Abiding Thoughts

Growing Up In Christ

2012-02-14T04:50:00.002-08:00

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4.11-13

"I was raised in Church."

There is a difference between growing up in Church and growing up in Christ. If we ever hope to truly be the Church we would be wise to understand the difference.

To grow up in Church is to learn the art and importance of Christian community. To grow up in Christ is to learn the art and importance of communion with Christ within.

To grow up in Church is to learn the rythm of services and calendars. To grow up in Christ means to learn the rythm of love and eternity.

To grow up in Church creates memories that last a lifetime but begin to fade. To grow up in Christ creates actions that last for eternity and never fade.

We would be wise to grow up in Church. We would be wiser to grow up in Christ so we can truly be the Church worth growing up in.

Bud McCord
Abide International

A Mary or Martha Day?

2012-02-06T05:28:00.000-08:00

The two most famous sisters in the New Testament are Mary and Martha. The presence of Jesus in their home and their different responses to His presence made them memorable.

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." Luke 10: 38-42

Mary comes across as the sister who got it right and Martha as the sister who got it wrong. Sounds like many families we all know!

The issue is not who is right or wrong. The issue is the presence of Jesus and how to properly respond to Him. Jesus is that "good part" that must be chosen. The lesson intended is not judgement of one person over another but the choosing of the one necessary thing--Jesus' presence.

Mary and Martha are a picture of each of us. At times we are Mary. At times we are Martha. Since Jesus had made His home in us, we must deal with our own personal responses to Jesus each and every day.

Mary set her speed to Jesus' speed. Mary set her inner life to Jesus' peace and calm.

Martha set her speed to the need. Martha set her inner life to her own need to please and control.

I see myself in both of these women each and every day. Will today be a Mary or Martha day for me?

Bud McCord

Abide International

Prayer--Technique or Faith?

2012-01-30T09:20:00.000-08:00

John taught his disciples to pray so Jesus' disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. A simple request which elicited a simple answer.
Luke 11: 1-13
Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
"Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one."

And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

So, in these few simple sentences Jesus taught his disciples how to pray.
Go and speak to God like you would go to a dear friend when you need something immediately to love someone you must love and you know your friend has it and will give it.
Go and speak to God and ask like a child who wants some particular kind of satisfaction that is a good thing that he knows his caring father has in his possession and he knows he will give it.

Simple. "When you pray, say...." That's it. Go to God asking for resources to love those you must love. Go to God asking for what He has that you need to be His satisfied child. Go to God asking because He is generous toward you and toward others. "When you pray, say" to God what you really think about Him as your friend and as your father.

Jesus' simplicity is amazing. His instruction is simple because He begins and ends everything in His Father's character. Man's teaching is complex because it begins and ends in spiritualized technique.

We want to learn the techniques of the Christian life so we can dominate them and control them. We want to become less dependent through technique. We want to graduate to what we are told are the highest and most powerful Christian techniques so we can climb the pyramid of Christian attainment. We want to say
"I am getting better at this Christian technique called prayer."

Jesus never taught a technique called Christianity. Listening to Jesus there is no such thing as "Christian technique." The two words do not go together.

There is no technique in Christianity but there is God's character revealed in Christ to which we speak and from which we receive. Jesus revealed and taught the character of His Father. When we pray by faith we speak straight to the character of God.

Faith is not a technique. Faith is receiving directly from God's character in Christ by the Spirit. Faith is being a friend of God. Faith is being a healthy, satisfied child of God. Faith is orienting absolutely everything to the generous character of God just like Jesus did.

So much of today's teaching is technique. So much of today's Christianity is complicated. That is why Jesus is so refreshing. Hear Him and prayer will simplify to "When you pray, say...." Speak to God what you really think of Him. Simple.

Tremors

2012-01-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

Seismologists are aware of tremors beneath the surface of the earth that cause no alarm to the millions who live and walk unaware. The scientists watch and listen because they know these nearly imperceptible movements will someday give rise to earthquakes that may claim thousands of lives in a matter of seconds.

Though their contstant vigilance cannot stop what may happen, they can perhaps give sufficient warning that danger is close. Even a few minutes warning can save lives.

There is evidence in Scripture that mankind's behavior influences the creation. There is a link between how we as humans behave and how at peace the earth will be. It appears that we humans can make the creation tremble and groan.

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now."

Romans 8:18-22

What is it that causes the earth to tremble and groan? What sends tremors through the creation? It is the failure humans to behave as the "sons of God." It is humanity's failure to continuously love as God loves.

Whenever love stops in a human life it sends a tremor though the creation. Though this love stopping tremor may be imperceptible to other human beings, those who stand close to the person whose love stops can feel the effects. We are all like seismologists when it comes to love stopping close to us.

Creation feels the collective effect of mankind's constant love stopping tremors. The creation trembles and groans waiting for the day that the earth will be populated by a humanity whose love does not stop. Only when all men love will creation stop trembling and be at peace.

Regardless of how Christians may feel about global warming and its conseguences, there is a greater threat to life on earth. That threat is the growing force of the love stopping tremors that are clearly gathering across the planet.

For this reason every disciple must be a contributor to the peace and rest of the planet by loving without stopping. May our lives be tremor free to the glory of God and peace on earth.

Christian enviromentalism starts with love for our God and our neighbor. May the place beneath our feet be at peace because we do not stop love.

The Speed of Love

2012-01-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

"Pursue Love...." I Cor. 14:1

Many disciples of Jesus believe that true spirituality would require a significant change in the speed at which they live. Faster would mean less spiritual. Slow would mean more spiritual. Mountain retreat would mean spiritual. Busy life in the city would mean less spiritual.

The reality is very different. No choice of speed on our part is needed. True spirituality is able to move at any speed in any place. We must pursue something much deeper than speed. We must pursue love.

True spirituality is about a continuous inspiration and orientation which comes from abiding in Christ and always produces love. To abide in Christ is to enjoy a barrier-free, moment by moment inspiration and orientation from Christ's Spirit within. We must choose to abide in Jesus' love moment by moment and then He chooses our speed. We choose the inner and He chooses the outer.

Once we make the choice to begin all inspiration and orientation in Jesus as our source, He will increase or decrease the speed of our activity as needed. Divine speed setting is part of what it means to pray "Your will be done."

Think of a pilot flying a modern jet airplane. The most important question is not speed. The question is sufficient inspiration (power from the engines) and orientation (direction and altitude). Losing power or losing altitude and direction is the real danger.

The spiritual life is somewhat like flying. It is a moment by moment inspiration and orientation found in Christ. Speed problems won't kill spirituality but a loss of inspiration and orientation eventually will.

Divine speed setting is called walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit, being filled by the Spirit. It is called abiding in Christ and living by faith.

What we need is complete confidence that Jesus abides in us by His Spirit as both our continuous inspiration and orientation. Staying focused on Jesus inspires and orients us to move in the right direction at the speed of love.

The speed of love may be as slow as sitting by the bedside of a sick friend or it may be fast as leading a major company. It will probably be both for some. All of us will have what I call "monk" days. All of us will have what I call "executive" days. Some days we will be executive monks!

Jesus in us will set the speed of our love. Our job is to receive by faith from Jesus within the inspiration and orientation to release perfectly timed love.

Stay inspired and oriented in Jesus and the speed of your life will be the exact speed of the love only you are called and equipped to deliver.

The Satisfying Life

2012-01-02T05:52:00.001-08:00

The Satisfying Life in 2012

Blessed is the man
         Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
         Nor stands in the path of sinners,
         Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
         And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
         Planted by the rivers of water,
         That brings forth its fruit in its season,
         Whose leaf also shall not wither;
         And whatever he does shall prosper.

The writer of Psalm 1 had discovered the plan for a permanently satisfying life. It was a clear and simple plan and needed no adjustments from year to year.

Continuously meditating on and aligning his life with God's loving intentions as expressed in the written law brought to this person a satisfying and fruitful life. Why did the plan work so well that it became the famous Psalm 1?

First, it works because of the universal spiritual reality that says "Whatever gets your attention gets you." Human beings are "receivers". Humans are what they receive and release. We receive by paying attention.

As much as we humans like to think we are our own source and can decide what we will do or won't do, the reality is that we do what gets our attention. We do get to choose what gets our attention from the available lists of possibilities. This choosing can be the solution or the problem. The choice the author of Psalm 1 made is the solution.

When we give our undivided attention to God's intentions for us and for others, God has us. Until we do this, God does not really have us and we do not have the real satisfying life.

Second, it works because of another spiritual reality that says "Only God can make us truly human." Being what you were meant to be and doing what you were meant to do is the satisfying human life. Only the person receiving continuously from God becomes like a tree planted by rivers of living water which gives its fruit in the right season.

When Jesus came to earth and lived among us He made meditating on God's intentions much easier to see and to live than it was for the author of Psalm 1. Jesus is the God's law written in human flesh. Jesus is literally God's intentions made visible and available to us. He is also what true humanity looks like.

Since Calvary Jesus has become the source of the Satisfying life and staying focused on Him continuously means God will have all of you and you will have all the satisfaction you need to be a fruitful human being.

This is called abiding in Christ and it is the right plan for living in 2012 and beyond.

Abide in Christ 2012. In other words "receive well to release well!" When you do God will have you and you will have the satisfying life! It works for all who freely receive from Jesus because Jesus is the plan that satisfies. He is the satisfying life!

Pure Goodness

2011-12-19T04:44:00.000-08:00

Pure Goodness

Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Bad cannot produce good. It takes pure goodness to produce true good.

Just ask yourself if your heart is good or bad. Be honest. Unless you have truly understood that Christ lives in you right now and He is the source of all pure goodness, it is hard to say "My heart is good!". You need to believe you have a treasure in your heart to seek pure goodness there.

As a believer in Jesus you have the source of pure goodness in you right now. Good intentions live in you. Good words live in you. Good ideas live in you. Good courage lives in you. Your job is to stay in touch with this pure goodness and bring it out into the light to bless others.

Try saying this..."I am forever united in my spirit (heart) with the pure goodness of Jesus." Now from this good place ask for the specific kind of goodness you would like to "bring forth." It is there. Your job is to receive it and release it.

When we say we cannot be good, we may be telling a truth. We may be admitting that nothing good lives in our flesh. That is a truth. Even so, the greater truth for a believer is that we no longer live in the flesh. We now live in connection with Christ who is pure goodness. The greater truth is pure goodness lives in connection with our spirit.

Christmas is about pure goodness being born into the world. Don't forget that that same pure goodness now is born in you! Draw from this good treasure and be good.

Merry Christmas!

Bud McCord
Abide International

P.S. I wrote this devotional thinking about our daughter Rachel who has a wonderful website about really good food. Check it out! www.puregoodness.net Only good food can bring out the best in you.

Reputation

2011-12-13T05:55:00.001-08:00

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phillipians 2:5-11

Jesus perfected His love not His reputation. What an unlikely strategy when compared with the wisdom of this world.

Jesus' commitment to love was the living manifestation of His depth of commitment to His Father. Reputation would be left in the hands of His Father. Love would be Jesus' singular focus.

Reputation protection and the perfection of love are never comfortable traveling companions. As we move through life we will be forced to go with one or the other. At times they can seem to be united but there is always a time when perfected love will need to abandon reputation so love remains preeminent.

The description of Jesus in Phillipians 2 is a call for each of us to see the perfecting or our love as more important than the protecting of our reputation. When our reputation is at stake we often panic because we have invested so much in the building of our reputation. When we have been working on perfecting our love we can let go of our reputation because we trust the Father with our reputation.

We remember and revere Jesus because He perfected His love for us instead of protecting His reputation.

Be remembered for the quality of your love. Let love be your reputation.

Bud McCord
Abide International

The Speed of God's Compassion

2011-12-06T06:28:00.000-08:00

"Pain suffered while we are alone is very different than pain suffered near someone else." Henri Nouwen

Most of us consider ourselves fairly compassionate people. We weep when we watch really sad films. We get very indignant when we see someone abuse another. We may even pray fervently for those who suffer. Even so, do these things qualify as compassion?

The meaning of the word compassion is to "suffer with". That means to do much more than be moved emotionally to a state of caring. I believe it means to actually stay with the sufferer for a God appointed period of time.

There is no way to stay with a person who suffers without suffering with the sufferer. There is no way to stay with a sufferer without reducing our speed to their speed for a time.

Perhaps that is why we want to get away quickly from the suffering of another. Suffering spreads by contact and suffering alters travel plans. Compassion is risky and time consuming. All true love is.

As a minister for over 35 years I have noticed that I wanted to help people get past their suffering as quickly as possible. Slow recoveries seemed to me to be a sign of my pastoral incompetence and a lack of faith on the part of all involved.

Good counseling in my mind was fast counseling. I was too busy for someone's stubborn pain to slow down my plans to help so many. I lacked the speed of God's compassion.

I don't believe God wanted me to stay at the hospital for hours at a time with every person. I think He wanted me to stay as long as He needed me to reveal His compassion to a particular sufferer. I seldom remember asking how long He wanted me to stay. I guess I assumed He was in a hurry since I was in a hurry to go after all the other pain.

Fast cures certainly sound very appealing to us unless we are the person whose pain is stubborn. Perhaps the desire for fast cures explains why modern healing meetings draw such huge crowds. Compassion and fast don't match. Massive healing meetings many times reveal more frustration with stubborn pain than compassion for sufferers.

Compassion is being willing to stay as long as God would have us stay with a sufferer while going at their speed so they won't go alone.

Some of my friends who are ministers live at only one ministerial speed--fast. The faster they go, the more famous they become. They are incredibly dynamic and gifted. There is only one problem with great speed in the life of a minister and that is the fact that our calling includes showing God's compassion not just God's speed and direction as we see it.

God's compassion has its own speed. Are we willing to let God make us His campassion? I am learning to ask Him if He approves of my speed. Amazingly, I have time for everything that truly matters at His speed.

(For a Biblical example of The Speed of God's Compassion read the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.)

Bud McCord
Abide International

Treasure

2011-11-30T09:23:00.001-08:00

Treasure

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6: 19-21

A human being without a desire for treasure (abundance) does not exist. The difference among humans is defining what the true human treasure should be, how it is to be obtained and where to keep it safe. Some people say they have no need of treasure but even they will protect something or someone given just the right set of circumstances. Even killing oneself is an attempt to protect something or someone we treasure too much to let live without an adequate treasure.

All humans desire to live from treasure or abundance because we all started out in Adam and Eve in an environment of perfect abundance. Since that perfect place and perfect spiritual abundance with the Creator was lost by looking for the false treasure of trying to be God, the hunt by humanity for treasure has been ongoing and tragic.

A sense of no treasure can drive human beings insane. Black Friday at Walmart comes to mind! Human beings without a treasure can become depressed, violent, intolerant, protective, demanding, discouraged and even suicidal. The crash of the stock market in 1929 with millionaires jumping from skyscrapers comes to mind. In all of us there is the deep sense we should have a safe treasure that is our source of abundance from which we will live. Trying to get this treasure makes some of us crazy. Protecting this treasure can make some of us dangerous. Protecting government retirement programs or government funded tuition comes to mind.

Jesus never condemns the human desire for treasure (abundance). Instead, He defines the true treasure as a return to the Creator and the Creator's Kingdom. He tells us the treasure will be kept for us as we "lay it up in heaven". He tells us that treasure is meant to keep one's heart focused. Jesus forever links treasure and the focus of the human heart. What we treasure has our heart. We don't have our treasure as much as our treasure has us.

Christianity is not a treasureless life. It is unashamedly a way of life that depends on God Himself offering to be our treasure. God is willing to be our treasure because He wants our heart. He wants our heart because when He is our treasure we are finally able to become human again. Being humanity's treasure was God's original plan.

The problem for Christians comes in when we want multiple treasures just in case the God treasure does not work out too well. The rich young ruler who went away sad when Jesus told him to sell all and give it to the poor comes to mind.

Jesus never condemned treasure or abundance. The human heart needs its treasure. He also never suggested we could mix treasures of this world with the treasure that is His Father.

Is God your great treasure? If He is, then your heart will be in the right place and you will live a life of increasing sanity called love. God as the human treasure calms and quiets the human heart. Nothing else really can.

If you have multiple treasures, then expect to live with a divided and weakened heart. As a multiple treasures person you may even do some crazy things from time to time. Don't be surprised when you do crazy things for treasures that are less than God. The wrong treasures are that powerful.

If God is your singular treasure, then don't be surprised when you do incredibly sane things like forgiving and loving. The right treasure is that powerful.

Choose your treasure wisely. It will have your heart.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Abide International is an organization dedicated to helping Christ-followers worldwide
understand and experience true satisfaction in Jesus as a moment by moment reality.

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Web: www.abideinternational.org - Email: info@abideinternational.org

Flesh or Spirit?

2011-11-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6

As humans we try to make judgments of others using our carefully constructed human views of moral behaviors. When God judges humans he judges their birth not their behaviors. God doesn’t give us grades for behaviors. He sees our behaviors and gives them a DNA or birth test.

If the origin of any human behavior is birthed in something other than God’s Spirit it is called “flesh” and it is condemned by God as useless no matter what human standard is applied and how nice the behavior might appear to other humans. With God it is not a “pass/fail” accomplishment system. It is a “flesh/spirit” birth system.

In John 3 Jesus told a “pass/fail” leader named Nicodemos that all men and women need a new birth--including him. To say he was shocked is to put it too lightly. He was stunned. He had spent a lifetime working the “pass/fail” behavioral system and he had never once heard of the “flesh/spirit” birth system. Jesus basically told him he had wasted his time and needed to start over as a new human being.

It is never easy to free ourselves from the accomplishment system and move to the birth system. We all want to earn our standing with God instead of being born into our standing with God. Adam and Eve switched from birth to accomplishment in Genesis 3 and the effects can most clearly be called “death.” It stinks.

In our spiritual formation, we need to become accustomed to determining in our own behavior what is born of the Spirit an what is born of the flesh. Even though we now are “born again” and we have the Christ in us, we must be trained by the Holy Spirit to Identify and put off the works of the flesh. God wants us to learn to see birth over behavior in everything. The “pass/fail” system must be put to death.

This is not as difficult as it may seem for a disciple. Try this. When you are behaving in a way that needs a “birth” evaluation to see where the behavior is coming from, just ask Jesus “Is this behavior birthed in you?” You will be surprised how quickly Jesus owns what he births and how quickly He rejects what He did not birth. Remember, we focus on behavior but Jesus’ focus is on birth.

It is possible for a believer to begin in the Spirit and then try to be made perfect in the flesh. Galatians 3:2b “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” Having begun in the birth system of grace are you now made perfect the the behaviors system of works? Great question!

A believer can begin experiencing things birthed in the Spirit and suddenly begin to put on behaviors that are from the flesh. Why would God permit this?

He allows this to teach us that birth matters most and no amount of good work can ever hope to birth what only the Spirit can birth. Jesus put it this way “Without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

You can also learn to look for birth not just behaviors in others. Source is more important than symptoms in our relationships. Reacting to symptoms in others is a waste of time. That is why Jesus tells us to “turn the other cheek” when someone attacks us. Striking back at a behavior cannot reach the level of birth, but turning the other cheek can.

A disciple should become a birth expert not a behavior expert. Don’t judge behaviors. Look for the source not the symptoms. Aim for the new birth of others by living as Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. Behavior modification is not Christianity. New Birth is.

