Tag Archives: abide

Deliver the hard message

 

MercyMe – Even If

 

The big idea from Ezekiel that I am picking up today is that sometimes God calls upon us to deliver the hard message– the message that is difficult to deliver. Perhaps we must confront a friend or admonish someone. A part of what it means to live the disciple’s life is having the courage not to put off these responsibilities when they come. Ezekiel is a good example of someone who was willing to deliver the hard message.

And he said to me, “Son of man,[i] stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. – Ezekiel 2:1-3  ESV

So what is the hard message about being or not being a disciple?

This was one of my readings today.

 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. – Hebrews 6:4-6  ESV

It would seem that the Hebrew writer is giving me a pretty hard message. It would seem that holding Jesus up to contempt could be my crime. By contempt – meaning that I would be nailing Him to the cross again.

“they tear him out of the recesses of their hearts where He had fixed His abode and exhibit Him to the open scoffs of the world as something powerless and common” [BLEEK in ALFORD].

As a disciple of Jesus, I abide in Him, hear and obey His voice. There is not a falling away to the point where the branch is dead and needs to be broken from the tree. Imagine if I were though. Even so, if I became like the fig tree that did not produce fruit, God’s grace can reclaim even such a hardened rebel. The impossibility is more in line with me knowing once the power of Jesus’ sacrifice and then rejecting it, I could feel that I have past by hope, except by a miracle of God’s grace.

This hard message reminds me everyday to be walking in all the experiences God has given me and to not cease in abiding in them. By abiding in them I will not fall away.

 

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Context of knowledge

 

Jesus had to deal with His own issues when it came to people drawn to Him, and most of them were not committed.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  – John 15:7  ESV

To abide in His word is to put that word into practice wherever I am. That is my pathway to knowledge. If I continue to abide in His word, I am truly a disciple, a student of His.

Let’s see how many times I can say this.

The whole idea of abiding, remaining and sojourning in Jesus is by being having His words in me. Being a disciple means that I have a desire to master those words and be mastered by those words.

Jesus’ words become engrafted in me, have taken deep root, and I have a relish for them, I savour them, have a hearty affection for them, esteeming them even above food. I hold fast to them, profess them, stand on them, faithfully abide in them and constantly attend to them.

My life depends on this union with Jesus. I either produce fruit or am thrown away. My primary purpose in life to make sure I stay connected to Jesus. I cannot produce fruit without Him, having a relationship with Him. To be separated from Him gives me no power to do good.

As a disciple, I am nothing without my master just as a servant is nothing without their lord, the soldier nothing without their commander, the hand nothing without the head and the follower of Jesus nothing without Jesus.

 

 

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