It’s so easy to give up. Here I’m going to write a few lines on Christian living. Just mention Christianity, and soon you have opposition from all ends. I’ll address the needs of those who are really seeking the Truth first.
So, yesterday I took part in Bible study and we studied John 15. Yes, it’s the 15th chapter of the Gospel of John. That’s quite a popular book in the Holy Bible and I’d read it before. Yet, this moment having re-read it, I realise so many areas of my own life where I could have done better.
Here’s what I understand after reading John 15…
Verses 1-11 says:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
We have those moments in our lives when we’re battling several matters in our lives. We wonder why matters just don’t happen the way we want them to. We look onto Jesus Christ. What we see is a man (He is God manifest as man) who was crucified on the Cross, died a painful death, and now we are waiting for His return. So how does that help us in our situations? Well, quite simple actually. All we need to do is to actually learn from what Jesus did Himself. Jesus was God Himself, the one who created mankind. Now, if He was God Himself, why did He permit to be mocked, crucified and brutally die at the hands of His own creation?
If matters don’t seem to be going right, it is easy to blame it on bad planning and eventually work things by your own wisdom and understanding right? I’ll consider a situation in my own life. With some happenings in my life, I am supposed to stay calm, so that matters eventually develop by themselves. The primary reason for this is the fact that I gave my word, that no matter what, I would not be communicating over a matter in the way I did before.
So, first there was a friend in my life that I was able to communicate with, and now there is no communication whatsoever. When I give my word, there are several areas over which I would be tested. First, it’s a Christian’s commitment to a matter. Having committed, it becomes a matter of keeping the word. Staying committed to the word is tough no doubt, but failing to do so, invites the lost and heathen ones to strike and scandalise God’s children in a matter that could and would have otherwise just been sorted eventually with time.
Having borne the weight of keeping the word and eventually growing in the faith that God will be watching as He is now, in the matter that I am praying about, I am in peace that He will be watching and will continue to bless His precious children as ever. We all, so conveniently, remember the promises of God in the Word. We memorise verses that promise the blessings of God. What we fail to do, however, is ponder and remember why those promises were made in the first place.
Here in this instance in John 15, we remember the Ask, Seek and Knock promise mentioned in Matthew 7:7, which says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”
What this chapter says however, is a short background as to how that confidence is possible. You need to understand that God indeed is the beginning and the end. We are branches, where God is the tree. We can only bear fruit if we are with Him. We may try and try, and believe we have achieved everything by our strength and might. But the fact is that we can achieve our goals only as long as we are obedient to Christ’s ways.
When we abide with him and He abides with us, then we shall bear much fruit. So all of these verses above boil down to the need to accept that we need to abide with Him at all times, and when we are in tune with His ways, which essentially purging our own carnal intentions or thoughts, and solely seeking His ways, then we shall bear much fruit.
Further down the chapter…
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.
Remember, Christ says, this is MY commandment. He insists that we love one another as He loved us. He laid down His life for our sake. He calls us who follow His Word as friends. He has granted us the privilege to be able to share a table with Him. We are able to sup with Him at the same table, not as a servant on the floor.
Reading further into the chapter,
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Dear child of God, just read this part again. It was just meant to be understood and dwelt upon. This is why we as His children, take a stand. We stay calm, despite all that is thrown at us. We are to live by His standards, and not by human standards. God bless you!