Bud McCord
Abide International

"It Was Good For Me"

2011-10-18T06:25:00.001-07:00

The parables of the treasure and the pearl of great price. Matthew 13: 44-46 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”Why did the man and the merchant do what they did? They did it because it was good for them and it was very smart. It was to their great advantage to reach a place of absolutely no need outside the possessing of the treasure or the pearl. With these choices they were done choosing. What a relief!Does the Kingdom of heaven approve of such thinking? According to Jesus it does and that took me by surprise.Here is how I might have ended these parables to make it fit my old idea of Christian self denial which always left me feeling I should do only things that would leave me with less.“And the man gave the treasure to the poor so his treasure would not distract him.”“And the man who bought the pearl sold it and gave the money to the poor so he would look humble.”Whey didn’t Jesus add my thoughts to His? Because He approves of human beings doing what is best for them. He always has. He approves of human beings who know how to choose their permanent, personal solution before they try to become someone else’s partial solution. Jesus approves of human beings living from permanent abundance.The treasure and the pearl are Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate value of the Kingdom. Jesus is the Kingdom made visible. Jesus is perfect abundance. Letting go of everything we have valued in our old pursuit of happiness in order to have Him is good for us and it is very smart.In the end such a singular pursuit of Jesus is the only thing that will make us most useful to those in need. In fact, choosing Jesus is the only thing that will make us truly useful forever.Beneath all the wonderful sounding reasons we give for our personal behavior is one inescapable fact. We all do what we think is best for us. We love ourselves too much not to do so. To lose our life in this world and find Jesus as our life is what is best for us and it is a very smart choice. Jesus is our only hope to live and love from abundance.The choosing of what is best for us is not the problem. The problem is we choose things that are not best for us and then we suffer a sense of lack, start looking again and everyone else suffers with us because we are still on the hunt for what is best.When we choose Jesus as what is best for us, God is pleased with us because He is the One who created us to choose Jesus who is the best. When we get choosing Jesus right, we will certainly bear the good fruit of such a smart choice. Once you have the best you can really get on with living the best.When you choose Jesus your need to keep on choosing ends. You have what is best for you forever and nothing is smarter than settling the abundance issue once and forever. To truly love the issue of permanent, personal abundance found in Christ must be settled once and for all.Make Jesus your final choice and you will choose to love. What a relief it is to love from the certainty of Jesus’ eternal perfection and abundance instead of constantly checking to see how much we have spent loving others.Bud McCordAbide International

The Farmer

2011-10-10T07:22:00.001-07:00

On the last day of His life on earth before His crucifixion Jesus refers to His Father as a Vinedresser--a farmer.Hardly the title I would chosen for the King of the Universe and the One who was at that moment overcoming the Evil One through His Son's sustained and sustaining love.Still, the title is the one Jesus chose. I have come to see why Jesus called His father a farmer during my 60 year journey in the world. God is not about changing the world. He overcomes it one human at a time. He takes the world as it is and does what He wants done through those He chooses. He takes into consideration all the tragic elements of the world and says, "I can grow my crops here in this life."We get angry at God because He does not change the tragic elements of the world, but He goes on with His work--getting His fruit visible and available in the middle of this tragic world.The crop (fruit) God wants is called love - sustained love. Jesus is the first to have sustained the Farmer's love. Since He did this all excuses about the world being too tough a place for sustained love to exist are eliminated. All excuses are gone for the branches of His sustained love and it is time to harvest the same sustained love crop worldwide.Every time you pick up a beautiful apple, pear, banana or grape cluster, some farmer has overcome the world for you. For such beautiful fruit to end up on your table, the world was overcome and you benefit from the victory. Thank God for farmers!The One who overcame the world is now abiding in you to bear the fruit of Jesus' sustained love. No excuses now about the world needing to change before you can bear this fruit. The Farmer knows what He has done and he can do in the world just as it is. He can make us the bearers of sustained love if we will but abide 24/7 and moment by moment in His sustained and sustaining love."I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will suffer tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Jesus inspiring his disciples in John 16:33Bud McCordAbide International

A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

2011-10-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. I Cor. 2:16

Jesus was the only human being who ever enjoyed a mind that was completely free to function as a human mind was meant to function. He was the most intelligent man who ever lived and His mind was the perfect tool for God’s loving purpose. Jesus never wasted His mind. He used His mind to live the Christian life.

Unfortunately we as disciples waste His mind. We waste it because we do not believe we have His mind. We think great Bible teachers have some of His mind, but we honestly do not see ourselves having nearly any of His mind.

How many children grow up and live their entire lives never being encouraged to develop the ability that their own DNA possesses? They don’t even know what their DNA is. How many young adults give into distractions and end up living their entire lives beneath their full potential? They don’t even know what their potential is. How many Christians never access the mind of Christ while trying to live the Christian life? They don’t even know what the mind of Christ is.

I, for one, have wasted much of the mind of Christ over the years. Quite frankly, I have only recently realized something of what it means to have the mind of Christ. I have only recently begun to realize that having the mind of Christ is critical to living Christ’s life as my life.

“For to me to live is Christ...” Phil. 1:21 “it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me..” Gal. 2:20

To have the mind of Christ means I can literally think with Jesus about everything that is happening to me at any moment. If you have a mind you can think with that mind! If you cannot think with it you don’t have it.

Jesus abides in me by His Spirit and is willing to think with me. He is willing to give me His thoughts about my reality until my reality becomes His reality. As we think together as one we begin to face the reality with one mind--His mind.

I know this sounds very strange, but I imagine that the first time people heard that they carry their parents DNA that, too, sounded strange. Even so, the only DNA we will ever have or ever use is the DNA we received from our parents. It is also true to say “I have the mind of Christ.” Jesus gives me His mind by His Spirit within me. The only thinking that I can use to live the Christian life comes from Jesus’ mind not mine. My mind cannot think the Christian life up as I go along. My mind needs to receive the thoughts directly from Jesus who is the living Christian life who lives in me.

Every believer has the mind of Christ. Every believer can let the mind of Christ teach their mind how to live Jesus’ life in our daily reality.

I have tested this idea with many congregations and with many Christians by describing to them scenarios where they are facing some challenge or attack. I ask them to ask Jesus who abides in them what He thinks about this challenge or attack. I ask them to think with His mind if they should be afraid or go on the attack. As incredible as it sounds, they always know what He thinks. That shocked me. They did not always want to do what He thinks, but they always knew what He thinks.

The next time you are facing a great challenge ask Jesus what He thinks about the challenge. Ask Him if He thinks it is the end of the world. Ask Him if the challenge is impossible. Ask Him if you should be afraid to face the challenge. I know you already know the answer because you really do have the mind of Christ.

The next time you are attacked or offended ask Jesus what He thinks. Does this attack determine who I am? Does this offense mean I need to vindicate myself? Should I retaliate? I know you already know the answer because you really do have the mind of Christ.

It is a terrible thing to waste the mind of Christ.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Equality

2011-09-26T11:05:00.001-07:00

The Spirit of Christ is an equalizer not a divider.

When the Spirit of Christ is in control of a group of believers there will always be a deep and abiding equality among all. When there appears in a group of believers a sense of the “haves” and the “have nots”, equality in Christ is dying and the Spirit of Christ is not being followed.

In the book of Galatians the Apostle Paul confronts the Apostle Peter because of the issue of equality between Jewish and Gentile believers. It is hard to even imagine one of the apostles confronting another, but equality is that important.

Here is what happened that caused the confrontation.

Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. Galatians 2:11-16

Some Jewish “haves” came and determined that some Gentile “have nots” were not up to their level. This new paradigm was so powerful that Peter and Barnabas were “carried away with their hypocrisy.”

If this kind of mistake can be made by Peter and Barnabas, who are we to think we cannot be drawn into this mistake? This is the kind of failure that can and will destroy the very essence of Christian life and community.

How can we avoid this mistake?

1. By focusing exclusively on Christ as Christianity. Jesus is Christianity. If a person has Christ they are as much a Christian as any other Christian. Treat them as such.

2. By seeing love as our reason for existence. We exist to love. We exist to give the best we are and the best we have to those who need us. Even if we see ourselves as a “have” in the midst of a lot of “have nots” that only increases our responsibility to love them more effectively not isolate them more effectively.

3. By resisting the temptation to confuse leadership positions as places of superiority instead of places of service. God gives leadership authority to those who can still wash feet. Leaders who cannot wash feet need to be confronted.

Listen to these remarkable words that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29

When equality in Christ begins to die in a group of believers, so does the spiritual power begin to die no matter how impressive the “haves” still appear to be in their special but separate gatherings. Unfortunately inequality draws huge crowds.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Spiritual LIfe--Goals and Pace

2011-09-21T04:12:00.000-07:00

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18

The promise contained in these verses that one can be completely free of the desires of the flesh by walking in the Spirit is truly remarkable. For those of us who have battled with our fleshly desires that are not born in God, this passage offers hope but it also raises a serious question.

What does it mean to “Walk in the Spirit..”?

I believe it means to spend each moment adjusting myself internally and externally to the goals and pace of Christ in me. That’s right, Jesus is continuously moving in us with clear goals and with a determined pace. Jesus may not be physically in the world, but He is in each believer and He is still walking among men through each disciple who walks in the Spirit.

Walking in the Spirit is learning to adjust myself continuously to the abundance of Jesus’ perfect presence in me by His Spirit. It means that I must continuously relate everything that is happening to me to Christ in me by His Spirit. When I do relate everything to Christ within by His Spirit, I get in sync with Jesus’ goals and pace. I walk in the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is in me to make this adjustment to Jesus possible and to release to me what I need in order to not need what the flesh is offering me. The Holy Spirit of God is in me to align me with the goals and the pace of God in Christ 24 hours a day, seven days a week and moment by moment. The Holy Spirit walks me into this adjustment.

Imagine you decide to walk an entire day with another person. They have agreed that you can accompany them as long as you truly want to do what they do and you understand that they have a busy agenda and a determined pace. You accept the conditions and off you go toward their goals and at their pace.

At first it is easy, but as the day progresses you find that you are being continuously invited to leave the person with whom you are walking and satisfy some other need the way you normally would. Eventually you discover that walking with another person who has a very specific agenda and pace in mind means you must continually submit to their goals and pace or walking with them just will not work.

This is how Jesus walked with His Father. When Jesus said he always did what pleased His father He was describing what it means to walk in the Spirit. God’s goals were His goals and God’s pace was His pace at all times.

We either walk in the Spirit or we walk in the flesh. We either conform to God’s goals and pace in Christ through the Spirit or we conform to the old goals and pace of our flesh. At any given moment I am either walking in the Spirit or I am walking in my flesh.

Over time it has become abundantly clear to me when I am in the Spirit and when I am in the flesh. The fruit just does not lie. The goals and the pace of Spirit are clear. The goals and pace of flesh are clear.

If you want to walk in the Spirit it is as simple as saying to Jesus who abides in you--”I will walk with you right now by your Spirit.” As the day moves along and the temptation comes back to fulfill your own desires first, just whisper the words “Jesus, I am entirely yours.” and walk where the Spirit is leading at Jesus' perfect pace for you.

Today we can make the goal and the pace of Jesus our goal and our pace. When we do this the fruit is true Spiritual Life. To be spiritual is to let the Spirit set your goal and your pace to those of Jesus moment by moment. What wonderful goals and what a wonderful pace await all those who walk in the Spirit.

Bud McCord
Abide International

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understand and experience true satisfaction in Jesus as a moment by moment reality.

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Abundant Life-Being, Having and Doing

2011-09-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10

The most valuable thing a thief can steal is our inspiration to keep on living our story. The material he takes can be replaced but a stolen inspiration leads to the certain death of the story of our life.

Jesus came to make our inner life safe from all those who would steal our inner inspiration to live and to love. This continuous inner inspiration in Jesus is the abundant life.

To live the abundant life, essence must come before effort. Our essence is who we are in Jesus and what we have in Jesus. We keep the thief out of our life when our essence is beyond his reach. The only way to keep our essence out of his reach is to abide in Christ moment by moment.

Most people who are good observers of human nature would agree that we need to be and have some kind of an inner inspiration in order to do something memorable with our lives. In fact, the most inspiring stories among all cultures and religions are those which describe a person who overcame enormous odds because of some inner being and having that won the day. A Mother Teresa inspires because her inner life prevailed in the face of such immense poverty in India. Because no thief could steal her inspiration the narrative she told with her life is so powerful it continues to inspire even after her death.

When Jesus said that He came to give us abundant life, it is clear He was not speaking about giving every disciple an abundance of material things no one could steal and with which they could do what they wanted to do. He was talking about giving each disciple a permanent and safe spiritual abundance at the level of their inner being and inner having. He came to inspire in each disciple a very particular kind of doing called love. Jesus knew it takes abundant inner life no thief could steal to love like He loved.

Looking back over the last 2000 years of the Christian experience it is clear that the true and memorable Christian narratives are the ones which describe time and time again what happens when disciples live inspired lives of being and having while in union with Christ. As much as some have tried to make Christianity about doing in order to be and to have, this human effort narrative just never works. Thank God for that!

Right at this moment every believer in Christ has the perfect presence and abundance of Jesus in them by the Holy Spirit. No thief can reach this place and steal this abundance. If we would do something that actually would create a story worth remembering, then we must start in this inner abundance. When we start in Jesus, the doing will happen and the narrative of our lives will inspire others.

Truly, being and having must come before doing and seeing the results. Just how sure are you of who you are and what you have in Jesus right now? The answer to that question will determine what kind of story you are telling as you live and it will determine how long your story and life will bless others.
Write a brand new, unique Christian narrative as you abide in Jesus! No one else could ever write your story of being and having in Jesus.

Remember, no thief can steal who your are what you have in Jesus. Write your story!

Bud McCord
Abide International

Temptation

2011-09-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

"And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." Matt.6:13

What does it mean to be led into temptation?

To be tempted is to be led into the tragedy of trying to be and to have by doing for ourselves what apparently God has not done.

It means to be led into thinking and behaving as if we can become what we want to become and have what we think we need to have by taking a situation into our own hands.

Adam and Eve were the first humans to be led into temptation. They were led to believe by the evil one that they could become like God because they wanted to be. All they needed to do was simply take the issue of being and having into their own hands and into their own mouths. (See Genesis 3)

Temptation is the opposite of faith. When we live by faith what we are and what we have come to us freely from God. When one is led into temptation one is fooled into thinking being and having depend on human effort instead of Divine grace.

Religion is often the most destructive form of temptation. Religion tells us to be and to have means to produce our own identity and possessions by works that will convince God we are worthy to be what He wants us to be and have what He wants us to have. Religion always tells us what we are not and what we lack. Faith always tells us who we are and what we have in God.

Jesus was also tempted since he was the "last Adam." (See Matt. 4) Unlike the first Adam, Jesus never tried to become something more than He had been made by God or use resources other than those God gave Him. Jesus never stopped being what He received from God and He never started trying to produce on His own what Satan said He needed produce to live.

Satan tried to lead Jesus into temptation and failed because Jesus never forgot who He was in His Father and what He had available to Him in His Father. In every way it is possible for a human to be tempted Jesus was tempted. Even so, He never sinned. He never stopped living who God made Him to be and using what God gave Him to use. His love never stopped for one moment. He was continuously delivered from evil by abiding in His Father's love.

Every day of our lives in this world we will be tempted. We will be led to believe we are not enough and we do not have enough because God did not make us enough or give us enough. We will be repeatedly told that our only hope to be or have is to act on our own. Any day we follow this idea to its conclusion we will be led into temptation. Our love will stop and more suffering is added to us and those we love.

The solution to temptation is to be delivered from evil by God's love in Jesus. How does that work? It works by faith. It works by knowing who we have become in Jesus and what we have in Jesus right now. Deliverance comes by abiding in the Vine. (See John 15)

Whatever the Vine is, I am. Whatever the Vine has, I freely receive. The fruit of being in the true Vine and receiving as ours what the the true Vine gives to us moment by moment delivers us from evil. Being in the true Vine allows us to be continuously delivered from the evil one and it allows us to deliver love continuously for God''s glory.

Christ in us is God's answer to our prayer "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from Evil." What He is, you are. What He has is what you have.

Abide in His love right now in the same way He was abiding in His Father's love when He was tempted.

Bud McCord
Abide International

The Gospel of Jesus-Begin Again or Change?

2011-08-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

Is the invitation of Jesus to live a new life a call to change the life we already have? Is Jesus’ calling us to begin again or make significant adaptations with His help? Is discipleship a perfecting of the imperfect in us or is it the living from a perfect life that is put in us? Do we ask people who are living such complex and sinful lives to focus on changing those lives with church intervention or to begin living an entirely new life in Jesus?

These questions take us right to the heart of a debate that has tormented the church of Jesus since Paul confronted the false teachers in the Galatian church when he said “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel-which is really no gospel at all.” Gal. 1:6-7a

Change your lifestyle and way of living with my church’s help is not the message of Jesus. The message of Jesus is begin again by living my life, not yours. In other words, forget change that never works and embrace Me the One who never fails.

As hard as it is for us to accept, men and women cannot change on a level that God can accept as sufficient for true, loving humanity to appear and be sustained. To tell a person that they can change or adapt the way they live for God’s acceptance is to preach another Gospel. To tell them that they can begin again in Jesus is the true Gospel. God is starting in Jesus a new, living humanity not a changed, somewhat improved humanity.

Jesus told Nicodemos in John 3 that nothing short of a new birth would allow him to see or enter the kingdom of God. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that nothing short of another living source of water and inner life would satisfy here and allow her to begin again. Jesus said in John 15 that we could do nothing without Him and that includes living a fruitful life that God wants of us.

The language of Jesus and of the New Testament is not change language. It is begin again language. It is leaving the Kingdom of darkness and going into the Kingdom of Light. It is leaving death and entering life. It is crucified with Christ to begin living Christ.

It is common to be asked here in Brazil, “Do you think a homosexual can change?” Just yesterday I was asked this question. This question is asked by sincere and not so sincere people. My answer is “Christianity is not about changing the homosexual or about changing anyone. No plan for change can help any of us if our goal is to be what God wants us to be. Our problem is beyond change. Christianity is about living a new life- Jesus’ life-now and forever. It is about a constant cooperation with that perfect life of Jesus in us that lets Jesus manifest Himself through us. Anyone who wants to begin again in Jesus is welcome to live Jesus and that includes the homosexual and me.”

Selling change is religion and it is big business. People who market change as Jesus’ message get rich because they are offering something that never ends and in the end never works. Making people dependent is big business. Just ask drug dealers. Paul said that these types of people have a god. Their “belly” or their own interests are their god.

People who offer a new beginning from the perfect source that is Jesus in us will soon not be needed by those who begin to live Jesus. So much for creating dependence that feeds the religious! Pointing people to new life instead of never ending change doesn’t make for a great financial plan but it sure makes us more like Jesus and the apostles. None of them ended up rich, but they still have living influence 2000 years later. Take your pick-- Change sells or Jesus lives?

People can’t be reached by change because the problem is too deep for change to reach. Imagine you found you needed a bone marrow transplant. No amount of exercise, medicine or activity can reach the marrow level. So it is with what we need spiritually. We need new, eternal spiritual marrow. We need a spirit to Spirit marrow connection with Jesus in order to begin again.

The good news is that once the Spiritual marrow transplant takes place when we receive what God is willing to give us in His Son, we just need to increasingly cooperate with this new spiritual, eternal marrow since it is the same spiritual marrow that Jesus gave at Calvary to save us all.

Only when we abandon change as the goal will certain Bible verses begin to make sense. These verses are “transplant” verses not “religious change” verses.

“To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: whichis Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1:27

“For to me to live is Christ.” Phil. 1:21

“It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” Gal. 2:20

“Christ is all and is in all” Col. 3:11

Humanity is beyond the need for change no matter how well it sells. Humanity needs the life of Jesus in us by the Spirit of God. Don’t tell people they can change. Tell them they can live Jesus. In Him all things become new not changed.

Bud McCord
Abide International

A Growing Awareness

2011-08-23T07:20:00.001-07:00

“Lord, increase our faith!”

What does it mean to have the Lord grow our faith? It means to experience a Divinely inspired increase in our personal awareness of God’s generous disposition and loving activity toward all mankind.

Many believe that to grow in faith simply means having an increased awareness that God is generous toward those of us who believe in Him. This is too limited in its scope. To grow in faith is to become aware that God is generous toward all men and we should be, too.

In other words, God is on His own “side”. He is not just on our side. He is not just interested in those who cooperate with Him. He is interested in love as the universal reality that must come to all. He is not against human beings. He is for His love defining everything and everyone. He increases our faith so we can join Him in His love for all.

