Jesus Abides!
• Who is the person you feel the most connected to?
• What makes connection strong?
One of the things I love about Jesus is He wants to be connected to us. My favorite chapter in the whole bible is John 15. Jesus calls Himself the Vine, and He calls us his branches. He uses the word “remain” or “abides”.
Read John 15.
· What does abide mean?
The Greek word for “abide” or “remain” is MENO. Meno translates to an “inward, enduring, personal, communion.
Abiding in Jesus means to have a life-giving connection to Him.
· Who did Jesus abide with?
· How did Jesus abide with His disciples? His Father?
He calls us to BE with Him, BE with others. We get so caught up in the doing that we forget to simply be with Him and be with others. What does it mean for us?
To abide is to reside. Where we reside is HOME. So I think of abiding as being at home in Jesus and remaining in Jesus. This simply means that we go on trusting, that we keep on depending, that we never stop believing.
Clearly the situation in the world is dragging us to something. Logic will tell us to be scared or just live our lives with fear waiting on something to happened to us. So the question here will be what are you holding on to? Is it your fears, what the world and news are telling you? Or you are holding on Jesus who is our hope during these times? Are you so closely abiding with Christ that the fears are calmed?
Many people come to church thinking that God is with them just because they sit in the pew. But being in a church doesn't mean the Lord is with you. He doesn't live inside a church; He lives in His disciples. A person who sits among true disciples might be as far from Christ as the native of a tribe that has never heard the gospel if he does not abide in the true Vine.
Let just picture Jesus as piece of art. We all know that art remains forever. It can get dusty and probably a little bit dirty but the meaning of the art stays forever, and that’s how He works in our lives. In the past conversations we’ve spoken about the first encounter you had with Jesus. That encounter remains forever.
