jeannie

My afternoon is looking up...

Mitchell's "I Dream of Jeannie" (frozen)

Thank you, Mitchell's.

abide in ME (part 3)

Chapter 5: As You Came to Him, by Faith
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith...abounding therein. -Colossians 2:6-7

Not less essential than for the commencement, is faith for the progress of the spiritual life. Abiding in Jesus can only be by faith.

The old nature of the believer remains evil and sinful to the last. It is only as he daily comes, all empty and helpless, to his Savior to receive His life and strength, that he can bring forth the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God.

Simply by the Word of God, That Word, as it were, compelled you to believe that, notwithstanding guilt in the past, and weakness in the present, and unfaithfulness in the future, the promise was sure that Jesus would accept and save you.

Do not think so much of yourself as a branch, nor of the abiding as your duty, until you have first had your soul filled with the faith of what Christ as the Vine is.

Ask the Father by the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what a glorious, loving, mighty Christ this is, in whom you have your place and your life; it is the faith in what Christ is, more than anything else, that will keep you abiding in Him.

And then, when faith can well say, "He is my Vine," let it further say, "I am His branch; I am in Him."

Chapter 6: God Himself Has United You to Him
Of [God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, both righteousness and sanctification, and redemption. -1 Corinthians 1:30
My Father is the husbandman. -John 15:1

As the believer enters into this, the divine side of the work of salvation, he will learn to praise and to worship with new exultation, and to rejoice more than ever in the divineness of the salvation he has been made partaker of. At each step he reviews, the song will come, "This is the Lord's doing" - divine Omnipotence working out what eternal Love had devised. Of God I am in Christ Jesus.

The words will lead him even further and higher, even to the depths of eternity. "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called" (Rom 8:30). The calling in time is the manifestation of the purpose in eternity. Before the world was, God had fixed the eye of His sovereign love on you in the election of grace and chosen you in Christ. That you know yourself to be in Christ is the stepping-stone by which you rise to understand in its full meaning the word, "Of God I am in Christ Jesus."

The God who chose Christ to be the Vine fitted Him thoroughly for the work He had as the Vine to perform. The God who has chosen me and planted me in Christ has thereby engaged to secure, if I will but let Him, by yielding myself to Him, that I in every way be worthy of Jesus Christ.

How it would quicken the sense of dependence and make me see that praying without ceasing is indeed the one need of my life -an unceasing waiting, moment by moment, on the God who has united me to Christ, to perfect His own divine work, to work in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

abide in ME (part 2)

Chapter 3: Trusting Him to Keep You
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. -Philippians 3:12

Abiding in Him is not a work that we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but a consenting to let Him do all for us, and in us, and through us. It is a work He does for us: the fruit and the power of His redeeming love. Our part is simply to yield, to trust, and to wait for what He has engaged to perform.

You are not under the law, with its inexorable do, but under grace, with its blessed believe what Christ will do for you.

Chapter 4: As the Branch in the Vine
I am the vine, ye are the branches -John 15:5

The believer can each day be pleasing to God only in that which he does through the power of Christ dwelling in him.

How little have I understood how great my need of, but also how perfect my claim to, all His fullness! How little understood, how great His need of, but also how perfect His claim to, my emptiness! Let me, in its beautiful light, study the wondrous union between Jesus and His people, until it becomes to me the guide into full communion with my beloved Lord. Let me listen and believe, until my whole being cries out, "Jesus is indeed to me the True Vine, bearing me, nourishing me, supplying me, using me, and filling me to the full to make me bring forth fruit abundantly."

abide in me (part 1)

I've just started to re-read Andrew Murray's Abide In Me, which I read for the first time about 6 years ago. I still can't believe that it has been that long, but apparently it has! There are so many little bits of wisdom to pull from the book. I'm trying to read a section every night before I go to bed, which was the thought when he wrote it. (31 sections, so that it could be read in a month.) The book as a whole is based off of John 15:1-12:

¹ "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ 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. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. ¹² "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

These are the nuggets that I've pulled so far:

Chapter 1: All You Who Have Come to Him
Come unto me. -Matthew 11:28
Abide in me. -John 15:4

He had destined you to something better than a short-lived blessedness, to be enjoyed only in times of special earnestness and prayer, and then to pass away, as you had to return to those duties in which the far greater part of life has to be spent.

Chapter 2: And You Shall Find Rest to Your Souls
Come unto me...and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your soul -Matthew 11:28-29

They did not know how, when Jesus said, "My yoke is easy" (Matt. 11:30), He spoke the truth; how just the yoke gives the rest because the moment the soul yields itself to obey, the Lord Himself gives the strength and joy to do it.

A full surrender is to obey as well as to trust, to trust as well as to obey.

That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned.

meow.

Thank you, Lindy. This is great.

http://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/99694.qna/category/pt/site/iiim

And in other news. I love the I Dream of Jeannie from Mitchell's Coffeehouse. Thanks for keeping me awake and thanks to Gina for bringing me one!