The Vine and the Branches, Part VI.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART VI.

If you keep my commandments, you shall abide, (dwell, remain) in my love.

Even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love, John 15:10.

Here we have one of these seeming paradoxes in the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus has been teaching about abiding, dwelling in him. How that the branch receives life from the vine, how that the branch is an integral part of the vine.

And now he adds a condition: I’ll love you if you keep my commandmends.

You see, he adds, I keep my Father’s commandmends and I abide, I remain in his love.

It’s really quite simple: Do as I do and there will be no problem.

But now we have touched on a very real problem: the keeping of those commandmends.

Rom. 7:18 says that there is nothing in us that comes even close to being able to do any good, let alone perfect obedience to ALL the commandments.

Jesus does not just raise the bar just beyond our reach, he raises the bar so high that the only sensible response from us would be: Lord! What you are asking is impossible for me to do!!

And that is exactly what our wonderful Lord is looking for by raising the bar so high: our admission of inability.

It is like he is saying: it is impossible for you and I want you to be absolutely convinced of that impossibility, that is why I raised the bar that high.

At the same time he is also assuring us that he is so willing and able to do for us what we are not able to do ourselves.

Because, he says, I am the end of the law for righteousness (and abiding) if you will believe me, (Rom.10:4).

For the same reason the Apostle Paul can exclaim in Phil.4:13, I can do all things through Christ who is my strength, ( my life, my ability).

Conversely, that means that on my own I am completely helpless.

Paul knows very well that “it is not I that live, but Christ that lives in me”.

We have no strength in and of ourselves, therefore we depend completely on the ability of Jesus to do for us any of the commands we find in the Scriptures.

That is the message of John 15:10.

Vs.11. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy might be full (complete).

When we try to avoid evil and try to keep God’s commandments to the best of our ability, it is nothing but a drag and frustation.

When however, we know and are able to rest in Christ’s willingness and ability to do in us and for us that which we cannot do ourselves, then we experience the joy of the Lord.

Joy, a happiness, a pleasure that is not subject to pleasurable circumstances.

This joy, his joy, our joy is constant because he, our Lord is constant.

This entire sermonette about Jesus being the vine and us disciples being branches of that vine and our abiding in the vine and all that is but for one purpose.

And that is to teach us, even to convince us that only in him ( the vine) do we (the branches) live and move and have our being, Acts 17:28.

God’s children bring glory to his name by accepting that reality, by resting in his complete willingness and ability to do in us and for us everything that he desires to do.

Our part in all this is that we submit to him, that we verbally give him permission to remove anything in us that is not like him.

That we would live a submitted life, just like he lives a submitted life unto his Father.

That we would ask him to prune away our self-centredness, our self-dependency.

Even more that he would reveal to us just how much we are self-centred and self-sufficient.

Prune away our stubborn notion that our good works that we attempt to do for God will enhance his glory.

Joy, true joy is found only in the assurance of resting in the everlasting arms of God’s love and faithfulness.

Of allowing him to use our gifts when he desires to do so, rather than us always dreaming up new programs in an attempt to be more obedient more efficiently.

Our attempts at diligent service, greater obedience and battle against the world’s sins, all done for what we believe is the glory of God, will always lead to pride, frustration and bitterness.

The Preacher of the Old Testament calls these activities vanity, profitless, all the more because vanity implies pride.

There is no joy in that, because if we then would be honest with ourselves, we would recognize our own deficiency, no matter how successful the programs were in themselves.

For the joy of the Lord to become our true strength, we need to be his instruments of mercy in a needy world around us.

Instruments in his hands, like a violin in the hands of a master violinist, producing a world of music of the highest kind.

These things have I spoken to you, (so) that your joy might be full.

What did he say to us?

Well, let’s read it again, starting with verse one.

What does it say?

I am the Vine, you are the branches, you and I we are one, I am your LIFE, I am your all-sufficiency, for now and for all eternity.

Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord (the Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ) forever. (Ps. 23:6)

St.Thomas,Dec./’08. Simon VanderKooy.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART V.

John 15:6 If a man abides 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.

