Scripture

The Bible is not intended to answer every question in the universe. There are many it does not answer. The message of the Bible in a nutshell explains:

• God’s original design for the world.

• God’s purpose for mankind.

• The cause of the world’s failure to fulfill its design and purpose.

• The effects of that failure.

• God’s solution to that failure.

• How people should live in light of these things.

Abiding Connecting - X

God is concerned with every branch on the vine. Each one is intended to bear fruit. Each one should have life flow from it. There are often those in him, who have no life. Who are fruitless. If a person has no connection, the life of God cannot flow through him. Why would there be no connection? I think there are two reasons why disciples fail to connect: personal failure or systems failure.

Personal failure does come in a number of forms. The Father will refuse to connect with someone in sin. Sin has a polluting effect on the connection. The Father will not allow any pollution near him, so he will sever the connection. (Remember this is not about salvation or a person’s eternal status with the Father. This is about fruit, relationship and the vitality of the connection.) Jesus came to establish the connection and to insure it is not permanently severed. Repentance and application of faith can restore the relationship.

A person can lose the connection by moving out of receiving mode. Many things can distract the person, and he fails with a lack of diligence or discipline. Usually there is a lack of understanding about this part of his relationship with God.

There can be a failure in the system to facilitate this type of relationship. An assumption exists among some Christians that says not all of God’s people will have this kind of relationship with God. God’s life will flow across the connection only if the person has a certain position, title or training. God’s life flows across the connection only in certain circumstances. All of God’s children are connected to the vine. God’s life flows across all branches. It is available to all.

Many churches assume that its members exist for the preservation of its functions. The church exists for the promotion and growth of God’s kingdom. Which means life flows into the branches so fruit will grow in coffee shops, universities, factories, ball parks, state parks, mass transportation and mountain tops. God gives his life to the branches so fruit can be borne in all phases of life. We live with this connection so we can bring God’s life with into every place we go. Not everyone will serve to promote a church program. But all of God’s children live to promote God’s kingdom.

Abiding Connecting - IX

Quite often at worship meetings, the life of God flows freely and strongly over those in attendance. God speaks clearly. Faith increases. Salvations or healings occur.

There are two reason why this happens. People are in a receiving mode. They are open. There is a heart-focus towards God. It is this heart-focus that completes the connection. There are no distractions. There is only God for this period. It is the purity of the heart-focus that releases the life flow across the connection.

People are in agreement. Unity always seems to strengthen whatever brings it together. It is almost as if the heart-focus is multiplied if it is aimed in the same direction, at the same thing. And Scripture says God blesses unity. It is because God’s nature is unity and agreement.

What if Jesus’ followers walked in agreement on Monday through Friday as well as Sunday? What if their heart-focus was as attuned to God’s presence beyond the meeting? Jesus was God, but he was also man. His impact on the world was directly proportional to his connection with the Father. If we can maintain our heart-focus beyond the meeting, we can walk as Jesus walked and influence the world in the same way.

Abiding Connecting - VIII

Jesus identified the Father as the gardener or vinedresser. It is the gardener who takes the initiative to start the garden. He does the work to break up the soil and plant seed. He is the one who is most motivated to see healthy plants that produce fruit. It is the fruit that motivates the gardener to plant the garden in the first place.

It is fruit that the Father is looking for. It is fruit that he builds his kingdom on. So, he is vitally concerned with the connection of each branch to the vine, because it is that connection that produces the fruit. So, he plans, strategizes and works to strengthen that connection in each person’s life.

If fruit builds the kingdom and the connection produces the fruit, then our connection to God is the strongest power in the universe.

Abiding Connecting - VII

If we do abide in Jesus, our true vine, we will bear fruit. Jesus was the best example of someone abiding in god. The connection was strong and vibrant. Jesus was in tune with the Father. He w as obedient to the Father put on his heart.

People were healed physically. People rose from the dead. People were healed spiritually, psychologically and emotionally. A foundation for an explosion of faith was laid. (After Jesus returned to the Father, Peter gave a five minute speech and 3000 people chose to follow Jesus. But it was Jesus’ prayer and living that cultivated the earth, in preparation for the disciples seeing this explosion.)

