Emails To Henry #2 - Focusing Our Faith

Dear Henry,

This is the second of what will hopefully be a few letters to encourage your and my faith.  I would like to start with John 15:9 - As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

Jesus is telling us that he loves us in the same manner, in the same way, to the same depth that the Father loves Him. Then he tells us to remain, to stay, to abide in His love. John 15:10 tells us how this is done: If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. Part of remaining, staying in the love of Christ is in our obedience to Him. It is His Word being written upon our hearts and lived out in our lives.

Now least we think abiding/staying is about doing, we must remember that it is about trusting. It is about staying in that trust, beleiveing and relying on Him, and doing the things he wants us to do even when we don't want to. We must stay in relationship with Him, we must stay in fellowship with Him. Spending daily time with Him will help nuture that.

When we inherited eternal life, we got far more than being "born again". We got into a relationship with the God of all creation and his Son Jesus Christ. John 17:3 says Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This knowing is an intimate, growing knowledge of and a relationship with the Trinity, Whom we should be getting to know better and better. Proverbs 3 32 says: ... He is intimate with the upright. That's right,  Intimate! Of course, as in any relationship, this does not come automatically.It has to be nurtured. The developing of this intimacy takes time and intentional purpose. Just as we must spend time with a person we love for this to happen, so must we also spend quality time with the Lover of our souls if we want intimacy with Him.

Andrew Murray on june 2 of Daily In His Presence says: "God gave His Son in order to draw us closer to Him. This can only be achieved by having fellowhip with Jesus Christ." Two sentances later he says: "For this we need to seperate ourselves from the world daily and focus our faith on Jesus."

This focusing of our faith sets the course for our day and our lives. It helps us to get our lives centered on Jesus. To quote Mr Murray again, "Take time for fellowship with Him."

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col 3:1-4)

 

Together For Him,

jim

 

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Emails To Henry #1 - Ongoing Spiritual Renewal

Dear Henry,

I am writing you out of that which I am again having to learn. Let's learn together.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (2Cor 4:16)

This is a good verse for us Henry, the promise of an ongoing spiritual renewal. However, this renewal only comes as we spend time in God's presence.

It won't be accomplished by an obligatory speed reading of a passage of scripture and a quick prayer to ward off evil and get a blessing every day or so, or even in meeting with other Christians.

It will take being disciplined. It will take making it a priority to spend quality time alone with God on a daily basis. We do that through His Word, worship, stillness, prayer, listening, etc.

Andrew Murray in Daily In His Presence says on June 1, "... you need to learn to spend time each day - without exception - in fellowship with the Lord. In this way the inner man will be renewed from day to day."

There is no short cut, but there is a promise. It is for daily renewal as we participate daily with him in His presence. Start again and continue, we can't afford not to. Our future and the future of our families depends on it. The best we can do for our families is not sound fiscal planning, though that is good.

The best we can do for our families is to show them a life lived for God, empowered by intimacy with Him, lived out on a daily basis, and attracting them to also abandon themselves to God. The best we can do for our families and ourselves, is to live for God wholeheartedly every day without fail. Of course, this will not happen with out spending that quality daily time with Him. We get distracted and discouraged very easily.

Any vision we have for our lives that doesn't have God at the forefront will not bring us into the abundant life that Jesus promises us in John 10:10. He will do His part but we must cooperate with Him. We have to do our part, which begins with spending quality time with Him.


Sincerely,
Jim