This verse refers back to vs. 4. ….. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ……

There can be no fruit except through life union with the vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Through this life union with the Lord Jesus Christ, his life will flow from him through us, so that we may be the bearers of much fruit.

This fruit in practical terms, is the expression of the Life that is in the Vine and becomes visible as fruit in the lifestyle of the branches.

Time and again Jesus says: “This is my commandment, that you love one another”.

Loving one another, is the expression of the Life that is in the Vine.

We will remain in that condition of abiding, not by our efforts and Christian performance, but by the faithfulness and the power of God working in us to will and to do that which pleases him.

I Peter 1:5 ….. who are kept by the power of God ….. .

Our part is to always yield to him, like, “Lord do with me whatever seems good to you”. Resting in the truth that he is our shepherd and that in him all our needs are met.

The next verse, verse 7 has for many years been a mystery to me.

Ask what you will, anything, and I will do it. That is plain enough.

But we all know that, even by our own experience it really does not work.

And we also believe that Jesus would never lie to us. But what does verse 7 say?

“If you abide in me”…… We now know that abiding is not the problem, we abide, we remain in Jesus, not by our own efforts, but by his faithfulness and his power.

….. “And my words abide in you …..”.

In other words, do his words resonate in our hearts, as do the words of a loved one?

What did Jesus say the reason was that he came to earth in the form of our human nature?

We find that reason in John 10:10 …… I am come (so) that you may have LIFE, and that you may have it in abundance.

That, and that only was the mission of Jesus, to restore LIFE, real life, life that is found only in the Father.

Life that was lost to man when Adam and Eve decided they would chart their own way independently, when darkness and death enveloped them and all of their decendants.

Everything Jesus taught was in direct relation to restoring that LIFE, that eternal LIFE, Life that is in the Father. That LIFE that we have been made partakers of, by grace, through faith.

In that relationship we need to see the verse that says: “Ask anything and I will give it to you”.

“Seek and you will find, ask and it shall be given unto you, knock and it shall be opened unto you”.

All this has to do with LIFE, the LIFE that is in Jesus.

When we ask him to do whatever it takes so that we might experience more of that LIFE, he will certainly do as we ask.

When you rest assured that you are a child of God and you take to heart those things that he told us, ask what you will and he will give you to experience that LIFE that is already in you in greater abundance, (my free translation).

And that is exactly the thing wherein the Father is mostly glorified, the outward expression of that new LIFE in the believer.

Isn’t that wonderful? We ask and he gives. Why?

Because the Father seeks to glorify himself in his children.

Remember, the expression of that new LIFE is what we call the fruit of the Spirit of Gal.5:22 and 23.

All this we find in verse 8, Herein is my Father gloryfied, that ye bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples, (thereby proving that you are my disciples indeed).

Verse 9, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you ……

How much does the Father love his son Jesus?

That is how much he (Jesus) loves us.

To rest in that love, that is what abundant Christian living is all about.

To wake up in the morning and know: He loves me……

To put your head on your pillow at night and know: He loves me…..

I Cor.13: 4-8 gives us a glimpse of what the Father’s love means in it’s expression to us.

Verse 9 ……. continue in my love.Bask in it, bathe in it, be immersed in it.

That implies we must not attempt to enhance his love for us by any sort of works that we might do for him, however noble these works may seem.

Invariably these works will diminish instead of enhance that very glory.

God’s love is perfect, wholly complete, altogether sufficient.

That love has provided that new LIFE, it has made us ALIVE in him, not for the purpose of what we might do for him in this world, but for the purpose of what he might do in us to bring us to maturity in him. To glorify himself in us, his children.

Does all this imply that the Christian life is supposed to be a life of passivity?

Certainly not. But it does imply a total change of attitude.

No longer will obedience to commandments of all sorts be what drives us.

What motivates us now is that new LIFE, the expression of it, the fruit of the Spirit compells us to reach out in love to our Father in adoration and also to our neighbors in love and compassion.

This Life is also a life of wholly trusting our Father that all our circumstances are in his hands and work together for our good.

Through this new resurrection LIFE our Father gives us a foretaste of heaven in this dark world.

St.Thomas, Oct./’10. Simon VanderKooy.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART IV.