We can hear God’s love in Jesus’ words.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Jesus’ words in Matthew 5: 43-48

Jesus’ presence, behavior and teaching were man’s first perfect opportunity to see and hear what God’s love looks like in human form. Jesus said “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” John 14:9

Jesus’ life inspired his disciples to expand their awareness of God’s love. His every word and action challenged everyone’s awareness of God’s goodness and love toward mankind. His words and actions still inspire our faith to grow.

In one such moment of Jesus increasing his disciples faith in God’s commitment to love Peter and Jesus have this exchange in Matthew 18: 21-22

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

When Jesus told Peter to forgive 70 X 7, Peter lacked a deep enough awareness of God’s commitment to loving others to absorb such a view and behavior toward others. Jesus did not lack this awareness. He knew the heart of His Father and He was cooperating with the will of His loving father at all times and toward all men.

Growing our faith is truly a work of God’s grace and patience with us. The same love God expects of us toward others is the love that patiently grows our faith in God’s love.

When we pray, “Lord, increase our faith.” we are inviting God to take us right into the heart of why Jesus came. Jesus came to return humanity to a complete awareness and practice of God’ infinite love.

When God increases our faith He increases our love. His love needs no increasing but our love certainly does. Let Him increase your faith in Him and your love will grow toward others.

Bud McCord
Abide International

KNOWING

2011-08-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Imagine a small woman named Maria who has lived her entire life in a remote village along the Amazon river. All she knows about life is that the river is the key source of everything she needs to live. She is illiterate but she knows how to read the river and live from the river. Maria knows the river. Maria loves the river.

This woman accepts Jesus. He becomes life to her inner world just as the river is life to her outer world. She is deeply in love with Jesus. She knows Jesus.

Far away in the great city of São Paulo is a world famous professor who has studied the rivers of the world and their impact on ecosystems. He is considered the most knowledgeable person in the world when it comes to river systems. Of all the rivers he most admires and studies the Amazon river. He, too, is a believer in Jesus.

One day this professor comes to the tiny village where Maria has lived her entire life.

As the professor speaks with Maria he begins to realize that to her the river is life. To him the river has been a fascinating subject and a challenge to dominate. He has known the river but he has never lived the river.

Who really knows the river best, Maria or the professor? The person who depends upon something to live truly knows. Maria knows the river. The professor knows about the river.

Even so, Maria hangs on every word the professor says. She has always wanted to find out all the facts about the river. Where does it begin? Where does it end? Why does it rise and fall always in the same months. Why has it never stopped? Who started it?

Maria already loves and lives the river. In reality the professor should hang on her every word. She knows what he does not yet know. If he could humble himself and let Maria teach him about the river, he would begin to live the river, too.

So it is with the poor of the world who know Jesus. Those of us who have made Christianity a fascinating subject and a challenge to dominate would do well to listen to the Marias of the world. Those of us who have only studied Jesus would do well to grow quiet in the presence of those who live Jesus.

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Bud McCord
Abide International

You Are What You Receive

2011-08-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

God told Adam and Eve they would be dead if they received the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They received the fruit and died. The became what they received.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Gen. 2:16-17

John tell us that when we receive Jesus we will be children of God.

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: John 1:11-12

From Genesis to Revelation we see this truth--We are what we receive. No one can decide to be what they want to be. They can receive what they want to be. They can choose the source and by so choosing they choose their being.

In Psalm 1 we see a contrast between what people chose to receive in the Old Testament.

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Notice the words “he meditates day and night...” This is a deliberate receiving from God’s intentions as revealed in the law. This man became what he received.

Christ lives in you by His Spirit so you can abide in Him. To Abide is to receive moment by moment directly from who Jesus is.

You will bear the fruit of what you receive. Abide and you will be like Jesus.

Remember, you are what you receive.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Daily Renewal

2011-07-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

Life was meant to be lived day by day. The cycle of 24 hours we call a day is truly all we were meant to handle. When the sun goes down each day it is a statement that says “That’s enough. Rest.”

This daily routine is where the real battle for quality of life is fought. If we can learn to live well one day at a time we find ourselves truly fit for a fulfilled life and an even better organized life.

It has been my observation that internal problems mount as we try to manage our time on earth with a monthly planner or even a yearly planner. Thinking we will diminish stress by planning ahead we actually get out of rhythm with day to day living and complicate our future in the process.

Jesus taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.” He also said that the evil of one day is enough to handle for any of us. Consider again His words.

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:25-34

My mother-in-law Ruth McCartney once inspired me with these words. “Well, you have to be somewhere at all times so you might as well be here.” She was observing how we get all worked up about not being happy were we are because we are so anxious to get to where we are going. Maybe she noticed how anxious I could get wanting to be living tomorrow instead of enjoying today. As I wait in airports or get stuck in traffic her words come to me. “Well, you have to be somewhere at all times so you might as well be here”

As I remember Ruth’s words and I have obeyed Jesus’ words, I have come to deeply appreciate the joy of living well a day at a time. I suppose I am just a beginner at this skill of daily renewal, but I intend to keep investing in daily joy. It definitely fits better than worrying about tomorrow.

Bud McCord
Abide International

The 21st Century Challenge

2011-07-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

Thoughts for Church Leaders
21st Century Discipleship--A Difficult Reality

The 21st century challenge for churches and church leaders is to recognize the difference between local church mobilization systems and true discipleship while discovering a way to do both effectively.

The difficult reality is to admit that there is a difference between mobilizing people for the success of a church strategy and making disciples. Church mobilization is not the same as discipleship and well mobilized Christians may not be great disciples. It is hard for a church leader to say “My people are well mobilized but I don’t see the true marks of Jesus in their daily lives.” Even so, that is the reality that most pastors see if they are honest.

21st Century ministers are being primarily trained to mobilize church people because success at mobilization will most likely be the measure of their pastoral success. Ministers are becoming experts at mobilization as if great mobilization is great discipleship. Is it any wonder discipleship is the most disappointing area of modern church life for most pastors?

What can be done in light of this difficult reality? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Admit once and for all that mobilization is not discipleship. Stop trying to make a mobilization system the key to discipleship. Cooperating with Jesus in us is the key to discipleship.

2. Insist that the standard for discipleship in every church is Jesus in us and constant cooperation with His commands. Insist that discipleship is not simply meeting the demands of the mobilization system chosen by the church.

3. Affirm that every church needs a mobilization plan that fits their culture but discipleship (cooperation with Jesus) is never adjusted for culture. Being like Jesus and obeying His commands is not negotiable or flexible in any culture.

4. Train leaders who know how to affirm discipleship while leading effective mobilization. for delivering love.

5. Make discipleship the primary qualification for true mobilization. Make sure all leaders are disciples before they lead.

This is and always will be a challenge!

Bud McCord
Abide International

Maria

2011-07-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

When I preach in Brazilian churches for the first time I often ask the pastor to point out to me the finest Christian that attends his church. I ask him to point out the person who most lives the teachings of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount.

Nearly every time the pastor will think for a few moments and then point to a small woman. Usually her name is Maria.

As the pastor describes Maria to me she is most often very poor, semi-literate, a maid in someone’s home and living a very difficult life. Even so, she is the finest Christian in his church.

Over time I have come to believe that these small Christian women are a picture of how discipleship is meant to work. These tiny ladies are not the result of years of Bible courses or specialized theological instruction. They are the result of poverty of spirit. They are what they are because they begin at zero each and every day.

Real poverty forces people to live a day at at time. Real poverty forces people to measure life each day starting from a position of dependence. In simple terms the deeply poor know that they have nothing accumulated from which they can live. If they will live today they will receive what they will live on today.

The men and women in our world who learn to live each day believing God will provide for them through Christ become the Christians who most live the Sermon on the Mount.

Maria lives in “receive mode” because she has no alternative. Over time she has learned that “receive mode” (faith) needs no alternative. It works.

Yes, Maria weeps and she is comforted. Yes, her heart is pure and she sees God.

Yes, she is a peacemaker and she is God’s child.

Little by little she becomes salt and light and that is why her pastor wishes his whole church lived like Maria.

These little Brazilian ladies have become my spiritual heroes.

Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Why We Exist

2011-06-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

Is it possible for us to live every single moment of our lives for one essential reason? Would it be better for us to adjust our reasons for living as we move through the seasons of life? Is it even wise to have only one reason for living?

Listening to a lot of theories about the reasons for living one can easily think the best answer to these questions is “Whatever.” “Whatever” fits you is the reason you exist. You make the choice and do the best you can. “Whatever” happens is your purpose just don’t mess with my “Whatever” doing your “Whatever.”

Is that how Jesus lived? If you know the account of Jesus’ life in the Gospels you know that Jesus could never have spoken the word “Whatever” when describing his existence.

Jesus knew He came to this world to do the Father’s will which was to seek and save lost humanity. There was no “whatever” in Jesus mind, emotions or will. There was, however, a “Whatever the Father wants” in Jesus’ mind, emotions or will.

Judging from Jesus’ influence over the history of the last 2000 years and how His life has transformed mine, I would say doing “whatever the Father wants” clearly is why a human exists. “Whatever the Father wants” is why I exist.

Matthew 7:14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Human Power or Divine Love?

2011-06-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Matthew 7: 21-23

The people Jesus knows have chosen God’s love over human power. Jesus will accept nothing less of us and by His Spirit He will lead us to make this choice.

Those who will someday hear "I never knew you: depart from Me,” have made their choice. They opted for power as the path to personal satisfaction and security. They decided to become specialists in powerfully solving other people’s problems for their own gain. This use of spiritual power over others used by men for gain is not new.

The book of Acts records a story of a man who coveted more of the power to solve other’s problems for his own gain. The story of power seeking does not end well for the man. It never does. He, too, was forced to choose human power or God’s love.

“But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, 'This man is the great power of God.' (emphasis mine) And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.

Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, 'Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.'

But Peter said to him, 'Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.'

Then Simon answered and said, 'Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me'.” Acts 8: 9-24

Abiding in Christ is not a plan for gaining power over others by solving their problems. It is a plan for living Jesus’ life for others. Jesus’ life was not a manifestation of how one gains power over others by solving their problems. Jesus’ life is a manifestation of how one gives up human power over others in order to cooperate with God’s love which is the solution.

Some may say that to love is to have power. There is power in love. It is the power of a child. It is the power of Jesus washing feet. It is the power of saying “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” It is the power of being salt or light. It is the power of taking others to God’s love for their solutions.

If your power is the power of God’s love and you give love away freely as you receive it freely, more power to you!

Bud McCord
Abide International

Resist or Release?

2011-06-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

"You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person.” Matthew 5:38-39

Some of the things Jesus said are beyond shocking. His words are from another reality.

If we hear Jesus’ words and obey them then we truly have begun to believe Jesus is God’s Son with all authority.

I have wrestled with the words of Matthew 5:38-39 for over 44 years. I guess that says something about just how far I still have to go with giving up on this world and its views on reality. By God’s grace I am learning to live these words, but I have only recently begun to truly see them more clearly after 60 years of observing the contrast between resisting and releasing among humans.

Here is what I have seen. The Universe never works for those who resist others. It cannot. The Universe is designed to work for those who release love not resist people. Why has this been so hard for me to see and accept?

I have not seen it because I lacked complete faith in Jesus’ words and I have not spent enough time observing the beautiful and powerful things of God around me that release but do not resist.

Flowers do not resist, they release what they are and they are beautiful.

Birds do not resist, they release what they are and they are beautiful.

Salt does not resist, it releases what it is. It is beautiful, pleasing and preserving.

The ocean does not resist, it releases what it is and it is beautiful, powerful and irresistible..

The sun does not resist, it releases what it is and it is beautiful, powerful and irresistible.

Rain does not resist, it releases what is beautiful. refreshing and it, too, is irresistible.

Who can resist these things and win?

Jesus did not resist, He released what He is and He the beginning and the end of all beauty and all reality. Who can resist Jesus and win? Didn’t He settle that once and for all at Calvary?

When I resist an evil person, I stop being what I was made to be--a person made in the image of God. I stop being the part of creation that is supposed to release love like God does. When I resist an evil person I stop being human because my enemy stopped being human in order to attack me. To stop loving is to stop being human. Try to picture Jesus not loving and you will get the irresistible picture.

Resistance will never win in this universe because God does not resist and He is irresistible. God does not need to resist. He is the great I AM who is the source of source. All that is good He releases. Nothing and no one can stop that.

The evil person who attacks another human being is swimming out into an ocean that will not resist him but it will swallow him in all that it is and all that it releases. The evil person will perish the more he resists and the farther he swims away from the shore of who he was created to be.

When an evil person attacks you, don’t follow the evil person into the ocean. Turn your cheek, walk the extra mile and follow love which will make you more and more like Jesus.

To be irresistible don’t resist. Just be you as God designed you to be.

When you release love you will find the universe cooperates with you because the Creator designed it to cooperate with love not hate.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Making Disciples

2011-06-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

A disciple of Jesus is a person who is consistently cooperating with Jesus.

The process of learning to cooperate with Jesus can only effectively be taught and measured by those who already are cooperating with Jesus. This is why Jesus sent his first cooperating disciples into all the world to make disciples. He told the first disciples to teach new disciples to “observe” all the things that Jesus had commanded them. To “observe” a commandment of Jesus is to cooperate with the One making the command.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.” Matthew 28:18-20

Every disciple is initially surprised at what Jesus commands. The kind of cooperation He demands seems so foreign to our normal way of dealing with day to life that we are shocked at how Jesus wants us to behave.

Listen to just a few of Jesus commands and ask yourself how cooperative you are with Jesus in these areas.

“Do not resist an evil person.”

“Take no thought about tomorrow.”

“Forgive 70 times 7.”

“Wash feet.”

For many who produce discipleship materials the goal of discipleship seems to be the accumulation of information about Jesus’ commands. They love producing discipleship resources. They know what Jesus commands and they teach it with great skill. Unfortunately they often fail to measure cooperation with Jesus because measuring another disciple’s personal cooperation with Jesus is messy and time consuming. It is easier to measure sales of the material about Jesus’ commands and focus on increasing the numbers of students who successfully finished the course about cooperating.

For Jesus, discipleship is about continuous cooperation with Him. This is clear by watching how Jesus discipled his first followers. Cooperation with the Bible is not discipleship. However, true cooperation with the Bible will always lead to cooperation with Jesus which is discipleship. If cooperation with the Bible does not lead to cooperation with Jesus it is not discipleship. “Follow Me”, “Believe in Me” and “Abide in Me” cannot be replaced with “Believe what the Bible says about Me whether you cooperate with Me or not.”

Resources that help us cooperate more easily with Jesus are welcome. Resources that simply fill our minds with Christian ideas about the commands of Jesus can often mask a lack of actual cooperation with Jesus. Jesus shows us that Pharisees always know a lot about their Bible and little or nothing about cooperating with Him.

And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. John 5: 37-40

Today, choose any command of Jesus and test your level of cooperation with Jesus as this day passes by. If you need help evaluating, ask someone who consistently cooperates with Jesus to observe your cooperation with Jesus’ commands. Be prepared to adjust to Jesus not the person making the evaluation.

Remember, Jesus abides in you so your cooperation is directly with Him and not with the person who is discipling you. To abide in Him is to cooperate with Him moment by moment. Cooperation with Jesus makes us disciples who bear fruit. Cooperate with Jesus!

Today

2011-05-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

“For to me to live is Christ.”

Today I will love. That is what disciples of Jesus do every day.

Today I will listen to Jesus’ loving voice. Only His voice will set me free to love.

Today I will receive love directly from Jesus who is the source of pure love. Christ lives in me and He is generous with His love.

Today I will see my agenda as Jesus’ loving agenda. What appear to be accidents I will see as Divine appointments that will lead to love.

Today I will let Jesus’ perfect love give rest to my mind, emotions and will. Love from Jesus flows best through me when my soul is at rest.

Today I will see God’s love at work around me. Jesus will open my eyes to God’s loving presence.

Today is a good day for love and Jesus is ready to love through me.

Today is Christ in me.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Abide International is an organization dedicated to helping Christ-followers worldwide
understand and experience true satisfaction in Jesus as a moment by moment reality.

Abide International - 17701 N.W. 57th Avenue - Miami, FL 33055
Web: www.abideinternational.org - Email: info@abideinternational.org

Discipleship That Isn't

2011-05-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

Jesus says,
Discipleship that starts in our history instead of Jesus history isn’t discipleship.

Luke 14.26 – “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters – yes, even this own life – he cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus says,
Discipleship that is less that a 100% commitments to deliver God’s love on earth isn’t discipleship.

Luke 14.27 – “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus says,
Discipleship that depends on human resources for public life or spiritual battle isn’t discipleship.

Luke 14.28-33 – “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will be not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with twenty thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus says,
Discipleship that isn’t a continuous generosity toward others isn’t discipleship.

Luke 14.34-35a – “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “

Jesus says,
Discipleship that doesn’t begin and continue in listening to Jesus isn’t discipleship.

Luke 14.35 b – “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Bud McCord
Abide International

"Jesus, please receive me."

2011-05-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

I lost a dear Brazilian friend last week. He was well the weekend of May 8th. On Tuesday May 10th he was hospitalized with severe abdominal pain.

By Wednesday night it appeared he was improving. By Thursday morning he was in severe pain and being rushed to intensive care. By 10:30 AM on that same Thursday morning he was gone.

On Thursday evening less than 12 hours since his passing I was speaking at his viewing. By Friday morning less than 24 hours after his death I was conducting his funeral.

Here in Brazil the burial must take place within 24 hours. All goodbyes are fast and it is a shock to all involved.

My friend was one of the kindest and most gentle men I have ever met. We were neighbors here in Brazil in the 1980s and we had renewed our friendship when we returned to Brazil in 2005.

Our friendship spanned 31 years.

The last time I saw my friend was a few weeks ago when he came to here me preach on a Wednesday night. My subject was "What Is The Christian Life?" He gave me a huge smile after the message and a Brazilian hug. He had heard me preach dozens of times over the past 31 years and we had spent hours and hours discussing Jesus. During all these years he never affirmed to me in public or in private that he had received Jesus. He never once rejected my message about Jesus.

Just this week Pam told me that his widow had called while I was traveling. She wanted to thank me for helping during this shocking loss. She told Pam that the last words she heard her husband say were "Jesus, please receive me." I was so glad these words were heard by his wife. I believe Jesus heard them loud and clear.

My friend's words remind me of some words Jesus once heard at Calvary. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus told that man "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

I believe Jesus heard and received my friend last Thursday. Amen!

Bud McCord
Abide International

Confidence

2011-05-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

When we preach about forgiveness of sins and a guaranteed entrance into heaven after death, we Bible believing Christians show complete confidence in the work of Jesus at Calvary. This confidence is the power of the church’s evangelistic message.

This kind of confidence concerning forgiveness and our eternal destiny was clearly manifested in the early Christian church before this confidence was lost a few centuries later through religious tradition and hierarchy. It took a reformation for this confidence to return.

There was another kind of confidence in the early church that has nearly disappeared in today’s church. It is the confidence that Christ’s presence in us by the Holy Spirit can free us from the sinful works of our flesh. Listen to these words of Paul as recorded in Galatians 5:16 and ask yourself when was the last time you heard a preacher make such a confident affirmation about the transformation of a believer’s behavior.

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Do we really believe that there exists a power so perfect and so available to every believer that the lust of the flesh can be continuously overcome and give place to real, continuous love?

Do we really believe that the presence of Jesus in us right now is as real and as perfect as His death for us 2000 years ago?

Those of us who counsel and disciple others must face this question: Do we lead others to the confident experience of Galatians 5:16?

Do we know how to lead others to “Walk in the Spirit”? If not, we are in need of a reformation in our understanding of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Just as surely as the church needed a reformation in its evangelism I am convinced the church needs a continuing reformation of spiritual formation for this day.

Where there is no confidence in Jesus’ perfect presence in us by the Spirit there will be imperfect discipleship that leads us around in circles. We do not need a church wandering around in circles looking for the fruitful life. We need churches that are vineyards living the fruitful life.