We are not even close to seeing the same fruit that Jesus and the first church saw. Jesus said we would do greater things than he did. I do not know all that means. But one thing it surely means is the flow of God’s spirit and life would affect a greater area and a larger number of people. Indeed, God’s purposes encompass the world. But in the West, churches are closing faster than new ones are planted. The lives of Christians, according to research being done, are the primary motivators for NOT following Jesus. In other words, people watch Christians live, act and speak. The result of that is, they decide it is not worth following Jesus.

We are not doing the things Jesus did. We are not living the way Jesus lived. We are not connected to the Father the way Jesus was connected. If we were, we would see the fruit Jesus saw.

In the final analysis, we cannot live and love as Jesus did. Sin still wages war against us. But it waged war against Paul, Peter, Francis of Assisi, Hudson Taylor and Mother Teresa. They fought with their sin like we do. They failed like we fail. They sinned like we sin. But they bore fruit differently.

It seems to me the only element we have control over is our connection to the Father. We do not control the reputation of the church universal. And we do not control the reputation of the Southern Baptists, the Catholics or the Vineyard. We cannot change our reputations either. We may be able to transform how the world views us, how we engage with it and how we affect it. Usually some like this would involve a transformation of our hearts. And there is only one stronger than our hearts. We need to invite him to heal our hearts with his love and truth. And that healing will flow over our connection. So, we need to give greater priority to that connection. We need to give greater priority to be in a receiving mode. We need to give greater priority to acting on what we receive.

If you always do what you always did, you will always get what have always gotten.

Abiding Connecting - VI

To gain the life of God practically, we must maintain our connection with him through Jesus. The maintenance is similar to other relationships. People share common interests and experiences. They spend time and energy together. They maintain sensitivity to “messages” sent to each other.

In this metaphor, Jesus mentions his Word and prayer. The Word, God’s message to us, is an essential element to knowing God. Like letters from God to us, it reveals his heart, his purposes, his experience with disobedient and obedient children. It reveals how he deals with success, failure and that gray zone of mixed results. Scripture provides the undergirding for our relationship with him.

Prayer, people revealing their hearts to God, is an essential part of the equation. Since Jesus, his disciples have experimented, adapted and proscribed all types of prayer. Each has its place. Each has its value. I have practiced a variety of “divina lectio. For years. (Read the scripture until part of it speaks to you. Then, give it back to God in reflection, prayer, proclamation and agreement.)

We must also remain in a receiving mode in prayer. Yes, God speaks through his Word. But he also speaks directly to our hearts, through sunsets, cats, children and secular stories. Paul wrote that we must pray at all times. We cannot hurl petitions at heaven 24x7x365. We can bend our hearts toward him in a receiving mode. Then, respond in agreeing prayer or obedient action when he speaks.

I have been coming to believe that this receiving mode is a vital and necessary part of walking with God. When I fail in sin (as we all do), either my words or actions rise up too fast for me to catch them and I fall; or I must close my heart, turn off the receiver, so his word cannot break through. (Being in receiving mode may result in steps to take breaking through. These steps may result in struggle, loss of personal “peace” and failure. Or they may result in grace, success and transformation. To know a truth does not necessarily mean one will take the hard road. To stand against one’s sin, agree with God, and go against the philosophy of the world is a hard road.) But it is in this receiving mode that God is active in our lives, working in our hearts and bringing transformation moment by moment. It is also how we are able to discern between the multitude of good things we can do and the one laser-guided best work that enables us to complete God’s purposes for us.
 

As we stand in receiving mode, we are abiding in him, and we guarantee we will bear fruit that glorifies him.

Abiding Connecting - V

This metaphor is not about salvation. It is about “fruit.” It is about the life of God moving across our connection with Jesus into our lives and out into the world. Fruit is God’s life in a real, beneficial and life-giving way, flowing through into the world.

Many Christians play with the definition of fruit. Everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, bear fruit. It is the evidence of their heart, flowing into the world. Christians should have positive fruit. Fruit that gives life and health. Fruit that demonstrates Jesus in an edifying, worship producing, life enhancing way. And there is way too much failure to do this.

New lives coming to Jesus and following Jesus is definitely fruit. And there are people coming. But the first disciples of Jesus had favor with all the people and new disciples were coming daily. Can we say the church in our region of the world is in favor with all the people? Can we say people in our region are coming daily? Can we say the life of Jesus is moving through us they way it should?

No one who is honest would say God’s life flows through him as it should – ie. As it flowed through Jesus. But no one who is honest would say God’s life could not flow move freely through him.