John 15:4, 5. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.

We started out in Part I by saying that in the natural setting the branches of grape vines are indelibly connected to the vine itself.

Likewise it is God’s doing that we have been grafted into the Vine which is Jesus Christ, Rom.11:17.Therefore, abiding in Jesus is not a condition, but a position.

(The word “abiding” comes from abode, which indicates a dwelling place.)

Our Father has accepted his children in the beloved, Jesus Christ, Eph.1:4. That is a permanent position, for God is forever faithful.

The condition is that we, being children of the light, live in a constant awareness that only by God’s grace we are what we are.

Abiding in the vine does not call for any action on our part, anything that we must do, except a moment by moment awareness that Jesus, (the vine) is the source of our life and being. Jesus is very clear about this when he says: Without me (the life that flows from the vine into the branches), you can do nothing!

We do not even have the wherewithal to abide, to dwell in or to remain in the vine.

But Jesus is all sufficient, he is the provision for that situation also.

I Peter 1:4 and 5 tells us that we are partakers of an incorruptable inheritance, one that does not diminish with time.

And that we are kept, preserved in order to partake of that inheritance by the power of God through faith, that power of God being the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Or Rom.5:10 ……For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being (having been) reconciled, shall we be saved (kept, preserved) by his life.

Abiding (being constantly aware of our position, provision and protection in Christ Jesus) will produce much fruit.

The fruit being the peaceable fruit of righteousness also called the fruit of the Spirit.

Fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance and such like.

And the fruit of righteousness will make us fit for the Father’s use, to be his instruments of mercy in a fallen world.

Philippians 4:13 …….I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength, (no, he is my strength, my life).

When anything is done through Christ, then he is the one who is doing it, not I.

Conversely, when I can do all things only through him, then that also means that without him I am incapable of doing anything.

An old and still very relevant song goes like this:

I’ve found a new way of living, I’ve found a new life divine,

I have the fruit of the Spirit, I’m abiding, abiding in the Vine.

St.Thomas, Dec./’08. Simon VanderKooy.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART III.

John 15:3 Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.

How can Jesus declare these men are clean, does he not know that within this same week they all will abandon him? Even deny that they are associated with him?

And yet Jesus declares them to be clean. Clean because of their acceptance of his claim that he is the Christ, the promised Messiah.

They heard his voice, they believed his words and are declared clean by their Teacher.

Jesus declares that they are clean, branches of the Vine that are bearing fruit, the fruit of righteousness.

How did that come about?

Through the words of life that Jesus had “poured” into them for almost three years.

This truth is confirmed in John 5:24, Most assuredly I tell you, he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but has passed from death into life.

It is a work that God himself accomplishes in us as well through the Lord Jesus Christ and that through the gift of faith works mightily in us who believe and are yielded to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Again, in I John 1:9 we are assured that it is God (and not us) who cleanses us from all unrighteousness on an ongoing basis.

Children of God may humbly consider themselves clean, holy and without blemish, because they have been washed with the water of the Word, (Jesus Christ), Eph. 5:26.

They have been (past tense) made whole and at the same time are being made whole, a work in progress.

Col. 2:10, “You are complete in him, (Jesus) …. And through the Holy Spirit’s working in us we grow to greater maturity in our Christian walk.

It is immaterial what our eyes observe around us at Sunday mornings or at any other time in our fellow Christians.

We observe the outside, but our Father observes the inside of his children and he is delighted, Zephania 3:17.

For he sees a people that he personally has called out of darkness into his marvelous light, I Peter 2:9.

He sees a people that he has gathered from many nations, denominations and even some abominations, and he has brought them home to himself.

A people that he cleaned up from all their filthiness and idols, Ez. 36:24, 25.

He put a new heart and a new spirit in each one of them and removed the stoney heart out of them, this new heart is meek and plyable.

Our Father sees a people in which he planted his own spirit, the Holy Spirit, who will transform them so that they will delight to walk in ways ordained by him.

A people who know that they have been redeemed, who know that their Father rejoices over them with great joy.

A people who take delight in doing their Father’s will.

(Free translation of Ezekiel 36 : 24 – 28.)

