathan David and Melissa Helser (click here).

-AW