I can do Nothing

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. John 15:4

I have been wrestling a lot to prepare the messages for the Compelling Love retreat. I need to be reminded that eventhough flowers precede fruits, just having the confidence of creating flowers doesn't mean that you can bear fruits. All that glitters are not necessarily gold.

As I wrestled with the message, it became clear that I could prepare and persuade, draft and deliver; but I have no clue of how to bring transformation to the lives of the hearers. No one else have the clues either on producing spiritual fruits.

Great orators could build rapports, could make people laugh, could move them to tears, could even have a throngs of people lining up for decision. But it's all the floweries. Flower could precede fruit; it almost always does. But flower is not fruit.

It requires more. Only life can beget life. And this life is "abide".

"Abide" is a command - because it's in our nature to stray off. When we am weak, we desparately cling on to the Lord and He came through for us. But when we got a hang of it, we ventured off by ourselves, and that's when we are prone to perish.

The problem is that if we are so use to watch for the flowers as the indicators of how well we do, we can easily deceive ourselves. Hearers may continue to laugh at our jokes, cry at our stories, and line-up at our calls for responses, but they all may not be the fruits. Or worse, the fruits may be there, but it's the work of God despite our disconnectness with God. (See how God responded when Moses disobeyed and struck the rock, water still came out, but Moses loss his portion in the promise land).

"Abide" is a continual state - because it's in our nature to flicker. I found that it's easier to stay closer when I was put on a mission. May be this is why "Purpose Driven Life" was selling so well. When you have an end results in mind (in this case, bear fruits), then you will orient your whole life in order to make it happen.

So in a way, if a person wanted to stay close to God, they must have a fruitful vision of what their life could be in mind. Every Christian must have a holy ambition to "bear much fruits"; they must imagine how would their fruits look like; they must dream about what could God accomplish with their flimsy lives. And only in doing so, they will begin to cultivate their state of abiding in Christ all the time in order for God to realize that vision in their lives.

Lord Jesus, help my life to be bound up in your life.

How to Avoid Shame

In you, O LORD, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me. Psalm 31:1

What a fitting Psalm for my own state of being. I need to remind myself that only "in God" is where I can have my refuge. If I don't want to be "put to shame", I need to make sure that I am "in your righteousness".

Many people may take the sentence above in a different angle. But for me this morning, I am thinking of the righteousness of God as the pious living according to His Word.

So many times we see people ended up in shame for something they did. A hidden sin were uncovered, questionable conducts surfaced up, bad deed in the past caught up in the presence. And at those times, what can we do to escape shameful consequence?

When we live according to God's Word, we seek to live in integrity so that we won't open up any stronghold for the enemies to be able to use to shame us later on. Paul urged his leaders to live "beyond reproach". Only in that lifestyle we can have full confidence that God's justice will be served and He will deliver us because we have been following His standard.

But note that the Word said, "in your righteousness" and not "in my righteousness". Even as we strive to follow God's standard in righteous living, it is clear that it's not easily achievable. God is holy, and we are not. So it's futiled for us to think that we have arrived, and it's equally foolish for us to lament about the fact that we could not ever get it. So we all making baby steps toward holiness, knowing that we are making headway, but we still a long way off. It's not how much ground you've covered in the journey, it's the increasing strength from the daily exercise of keep on moving.

How about this paraphrasing imagery: When we keep on moving toward your righteousness, we are also a moving target and it will also keeping the enemies from splaterring us with shame. The more we stay in sins, the more easily we will be put in shame.

In His Presence

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff-- they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.

I haven't been here since a while.

As a sheep, I haven't been gazing on the grass and resting at the still water.

Too much running around, too much hustling with the flock...

Thank you for "making" me lie down. Thank you for "restoring" my soul.

Would the "still waters" be on the "right paths" (paths of righteousness), as I follow your lead, living according for your name's sake? And if so, your "right paths" may even lead me through "the darkest valley" but I won't fear nor fret, "for you are with me".

O God, without your presence, the sense of "for you are with me", there will be no way I could survive. Moses didn't want to lead without Your Presence. And Jesus promised His Presence for me (I will be with you always til the end of the age). Help me to be more aware of your presence in my life, help me to see your presence in the work I do, help me to follow you, all the day of my life...

Weakness

Yesterday Jenney asked me why the church couldn't attract enough people who were seeking. I gave her my opinion, and now I found something else on it...

Outsiders often look at the church, full of muddle and sin and shame and half-heartedness and back-biting, and clergy who don’t know what they are talking about and laity who go wandering off the point, and they say, “Well, if that’s what you’ve got to say about that wonderful message you talk about, you really are a muddled lot. How can you possibly be the body of Christ, the temple of the living God, as you say you are called to be?”

The answer comes again and again in 2 Corinthians. The glory of Christ is not revealed in spectacular show of success, in people who get everything right all the time. People like that, as we know, can sometimes be a pain in the neck. The church reveals the glory of Christ through suffering and shame as much as through what the world counts as success.

The way this happens is often enough that the church is called to be where the world is in pain, at the place where the world is suffering and in a state of shame and sorrow. The church is there as the presence of the suffering Christ in the world.

—N. T. Wright, Reflecting the Glory, p. 19