Bud McCord
Abide International

The Human Spirit, Soul and Body

2011-05-10T08:08:00.001-07:00

The human spirit, soul and body were created to be God's delivery system of love on earth. Each person comes equipped with an inner and outer reality that should be completely and continuously at the service of God's loving intentions.

When the Scriptures say in Romans 3:23 that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God that means we have all used our inner and outer life for something less than love. God's glory was meant to be revealed by each human being continuously loving God and loving one's neighbor. To sin is to fail to love. This failure is coming short of the glory of God.

Perhaps the easiest way to notice when our inner and outer life have stopped loving is to notice each time we begin to judge other human beings as not worthy of our love. We have all done this. We have all sinned. Pay attention today and you will find yourself judging.

I grew up in the south of the USA during a time when people of a different skin color than mine were "legally" categorized as not entitled to the same love as other people in our town. This institutionalized love withholding left an entire country with a deep sickness of the soul. Many are still sick with some level of this spiritual sickness.

Laws were passed and much has changed in the USA. Even so, the issue we all face is much deeper than the color of one's skin. The issue is God's glory (continuous love) not being revealed by human beings.

As I travel across our world teaching that we must all abide in Christ if we are to be what God intends us to be, I am amazed at how many ways the human soul can create to justify the stopping of love. Truly without Jesus we can do nothing that even approaches God's glory. Without Jesus' perfect love filling our spirit and our soul our love will stop and we will find ourselves once again part of another culturally "legalized" form of sin. Every culture has its own form of "racism." Every culture finds a way to stop love.

If you would be free from the human tendency to stop love, you must abide in Christ moment by moment. He is the only way for a continuous culture of love to be found on earth. That culture is called the Church of Jesus Christ.

Jesus must heal us all for the Church to be the Church.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Stress

2011-04-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

What causes stress?

Too much work? Too many people who depend on us for solutions? Challenges beyond our ability?

What gives birth to stress? Where does stress find a home?

Stress is birthed in the idea that I am the source of my solutions and my success. It is a sense birthed and living in the mind, emotions and will that one must keep the machine of life running at all costs.

It is the conviction that says one cannot stop or everything will stop.

A life filled with loving activity is not the source of stress. Stress is more subtle than that. Stress is hidden in the thoughts, emotions and will of busy people.

Not all active and busy people are stressed. Jesus was active and busy but He was not stressed.

A life filled with suffering as we deliver love is not the source of stress. Stress is more painful than that. Stress is hidden in the thoughts, emotions and will of suffering people.

Not all suffering people are stressed. Jesus suffered but He was not stressed.

A life filled with people who resist our plans is not the source of stress. Stress is more offensive than that. Stress is hidden in the thoughts, emotions and will of offended people.

Not all resisted and offended people are stressed. Jesus was resisted and offended but He was not stressed.

There is a way to rid our mind, emotions and will of stress. Jesus is the way.

Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus can cure our stress as His mind, emotions and will become ours in our busy, hurting and offensive world. We need this cure desperately for ourselves and for those we love because stress is deadly and contagious.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Walk On or Run Away!

2011-04-20T06:19:00.000-07:00

Imagine for a moment that you are in a major city in the middle of the night. As you walk all alone down a poorly lit street you suddenly see another person coming your way.

You don’t know them but steadily they draw nearer to you in the shadows. Your mind is filled with thoughts of all the horror stories you have heard about muggings and robberies happening to people foolish enough to be on a quiet, dark street in this city filled with so many people.

Your heart is beating faster. You mind is racing. Should you turn and run away?

You walk on as the unknown person comes toward you. As they pass you see that it is an elderly man lost in his own thoughts as he seems to be heading home.

You laugh at yourself because you nearly ran away from a quiet, older man who meant you no harm. Even so you know that it won’t always be a harmless older man you will meet.

The tragic thing about this scene is that we live in a world where we are afraid of other human beings. What we should be thinking when another human being approaches us on a dark city street is “Thank God! Someone else is here with me!”

When we pray “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done…” we are praying a prayer that would eliminate our need to run away from any human being coming our way. We are praying a prayer for that wonderful day when just to see any human being will mean that more love is heading our way. When the kingdom comes we will not fear any human being ever again.

For now, not running away from those who come toward us in this dark world is the narrow path that few find. Not running away but walking this path like Jesus did is how the Kingdom comes to our dangerous cities. Don’t run away. Walk on like Jesus did.

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Do I Really Understand?

2011-04-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Eph. 5:17

Do I understand what the will of the Lord is? Can I be wise without understanding what the will of the Lord is?

Wisdom gives us the ability to predict what will happen before it happens. Wise people know exactly what consequences come from human behaviors. Wise people are seldom caught by surprise.

If a disciple of Jesus does not understand clearly what God wants, they will be constantly surprised by what is happening around them. Understanding what God wants and what God does not want is critical to wise living and discipleship.

One of the best ways to understand what the will of the Lord is comes from reading the Gospels and watching closely the behavior of Jesus. Jesus said of Himself “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” John 14:9 In other words, watching Jesus reveals what the will of the Lord is. Jesus is what God wants from human beings. Cooperating with Jesus is wisdom.

As you read the Gospels, make a list of what Jesus does and you will see from that list exactly what God is doing and wants to do in and through us.

For example, In the Gospels we see Jesus constantly forgiving sinners. We see Jesus refusing to treat people differently because of their social standing or power. We see Jesus serving others even when they do not serve Him. Jesus is what God wants. Is that what we want?

If you say you want to do the will of God, you are saying you want to live like Jesus. Do you really understand what living like Jesus means? It means you will have to lose your will and completely cooperate with God’s will instead. As frightening as that might sound, it is the wise thing to do. Even if doing so means dying, you will live and bless many in the process.

I would counsel every Christian to go back and read over and over again the four Gospels until you can honestly say “I see the will of God and I understand it.”

Then I would challenge every disciple to say “I want exactly what Jesus wants. I want the will of God.”

Bud McCord
Abide International

The End is Near

2011-04-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Soon after my conversion I was exposed to constant preaching on the “End Times.” At first I was a big fan of the prophetic messages. Eventually I began to lose interest in the constant predictions and theories.

I began to notice that people in the church, including me, could become so focused on the “end” that they were not living and loving “now”. It seemed as if we were so focused on who might the Anti-Christ that we were not living the real Christ.

Well, the End is nearer now than it was back in the 1970s. I am older and the world is going crazy in the middle east. Certainly “The End is Near.”

So, what does that mean to me right now? It means that my love for God and my neighbor is more important than it has ever been. Perfecting my love vertically toward God and horizontally toward my neighbor needs my full attention. I don’t have time for theories right now unless they can move me to love more perfectly. Yes, the end is near and love is calling me out among the people of the world whose end may be as near as today.

By the way, the End in the Scriptures is Jesus and He is always near.

Revelation 21:6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts."

Bud McCord
Abide International

Confession

2011-03-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

“If we confess our sins….” I John 1:9

Do Christians still confess their sins to God? It has been a long time since I heard a sermon on the need to confess our sins. It has been a long time since I heard a disciple of Jesus talk about confession. Where has confession gone?

Confession has always been difficult for men and women. It is not pleasant to discover when, where and how our love stops toward God or toward others. It has always been easier to throw stones at others than it is to see ourselves as we really are.

I remember hearing a speaker say that our ability to easily see and judge another person’s sin reveals a deep and intimate knowledge of the actions being judged. In other words, if you can see another’s sin easily, it is because you have personal experience with that same sin.

Jesus once dealt with an angry crowd of judgmental religious men who were about to stone a woman found in the act of adultery. (See John 8) He stopped their judgment by saying “He who is without sin can cast the first stone.” Beginning from the oldest and ending with the youngest they all dropped their judgment and left.

They left because Jesus led them into confession. The cure of judging others is in the spiritual discipline of confession. How long has it been since Jesus led you into confession?

“If we confess on sins….” that is a big “if”.

The Monster God

2011-03-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

Recently I heard a pastor refer to the God of the Old Testament as "the Monster God." This pastor was lamenting the apparent fact that the God we meet in the Old Testament seems so cruel and vindictive. Is the God of the Old Testament "the Monster God?" Is God cruel and vindictive?

Around the same time I heard this pastor talking about the vengeful God of the Old Testament a new convert spoke to Pam about how much trouble she was having reading through the Old Testament. She was shocked by all the conflicts and war. She was shocked that God would be involved.

Well, what should we do with the Old Testament? Should we apologize for the God of the Old Testament?

What we should do is understand what inspires God to do what He does here on earth. God is doing what must be done to keep love alive on this planet among men and women.

Consider these statements about reality. If oxygen disappears, we disappear. If water disappears, we disappear.
If food disappears, we disappear. If any of these things begin to disappear, should we take action to find the source of the problem and resolve it? I guess that depends on whether or not we think humans disappearing would be a bad thing. Would our disappearing from earth be a bad thing?

Keep thinking with me a little farther. What if humans are the only delivery system of love on earth? What if saving humans is to save love on earth? What if the Old Testament is God saving love on earth?

I believe that human beings are meant to be the Divine delivery system of love on earth. Humans are to the sustaining of love in this world what plants are to the sustaining of oxygen.

Sin destroys love. Sin is like pollution which destroys all things clean. God will go after sin for this reason. God will go after what is destroying love because God is love.

The God of the Old Testament is not a monster. The God of the Old Testament is the hero of love.
God in the New Testament continues to be the hero of love. God didn't calm down. God in the New Testament got even more aggressive. He sent His Son to take the last blow against man's sin.

I, for one, read the Old Testament with shame that man did not cooperate with God's love from the beginning. To criticize God for being too harsh is to say mankind was not important enough to save. I am glad God felt we needed to be saved and He did what He had to do.

Go back and read the Old Testament and when things get ugly remember what is at stake is the very existence of love on this planet.

True Spirituality

2011-03-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

What does true spirituality look like?

The only way I know to see clearly and define correctly true spirituality is to look closely at the life and behavior of Jesus. Only Jesus’ life and behavior define and reveal to mankind what constitutes true human spirituality.

As I have examined closely Jesus’ true spirituality in the Gospels, I have come away with two helpful words—Pure Inspiration. Jesus lived Pure Inspiration among us. Being constantly inspired by God’s purity and presence, He was “God with us” as a human being. He was “grace and truth” made visible and available to us. The fullness of God dwelt in Him and that explains why we see God in Him.

If I want to be a spiritual human being like Jesus, then I must also be a man inhabited by the same pure Inspiration. I must find and enjoy the same source of Pure Inspiration that allowed Jesus to be who He was and do what He did.

In the book of Galatians Paul called finding and living in this kind of Pure Inspiration “walking in the Spirit.” In the book of Ephesians he called finding and living in this Pure Inspiration “Being filled with the Spirit.” In John 15 Jesus called this constant connection to Pure Inspiration “Abide”.

Whatever this contact and connection to Pure Inspiration is called, it always comes down to an intimate, continuous, personal relationship to the only source of Pure Inspiration that allows men and women to be what God intended for them to be since the beginning described in Genesis 1 and 2. Pure Inspiration is contact with and connection to the triune God that said in Genesis 1 “Let US make man in our image…”

No one’s spirituality will be what it should be until it is sourced in God’s total and inspiring purity. Jesus in us is our connection to that total purity. Jesus in us is God’s way of inspiring us moment by moment to be like Jesus was as a human being Just as He was inspired by His Father through the Spirit, He is willing to be our connection to Pure Inspiration right now.

When Jesus said He always did that which pleased the Father, He was saying that He always did what Pure Inspiration made Him want to do and also enabled Him to do.

When we abide in the true Vine, we, too, can be inspired to like Jesus. There is equal hope for all of us since the same Pure Inspiration that abides in one believer abides in all believers. Live Pure Inspiration today. Live Jesus. Living Jesus is what true spirituality looks like.

“Christ is all and is in all.” Col. 1:16

“For to me to live is Christ…” Phil. 1:21

“It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” Gal. 2:20

Bud McCord
Abide International

Inspired

2011-03-09T05:16:00.000-08:00

I love the way God orchestrates our circumstances to inspire us. It has been my experience that every day can be an inspirational experience if we will receive it as coming from God's loving hands.

I recently experienced 4 days of continuous inspiration in a small Brazilian city call Jaguaquara in the state of Bahia. this city is not a place I would ever have found on my own. God picked this city for me to visit. He wanted to inspire me.

The city is simple, far away from the main traffic of the state and clearly not the kind of place I would have picked to live. It is, however, home to an inspiring work of God.

In 1898 an American missionary family named Taylor and a Brazilian family named Egidio decided to bless poor children with a Christian education. 114 years later the school continues its mission and is blessing over 500 students who come in from farms where good education is not available.

What inspired me was to walk the streets of this simple interior town and know that many of the state's leading citizens and even governors were loved in Jesus' name at the school.

I wonder how many days the Taylor and Egidio families wondered if their work and life would matter? I wonder if it ever entered their mind that they would bless me like they did this week?

The things you do today may inspire someone 114 years from now. Do the best you can today.

(In one of the photos there is a woman who is praying for the team that led the conference. She is the granddaughter of one of the original families that started the school in 1898. Now that is inspiring!)

Sir, We would see Jesus

2011-03-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

I recently visited a well known Vineyard near São Paulo in the city of São Roque. This area of Brazil has been home to vineyards ever since European immigrants brought their precious vines with them as their hope for a better future. Their dreams came true and many of the vineyards are now multi-million dollar businesses that fund comfortable lifestyles for the descendants of those poor immigrants who came to Brazil believing that their vines would keep them alive.

My visit to the Goes Vineyard was to take a picture of the vines and branches at harvest time. Unfortunately I missed the harvest by about two weeks.

Pastor Sidney Costa and I enjoyed a great lunch at the vineyard's fine restaurant and then we asked if we could see the vines and the branches so we could take a few pictures. The people selling the juices and the wines said that would not be possible, but we could buy all the juice and wine we wanted. They also told us we were free to shop in their gift shops.

I insisted that I wanted to see the vines and the branches. They insisted that the public could not see them except during paid tours.

We wandered out into the parking lot and I found a vine and some branches. It caught my attention that what the original immigrants believed would build the vineyard was the vines and the only vines I could see were in the middle of asphalt. It seemed to me that the current owners were more interested in selling food, wine, gifts and tours. The vines and branches were no longer the focus.

In a way this reminded me of the modern evangelical church. We say we trust Jesus and He is the source that builds our churches. Is that really what we believe? Could it be we now trust our courses, studies and services to do what the vine once did? Are we interested in a comfortable income rather than healthy vines and branches?

We left the well known vineyard and headed back toward São Paulo. We saw some vines and branches along the side of the road and stopped. The contrast was amazing. This was apparently a newer vineyard and the thing they wanted us to see was the vines and the branches.

I wonder what that same vineyard will look like when it "succeeds"? Will it surround its vines with concrete, open restaurants and gift shops? I hope not. It is the vine and branches that build vineyards.

Breathe and Rest

2011-02-28T17:01:00.001-08:00

I am so deeply in debt! I have lost control. I am suffocating. I am about to faint.

Even being so deeply in debt to God, His grace in Christ keeps coming to me day after day. Like oxygen I have never produced, His grace surrounds me. I have paid for none of it yet I continue to breathe in His grace in order to live. I cannot stop. I have become as dependent on His grace as I am on oxygen.

My debt grows exponentially until my hope to settle the debt overwhelms me. I weep. He smiles. He laughs. He knows I am too poor to pay. He finally has me where I belong—breathing His grace with no way to pay.

Suddenly I see the truth. I am not in debt! I am in His love. We live and dance as one.

I rest. Finally I can see what He wants. Freely I have received. Now freely I can give.

When I lost control I found my life. I live to give. I live to love.

Freely you have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8

Bud McCord
Abide International

Spirit and Soul

2011-02-22T10:39:00.000-08:00

Did you know that there is a difference between your spirit and your soul? There is and that difference needs to be understood if you ever hope to understand and live what God has in store for you.

Read these words in Hebrews 4:12 and note how the spirit and the soul are differentiated and contrasted.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (emphasis mine)

In this verse soul is linked to “joints” and spirit is linked to “marrow”. Problems with your joints will not kill you but they may make you want to die. Just ask people with chronic back pain! Problems in your mind, emotions and will (your soul) will not condemn you death, but may make you want to condemn yourself to death.

Problems with your marrow (spirit) don’t seem as dramatic or as painful as joint issues (soul disturbances) but they will eventually take your life. Problems with your spirit may seem unimportant and almost unnoticed, but they can separate you from God’s life forever.

The verse goes on to link “thoughts” to the soul and “intents” to the “heart” or spirit.

What goes on in the thoughts is significant to human behavior, but God sees our intent and judges our intentions as the essential thing about us.

It is in the marrow of our being, our spirit, where our intentions are birthed. Just as marrow is supposed to be the source of healthy human blood that allows us to live, so, too, spirit is supposed to be the source of healthy, loving intentions from which we should live. It is from the marrow (spirit or heart) that the intentions travel to the soul where they are felt, considered and become personal human desires. As soon as these desires are birthed in your soul you will quickly fulfill them with your body as actions.

Your spirit is where God designed you to connect with Him for the constant inspiration of healthy, loving intentions. No constant Divine inspiration in your spirit means no hope of healthy life and love in your soul. This is why the book of Ezekiel says God will need to give us a new heart and write His laws on our heart.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

Your soul is where those Divinely inspired intentions are transformed into your thoughts, feelings and desires. These healthy, loving intentions did not originate in you but they become yours by God’s gracious generosity. That is why you will say as they become yours in your soul “I am what I am by the grace of God.” I Corin.15:10

Your body is where those Divinely inspired intentions, which are now fully yours, are manifested as continuous love.

So, here is the Divine plan. You receive in your spirit the inspired, living intentions of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit who abide in you. You rest and rejoice in your soul as these intentions become yours. You then release these intentions through your body as sustained love.

Over time, as you live from the union of your spirit with the Spirit of Christ, you stop limping in your soul and love gets delivered efficiently. Then you say “For to me to live is Christ.” Phil 1:21 This is what is called “spiritual formation”.

This is the faith, hope and love reality Paul describes in I Cor. 13- 14:1. This is the more excellent way to live.

If you have received Christ as your Savior, the Father, Son and Spirit have come to live in your spirit where they will inspire your intentions until your soul becomes one with them and real love is delivered through you where it is needed. Your job is to believe and cooperate—to abide.

Your soul pain (joint pain) will diminish over time and one day you will walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the wrong intentions which once were so natural to you.

What a plan! I’m in! In union with the Spirit of Christ, that is.

Bud McCord
Abide International

WMD or RLW?

2011-02-15T06:14:00.000-08:00

How do you defuse Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)? One at a time, carefully.

In 2003 the most powerful military force in the history of the world invaded Iraq looking for WMDs. None were found. The embarrassment for the USA lingers to this day. Even so, WMDs do exist and we would be wise to carefully find them, defuse them and disarm them if they are pointed toward us and those we love.

Where should we look first for the WMDs that most threaten us? We need look no further than the human soul—especially our own. The landscape of destruction across our planet’s history can be traced to individual human souls bent on independence from God’s original plan. The most destructive things that have every happened on this planet happened first as an explosion in a human soul. (see the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4)

The human soul was a gift from God to mankind. As His greatest gift, the soul was originally designed to be a River of Living Water--an RLW. A rebellion turned Rivers of Living Water (RLWs) into Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). Humans became explosive and began destroying love on earth. Now each human soul needs to be found, defused and disarmed by Jesus, carefully.

C.S. Lewis describes humanity’s situation in these shocking terms.

“Now what was the sort of ‘hole’ man got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor---that is the only way out of our ‘hole’. This process of surrender—this movement full speed astern—is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self will that we have been training ourselves with for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.” Mere Christianity - The Perfect Penitent.

God in Christ has invaded our world to disarm once and for all the WMDs in the souls of men. Jesus set this finding, defusing and disarming process in motion by giving his own perfect and loving soul on the cross to gain legal, spiritual entrance into all human souls. At Calvary Jesus gained the authority to find, defuse and disarm our destructive souls. Our souls which so easily destroy love are pointed straight at the heart of God because God is love.

