ABIDING IN CHRIST

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ABIDE IN CHRIST THE GLORIFIED ONE

“…when Jesus was on earth, temptation could still reach Him:  in glory, everything is holy, and in perfect harmony with the will of God.  And so the believer who abides in Him experiences that in this high fellowship his spirit is sanctified into growing harmony with the Father’s will” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p200).

“The very secret of Christ’s life was this: He had such a consciousness of God’s presence that whether it was Judas, who came to betray Him, or Caiaphas, who condemned Him unjustly, or Pilate, who gave Him up to be crucified, the presence of the Father was upon Him…man would not touch His spirit” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p47-48).

“When once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely, we never need sympathy, we can pour out all the time without being pathetic.  The saint who is intimate with Jesus will never leave impressions of himself, but only the impression that Jesus is having unhindered way…” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Jan 7th).

“He that abides in Christ the Crucified One, learns to know what it is to be crucified with Him, and in Him to be indeed dead unto sin.  He that abides in Christ the Risen and Glorified One, becomes in the same way partaker of His resurrection life, and of the glory with which He has now been crowned in heaven” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p199).

“[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]” (Phil 3:10-11 AMPC).

ABIDING IN CHRIST

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ABIDE IN CHRIST AND NOT IN SELF_2

“…you do not doubt your salvation; you know that Christ is yours, but you are not feasting with Him.  You understand that you are of vital concern to Him, so that you have no shadow of a doubt of your being His and His being yours, but still His left hand is not under your head, and His right does not embrace you” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, June 19th PM).

“…it is too sadly a fault with all of us, that we permit Him to be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night.  He whom we should make the abiding tenant of our memories is but a visitor therein….It is the incessant turmoil of the world and the constant attraction of earthly things that take away the soul from Christ” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, April 26th AM).

It is possible that many of us must walk forward a while in the sanctified life of CHRIST before we can grasp greater things.  Dealing with CHRIST’s forgiving our sins comes first.  Once we settle ourselves into having no guilt in sinning we are free to long to abide in CHRIST.

“You bear about with you a nature altogether corrupt and vile, ever seeking to rise up…” (ref#266, p59). “Self is still strong and living, but it has no power over you….His life will take the place of the old life…The power of His holy presence will cast out the old life…” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p188,189).

“To seek life, not in itself, but in God is the highest honour of the creature….Jesus Christ becomes your second self…” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p185, 188).

FATHER, the words of Charles Spurgeon paint a picture that animates my heart:

“His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me” (Song 8:3 ESV)!  Just thinking of CHRIST holding me makes directing myself not an option.  I am tired of the anxiety and fear and the no peace and rest I experience with doing things my way.  Oh FATHER, prepare me to feast every day with CHRIST!  I am ready for a more intense relationship.

ABIDING IN CHRIST

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ABIDE IN CHRIST AND NOT IN SELF

“They that are convinced of their own sin and misery do commonly first think to tame the flesh…to make their corrupt nature to be better-natured and inclined to holiness by their struggling and wrestling with it…” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p191).

“…they endeavor to reform their old state, and to be made perfect in the flesh, instead of putting it off and walking according to the new state in Christ….they trust to Christ to help them in this carnal way; whereas true faith would teach them that they are nothing, and that they do not labour in vain” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p191).

The Apostle Paul accuses the Galatian church of this very thing: “O foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?…Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh” (Gal 3:1,3 ESV)?

FATHER, for many years now You have impressed upon me that “The world will never believe in a religion in which there is no supernatural power” Samuel Chadwick (ref#4, p89).

“The answer is in the demonstration of a supernatural religion, and the only way to a supernatural religion is in the abiding presence of the Spirit of God” Samuel Chadwick (ref#161, p190).

You have thoroughly convinced me that my own efforts to be righteous does not stand out in supernatural righteousness at all.  My efforts leave me only prideful, with short-lived joy.  No wonder You call my acts filthy rags (Isa 64:6).  “…self must fail…” Andrew Murray (ref#272, p58).