Our Father delights, he is joyful to see a people who are clean through the words that he has spoken to them, living branches that are bearing the fruit of faith.

Living branches that are bearing the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit in abundance, Gal. 5:22, 23.

Fruit that is the manifestation of the Life that is in the Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Thomas, Aug./2010. Simon VanderKooy.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART II.

John 15 : 2.

Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it , so that it may bear more fruit.

On the face of it this verse seems to be telling us that believers better see to it that they produce fruit or out the door they go.

And yet this conclusion, even though common among many Christians, is not compatible with many other truths of Scripture.

Last month we also saw that the Life in the Vine bears fruit in the branches.

For the right answer we need to compare Scripture with Scripture.

When we study this subject we find that Jesus died for all, his death was sufficient atonement for all, just the same not all are saved.

I John 2:2 …….And he (Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Hebr.2:9 ……That he (Jesus) should taste death for every man.

Or John 1:29 ……Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.

May we then conclude that since Jesus tasted death for everyone, that therefore all will be saved?

No, not quite. There is a condition. The condition is believing that Jesus came into the world to face death for sinners and their sins.

The application of the sacrifice of Jesus to our personal condition.

John 3:18 He that believes on him (Jesus), is not condemned, but he that believes not, is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

So, we could reconstruct John 15:2 this way: every branch that does not respond to the offer of Life that the Vine provides is taken away by the vinedresser due to his own choice.

Before we get the urge to pat ourselves on the back for making the right choice, let us remember John 3:19 ……..And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather that light…….

If it had been up to us, we certainly would not have made the right choice.

It is not without cause that Jesus says: “No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me, draw him,(yank him by the arm, so to speak) in John 6:44.

The truth of John 15:2 is also illustrated in Luke 19:11-27.

This parable is not about making money in the market place, it is about the new Life in Christ that is available to everyone. The question is, what do we do with that new Life that is freely given to us?

That new Life is manifested in the believer in the form of a life of love, love to our Father and love to our neighbors.

The more of this love we give away, the more we receive in return.

Conversely, the man that buried his pound (new Life) in the ground, from him was taken away even that which was given to him in the first place, Luke 19:26.

Here is a picture of a branch that does not bear fruit, it is taken away.

The choice is ours, willingness to bear fruit or not.

A willingness to yield ourselves to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to do those things which are pleasing to the Father.

All this so that our life will be a demonstration of the Life of the Vine that is in us.

This willingness to yield to the Holy Spirit also makes that the life of a “branch” is anything but passive.

To the contrary, it is an active live, lived in service to our Father who gave us the real life. Life that does not end, ever.

As well it is a life of service to our fellow man in a multitude of aspects.

A life that has been touched and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit no longer seeks its own advantage or benefit, but that of others.

It completely changes the answer to the “why” of things.

Why do I work my job? Why am I a Christian? Why do I attend church? Why do I begin a conversation with a person who seems lonesome? Why am I here in the first place?

It is a life that no longer seeks fulfillment in order to be happy.

It is a life that finds joy in contentment.

John 15:2 goes on to say that the vinedresser prunes the branches that do bear fruit, in order that the quantity and the quality of the fruit might increase.

The story was told to me of a father who went with his school age son to a country fair.

While there, they observed a lumberjack with a chainsaw carving away at a stump of a tree. Now and then the man carefully observed a piece of paper on a small table, which turned out to be a picture of an Indian in full ceremonial dress.

The boy observed the artisan for a while, then he turned to his father. He said: Dad, you know what he is doing? Yes, was the reply, he is carving an Indian out of that stump.

That’s right, said the boy, he is carving away everything that does not look like an Indian.

And that is the objective of the divine Vinedresser, cutting away everything in us and about us that does not look like the image of Jesus.

When we give our Father permission to do this pruning in us, he will set about to carefully, lovingly remove those things in us that are not pleasing to him.

John the Baptist defined the purpose of this pruning process when he said: “He (Jesus) must increase and I must decrease”.

Pruning is usually painful, because it often involves those things that we, God’s children trust in for our wellbeing, our self-support systems that we all have developed to cope with life as it comes to us. It may be our job or profession, our bank account, our ability to control our circumstances, our knack for controlling those around us, our reputation, a whole series of perceived rights that we believe are ours, the list goes on.