God through Christ is willing to disarm my personal WMD, my soul, when I personally repent, surrender and invite Him into my inner life to defuse and disarm me. Through His church and by His Spirit Jesus right now is finding, defusing and disarming human souls one by one, carefully.

When Jesus disarms my WMD He abides in my inner life to keep me disarmed and carefully transforms my soul into a RLW—a River of Living Water. He restores the gift of my soul back to what it was originally intended to be-the delivery system of love. Christians call this regeneration or a re-genesis. A bomb becomes a blessing.

Perhaps we think that our souls are not all that dangerous. Certainly human history tells another story and our own inner thoughts tell a story of what we are capable of if the right buttons were pushed. Given the right circumstances any human soul can wreck havoc where it should deliver love. We may never do all the damage we could do and we may do less damage than most, but we are still just as dangerous as all other WMDs when it comes to destroying love.

Christians believe that this process of disarming WMDs hidden in human souls is the most important thing going on in the world. Even in heaven there is a celebration every time a sinner repents and a WMD becomes a RLW.

That gentle knock on the door of your heart is the invading Jesus. He doesn’t invade you with force. He knocks. Let Him in and He will defuse and disarm you. You really don’t want to see what your soul could do if it really went off, do you? That would be hell.

John 7:37-38
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

SOS--Soft On Sin

2011-02-08T05:32:00.000-08:00

Jesus' death was approved and applauded by the legalistic sect of His day called the Pharisees. Why? They did not believe Jesus took sin seriously enough. To them, Jesus was soft on sin and, therefore, an enemy of God deserving of death. To legalists being soft on sin is always an emergency calling for drastic action.

As hard as this characterization of Jesus is to believe for those of us who know that He "became sin for us who knew no sin...", the legalists of Jesus' day thought He was soft on sin and deserved to die for being soft. If one believes as legalists do that we exist as humans to do battle with sin in God's name, we could easily think like Pharisees and legalists always think. To them, being soft on sin makes us unworthy of the space we occupy in the world.

Legalists are deadly serious about sin. They focus on sin constantly and they fight it as if their lives depended on the intensity of their fight against it. To the Pharisees Jesus did not focus on sin and He did not fight it. He deserved to die because God is against sin and He did not appear to be with God because He wasn't with them.

Jesus said in John 15" 18-21 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me."

Their are many manifestations of legalism's fight against sin in our world today. None, however, is as powerful and committed to eradicating sin as is radical Islam. They are taking the fight against sin so seriously that they have given the war against sin a special name--Jihad. They have also given all who are soft on sin a special name-Infidel.

Radical Islamists call America and all the western world "The Great Satan." Why? Because no creature ever created is softer on sin than Satan. To today's radical legaists no culture or country takes sin less seriously than the USA and her allies. A casual look at western culture would seem to prove their point.

Are they wrong about the western world being soft on sin? No, the western world does not take sin seriously any more. Are they right that true followers of Jesus are soft on sin? No, true Christians abhor sin but have chosen love over a sword to fight it. Are they right to see western society as Christian? No. Are they right to expect Christians to be hard on sin? Yes, but not hard in their way of being hard.

Legalists are blind to the heart of a person. They never saw Jesus correctly. Legalists can never see the heart because they are too focused on who is or is not bowing to their laws for war against sin. They can only see who agrees with their particular strategy for the war on sin. Death is always very present where legalists rule. When they have dealt with those who really seem softest on sin, like Jesus, they will turn on each other.

The radical legalists of any age will find and ostracize those who don't take sin seriously enough. Eventually they will come with their stones, swords and bombs to destroy them in God's name. Legalists must fight sin or God will consider them soft on sin and that means hell to pay. In their view, Hell is for all who were soft on sin.

I doubt that there has ever been a more committed, worldwide legalism greater than radical Islam. Even so, they are no more than near relatives of the Pharisees who called for Jesus' death 2000 years ago for being too soft on sin.

What can followers of Jesus do in the face of an accusation that says we are too soft on sin? We must listen to Jesus in Matthew 5: 17-20 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus was not soft on sin. He was committed to its destruction by continuous love.

Pharisees always have hundreds of laws that they label as the right way to be hard on and eventually destroy sin. For radical Islamists the law for sin destruction is called "Shariah".

This is nothing new. The rigid external laws make it easy to spot and isolate those who are obviously soft on sin. All those who ignore the laws are soft on sin and deserve to die at the hand of the righteous who are tough on sin. The rigid external laws make isolating the guilty easier and it makes the legalistic leaders proud of their righteous fight against sin. To legalists, anything done to fight sin is good. There is only one rule for the legalist--Fight sin.

Jesus' way of dealing with sin is different. He fought it and destroyed it by fulfilling the law. The fulfilling of the law is perfect love. He defeated sin by continuously loving God and His neighbor. By continuously loving as He lived and continuously loving the world at Calvary as He died he defeated and destroyed sin and death once and for all. He chose to be hard on Himself so He could be effectively hard on sin not us.

Jesus' calls us to follow Him in this way of dealing with sin. Jesus calls us to carry our cross. Jesus calls us to love instead of justifying the death of those who are soft on sin. If we do this Jesus' way, we, too, will be called "soft on sin" by legalists.

When the legalists come, and they always do, don't grab your sword to be hard on them. Grab Jesus' love that abides in you. Carry your cross and you will be truly hard on sin.

A sword is in reality too soft on sin. Staying bowed in submission to Jesus and His love will strike a blow against sin that will outlive your own temporary suffering. By doing this you will let the world see the way, the truth and the life is Jesus. Jesus always has been and always will be the only way to be truly tough on sin.

The legalists always come, but love is greater than their blindness and rage. There will be a resurrection for all who are hard on sin as Jesus was.

It is time for Christians to be tough on sin--Love like Jesus did.

First Thought: Christ in You

2011-02-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

First Thought
Christ in You
"Christ is all and is in all.” Col. 3:11

When you awaken each day remember that Jesus abides in you. Verbally affirm His presence as your entire Christian life. Tell Him you are thrilled He abides in you. Never start a day from what you lack.

Listen to how Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola describe Jesus in their wonderful book Jesus Manifesto.

Jesus is…

Your Shepherd, your Advocate, your Mediator, your Bridegroom, your Lion, your Lamb, your sacrifice, your manna, your smitten Rock, your living water, your food, your drink, your good and abundant land, your dwelling place, your Sabbath, your new moon, your Jubilee, your new wine, your feast, your aroma, your anchor, your wisdom, your peace, your comfort, your Healer, your joy, your glory, your power, your strength, your wealth, your victory, your redemption, your Prophet, your Priest, your kinsmen redeemer, your teacher, your guide, your liberator, your deliverer, your Prince, your Captain, your vision, your sight, your beloved, your way, your truth, your life, your author, your finisher, your beginning, your end, your age, your eternity — your all and all.

May the perfect and positive presence of Jesus be your first thought not your last.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Good Works

2011-01-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

“Good works are simply fruit falling off a tree. If you sink your roots deep in Christ, who is your life, you not be able to stop the fruit from coming forth.” Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola The Jesus Manifesto

Trees never eat their own fruit. The fruit is simply the visible proof that the tree has internally found its natural source of food and satisfaction. The tree will not eat its fruit because it is already well fed. Farmers focus on the well-being of the tree and they confidently wait for the fruit to appear. Visible fruit means the internal system is work is working.

Near the end of His ministry Jesus cursed a tree because it had no fruit. That tree represented the people of God in Israel who had not cooperated with God’s perfect care and provision. They were cursed because they existed to bear the fruit of God’s care and provision and they were useless as a plant without bearing fruit. Their failure was without excuse.

Christ in us, who is our life, provides for every believer the exact care and provision for the fruit of the Spirit to emerge naturally from our lives. Instead of cooperating with the perfect, inner presence of Jesus, we insist on trying to bear our own fruit. We try. That is our problem. Trying is not our job. Our job is to believe. Believing that this fruit will come from God through Christ in us is our work.

“Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.’” John 6: 28-29

Human wisdom puts great faith in trying. God’s wisdom says we should rest and receive from Jesus in us by His Spirit.

If you are in the habit of really trying hard to be a good Christian, stop immediately. Instead, rest in Jesus, receive from Jesus and rejoice in Jesus. When you do, the fruit will come.

Receiving directly from Jesus in us is the source of all fruit God will claim as His.

The Jesus Test

2011-01-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

“Did something similar happen to Jesus that is now happening to me?”

Jesus sets the pattern for how life will be for all of His followers as they deliver God’s love. If something was true for Jesus as He delivered love, it can and should be true for us as we deliver His love. If it happened to Him it will happen to us.

Oswald Chambers said: “We have no right to expect to be in any other relation than our Lord Himself was in.” (Reading for Jan. 11 “My Utmost for His Highest”)

When we find ourselves in any situation we should look it and see if it passes “The Jesus Test.” Did anything similar happen to Jesus as He was obeying His Father and delivering love? If it did, then when the same thing is happening to us it should be seen as a normal Christian life.

Here are some examples of things that happen to us that should be taken through “The Jesus Test.”
1. Having only enough materially to love those we need to love.
2. Seeing doors of opportunity to love continuously open before us as we knock on them.
3. Seeing others suffer because we obeyed God.
4. Being accused of what we have not done.
5. Asking for wisdom and receiving it immediately.
6. Being accused of being what we are not.
7. Having someone betray us that we have loved.
8. Overcoming our fears.
9. Being hated even though we have only loved.
10. Seeing “mountains” move out of our way.
11. Looking like a failure in the eyes of men.

The life of Jesus is the test of how God can and must treat those He loves as they deliver love to those who need it most. If you use any other formula than Jesus' life to try and make sense of your discipleship on earth, you will be unable to make it all add up. Things that happen to us only add up when Jesus is our starting point and the goal.

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master.” Matthew 10:24-25

When we all stand before God it will the “The Jesus Test” that will be used to evaluate our lives. We should get used to taking this test day by day because “Christ is all, and is in all.” Col. 3:11

My Potential

2011-01-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

“Live up to your potential.” This is the mantra of all self-help seminars and courses. It is a powerful and attractive statement for self-improvement. It makes millions of dollars for those who use it effectively. This statement is, however, a useless statement for discipleship and spiritual formation.

Discipleship and spiritual formation are about living up to Jesus’ potential not living up to our potential. As wonderful as focusing on our potential sounds, it is deadly to learning to live from Jesus as our only source. Disciples must abandon the idea of developing their personal potential.

Jesus says to the development of my potential: “Without Me you can do nothing.”

John 15:5 I need to say the same thing to my personal potential every day.

The first use of the concept of “Live up to your potential” was in the garden of Eden. A very persuasive voice led humanity to think they could do better than living from the fruit of God’s potential. The impact of that self-help attempt is well documented in the Scriptures.

A dear friend of mine who survived the Holocaust once told me that the name Jehovah means “Source of Source.” I love that! God is the potential of all potential.

Poverty of Spirit is to abandon once and for all my potential apart from God. Faith is receiving God’s potential as my only potential. Abiding is to live from the perfect potential of the true Vine.

Jesus is the believer’s potential. We can be what He allows us to be and that is far more than we could ever be apart from Him. Forget developing your own potential. Live Jesus’ potential. Abide!

Bud McCord
Abide International

An Amazing Promise

2010-12-27T06:14:00.000-08:00

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16

There is a way for every disciple of Jesus to experience sustained victory over their flesh. There is a way for every Christian to be free from every habit pattern we developed to manage our own lives apart from God.

The Apostle Paul described this way of overcome the flesh as walking in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to be habitually inspired by God’s perfect presence in us instead of being habitually inspired by our own understanding of ourselves and our personal plans for survival.

Every day you can observe what continuous inspiration by God looks like by observing the habitual behavior of birds. Birds begin each day inspired by the creative inspiration God placed in their nature. They simply awaken and begin moving about receiving from God’s generosity what they need for that day.

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? Matthew 6:25-27

At the end of each day you will see the birds calmly ending their day by finding a place to rest for the night. They show no fear, anxiety or frustration. They slow down to a complete stop and wait for the generosity of the next day.

The economy of the birds is amazing. They find what they need by simply being what birds are inspired to be by the Creator. The key to their lives is not how hard they work. They are living from the Source that created them in the beginning. Birds are successful because they are inspired by God.

To walk in the Spirit as a Christian is to learn to live from the original Source of human inspiration—The Holy Spirit of God. To walk in the Spirit is to return to paradise—to Genesis. To walk in the Spirit is to renounce your own inspiration and receive His.

The key to the victory over the flesh is not effort. The key is inspiration. Walk in the inspiration only God can provide. What an amazing promise an inspired human being can be.

Bud McCord
Abide International

The Power of a Single Thought

2010-12-25T14:46:00.000-08:00

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
Psalm 23:1

Among all of the statements in the Old Testament, this one is perhaps the best known and remembered. It is also one of the most powerful thoughts ever spoken by a person of faith.
To have come to this statement David had to have seen God in a way that few men ever do. Someone once said: “No man can see God and live---live as he once lived.” David had seen God and he never lived the same way as before.

This single thought concerning God’s constant generosity had changed David. This single thought changes all who can say it with real faith.

This single thought changes everything about the universe in which we live day by day.

Men and women are not born believing that God is continuously generous with mankind. All men and women are born afflicted with the fear of lacking what is needed to live. This thought about never “wanting” for what we need must be given to us from God’s own generosity and patience.

We may hear a thousand sermons and be unchanged. We may read our Bibles time and time again and nothing changes. It takes a thought like David’s thought to become truly ours for our lives to change forever.

When such a thought comes from God to us, we are changed. Pray for this single thought to be yours right now. When this thought is truly yours, your soul will rest and you will be changed to live as you have never lived.

Then pray that the rest of Psalm 23 will come to you one powerful thought at a time.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Further Instructions

2010-12-16T15:57:00.000-08:00

The story is told of a missionary in New Zealand who had a bold approach to planting churches. He would go from village to village, locate the local bar where the roughest men gathered and begin his ministry right next to the bar. The missionary was fearless and knew from personal experience that God could reach those that seemed unreachable.

One day a very rough and tough drunk from the local bar confronted the missionary with a Bible question. He asked the missionary if it was true that Jesus had said when someone hit a Christian the Christian was required to turn the other cheek. When the missionary agreed that Jesus had taught such a thing, the drunk immediately struck the missionary in the face knocking him to the ground.

The missionary got up and turned the other cheek to the drunk. He was struck again on the other cheek and once again fell to the ground. When he got up the second time, he hit the drunk with a powerful blow and knocked him unconscious.

When the drunk awakened he asked the missionary why he had hit him. He said it was because the instructions of Jesus only covered the first two blows to the face. After that there were no further instructions.

I like this story. It appeals to my desire to finally be able to strike the last blow in God’s name. It appeals to my human, fleshly spirit and my respect for human discipline.
The problem is that there are further instructions.

Matthew 5:10-11 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The further instructions for persecution are “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad….”

That does not sound like a great plan to my fleshly spirit because rejoicing in the face of persecution is a reaction born of the Spirit of Jesus and not the spirit of man. Jesus’ teaching and behavior only make sense when we begin at the level of His Spirit and not at the level of the human spirit and self control.

To truly understand and obey Jesus’ teaching we must move beyond the letter of human control and live inspired by the Spirit of Jesus. We need inspiration not personal self- control. There is an enormous difference between the two.

Only by abiding in Jesus, the True Vine, can such an inspired shift in human behavior occur. Jesus doesn’t call us just to turn the other cheek. He calls us to let the Spirit that inspired Him all the way to Calvary inspire us all the way to rejoicing and being exceedingly glad when persecuted.

John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

Be sure to read all the inspired instructions of Jesus no matter how good it may feel to have the last blow be yours. Selective obedience is not inspiration.

Bud McCord
Abide International

December 2010 update

2010-12-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

Click on image to enlarge.

Forgiven, At Peace and Healed

2010-12-06T05:35:00.000-08:00

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

For those who know Jesus as the Messiah, this is one of the most beloved verses in the Old Testament. I love these words!
The focus on forgiveness is crystal clear. The offer of peace is powerful and perfect. Healing is guaranteed.

Unfortunately the words “And by His stripes we are healed.” have been a place of great debate among the disciples of Jesus.

Do the words “By His stripes we are healed” mean that I can claim physical healing for my body on the same level that I claim my forgiveness and peace with God? Should I awaken every day as sure of being healed of every physical sickness as I awaken assured of my perfect peace with God and my perfect freedom from condemnation?

What does a human being who is “cured by Jesus’ stripes” look like and behave like in this world?
I have personally seen God cure people of all kinds of illnesses. I have seen the joy in a church when a physical healing is announced. I have participated in that joy. I hope I see this kind of healing many more times. I have also done funerals for people I once saw healed.

What I know is that no cure of our physical bodies here on earth can reverse the fact that these bodies of ours are temporary and will eventually give in to their inevitable decline and death. There will come a day when the permanent cure of our bodies will be to die. For Christians that is not something to fear!

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Cor. 4.16-18

A pastor suffering from cancer here in Brazil said to his church, ‘If I am cured you will see the glory of God. If I am not cured I will see the glory of God.”

Could his words be the true meaning of the words “By His stripes we are healed” ? Could this pastor’s fearlessness, complete confidence God could heal him and His desire that others would see God be the cure of Jesus’ stripes being manifested?

I have seen people use the words “By His stripes we are healed” to put enormous pressure on believers who cannot seem to receive their cure from serious illness. Those who see this verse as a guarantee of healing for those with enough faith often leave those who are sick with the distinct impression that to be sick and remain sick is to be lacking faith and a failure to receive all that is ours in Jesus.

Here is what I know. Regardless of what is happening to me, I am healed by His stripes. My healing means that the glory of God can and will be seen in my situation no matter which way it goes. A human being who can glorify God in any circumstance in this fallen world is a person Jesus has healed by His stripes.

Illness can no longer claim the victory over us just as surely as death can no longer claim victory over us. Illness can no longer claim the victory over us just as surely as we are all now at peace with God. No physical cross or illness can ever again destroy our ability to glorify God. Jesus has seen to our healing once and for all by His stripes which revealed the glory of God when He died and will continue to reveal His glory in us.

His stripes have healed us. We are cured to glorify God in all things.

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Bud McCord
Abide International

Abide International is an organization dedicated to helping Christ-followers worldwide
understand and experience true satisfaction in Jesus as a moment by moment reality.

Abide International - 17701 N.W. 57th Avenue - Miami, FL 33055
Web: www.abideinternational.org - Email: info@abideinternational.org

2010 Retreat Season

2010-12-06T02:41:00.001-08:00

Our 2010 retreat season finished on the weekend of December 4-5 in Campos do Jordão. Planning, promoting and executing 9 retreats in 9 months is a challenge, but the joy of seeing people learn to rest in Christ in order to release His love is worth it.

Each group is a unique collection of disciples who experience the oneness Jesus promised to all who will start everything from His perfect presence.

A special thanks to all who have supported the Abide International ministries this year! We make a great team!

Bud and Pam

Customized Cross and Customized Prosperity

2010-11-29T10:44:00.000-08:00

Customized Cross and Customized Prosperity

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33

These are Jesus’ words concerning God’s provision and Christian prosperity. We should listen carefully to these words. They answer some questions Christians around the world are asking.

Just how rich should great faith make us? Should there be a direct link between what we have in our bank account and the quality of our faith? Should Christians pursue growing wealth as a sign of growing faith?

Around the world among evangelical Christians there is an intense interest in making faith work for making one’s financial life better. Entire denominations are built on the idea that faith is the path to great prosperity.

As with everything any church promotes as the way, the truth and the life, all such ideas need to pass the Jesus test. The Jesus test is: Is that how it worked for Jesus? If it did not, it is not the right view of how it will be for us.
Jesus is the final test of all teaching. Jesus’ life and the life of His first disciples, the Apostles, show us the way, the truth and the life in action concerning prosperity.