“The…greatest enemy in the abiding life, is SELF….it refuses to give up its will…by its working, it hinders God’s work.  Unless this life of self, with its willing and working, be displaced by the life of Christ, with His willing and working, to abide in Him will be impossible….Are you ready…to give up self entirely to its death of the cross, to be kept there until it be wholly destroyed?…Am I prepared to say that the old self shall no longer have a word to say; that it shall not be allowed to have a single thought, however natural—not a single feeling, however gratifying—not a single wish or work, however right” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p187)?

FATHER, I desire to “live in Your acts of kindness and enjoy Your smiles” Barnes Notes (ref#16, [Ps 89:15]).

ABIDING IN CHRIST

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ABIDE IN CHRIST THAT I MAY NOT SIN

“We, too, were once dead, and like Lazarus, were stinking in the grave of sin.  Yet Jesus raised us, and by His life we live.  Can we be content to live at a distance from Him” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 21st PM)?

“…there are degrees in the abiding.  With most Christians the abiding is so feeble and intermittent, that sin continually obtains the ascendency, and brings the soul into subjection” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p173).

“…unbelief, or unwatchfulness, opens the door for sin to reign.  And so the life of many believers is a course of continual stumbling and sinning.  But when the believer seeks full admission into, and a permanent abode in Jesus, the Sinless One, then the life of Christ keeps from actual transgression….Jesus does indeed save him from his sin—not by the removal of his sinful nature, but by keeping him from yielding to it….the believer can have sin  and yet not do sin.  The evil nature, the flesh, is unchanged in its enmity against God, but the abiding presence of Jesus keeps it down….’In Him is no sin; he that abideth in Him sinneth not’” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p173-174).

“When Christ commanded us to abide in Him…can He have meant anything but the healthy, vigorous, complete union of the branch with the Vine?…The abiding in Jesus makes it possible to keep from actual sinning; and Jesus Himself makes it possible to abide in Him” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p174-175).

“Do not…let you attention be diverted…Faith has ever only to deal with the present moment…’Jesus keeps me now, Jesus saves me now’…be kept abiding by His own abiding in you…renew your faith in an act of devotion: Jesus keeps me now….Let failure…instead of discouraging you, only urge you still more to seek your safety in abiding in the Sinless One….” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p175).

“Regard it as His work to keep you abiding in Him, and His work to keep you from sinning. It is indeed your work to abide in Him, but it is that, only because it is His work as Vine to bear and hold the branch” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p175).

“Gaze upon His holy human nature as what He prepared for you to be partaker of with Himself…of being filled with His fullness, and made the channel of showing forth His power, His blessing, and His glory” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p175-176).

ABIDING IN CHRIST

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ABIDE IN CHRIST – FOLLOW COMMANDS

“The progressive renewal of the Holy Spirit leads to growing like-mindedness to Christ; then comes a delicate power of spiritual perception—a holy instinct—by which the soul…knows to recognize the meaning and the application of the Lord’s commands to daily life…” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p156).

“Love will assimilate into your inmost being the commands as food from heaven.  They will no longer come to you as a law standing outside and against you, but as the living power…into perfect harmony with all your Lord requires” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p157).

“As we day by day receive grace from Jesus, and more constantly recognize it as coming from Him, we will behold Him in communion with us, and enjoy communion with Him.  Let us make daily use of our riches and ever go to Him as to our own…taking from Him the supply of all we need with as much boldness as men take money from their own pockets” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, March 15th AM).

“To abide in His love, His mighty, saving, keeping, satisfying love, even as He abode in the Father’s love—surely the very greatness of our calling teaches us that it never can be a work we have to perform; it must be with us as with Him, the result of the spontaneous outflowing of a life from within, and the mighty inworking of the love from above…” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p150-151).

“And if even for a moment the commandments appear grievous, just remember whose they are” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p157).  (And commands that seem hard are because I’m thinking of myself—not the One who loves me and I love back).

ABIDING IN CHRIST

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BELIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE

“If Christ finds us willing to trust ourselves and our interests to His love, if in that trust we give up all care for our own will and honour, if we make it our glory to exercise and confess absolute dependence on Him in all things, if we are content to have no life but in Him, He will do for us what the Father did for Him” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p150).

