I can remember as if it was yesterday, the engaging discussion I had with an off-duty SW airline pilot who was making his way back to his home base as a passenger and we spent the entire flight discussing our faith. He was a Mormon and I was…well…a ‘rookie’ pastor still wet behind the ears having finished up my first year behind the pulpit. Our conversation was not a theological debate but on the contrary, a very civil discussion that was concluded with this question he asked of me as the plane descended:
“What do you believe then a person needs to do to enter the eternal kingdom?”
As the plane touched down I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders and responded: “I kind of believe that the only people going to heaven are people who love Jesus.”
That was some 30+ years ago and his response is forever engrained in my mind. A look of divine enlightenment came over both of us as he said: “I believe the scriptures support that.”
Days later, I found myself in pursuit studying diligently as to what that really means to ‘love Jesus’. And the first verse that immediately came to mind was the very words of Jesus who said: “If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)
It has been quite the journey, I kid you not. I got lost along the way and struggled. But He found me and called…and here I am again like so many who grow older and wish they could have known then what they know now. But that is irrelevant. The scriptures declare that ‘Today is the day of salvation.” Paul said that ‘forgetting those things that are behind, I press on toward the mark of the high calling.’
This is the beauty of God’s redemptive love and faithfulness. Like the father of the prodigal son, he never stopped looking for him to return to him.
I’m reminded of the story of Samson who early on held so much promise with so much of God’s blessings upon his life. If you are familiar with his story, his strength lied in his uncut hair. But when his hair was cut by Delilah, he lost his power. Taken captive by the Philistines and enslaved, his eyes were gouged out. Sampson lost his vision and found himself pushing a grindstone thinking his best years were behind him. Yet one of the most encouraging verses in the bible, to me at least, is found in Judges 16:22 – Samson’s hair began to grown back. And we read that he accomplished more in his final days of a renewed calling than he had in all his previous years of existence.
It reminds me of the story of Moses who for the first 40 years of his life, thought he was a ‘somebody’. He then spent the next 40 years of his life discovering that he was actually a ‘nobody’. But it was in the last 40 years of his life where he learned what God could do in and through a ‘nobody’. There just is no way around this having to ‘die’ before you can truly live. It is a mystery indeed. Yet Jesus made it no secret that if you were to truly live, you would need to die…to self so that you might truly save your life. (Mark 8:34-36)
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”
Which brings me back to this walk of fellowship with Him that He refers to as ‘abiding’ in Him. (John 15:1-7) It means He becomes Lord…He is the one who calls the shots and makes the decisions and He is the one who produces the fruit of His divine nature in us. We don’t do it, He does. On the sole condition that we are willing to die.
When we truly recognize what it is that He has saved or rescued us from, you can’t help but to turn your affections towards Him. You want to follow. It is no longer a ‘duty’ but a ‘delight’. You become keenly aware of His presence and hear His voice.
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:27)
Abiding in Him is not about ‘following rules and obeying laws’. It has more to do with an awareness that you truly want to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6). As He becomes more ‘welcomed’ in to your heart, the things of this earth do indeed grow strangely dim. His Spirit begins to identify areas in our hearts that He wants to remove and rid us of that are not like Him nor do they reflect his character and likeness.
How often does scripture admonish us to pursue godliness. You realize that word means to ‘be like God’. That may sound blasphemous but that only shows how far removed we have become from biblical truth because that is what He came to do in us. Make us like Him. “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48). Roman 8:29 says we are being conformed to His image as Christ was the ‘first born of many brethren.”
But that does not happen because we ‘will it’ or ‘do it’. We surrender to it. The closer to His light I walk in, the easier it is to see the ‘plank in my own eye’. His abiding presence also seems to act as a filter and shade of sorts…a filter that catches those snarky comments or grumbling complaints that a sly enemy would want to drop in my mind for me to utter out. And the Holy Spirit says ‘No’, and directs otherwise. When a subtle ‘whisper’ wants to direct my eye for a ‘second look’ where a second look need not be taken, I find the restraint easier now since my heart loves Him more than it loves to ‘lust in my heart’.
Abiding in Him, means walking in His presence where scriptures promise there is ‘fullness of joy’. We are told again in the writings that ‘where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty’. Yes…freedom. Freedom to choose Him with All our heart. And where does this freedom evolve from? Jesus tells is in John 8:34-37: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Jesus removes the chains so we can walk in true freedom from sin. John’s matter-of-fact statement is right there in your bible as well: “Whoever abides in Him does not sin.” (1 John 3:6)
But do not think for a moment you or I do this because we try harder.
Allow me to leave you with these words of Jesus from John 15:
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you[b] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
This is how we bring glory to our Father…by allowing Him to produce fruit in us and fruit that remains.
And we know that a kernel of wheat must do what first or else it remains alone? John 12:24
It is His kindness and His love that invites you in. His eyes search continuously for those hearts that are humbled and broken and are willing to trust Him with all the broken pieces, not just the select few we tend to offer Him.
His arms are open and the shadow of His wings can protect you as well. Run to Him. Today.
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