Looking closely at Jesus and at the Apostles it is impossible to see faith being used as a tool to avoid pain or accumulate riches. Looking at Jesus and the Apostles it is clear that their faith was for the delivery and sustaining of God’s love.
Faith does impact one’s prosperity. Faith allows us to have our prosperity customized to fit our customized cross.

And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:27

The cross we carry is not Jesus’ cross. His was customized just for Him. The cross we carry is our customized cross. Our cross is the exact amount of Divine love we are expected to deliver into this world as the result of seeking first the Kingdom.

When we deliver God’s love, God pays the bills. He customizes our prosperity to fit our task of carrying our customized cross. Just as no two crosses are identical, no two financial realities will be identical.

Jesus’ prosperity was a perfect, customized fit for His mission to die for the sins of the world. Jesus was exactly as rich as He needed to be. Clearly Jesus’ cross carrying needed little or no material support!
The Apostle’s prosperity was a perfect, customized fit for their mission to be the foundation of the New Testament Church. The Apostles were as rich as they needed to be. Again, they had little, but they had what they needed.
Our prosperity will be perfectly customized for us, too, when we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness by carrying our customized crosses.

There is no “one size fits all” prosperity formula in the New Testament. As we live by faith, we will have the prosperity we need and ask for to deliver customized love to those God has chosen for us to love.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. John 15:7

Customized is always a perfect fit.

Don't Block My View

2010-11-23T05:49:00.000-08:00

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

Living on the ninth floor of an apartment building here in São José dos Campos, Brazil, Pam and I have a beautiful view of the nearby mountains. In fact, one of the main reasons over five years ago I agreed to live in an apartment and deal with the elevator was the view.

Well, here in Brazil’s booming economy, views don’t last. There are dozens of buildings in construction around us and over 140 high-rise buildings are in the permitting process in our city right now. Many of these new buildings are blocking my view and more are coming. Every day my elevator ride, which I still dislike, is taking me to less view, not more.

I know this is hardly a complaint that merits any tears, but it does illustrate a reality about life. The only view no one can take away from us is our personal view of Jesus. When we build our life in a place with a view of visible things, we always run the risk of having someone block our view. When we keep our eyes on Jesus who abides in us we have an constantly improving view guaranteed by the Holy Spirit who lives in us to make Jesus more clear and beautiful every day.

I guess I could move to another building so I could keep my view. The problem is that the view I rented 5 years ago now costs about 3 times what I paid back then. That’s right. Views in this world are always for sale. In this world, men have made a great view a commodity. When a great earthly view is suddenly in limited supply, men raise the prices.

Thank God my inner view of Jesus is not for rent or for sale. It is received by grace and every disciple can have a perfect view every day. Enjoy your personal, inner view of Jesus. Only taking your attention off of Jesus and valuing outer, visible things more will block your view of His beauty.

“…while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Cor. 4:18

Bud McCord
Abide International

Abide International is an organization dedicated to helping Christ-followers worldwide
understand and experience true satisfaction in Jesus as a moment by moment reality.

Abide International - 17701 N.W. 57th Avenue - Miami, FL 33055
Web: www.abideinternational.org - Email: info@abideinternational.org

A New Way of Seeing

2010-11-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. II Corin. 5:16

The young wife sitting in front of me tearfully told the story of her husband’s infidelity two years earlier. The pain poured from her as she repeatedly said: “My life ended that day.” “My life is ruined.” “My life cannot be fixed.”
What do you say to a Christian who thinks their life ended, is ruined and cannot be fixed? With tears in your eyes you gently tell them their life has not ended, is not ruined and does not need to be fixed. You lovingly tell them that their life is Jesus and He is perfectly alive, unchanged and at work right now. You firmly and lovingly tell them “Your life is perfect. The state of your world is another matter and we need to immediately address your world, not your life.”

Seeing our world as our life is seeing according to the flesh. Seeing your world as your life is like looking at Jesus and not being able to see that He is God with us. Jesus is God with us, whether we see it or not. As believers, our life is Christ whether we see it or not. When our world comes crashing down we must not see our life crashing with it. Jesus does not crash.

When we see ourselves, another person or another’s behavior toward us as our life, we commit a deadly spiritual mistake. We have placed our faith in imperfection and that makes us vulnerable to thinking our problems are life issues instead of a world issues.

Attaching our life to the behavior of others and their weaknesses is to live a lie. Lies always are revealed as useless and when they are revealed as useless we feel used. Believing the lie that my world is my life can make me think my life is over, ruined and broken beyond repair. The creates depression and anger.

Here are few very dangerous worldly thoughts….
1. My friends are my life.
2. My body’s current health is my life.
3. My child is my life.
4. My husband or wife is my life.
5. My ministry to others is my life.
6. My work is my life.
Here are the right thoughts…..
1. For to me to live is Christ.
2. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.
3. Jesus is perfect, therefore, my life is perfect.
4. In the world I will suffer troubles.
5. My world right now may be a mess, but there is life in me that can overcome it.

The young pastor’s wife left my office repeating with me these words…
“Jesus is my life. My world crashed horribly two years ago, but thank God I am alive in Christ to face this disaster and overcome it because my life can handle it.”
This way of seeing is not easy for us, but we must learn this new way of seeing if we are to deal with the world as it really is.
By the way, how is your life? How is your world? Can you see the difference?

II Corin. 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”

A Safe Place

2010-11-11T04:23:00.000-08:00

Our inner life can become our refuge.
Let this thought sink in for a moment. Now say to yourself “My inner life with Christ can become a place of peace and stability in this troubled world.”
If this statement is true, then it would follow that the care of our inner life should be our first priority. Thomas Kelly described such an inward life like this…
“There is a way of life so hid with Christ in God that in the midst of the day’s business one is inwardly lifting up brief prayers, short ejaculations of praise, subdued whispers of adoration and of tender love to the Beyond that is within.” A Testament to Devotion pg. 98
It is in our inner life that we do the works Jesus called “First Love” in Revelation 2. I believe that is what Thomas Kelly was describing in the quotation above.
It is in our inner life that we receive the inspiration directly from the Source of Source, the Fountain of Fountains. This is the oneness Jesus described in John 17.
It is in our inner life that we meet with God and experience the righteousness, peace and joy that is the kingdom of God.
“…for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14:17
Jesus is our example of how we are to live. He lived from his inner union with His Father and with the Holy Spirit.
When the storms of life hit we must have a refuge. May the safest place we know be our inner life where God meets us with His love.
It is in our inner life that our faith in Christ overcomes the world.

Bud McCord
Abide International

Loyalty or Love?

2010-11-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

Loyalty or Love?

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. John 13:1

In John 13 Jesus washes His disciples feet because he loved them from beginning to the end. Peter does not understand that Jesus' only motivation in washing their feet was love. Peter really did not yet understand the power of love is greater than the power of human loyalty.

It appears that Peter thinks that letting Jesus wash his feet is some sort of test of submission and loyalty. He gets this so wrong that he eventually offers to let Jesus wash his hands and his head as well. It is as if he is saying "I am completely loyal! Wash away!"

Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!"
Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" John 13:8-9

As his confusion about what Jesus wanted deepens Peter insists that he would be so loyal to Jesus that he would be willing to die for Jesus that very day. He thinks Jesus wants his loyalty. Jesus wanted Peter to receive His love so Peter could love. Jesus tells Peter that he will not be loyal and he would deny Him three times before the night ends. So much for human loyalty!

Loyalty is not what Jesus wants from us. He wants us to receive His love. His love is what will inspire us to love. Jesus wants us to receive His love and release it to others whether they are loyal or not. That is what Jesus did for Peter and the others when he washed their feet. He was loving them out of His Father's love for them.

I have been around Christian organizations that make a bigger deal about loyalty than they do about love. I have also demanded people be loyal to me as if being loyal to me proved they were loyal to Jesus. I know what I was after when I demanded their loyalty was for a good purpose. What Christian organizations are after when loyalty is made the goal is also something good.

By asking for loyalty I was seeking a guarantee from others to quiet my fears that they would fail me and our holy task. Over time I discovered that what I really needed to quiet my fears and complete the holy task is Jesus' love for me and for them and not their promised loyalty to me and our holy task.

Only God supplied and inspired love in Jesus will quiet fears and complete the holy, loving task we are called to complete. Helping people be loved by Jesus more and more is the only way we can find the kind of lasting relationships we dream of having.

Christian organizations would do better to make a great deal about how much Jesus loves us all and how He calls us to love others like He did. They would do better to let Jesus love them deeply and then love as Jesus loves. This kind of love creates loyal connections and efforts that last. It is great love received from Jesus that produces great loyalty and unity. Human loyalty does not produce or sustain love. Peter tried to make that formula work and failed miserably.

It was great love from Jesus that restored Peter after he denied Jesus three times. Loyalty did not send Jesus to find Peter and restore him. It was great love.

If you have any hope for experiencing true loyalty from others, pray that they will receive Jesus' love moment by moment. When they receive His love they will wash your feet even if you fail them.

Cultural Christianity

2010-10-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Cultural Christianity

"While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men's hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism." Sadhu Sundar Singh - Indian Evangelist and Thinker.

Does this observation ring true where you live? If it does you must live in a culture where Christian thought and values once thrived and benefited you. You should thank God for having lived "immersed in the waters of its benefits". I lived immersed in its benefits as a child growing up in the USA in the 1950s. I thank God I did. It has been hard to see the water of its benefits drying up in the last 50 years.

Even so, I can attest to the fact that much of that external Christian culture I grew up in never reached the hearts of those who enjoyed it. It was outside/in Christianity for most people and not the real inside/out Christianity. There is an enormous difference between being immersed in the benefits of Christian culture that surrounds us and having a spring of living Christian water inside us.

Jesus explained the difference to a Samaritan woman who certainly did not live immersed in a supportive benefits of a Christian culture.

"Jesus answered and said to her, 'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.'" John 4:13-14

External Christian cultures have a way of drying up over time when the inner flow of this living fountain is diminishing in the masses of people. People who fight to sustain the benefits of Christian culture are well intentioned, but missing the difference between outside and inside Christianity. If they want to help others enjoy "immersion in the waters of its (Christianity's) benefits" they should abide in Jesus from the inside/out and lead as many as they can to do the same.

Whatever genuine Christian influence that actually makes it to the outside culture had to have begun from the inside of thousands of lives where Jesus dwells. We need to multiply inner fountains to restore external rivers of influence. When a river suddenly goes dry we must go back to the source that created the flow. Screaming at the diminishing flow will do little good.

Abide Dialog

2010-09-20T05:14:00.000-07:00

For the past 5 years Pam and I have been sustaining a dialog with followers of Jesus about abiding in Christ. In settings as diverse as home meetings, counseling, retreats, events and church services we are sharing with others that our inner life is where the entire Christian life now lives.

It has been a learning experience! Here are a few things we have learned along the way.

1. Every believer in Christ really does want to be like Jesus. They really do have new hearts and new intentions!
2. Believers struggle greatly with the idea that a perfect life dwells in them and is the source of everything that God expects of them for day to day life and love.
3. In American and Brazilian church life many have become addicted to never ending recipes for living the Christian instead of moment by moment dependence on Christ who is our Christian life.
4. Church leaders need to see spiritual formation of Christ in us as the most pressing need in the church and make a commitment to addressing this need urgently.
5. All preaching, teaching and counseling needs to begin and end in Jesus if we hope to equip Jesus' followers with the true power to live the Christian life as salt and light in this world.

There is an expression in Portuguese that is often used by participants at the end of our retreats to describe what happenned to them by seeing Jesus as the perfect Chrisitan life God expects them to live. They say "Este retiro foi um divisor de águas na minha vida!" What they are saying is... "This retreat was where the water was divided." They are communicating that this is where the river of their life took a new direction. This is where God opened a way through to a new future like He did when the Red Sea was opened.

I know exactly what they mean. When I finally saw clearly the perfect provision God had made for me to live the Christian life I, too, saw the waters divide and the Way open before me.

Authority

2010-09-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

"All authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth." Matt. 28:18

To have authority is the ability to impose one's will on others. Every day we are surrounded by others who can legally impose their will on us. Just try arguing with a fire marshal about how many people can be in your public building and you will see who has authority on that subject.

What exactly is Jesus' authority over us? What authority did Jesus use to accomplish all He did while on earth? Jesus' authority came from His love -love that never stopped.

The entire time that Jesus was on earth He established this authority as His and His alone. He ignored all other kinds of earthly authority and focused only on the authority of love. Like a fire marshal who only looks into how people are threatened by fire, Jesus focused only on how people are destroyed when love stops and saved when love does not stop.

Jesus took upon Himself the role as the One who would speak and live with the authority of love to all mankind. In order to gain this authority He lived without sin and died for all of us who have every stopped love for even a moment. He became love to gain the authority of love. So, too, must His disciples.

Jesus could have used other kinds of authority on earth, but he chose love as His authority. His church must choose love as her authority as well.

The church needs to resist the temptation of trying to exercise other kinds of authority in the world. Our only authority is our love. We, too, must carry our crosses in order to speak in His name with authority.

We exist to love. If that doesn't give us authority like Jesus had, nothing else will.

Christian Mystic

2010-09-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

Would you be offended if someone called you a "Christian Mystic"?

For most of my life I would have felt being called a Christian mystic would put me out on the fringe of Christian society. I would have avoided the label Christian mystic for fear of having others look at me as one wandering too far into the internal, invisible world. I was too busy leading a church to be thought of as mystical. I was convinced being called mystical was a nice way of calling someone useless.

To me, a Christian mystic would be someone practically living in a passive trance. That would have been the last thing I would have wanted to be known for while leading a church and school with over 130 people on staff.

Quite frankly I developed this negativity toward what a mystic is without ever having seen a definition of what a mystic actual is. That was poor study on my part. I let popular culture form my opinion instead of careful thought.

Just today I came across a definition by a Quaker scholar name Rufus Jones that has challenged my concept of what a mystic would be. Here it is...

"The essential characteristic of mysticism is the attainment of a personal conviction by an individual that the human spirit and the divine Spirit have met, have found each other, and are in mutual and reciprocal correspondence as spirit with Spirit." Rufus Jones.

I feel I must now confess my ignorance. In light of this definition I would be happy to be called a Christian mystic. Why? Because...I have happily attained a personal conviction that the Spirit of Christ dwells in me, has found me and I have found Him, and we are in a mutual and reciprocal relationship of my spirit with the Spirit of Christ. I call this mutual and reciprocal relationship abiding because Jesus called it abiding.

Listen to Paul's words to see if you, too, might just be a Christian Mystic according to Jones' definition.

"The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Romans 8:16

"But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His."

"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Gal. 5:16

"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." Eph. 5:18

The title "Christian mystic" may be too compromised by popular culture to be of any practical use in most church contexts, but this definition gave me comfort today that an intense interest in the unseen spiritual world is not weird but needed - especially among strong leaders. Again, listen to Paul:

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." II Corin. 4:16-18

Sounds a little "mystical" doesn't it? Sounds exactly like the mutual and reciprocal spiritual exchange that Rufus Jones was describing.

I don't plan on going around calling myself a Christian mystic any time soon, but if someone calls me a Christian mystic, I guarantee that my reaction to that title changed today under the definition used by Rufus Jones. In fact, I pray every believer I know will attain a deep conviction that their spirit has made an eternal connection with the Spirit of Christ, that they are forever found by His Spirit and can carry on a reciprocal relationship of love and filling with God's Spirit every day. I pray we will all abide.

I pray we might all walk in the Spirit so much so that someone might actually accuse us of looking too deeply into unseen things. That would be a good change for all of us - especially church leaders.

Discernment

2010-08-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

How do you discern God's love for you?

How do you see God's love for you right at this moment? On what level of your being are you enjoying His love today?

Most of us attempt to discern and enjoy God's love through a careful and constant evaluation of our visible life circumstances. If the circumstances seem to add up to a plus we see this as proof we are being loved by God. When our circumstances add up to what we perceive as a minus, we wonder where God's love went and how we can get it back.

Did Jesus evaluate His Father's love in this way? If He did, so should we. If He didn't, then it is time to adjust how we measure God's daily love for us. Too much is at stake in our mental, emotional and volitional world to be looking for God's love in the wrong place. We need to know we are loved right now in order to love right now.

On many occasions I have heard people celebrating the love of God because their world adds up to a big plus. It is certainly fun to hear people recognize that blessings have entered their lives because all good things come from God. We should rejoice with them but should we join them in seeing their visible blessings as the proof of God's love?

I have also heard people weep with despair because their world is filled with negatives and they assume that negatives can only accumulate if God's best love steps away and lets the visible negatives accumulate. We should weep with them, but should we weep for them because they have obviously lost God's love?

This formula for seeing God's love seems to be - Good things accumulating equals God loves me very much. Bad things accumulating equals God is not loving me as much right now and it is probably my fault or He changed His mind about me.

Again, measure this formula against the life of Jesus or the life of the Apostles. Does this formula work as you measure their lives as the loved ones of God? Can you in any way make Jesus' visible life experience add up to more positives than negatives? Can you in any way make the Apostles' lives add up to more positives than negatives?

This accumulation formula is not useful because it measures God's love in the visible and the temporary. God's love is measured in the Spirit and that is where we need to go in order to measure God's love for us.

Leave the visible, accumulating measuring system completely alone for a moment. Whether you are in a plus or minus season right now, leave it alone. Now go into the very center of your being - your spirit - and ask the Spirit of Christ "Do you love me?" "Do you love me deeply?"

If you do not hear a "yes" it is likely that you have become addicted to the visible, accumulation equation of love and you need a spiritual renewal and a new equation. If you think you do need a renewal, ask God to open the eyes of your spirit so you can discern the things of the Spirit of Christ in you. Ask God to help you walk in the Spirit so you can see how much you are loved right now.

In Romans 5: 5 we see where God's love is meant to be discerned: "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Look for God's love in your spirit (heart) and you will not be disappointed. Look for it in the visible realm and you will find yourself lusting for the positives and afraid of the negatives. God's love never produces lust or fear. God's love faces whatever comes as it casts out fear and delivers love.

Abide International - 17701 N.W. 57th Avenue - Miami, FL 33055
Web: www.abideinternational.org - Email: info@abideinternational.org

Other Options

2010-08-09T06:44:00.000-07:00

Other Options

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also." Matthew 5 38-39

Jesus' words about turning the other cheek are among the most famous and universally known words ever spoken. They are also among the most ignored.

I remember reading the Sermon on the mount shortly after becoming a follower of Jesus. I thought to myself "This is the part of His teachings I will never be able to follow!" My deep need for self protection and self vindication was one of my most cherished defense mechanisms. I was good at verbally guarding my personal space.

My mistake in my way of thinking was that I felt that I would be turning my cheek out of my own resources instead of doing this in and through Jesus. I thought turning the other cheek was about will power.

I am learning to turn the cheek by following a simply spiritual rule - I listen to Jesus in order to turn the other cheek. Jesus' will is the power.

Here is how it works. Imagine that you are being verbally offended by someone. It hurts. Before you begin to become defensive, turn you mind back to Jesus' presence in you and ask Jesus "Should I defend myself? Should I hit back?" The answer will come clearly and quickly because every believer has the mind of Christ.

For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. I Corin. 2:16

We really do have the mind of Christ. Will we use His mind or ours when the slap comes?

If I use my mind, I seldom if ever can stop my natural urge to protect my space and demand respect. If I use His mind, I turn the other cheek and all kinds of other options for love immediately appear. A slap seems to produce only one option - hit back. A turn empowered by Jesus opens up love's options.

Get in the habit of asking Jesus in tough moments and all kinds of new options for love will appear in your life.

"The Golden Rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience." Oswald Chambers

Pain and Shame

2010-07-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

PAIN and SHAME

What is it about pain that gives it so much power over men? Why do we universally feel pain is an enemy to be avoided at all costs? Could our fear of pain lie in its power to shame us because it makes us seem so weak? Could it be that pain connected to a sense of shame causes us to be filled with a sense of disappointment and hopelessness which is what we most fear?

Paul says in Romans 5:3-5 "And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

The words "now hope does not disappoint" have also been translated "does not make ashamed" or "we're never left feeling shortchanged."