My heart leaps with joy imagining the power of the SPIRIT in JESUS in me but my mind cannot comprehend and is thus frightened.  “The believing surrender to Christ, and the submission to His word to expect what appears most improbable, is the only way to the full blessedness of knowing Him” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p112).

FATHER, now that I know my part in gaining an abiding in CHRIST is small—consisting of surrender and waiting, next I need to find faith enough to believe what CHRIST does.  Change my unbelief into full trust.

 “Receive what you do not comprehend, submit to what you cannot understand, accept and expect what to reason appears a mystery, believe what looks impossible, walk in a way which you know not—such are the first lessons in the school of God” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p112).  “Our Lord said, in effect, to Paul—Your whole life is to be overmastered by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Jan 24th).

“Faith trusts the working of the Spirit unseen in the deep recesses of the inner life.  And so the word of Christ and the gift of the Spirit are to the believer sufficient guarantee that He will be taught of the Spirit to abide in Christ.  By faith he rejoices in what he does not see or feel: he knows, and is confident that the blessed Spirit within is doing His work silently but surely, guiding him into the life of full abiding and unbroken communion.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; it is His work, not only to breathe, but ever to foster and strengthen, and so to perfect the new life within” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p113).

So, FATHER, to quell fright is to ask You for and to receive from You more faith.  Only You can heal my faithlessness (Hos 14:4; Jer 3:22).

ADIBING IN CHRIST

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CHRIST – MY STRENGTH

“It was thus with the disciples….when they were prepared, the baptism of power came.  It was power within and power around.  The power came to qualify for the work to which they had yielded themselves…The power came to set up the Kingdom within them….” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p180).

As it was with the disciples, so it is with us.  “…all our strength is in Christ, laid up and waiting for use….ready to flow in according to the measure in which it finds the channels open….” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p183).

“The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him….The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him.  We are not sent to battle for God, but to be used by God in His battlings” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Jan 18th).

It is prudent to check often whether we are working or allowing JESUS to work.  Andrew Murray warns: “You are so occupied and filled with other things, religious things, preaching and praying, studying and working, so occupied with your religion that you do not give God the time to make himself known” (ref#272, p47).

“What Christ died for is not that we might help him, but that we might see and savor him as infinitely valuable” John Piper (ref#92, p83).

“…when God and man are spoken of as working together, there is nothing of the idea of a partnership between two partners who each contribute their share to a work.  The relation is a very different one.  The true idea is that of cooperation founded on subordination.  As Jesus was entirely dependent on the Father for all His words and all His works, so the believer can do nothing of himself” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p117).

FATHER, how easy it is for me to skip the step of allowing CHRIST to make Himself known.  It is so much easier to do what I think the boss wants and hope that he likes it, as it is to take the time to directly ask. Keep me fearing You.

ABIDING IN CHRIST

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CHRIST – ALL SUFFICIENT POWER

“The Christian wants to conquer his weakness and to be freed from it: God wants us to rest and even rejoice in it….The Christian thinks his weakness his greatest hindrance in the life and service of God: God tells us that it is the secret of strength and success” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p179).

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13 ESV).  “…we acknowledge that apart from Christ we can do nothing” Adolph Saphir (ref#266, p176).

“While we trust in the power of the death of Jesus to cancel the guilt of sin, we do not exercise…faith in the…living Saviour to deliver us from the bondage and power of sin in our daily life….one with Him, we possess strength sufficient to overcome every temptation….Let us most fully believe that we have and are nothing, that with man it is impossible, that in ourselves we have no life which can bring forth fruit; but that Christ is all—that abiding in Him, and His word dwelling in us, we can bring forth fruit to the glory of the Father” Adolph Saphir (rerf#266, p176-177).  “Our holiness of life has its roots in the personal holiness of Jesus. ‘If the root be holy, so also are the branches’” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p171).

Oh FATHER, on the Cross JESUS identified with me.  And now in heaven He makes it possible for me to identify with Him.  What power and love!  I desire to keep myself in CHRIST by reading Your Word.  When You speak about Your SON, provide the HOLY SPIRIT to shoot me full of faith so I grasp with clarity what You promise.  This is my foremost need.  This I plead.