It is what the Bible calls fulfilling the lust of the flesh, Gal.5:16.

Flesh is always self-serving, it seeks its own welfare, often at the expense of others.

Flesh always claims to know best, it is opposed to the Holy Spirit and is anti-Christ.

Flesh is not of faith, therefore it is always sin.

Pruning, however painful it might be, is always for our good.

The Psalmist knew that all too well when he said: It was good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes, Ps. 119:71.

Hebr. 12:11 is very specific about pruning: “Now no chastening (pruning) for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby”.

When adverse circumstances come our way, what ever their source, our Father will use them in the pruning process.

When we can approach life in that way, we can also agree with Rom.8: 28 - 30 …..And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

For whom he foreknew, he also pre-destined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom he pre-destined, those he also called, whom he called, those he also justified, and whom he justified, those he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

To be continued……..

St.Thomas, Dec./’08. Simon VanderKooy.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART I.

The gospel of John, chapter 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser, (vs. 5) …… and you are the branches”.

These few words are loaded with meaning.

Jesus compares himself and his followers to a grapevine and its branches.

That means first of all that I, as a branch, am indelibly connected to the Vine, Jesus Christ.

That also means that I, the branch have no life in myself apart from the Vine.

Apart from the Vine I am dead, without life whatsoever.

This fact is confirmed in many places. In Acts 17:28 we read this: ……..For in him we live and move and have our being.

I Cor.1:30 says this: …….For of Him (our Father) are you in Christ Jesus………

Because of God’s mercies I am in Christ Jesus, only on that basis may I consider myself a partaker of the life that he is, John 14:6.

Branches of grapevines do not go around looking for vines to attach themselves to, likewise the initiative to be a Christian did not originate with me, but with the Vine.

In this chapter, verse16 Jesus says …..you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you….

It is the life in a grapevine that produces branches in springtime with the express purpose to produce fruit.

Fruit that contains the seeds to produce new vines that will show the same life and virtues of the original vine.

The branches do not produce the fruit, the life in the vine produces the fruit, all that is asked of the branches is to bear that fruit.

All this would make us ask two questions, one, this all seems to be very passive, what role do I play in following Jesus?

And the second question, what is “fruit”?

The first question we will address when we discuss verse 2 of this chapter.

Most Christians have been taught at one time or another that God expects us to “produce” fruit in our Christian life and usually a variety of reasons are given to back up that claim.

That “fruit” would be a catch-all term for all kinds of good works and Christian practises and disciplines, especially worship and witnessing.

May I submit to you that the fruit that this passage speaks of, are not things that we do.

Fruit is the manifestation of the LIFE that is in the vine.

And the manifestation of that LIFE is outlined as the fruit of the Spirit, Gal.5:22, 23.

That life that is in the vine first produces the branches.

Then, when the branches become mature, the life of the vine produces the fruit in the branches. ( I John 2: 12 – 14).

(For the process of becoming mature in Christ he gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, Eph. 4:11. This is also the message of Matt.28 : 19, leading believers to maturity in Christ.)

The same way that grapes, even juicy, ripe grapes do not perform any tasks for the vine whatsoever, they just hang there and are a manifestation of the quality of the vine.

These juicy, ripe grapes are not a manifestation of the quality of the branches, they are a manifestation of the quality of the vine.

I am the vine , you are the branches……..

The fruit then that is produced by the vine is the manifestation of the life of the vine that first produces the branches and then produces the fruit in the branches.

It is the life in the vine that produces fruit in the branches. The branches are nothing but a channel for the life of the vine to flow to the fruit of the vine.

Verse 16 of this chapter says that Jesus has ordained or appointed believers to bear fruit and that this fruit would remain, it would be of value eternally.

This kind of fruit is not what we do for God or others, it is the constant recognition and awareness what we are in Christ Jesus, children of God who are loved and accepted by Him, just the way we are.

Likewise, the fruit (note fruit, singular), of the Spirit of Gal. 5:22 is not the things we do, but what we have in Christ Jesus.