Is there a link between pain and being ashamed or being disappointed that makes pain much worse? I believe there is and I believe that is why Jesus "despised the shame."

Hebrews 12: 1-2 says of Jesus, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (emphasis mine)

The words "despising the shame" do not mean He was resisting the pain. He certainly did not run from His pain! "Despising" means he separated the shame from the pain. By despising the shame He was able to embrace only the pain as God's purpose even though the pain made Him seem weak. He saw his weakness in a context of hope. Having hope is what separates pain from shame. Hope in God overcomes both pain and shame.

As I watch people in pain it seems clear to me that what they most fear is not the pain. What they most fear is the disappointment (loss of hope) of appearing so weak and being in need of so much help. In their pain they begin to feel "shortchanged." Great dependence seems to shame us and make us lose hope. Should great dependence shame us? Does it have to? Did it make Jesus ashamed?

The human struggle with shame has roots in our independence from God that go back to the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Since our rebellion against God's love we are easily made ashamed when we are growing weaker. This shame appeared quickly in Adam and Eve. They fled from God out of the pain, fear and shame. Shame made them do foolish and deadly things. It makes us do the same.

Genesis 3:8-10 "And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you?'

So he said, 'I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.'"

Pain can be transformed for God's purpose when we say with Paul "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." II Corinthians 12:9-10

The next time pain comes into your life, despise the shame and face the pain. Embrace your growing weakness without shame and believe in the strength of God to overcome and even use all pain for His purposes. In other words, have hope and you will not be disappointed.

Shame is not our friend. Pain need not be our enemy. Pain can become a part of God's purpose as we deliver God's love by carrying our cross. To transform pain remove the shame of your weakness with hope in God. Despise the sense of being "shortchanged" by pain and see the hand of God's purpose in your pain.

John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Abide Retreat II--June 12-13

2010-06-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people ask what keeps a person abiding moment by moment in such an agitated world. I believe the power to abide comes from is works of "first love" Jesus mentions in Revelation chapter 2. These works include listening, worship, thanks, confession, affirming, intercession, petition and action. Learning to practice these works as we live our daily lives is what some have called "practicing the presence of God". This is learning to live from the inside out.

Our abide II retreat walks people thru these habits of spiritual attention so they can begin to enjoy Jesus' perfect presence in their daily walk. It is wonderful to see people spend a weekend fully focused on simply loving God and loving others.

The weekend of June 12-13 was a wonderful time of enjoying Jesus together.

E-devo Inner LIfe

2010-06-14T04:17:00.001-07:00

Inner Life

The visible world is a reflection of what is going on in men's souls. This is why Jesus said "by their fruit you shall know them." Matthew 7:20 The fruit men produce day to day is inside before it is outside. What we see men doing or not doing is coming from their inner life. The inner life is the real battleground of the human drama.

Our inner life is where our true reality is taking place.

Our inner world is our real home.

Our inner life determines the true quality of our life in the world.

Our inner life is where the victory for joy, peace and love is won or lost.

To miss this truth of the centrality of the inner life is to find Jesus' words and actions as recorded in the Gospels almost incomprehensible. Jesus lived from the inside and His first concern for us is our inner world. This is why he offers as His highest gifts things like "peace" and "cheer" as He let's the world's tribulations continue on. Miss the inner life and you will conclude God has failed to do what He could have done for the world in Christ.

John 6: 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Miss Jesus' focus on the inner life and you will never understand His experience in the world and you will never understand your own experience in the world.

Think of Jesus' experience in the world. What part of that external experience would you like to live? Now think of Jesus' inner world. What part of that inner life would you like to live? If you follow Him and abide in Him moment by moment you will find you will have both His inner world and His outer world. This is how we take up our cross and follow Him. This is true discipleship. This is exactly what every disciple should expect to experience Jesus' inner world and Jesus' outer world.

"As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." John 17:18

This is also why Jesus says in John 15: 9 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love." He is directing us to His inner life where He lived from the love of His Father. Jesus never directed us to an outer experience as the key to experiencing the love and joy of God. He would never direct us to the failures of the world. He directs us to the unfailing love of God in our inner life. "Love never fails." I Cor. 13:8

The development of our inner life is what Paul calls "Christ formed in us" or "Christ in you the hope of glory." This was Paul's passion for each believer because this was Jesus' passion for each believer. The inner life should be our passion, too. We must live from our inner life if we are to be of any help to ourselves, help to others or of any use to God.

Is your inner life your passion? I pray it is. Your inner life is where Jesus lives right now. It would be a real loss for you and for all those who need your love for your inner life to be ignored as you focus on your outer life as your real life.

To abide is to live the inner life. All the fruit that really matters and helps others comes from this inner life with God in Christ. Abide.

Oswald Chambers

2010-06-11T04:20:00.001-07:00

I have been reading Oswald Chambers daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest for over 35 years. Reading today's reading (June 11) reminds me why this man has blessed me so deeply. With Him it is always "Come to Jesus".

Enjoy!

Where sin and sorrow stops, and the song of the saint starts. Do I really want to get there? I can right now. The questions that truly matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by these words— “Come to Me.” Our Lord’s words are not, “Do this, or don’t do that,” but— “Come to me.” If I will simply come to Jesus, my real life will be brought into harmony with my real desires. I will actually cease from sin, and will find the song of the Lord beginning in my life.
Have you ever come to Jesus? Look at the stubbornness of your heart. You would rather do anything than this one simple childlike thing— “Come to Me.” If you really want to experience ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.
Jesus Christ makes Himself the test to determine your genuineness. Look how He used the word come. At the most unexpected moments in your life there is this whisper of the Lord— “Come to Me,” and you are immediately drawn to Him. Personal contact with Jesus changes everything. Be “foolish” enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude necessary for you to come to Him is one where your will has made the determination to let go of everything and deliberately commit it all to Him.
“. . . and I will give you rest”— that is, “I will sustain you, causing you to stand firm.” He is not saying, “I will put you to bed, hold your hand, and sing you to sleep.” But, in essence, He is saying, “I will get you out of bed— out of your listlessness and exhaustion, and out of your condition of being half dead while you are still alive. I will penetrate you with the spirit of life, and you will be sustained by the perfection of vital activity.” Yet we become so weak and pitiful and talk about “suffering” the will of the Lord! Where is the majestic vitality and the power of the Son of God in that?

The Perfect Overcomes the Imperfect

2010-06-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

The only hope for our restoration to true humanity is to be constantly exposed and connected to true and living humanity. Perfection must overwhelm imperfection. Nothing less than perfection can or will. That is why "Christ in you" is the only hope of glory.

Glory is man becoming what he was meant to be by the Creator. Glory among humans is God's perfect character continuously expressed with skin on. Glory is grace and truth made visible and available from Him through me. Glory is God's perfection overwhelming imperfection like light overwhelms darkness. Glory is good and the world needs it now.

All of our attempts to deal with the deadening effects of our human imperfection and sin are doomed to failure apart from a guaranteed accessibility to an overwhelming human perfection moment by moment. The presence of Jesus by His Spirit in us as believers is the only perfect cure for our diminished, damaged and imperfect humanity. Since Jesus died for us and abides in us we lack nothing to be human. Rivers of living water can flow from believer's lives. Generous fruit can appear. Love birthed and sustained in Jesus can be continuous again since the source of this perfect love now abides in us.

The amazing thing about most Christian attempts to free men and women to be real men and women is our insistence in using our imperfect methods or programs as if they are superior to practicing continuous connection to His perfect presence. I, for one, still must take my wandering focus by the neck each day and, by God's grace, turn away from the illusion of my own human self potential and point my eyes squarely at the one who said "without Me you can do nothing."

Only with a stubborn return to my true poverty without Him do I once again discover the overwhelming perfection that is Christ in me. Some days I am like Israel in the desert hanging between the two worlds of the illusion of my self potential and glorious perfection His presence. On other, better days His Perfect presence overcomes my imperfect illusions and efforts and I get a glance of me being gloriously human because of the Perfect human who abides in me as my life.

On the days when the perfect presence of Jesus overwhelms the imperfect, I can be as truly human as He allows me to be. On those days everyone around me would agree that I am much more enjoyable to be around. When His perfection has its way with me love is always the fruit.

May the good days when His perfection overwhelms my imperfection increase! This is called abiding and it is the perfect Christian life having His way in me and through me moment by moment. It truly is glorious and it is a glimpse of our glorious future in Jesus. Abide.

"It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."

e-devo: Jesus See HIm. Hear Him. Love Him. Live Him

2010-06-07T04:19:00.000-07:00

Jesus...See Him. Hear Him. Love Him. Live Him.

Have you looked closely at Jesus lately? Have you listened to His words as if you were hearing them for the first time? Have you experienced His presence and love as it was when you first met Him? Are you living His life as your life today?

See Him. Hear Him. Love Him. Live Him. This is believing. This is our work. Are you working at this work?

John 6:28-29 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

The powerful effect of Jesus on the human mind, soul and heart is confirmed by nearly 2000 years of church history and by millions of transformed lives. Even so, some who call themselves disciples seem to experience Jesus like a tiring habit. Fortunately many also experience Jesus like an acute fever, like first love. The difference in the experience of Jesus is in the seeing, hearing, loving and living. The difference is in the believing. Some work at believing and some do not.

Jesus described what really coming to Him with faith looks like when He said in Matthew 11:29 "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me...you will find rest for your souls." Taking a yoke is a total surrender to His life. It is what some have called going the "second half" with Jesus.

There comes a time when we need to grow very still and just take a new look at Jesus. Are we afraid to look too closely? Are we too busy to look?

There comes a time when we need to listen to His words again. Are they believable? Are they still inspiring?

There comes a time when we need to love Jesus more deeply. Are we afraid of what that might cost? Are we open to having Him love us more?

There comes a time when we need to live Jesus more consistently. Are we afraid of where such living may take us? Are we willing to be more alive than we already are?

This time comes every morning when we wake up. This seeing, hearing, loving and living Jesus is our work. Don't miss your work. If you do, someone else in this world will have to carry the love you were meant to carry.

E-devo Enough

2010-06-01T05:09:00.000-07:00

"Jesus is not only the heart of the Gospel message, He is the entire Gospel message." Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffins Path to God

Jesus is the good news - all of it. Whatever good comes from the Gospel to mankind comes in, from and through Jesus.

Let this thought settle deeply into your mind, soul and spirit. As it does you will finally rest in the "enough" of God in Christ. Only this essential truth of Jesus' complete sufficiency is enough to make us relax and begin to experience true life. Why? Because we never rest with less than perfection and Jesus is that perfection for us and in us. "Christ is all and is in all." Col. 3:11b

More than something to be studied and understood, Jesus is someone we meet, receive and enjoy. He is the life that is enough. He is the treasure hidden in the field. He is the pearl of great price. He is the last thing we search for because finding Him is enough.

Just as we eat our bread and drink our water, so too we eat and drink Jesus. Bread and water are not subjects we study. They are satisfaction we receive in order to be ourselves and live from day to day. Bread and water are enough for today.

So too, we can find Jesus to be enough each day as we eat and drink of His life as the original, abundant source. As we abide moment by moment in the "enough" of God, we finally come to believe He is, in fact, enough.

Enough. What a wonderful word! What a wonderful experience!

Memorial Day 2010

2010-05-31T06:36:00.000-07:00

Someone passed this on to me I thought you would like to read it on this Memorial Day weekend in the USA.

"I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation.

'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.
'Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time...

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to base.'

His friend agreed.

I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?'
'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class.

'This is your thanks..'

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room.
A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, 'I want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.

When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base.
I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base.. It will be about time for a sandwich.
God Bless You.'

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers.

As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals. It seemed so little...

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'

That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.'

e-devo. Sinless

2010-05-25T10:25:00.001-07:00

Sinless

Matthew 6:26 "Look at the birds..."

Every day we live among creatures that do not sin. These remarkable creations of God have never stopped glorifying God. They did not follow man into sin. Thank God!

These creatures are moment by moment doing exactly what they were doing in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve fell short of the glory of God through sin.

Among these sinless creatures are my favorites, the birds. Their simple presence and profound beauty surely explain why Jesus chose them and told us "Look at the birds..."

It is heartbreaking that Jesus could not point to a single human being except Himself with such confidence.

One of my favorite ways of considering the birds is to see how long it takes me each day to either hear them or see them. It never takes long. They are everywhere.

The birds seem to have this incredible ability to rise above mankind's cruelty and ugliness and simply be themselves. They seem to be able to find exactly enough satisfaction every day in order to never rebel, panic or accumulate out of fear. How different they are than we are!

They thrive among us and in spite of us. They are living proof that there once was a world at peace in the presence of God. Surely they miss the garden, too.

As I watch the world's stock markets rise and fall with every rumor and trend, I also watch the birds go about their daily existence without fear or lack. Their economy has outlasted all of men's best attempts because they truly are satisfied one day at a time.

Look at the birds. As you do, you will find yourself longing to sin less and abide more in the satisfaction that Jesus is each day.

Campo Grande

2010-05-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from a trip to Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. The Brazilian city is located just a few hundred miles from Bolivia and Paraguay. Like most major Brazilian cities it is in a phase of rapid expansion and development. Brazil is on the move and so are its churches.

Pastor Claudio and his wife Eloar were my hosts for an Abide Conference. What wonderful people!
I was treated like a visiting celebrity and the 90 people that attended the seminar could not have been more gracious and open.

God is at work in Brazil in amazing ways. The people of this relatively new Brazilian state and this growing city are cooperating with Jesus. They are abiding and it shows.

E-devo. The extent of His love

2010-05-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

The Extent of His Love

John 13:1 "He now showed them the full extent of His love."

Discipleship rightly understood is a process of revelation. It was never intended to be a process of accumulating information. To miss this distinction is to confuse the useful resources about Jesus with the essential revelation of Jesus.

By the time we reach John 13, the disciples have been led from revelation to revelation about Jesus. A day at a time God had revealed through Jesus the existence and quality of His love. As the final moments with Jesus physically among them arrived, it was time for Jesus to reveal the "full extent" of His love.

Jesus rises from his place of honor and leadership at the Passover meal, dresses as a slave and begins to wash the disciples' feet. Peter reflects the shock of all the disciples by saying emphatically "No. You will never wash my feet." This is not humility. This is blindness.

Peter speaks for all mankind when faced with the extent to which God's love must stoop to do what only God can do for mankind. We do not want God to go as low as our feet because we do not really know who He is and how far removed we are from Him. We are prepared to be loved but not to this extent.

Sometimes I hear Christians celebrating Jesus' death on the Cross because His singular act of love forgives us and will take us to heaven. This is good! It is, however, an entirely different thing to have revealed to us the full extent of God's love on Calvary. This includes foot washing. Included in His death was the washing of our feet for all eternity. We do not want to see Jesus go as low as our feet. To forgiveness by grace we say "yes," but to touching our feet we say "no."

If Jesus had started the discipleship process with the revelation of foot washing I am almost sure no one would have followed Him. What we have in mind for our Lord loving us is not washing our feet. We want His love but we also want to retain some sense of our own worth and dignity even if it is just our feet. We want to be loved but not to that extent.

Have you received the revelation Jesus gave to Peter? "Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me."

Most of us have been with Jesus for some time, but you can be sure we will all need to have revealed to us the touch of His love on our feet. When He finally touches your feet, be prepared to weep. Weep because His love had to go so low. Celebrate because He did go so low. Obey Him when He sends you to do the same for others who will not understand. The kind of love they need from you will also be a revelation that is hard for them to accept and hard for you to deliver.

Too busy

2010-05-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

When you are too busy to blog does that mean your are too busy? It seems to me that I am busier than I have ever been. That is good and bad. It is good in that it means doors are opening. It is bad in that I can't seem to keep up with all my "social networking." I didn't even know that "social networking" existed until a few years ago. Oh well, enough complaining. Busy is good and bad and God gives grace to know the difference one day at a time.

Here are a few pictures of the most recent "busy" in southern Brazil. It was a very good kind of busy as I ministered to students and church members in the beautiful city of Londrina. What precious people one meets here in Brazil. They are so open and so hungry for God's word and God's will in Jesus.

I am honored to have met Pastor Carlos, his family and the students at the seminary.

Abide Retreat II

2010-04-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, April 16-18, we hosted our first Abide II retreat. The focus of this retreat was Devotion and Action. We used for our study guide our recently published Prayer and Action journal. The journal takes a person through 8 spiritual disciplines which we call "The eight habits of First Love." The habits are Listening, Praise, Thanksgiving, Confession, Affirmation, Intercession, Petition and Action. These "habits" are born naturally whenever we are in love. They are not for "super saints." They are for all disciples who want to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and love their neighbor as they love themselves.
The retreat was attended by 47 with 40 coming from northern Brazil.

Forced or Inspired?

2010-03-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

I live in a part of the world where socialism and communism are the controlling views of most of the governments.
By this I mean that governments here believe that people must be forced by the government to be collectively good to others. There is no Fox news in Brazil or in most South American countries to debate this point.

Having been raised in the USA at the height of Capitalism's confidence and the belief in individual, voluntary goodness, It has been quite an opportunity to see these two opposing views of greater goodness in action. Here is what I see. (Admittedly, this is an over simplification but hopefully it serves to make my point)

Socialists and communists are convinced that societies left the themselves to be good will always be more bad than good because the rich will oppress the poor. They are so committed to this view that they are willing to risk life and limb to put the socialist or communist government in charge of enforcing goodness. Once they take control of the government for good as they envision it, they will risk everyone else's life and limb to make sure their idea of good is forced on everyone from then on. Hugo Chavez comes to mind.

Pure capitalists, on the other hand, see being good as an individual option after individual earnings. They start with freedom to earn and then work at freedom to give. They want to be free from any interference with earnings or giving. They alone will decide what being good looks like. Bill Gates comes to mind.

Is either of these positions the Christian position? No.

Jesus taught us that true goodness is an inspiration that comes only from connection to God through Him. It has nothing to do with force or individual freedom. It has everything with love and living connection to God. Jesus made this clear when He said, "Without me you can do nothing." John 15:5 Jesus taught us that being good comes before either dominant government or unlimited earnings. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness..." Matt. 6:33

I personally believe that arrogant socialism and communism are more dangerous and destructive than self-centered capitalism. Chavez makes me more nervous than Bill Gates. I see less real good coming from governments who are filled with the arrogance that they control good and can force good out of others than I see coming from capitalists counting their money and thinking about maybe being good when they have enough. Simply put, I prefer having been born in Miami than further south in Cuba. I would prefer that for my grandchildren, too.

Which system does God prefer? Neither. He has His own Kingdom and will settle for nothing less than pure goodness. He will judge all men by the inspirational system of "Christ in you the hope of glory." Goodness is neither forced on left up to us to decide if we want to participate in it or not. Goodness is a Person named Jesus and He invites us to connect Him not to power or money. If we do not, then we will never know the goodness we all agree needs to exist among men.

Here is the interesting thing. I have now lived in both man driven goodness systems. I pay taxes in both systems. I have found that I can be inspired for good by Jesus in either system. In the end, inspiration in Jesus wins. The day may soon come when one system replaces the one where you live. If you are inspired in Jesus, you will find you can find inspiration to deal with either. I think that is what He had in mind when He said "Folow me" or "Abide in Me." That sounds good to me.

Pam's view

2010-03-16T10:26:00.001-07:00

Over the years I have learned to listen to Pam. She has a way of seeing things that is amazing. Recently she sent a word to our family and friends about our first retreat of the year here in Brazil. I think you will enjoy her "view."
Bud

Hi everyone of my precious family and friends!