Jesus says in the same way a branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains in the vine, so we cannot bear fruit unless we remain in Jesus. If the connection is our relationship, with Jesus, then remaining is the ongoing, moment by moment expression of that relationship.

So how do we maintain that connection in our daily, moment by moment journey?

Abiding Connecting - IV

Fruit is the purpose of this connection. Fruit is any expression of God’s life flowing into the branch. Fruit could be someone choosing to follow Jesus and beginning to live a life connected to him and to his community. Fruit could be transformation in the life one following Jesus. Fruit could be an outflow of love expressed in service, mercy or compassion in some area in the world. Fruit could be an outpouring of holiness expressed by a cessation of some evil or the initiation of justice. Fruit should be all of the above. If it is not all of the above, we are missing something in our relationship to God.

Abiding Connecting - III

If life, love, fruit and transformation flow from our connection with Christ, then that which has priority above all else in following Jesus is the maintenance and enhancement of the relationship that constitutes that connection.

Abiding Connecting - II

Jesus used the metaphor of a branch connected to a vine to describe the importance of a disciple’s connection to him. He told his disciples to “abide” or “remain” in him, as a branch remains in the vine. Again, stressing the need for connection.

Before creation of the universe, God existed a three people living in communit7y. Their “connection” was their relationship. Their “connection” was the love, communication and heart-focus they gave each other. He is existed outside of time and space in giving, mutual community.

Then, he conceived of a way to demonstrate his nature before the universe. He created a world and populated it with humanity. Humans are like God in personality. There were meant to join in community and connect to one another in love, communication, heart-focus and mutual service. Other humans were to be initiated into this community. And the human community would also be connected to God in the same way.

Even after the Fall. God’s purpose remained the same. To create a community connected to himself, connected to one another, and demonstrating his character to all creation. This demonstration and connection become more important after the Fall, because of its function as an invitation to join him in community. Living in connection with God and connect with his human community should stand stark contrast to the remainder of the world.

Those who follow Jesus are connected to one another by the quality of their relationships. In the smae way, those who follow Jesus are connected to Jesus by the quality of their relationship to him.

The health of the branch is based on the quality of the connection to the vine. The health of the Jesus-follower is based on the quality of the connection to Jesus. The vine and branch have a physical connection. Jesus and his disciples have a relational connection.

Abiding Connecting - I

One metaphor Jesus used to compare our life connection with him is a branch connected to a vine. This may sound pantheistic to some people -- a person’s life residing in the life of God, or a person’s life being part of God. This is not Jesus’ view at all.

A person is separate from God. A person and God have an “otherness” in relation to each other. The connection is more similar to a device plugged into a wall socket receiving energy and “life” based on that connection.

So if the connection is not physical or ontological, what is it?

Jesus for President?

Human nature is pretty fickle. Jesus and his disciples are camping. Thousands of people come to hear him speak. Since, there was no place to go get food, Jesus miraculously multiplies a small lunch – enough for one person – to feed them all. So, someone suggests they nominate Jesus for president. He could pay off the national debt, provide for 100% employment in a totally green economy and improve everyone’s standard of living 100%.

Jesus knows that his destiny is something other than being president. There are some problems that require his attention. He intends to solve those problems and to establish some structures, processes and affinity groups to solve other problems. So, he points out to the crowd that they were only interested in getting him to provide them with a comfortable life. There were more important things and a greater purpose to work towards. So, they asked him how they get started. And he said to believe the one God sent.

This was a little more than making Jesus president. This had the potential to really interfere with their lifestyle. Having seen and been fed by the contents of a single lunch box, they ask for another sign.

This seems to say something about their heart and priorities. The crowd is focused on their appetite, on what they can get. Jesus was focused on what he could give.

Sin causes us to focus on our wants and likes. Jesus slowly kneads our hearts – mixing love into our being. We grow in focus on God’s purposes. We grow in focus on service. We grow in focus on transformation.

Walking in Agreement.

Walking with God means listening to him and agreeing with what he says. Too often we agree with what the enemy says or what the world says.

If God speaks, it is the truth. To agree with the truth is to walk toward wholeness and holiness. And then we experience abundant living.

We often do not experience the type of life God says we should because we are agreeing with lies. They are subtle; they are strong; and they seem so right. And they cripple us; and they leave us weak and miserable. And it is not necessarily simple of easy to recognize the lie we areagreeing to and replace it with the truth we should be agreeing to.