And what we do is but the outflow of what we are, reflecting in our daily life the life of Jesus by which we live and move and have our being, Acts 17 :28.

Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, etc. are not actions on our part, these virtues reflect the character of Jesus who is the vine.

It is he, his life that is reflected in the virtues of Gal.5:22 and 23.

This fruit (of the Spirit) is the expression of the Life of the Spirit in us.

And the expression of that life will lead to deeds, good works.

But now these good works are no longer works we do for God, they are now works done by God through us.

Remember, branches cannot do anything by themselves, branches are fruit bearers, not fruit producers.

I am the true vine, my Father, he is the vinedresser and you are the branches.

It is the desire of the Vinedresser that the branches live in submission to the Vine, so that the fruit produced in the branches will be highly desirable to any one who passes by.

To be continued…….

St. Thomas, Dec./’08. Simon VanderKooy.

If believers would only believe ......

IF BELIEVERS WOULD ONLY BELIEVE …..

Believe ….. that God is not only near us, but in us and more importantly, that we are in

Jesus, who is in the Father, a mysterious, but inseparable union.

Believe ….. that our temporal and eternal security rest on our union with Jesus by his

grace only. And that good works, however noble, do not enter this picture.

Believe ….. that ALL our sins are ALREADY forgiven.

Believe ….. that the blood of Jesus WAS shed for a complete remission of ALL our sins.

Believe ….. that New Testament believers are asked to CONFESS their sins and that

our Father has promised to do the cleansing.

Believe …. that Jesus is our Savior and our very life and not just an example for us to

follow.

Believe ….. that being in Christ, we are the very offspring of God, we are no longer

sinners, but children, saints of God.

Believe …... that our Father rejoices in his children at all times.

Believe ….. that righteousness is a gift we receive by grace, and not something we

achieve by righteous living.

Believe ….. our Father when he says that he will remember our sins no more.

Believe ….. that when Jesus died, we being in him, we really and truly died as well.

Believe ….. that when Jesus rose from the grave, that we, having been immersed in his

death and burial, that we now also fully participate in his resurrection.

Believe ….. that we, having been reconciled by Jesus’ death, now continue to be saved

by his life and not by doing righteous deeds.

Believe ….. That eternal life is not a promise for future realization, but a present reality

for every believer.

Believe ….. that when God says that he will never leave us or abandon us, he also

really means what he says.

Believe ….. that the Holy Spirit is not the One who empowers believers, but that he IS

the power, working mightily IN the believers.

Believe ….. that we, God’s children, have BEEN delivered from ALL the tyranny of the

devil.

Believe ….. and understand that our Father has ordained that his children would fail at

living the Chr. life, so that we, his dear children would come to see the utter

futility of living this life FOR him, and instead cast ourselves on Father’s

mercy and allow him to live this life through us.

Believe ….. that we will only find peace, God’s peace, when we surrender our feeble

efforts at self-sanctification, self-improvement by asking Father to do in

us, what we are completely unable to do ourselves.

Believe ….. that a loving Father would be grieved when his children choose death

rather than life, when they gratify the flesh.

Believe ….. and understand that God never redeemed his people with an eye to what

those redeemed people might do for him, but with an eye to what he might

do IN them.

Believe ….. that Jesus stands at the door of believer’s hearts and stands there asking to

be let inside, Rev. 3 : 20.

Believe ….. that God’s grace is so complete and all-encompassing and our in-ability so

absolute, that there is nothing in his Kingdom that we might earn, even by

our greatest efforts.

Believe ….. that our Father IS our provision for all things spiritual, for all things

emotional and for all things physical.

Believe ….. that our natural birth was not by our choosing and that the same holds true

for our spiritual or second birth. We are also unable to undo either birth.

Believe ….. there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor or blessings.

Believe ….. that we can do nothing to make God love us more and that we can do

nothing to make him love us less.

Believe ….. that God’s blessings are not a sign of his favor, they are a sign of his mercy.

May believing these truths gleaned from the Scriptures help us to find the reality of rest, peace, God’s grace and mercy and all the fruit of the Spirit.

St. Thomas, May/’10. Simon VanderKooy.