Here are some pretty pictures of the first Abide Retreat of this year, held this weekend at our Abide Retreat Center in the mountains of
Campos do Jordão. We had a smaller group than usual, but they were exactly who our Father God sent to us! Had a most refreshing
time and felt like we were constantly drinking from the rivers of living waters! In this group there were Brazilians, Americans, an Angolan
girl, a French lady, a Brazilian lady who was (and hopes to be again) a missionary to Angola. All are born again, and of all different ages
in the Lord, from months old (the Angolan young lady) to tens of years. As you can see, the range in age is also quite astonishing, which
happens often in these Abide Retreats. There are 11 hours of study based on John 15 and Jesus' metaphor of the vineyard. Everyone
stays engaged and interested the entire time, no matter their age! Bud and I never tire of these retreats, and by now we figure that about
700 people have come. Bud has taught the study for 4 1/2 years, with an intensity that goes beyond our retreats. I have had the privilege
of hearing the study maybe 50 times. It is fresh and new each time! Bud had a wonderful insight from our Lord this weekend:
"Only God knows just how much love He has for each retreat group to deliver during their lives as branches connected to the True Vine,
and for His glory."

The owners of the camp where we have the Abide Retreat Center, Josmar and Marisa, are not in this picture, though they sit in for several
hours of each retreat. They are doing well, and are as kind and engaged as ever. Marisa is in the midst of 4-6 months of strong chemotherapy,
to combat the rectal cancer that was surgically removed from her body on Jan. 12. As she says, she is abiding moment by moment as a
branch connected to the True Vine, Jesus Christ, and He is supplying her with the strength and hope she needs for each moment. She is
doing well in spite of some nausea, no real appetite, and quite a lot of weight loss since last Oct. when her treatment began. She has not
lost her hair, and that is a nice consolation for a lady. This couple is one of God's sweetest gifts to Bud and me! They really do feel like the
"family" that they are to us in Christ, as they are to hundreds of other dear friends! They are deeply loved by MANY people! We are all trusting
the Lord to work His healing will in her body, and restore her health so that she can have many more years of delivering His love here on
His earth, for the glory of our Father!

Our next retreat is in April, and it will be our very first Abide Retreat II. Now we will be distinguishing the retreats as I and II. Abide II will
focus on devotion and action, as these relate to abiding in Jesus Christ. The Abide I retreats focus on walking Christians through Jesus'
metaphor of the vineyard, and helping them understand the meaning of each component: The Vine, The Branch, The Vinedresser, The Fruit,
The World, The Pruning, The Seasons. They learn what Jesus meant when He told His disciples to abide in Him. Abide II will focus more
on how to keep abiding through practices of devotion, and how to act with Him once we receive what He wants us to release. Bud will use
his Prayer Journal, which is set up to teach the disciplines of devotion, and he is putting together a study guide for the weekend. Our first
Abide II Retreat in April is already filled up with 40 people coming by plane from the northeastern city of Recife, in the Brazilian state of
Pernambuco. They are coming with their pastor, Walter, and his wife, Karine, who came to an Abide I Retreat over a year ago. They have
held and taught three Abide I Retreats to the people in their church in Recife! We are sooooo excited for this group to come to our first
Abide II Retreat! Our capacity is 45-50 people, based on the size of our teaching room. The camp has a larger capacity, but then the teaching
would take place in the cafeteria, which is always a possibility. Our Lord has given us a wonderful team of volunteers who work hard at each
retreat.

We are praying and asking the Lord to give us His design for our new branch, Abiding Women. Donna Faircloth is our leader for this branch
of the ministry. We have had one evening tea event, last Nov. and our next event will happen this month on the 29th. We would like this branch
to provide support for women of different ages, stages and walks of life, to apply abiding to their lives. So far we have the events happening,
but not the more personal venues. Praying. Asking. Waiting expectantly to receive from our True Vine.

Hoping each one of you is well and blessed in our Lord and True Vine! Remember to read John 15:1-11 every now and then to rediscover
Jesus' original and surprisingly simple design for discipleship and delicious oneness with Him and the Father!

Loving you each forever!
Mom/Pam
Prov. 3:5-7

Birthday 2010

2010-02-26T05:59:00.001-08:00

There is a very special, small hotel in the mountains near our home in Brazil. The hotel Toriba has been a retreat for Pam and me whenever we have needed to make a major decision of just be "us". The Toriba has been our special place since 1980.

Pam booked a night for us for my birthday and surprised me with this special gift. Memories are good for a marriage. Sacred places are good for a marriage. As we walk around this beautiful setting we can see our kids here with us and we can remember major decisions we made in this place. We hope we have many more years coming here to make new memories together.

I wish our grandchildren could come, too!

February 2010 Abide Gathering

2010-01-29T06:51:00.000-08:00

Bev and Brian Weisblat are the best. They have opened their home for Abide gatherings for the last 5 years. Bev creates an environment that is so welcoming that our abide prayer partners and supporters just cannot resist her invitation to come for an evening.

This particular abide gathering was special in so many ways. The interest in abiding in Jesus moment by moment is growing as the American economic crisis goes on and on. There is a clear openness to seeing the Christian life as 100% Jesus in us.

These are exciting times for all of the Abide International community. Enjoy!

Surrendered Life-A Connection

2010-01-22T06:09:00.000-08:00

"God orchestrates our circumstances to educate our faith" Oswald Chambers.
This has been my experience as a follower of Christ and as one who is learning to abide in Christ.
Every detail God orchestrates in my life leads to a deepening of my awareness of how generous God is to those who seek Him.
God orchestrated a new friendship for me in 2009. God introduced Pam and me to Dale and Tori Shows from Memphis, Tennessee.
God used a friend named to Jimmy Ervin to give Dale a message--"You need to talk to Bud McCord about the Surrendered Life."
Dale listened. Dale flew to Brazil and spent a week with us. Our hearts connected in Jesus and we are now enjoying the oneness that comes from surrendering to and abiding in Jesus.
In January of 2010 Dale officially launched his new ministry called Surrendered Life Ministries located in Memphis. He invited me to teach the Satisfying Life seminar as the new ministry's opening event. It was wonderful
Learning to see every detail as my faith education has been helping to see God in every detail.
God is purifying my heart. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

Martinsville, Virginia-The Table

2010-01-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

Over the past 4 years we have prayed that the Abide Message would take root in the lives of young leaders in the USA and around the world. Our prayers are being answered.
Mike and Katie Waddell returned to Martinsville, Virginia a little over a year ago. Pam and I visited them in January of 2009 just after they were getting settled in from spending nearly three years with Ken and Kellie McCord in San Francisco. Mike's vision was to initiate an abide dialog among the 516 churches that already exist in the Martinsville area.
Mike was born and raised in Martinsville and he has a deep passion for his generation and their connection to Jesus and to the needs of Martinsville.
In one short year Mike and Katie have seen the dialog about Christ in us be embraced by more than a dozen churches through the new ministry call The Table, Inc.
On Tuesday January 19th God allowed Pam and me to be the guests at the bi-weekly meeting of The Table. It was literally an opportunity to see the Abide Message taking root in Martinsville and in the younger generation.
Martinsville has suffered a nearly total economic meltdown but it is wonderful soil for delivering God's love.
Pray for Mike and Katie.

Abide Gathering-South Florida

2009-12-20T06:05:00.000-08:00

When a group of believers gathers to celebrate the perfect presence of Jesus and the pure simplicity of the Christian life, joy is always present. Saturday evening at Bev and Brian Weisblat's home was no exception. Jesus was the center of the evening and He is the source of joy.

These simple gatherings are powerful and enjoyable. Knowing that the entire Christian life dwells in every believer allows for immediate equality and powerful connection.

Avoiding Hell

2009-11-11T03:04:00.000-08:00

I have been following the Ft. Hood murders from Brazil. It is interesting to see the way these events are covered in another country. For most, americans are people who are suffering and need compassion. For some, americans are violent and in love with guns. For others, americans are a culture in decline. For a small few, americans are getting what they deserve.

One thing that never comes up in the news report concerning radical Islam here or from the USA is the question of hell and how a radical Muslim thinks he can avoid going there.

Most people in the USA hardly believe in hell these days. Even evangelical Christians hardly talk about hell. People in radical islam clearly believe in hell, talk about it repeatedly and want, at all costs, to avoid it.

I remember reading a comment from C.S. Lewis that I have never forgotten. He said that people in England and America stopped burning witches at the stake many years ago. For some this is a sign of human progress and enlightenment. For C.S. Lewis it was more a sign that people in the USA and England don't believe in witches any longer. He went on to say that a return to truly believing that the woman next door can curse and kill your children would start the fires sooner than we think.

I found it interesting that the man who killed the Fort Hood soldiers went to strip clubs before he went on his killing spree. Here is a man who is desperately trying to please God and end up in heaven. Even so he is taking his last moments indulging in behavior his religion condemns. This man is in trouble if he does not find a way to cover his sins.

What this says to me is that this man was down to his last hope of heaven which would be to kill God's enemies to prove his worth to God and guarantee heaven instead of hell. He could not live up to his religions basic laws against lust and liquor so only a radical action of submission to his God could guarantee heaven.

I don't think we will understand radical Islam until we understand that they truly believe in hell and we as a culture in the west do not. If we believed in hell like they do and we thought the only way for those desperately trying to avoid it was killing God's enemies, I believe we would be surprised just how quickly the gun sales would go up in the west.

When the choice in man's mind is heaven or hell and not just the USA against its enemies, you can be sure people who believe in hell will choose avoiding hell and going to heaven over an oath to defend their nation.

Abide Retreat in English

2009-11-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

We have just completed our very first english Abide Retreat in Brazil. It was wonderful and very strange. Teaching here in English seemed so out of place for me.

Brazilians love to learn. When you offer a great spiritual retreat about abiding and add the opportunity to perfect a second language, Brazilians get interested very fast.

I never cease to be amazed at how open Brazilians are to spiritual things. They make significant sacrifices to add to their spiritual lives by learning new things. I am am spoiled by how easy they are to teach.

I am praying that my dear american brothers and sisters in Christ will begin to invest more seriously in spiritual formation, too. It seems at times that my friends in the USA are too busy to make the investment in a two day retreat. That is sad and I am praying the day will come when taking two days to focus on Jesus as our true Vine will be seen a a great investment.

Consider this example. We had four people attend this retreat that came from southern Brazil. They took a ten hour all night bus ride and then another 1 and 1/2 hour bus ride just to get to the retreat. As I am writing this blog they are on a bus for another all night ride back. They have to work tomorrow when they get back to the city of Londrina. One of them was 73 years old! She has a class to teach tomorrow morning at 9:30 A.M. (This lady is near the center of the group photo on the front row)

This kind of effort is humbling and inspiring. I believe God is at work here in people's hearts in a very deep way. Pam and I are so thankful to see this moment in Brazil. We are also burdened for our dear USA. So much pain and so much anger. Our prayer is that we will all abide.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Caixias do Sul--Southern Brazil

2009-11-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

I am just completing an abide weekend in the very beautiful city of Caixias do Sul in the southernmost part of Brazil. I am almost in Argentina.

This is Brazil's vineyard country. The church that invited me has only 70 members but they were so excited to learn about abiding that I accepted their invitation. I am glad I did. Over 50% of the member spent the weekend doing the Abide course with me and we have experienced a wonderful time.

I never cease to be amazed at how powerful it is to tell people that the entire Christian life they will ever live already abides in them. When this thought takes root, it is truly powerful for changing how a believer sees their potential. Nothing makes this more clear than John 15. It is an honor to tell thousands, to tell dozens or to tell one. The joy is the same.

These folks understand vineyards far better than I do! They took me on a tour today. I have a lot to learn. I am already making plans to come back very soon.

MIssions Conference

2009-10-24T04:10:00.000-07:00

We are having a great time at our missions conference. This wonderful group of pastors and leaders gathered to hear about what God is doing around the world. God is at work in Brazil!

Lesser truths

2009-09-25T04:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone's day is filled with moments of truth. Some moments of truth take our breath away. Other truths just come and go.

For instance, here is a truth that will take our breath away--You have cancer.
Here is a truth that will come and go---I am out of printer ink.

What makes a truth powerful is its staying power or its resistance to other truths. A truth will only come and go when we can find a greater truth that makes the lesser truth move out of the way so we can do what we must do.

When I discover I need printer ink, the greater truth of the Office Depot on the corner makes it move out of my mind as a greater truth.
When I discover I have cancer, what can make that truth move out of my mind as the greater truth?

Only taking all current truth captive to a greater truth can keep us moving forward in life doing what we must do. If we cannot find a greater truth than our cancer, we stop at the truth of our cancer that has claim on our mind right now.

Two of our friends here in Brazil recently heard the words "You have cancer". Both are in the process of dealing with this powerful truth. Both are looking for the greater truth that will keep them moving forward with their lives. This finding the greater truth in all circumstances is what Christians call taking every thought captive to Christ.

II Corinthians 10:5 "...casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ"

As believers we must remember to take every thought captive to Jesus. He is always the greater truth that keeps us moving forward in our lives. "Follow Me" means to make Jesus the greater truth--greater than anything from printer ink to cancer.

Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life..." He is the greater truth-always.

I have never heard the words "You have cancer". If I do, I pray that I will also hear the words "I will never leave you or forsake you." If I do not, then the lesser truth--cancer--will be my greater truth until I do. No matter what I hear today, I pray it will give way the the greater truth--"Christ in me the hope of glory."

For the Christian every lesser truth must give way to the greater truth until all truth gives way to the final truth-Jesus.

Total Depravity

2009-09-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

The United Nations is in session as I write this blog. The most powerful critics of the USA come to the USA to criticize the USA and go shopping. It is somewhat comical and somewhat sad but this is our world where some see evil in only some, not at all in some others and certainly not in themselves.

The missing element in the UN these days and in our world is an old Protestant doctrine called "Total Depravity". This terrible sounding doctrine is a declaration of a truly terrible reality. All men are fundamentally bent toward evil and getting worse not better. That is, all men are incapable of doing what their highest and most noble aspirations tell them they should do no matter how much they want to or how hard they try..

This doctrine about man's bent toward evil comes most clearly from the Apostle Paul's writings in Romans where he tells us we should not judge the sinners he describes in Romans 1 by concluding in Romans 2: 1 "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself: for you who judge practice the same things" Hugo Chavez needs to read this verse this morning and so do I.

Paul goes on to say that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23 That is, we all fail to reveal the quality of love that God is all the time. This fact makes us " totally depraved". Don't compare yourself to dictators to get off the hook of total depravity. Compare yourself to Jesus and you will see you "fall short". Falling a little less short is no victory just like drowning in two feet of water is no victory over the person who drowned in 30 feet of water. Both are wet and dead.

If you need further convincing of this teaching on human depravity read Romans 7 and you will hear the Apostle Paul say of his own attempt at the highest of human aspirations "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do." Romans 7::14-15

If you need further convincing just watch every idealistic government for the people that rises up with no limits on its power end up abusing its power and people over time.

If you need further convincing just make up your mind that you will only love others like Jesus did and God commands and then try to live that out for a few days. Start trying to love Hugo Chavez if you are an American who loves America. Start trying to love George Bush if you are from Europe or Harvard and you think George Bush is the Anti-Christ.

The doctrine of total depravity properly understood in Europe and the USA due to the Protestant reformation birthed modern democratic behaviors like free press, limited power, term limits, free speech, separation of powers, etc. When the doctrine of total depravity is not understood and taught as a universal fact you will see these very democratic behaviors begin to disappear in the name of good people in charge of depraved people.

Watch these democratic behaviors that limit how much power some can have over others begin to disappear and you will see another characteristic emerge. We begin to call other men or governments Satan. Of course when we do call others Satan or evil, we reveal we do not believe we are totally depraved or evil, too.

Listen to the UN speeches this week and you will hear those who do believe in total depravity and those who do not. Those who do not believe in total depravity will most powerfully condemn the most democratic nations while at the same time claiming they lead revolutions that are fighting for true democracy even if it means going to war with the great Satans of the planet at the "temporary" but "necessary" expense of their own people's democratic freedom.

By the way, trying to turn the current US President or any other political leader into Satan to better oppose him politically does not fit well into reformation thought that birthed democracy. It certainly does not fit at all with Paul's words in Romans 2:1 the helped birth the reformation. Be very careful with anyone who helps you see others as fundamentally more depraved than we all are. Stay away from any teaching that does not put Jesus and Jesus' words at the very center of the debate. Jesus said "Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you use, it will be measured back to you." Matt. 7:1-2 He also said "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." Matthew 5:44 Does this include the week they come to the UN to speak and shop?

What we need to do is to preach total depravity again in our churches so all Christ followers are the first to know we all need limits on our personal power until Jesus is formed in us and truly becomes our personal limit which must become sustained love. When Jesus is our true limit we even sustain love toward our enemies during UN week.

Loving our enemies is really hard when they come to the UN and bash one's country while shopping in our stores! It is hard when they call one's leaders evil and then say "But protect my speech and let me finish my shopping."

Until Jesus is everyone's limit we need limits on all of us--especially those of us who have power over others.

By the way, believers in Jesus do have power over others in this world. It is the power of love and we would be wise not to trade the power of love for the power world leaders use. Jesus is our example and He wins because He loved. He was the only human who was not depraved and His perfectly sustained love proved it!

If anyone sees Hugo Chavez or me this week read both of us Paul's words in Romans 2:1 and Jesus' words in Matthew. We need it equally because without Jesus formed in both of us, we are totally depraved.

Pray for me as I listen to the speeches. I need God's grace!

Instant response

2009-09-21T03:09:00.000-07:00

The internet creates a nearly instant response from around the world. This can be good or bad. This morning it was very good.

To get the picture, here is the morning devotion that went to our Abide International list.

Believe or Belief?

"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-38

I spent several years of my life in a Bible College environment learning to be a pastor. They were important years in my leadership formation. I thank God for those who blessed me in this process. During those years a great deal of emphasis was put on the correct beliefs about Jesus. I was even tested on my beliefs quite regularly at Bible college. I got nearly all "As" in belief. I got a diploma based on my beliefs. I was ordained according to my beliefs. I easily concluded that better beliefs make better pastors. I don't recall ever getting a grade on believing at Bible college.

So much emphasis was put on the list of beliefs that I was tempted to see my job as a pastor as defending these beliefs. I became pretty good at inspecting other people's beliefs along the way. I was like a teacher giving others grades on their beliefs just like I had been given grades on my beliefs in Bible College.

I have not abandoned any of the essential beliefs that I learned so many years ago. I think I could basically pass the exams again today with little or no problem. The list of beliefs I was tested on has stood the test of time. They do point pretty well to Jesus.

What I have abandoned is the idea that the key to true Christian living is my excellent list of beliefs. I know now that the key to my life blessing any other life is believing in Jesus. Lists of beliefs are only as good as their accuracy in describing Jesus and His perfect intentions. He measures the lists. The lists do not measure Him. Believing better in Jesus should be the goal of the list. When believing in Jesus is constant then the list did its only job which is to point to Him. Lists of beliefs should be for better believing in Jesus rather than trying to test how Christians think about Jesus.

Some lists of beliefs are certainly better than others, but no list is Jesus. No one should think the river of living water will flow from their list of beliefs about Jesus. The river flows from the real Jesus, not someone's really well organized list of beliefs about Jesus.

There was a certain spiritual dryness I experienced in my Bible College years. I think it came from the lists and the tests. That dryness always accompanies focusing on a list of beliefs instead of focusing on where the list should be pointing.

A river is not birthed from a list. A river is birth from a spring. Jesus is that spring and no list can ever do Him justice. Only drinking from the spring tells us what the spring is really like. Believing in Jesus is what does Him the justice He deserves and wants from us. The real test is believing and the passing grade is the real river of life flowing from Him through us.

This e-devotional went out at about 5 A.M. in the USA. People in Europe got it at about 12 noon due to the time difference.
I am in Portugal as I am writing this blog so I got this response instantly after I read the e-devotional myself here in Lisbon.
Confused? Welcome to the small planet!

Read the response and you will see that one of our new abiding friends in Germany really got the message I hoped to deliver and responded instantly with the same joy Pam and I have in learning to simply "Believe Jesus."

Hi Carlos (Bud)

Wow ! Reading your devotional just really got me !!! :=)

Not just because of the content, which I love, but because it reminds me of a big crisis I had the other day, when all Truth from the Bible, cherished Christian books, web site Christian messages, sermons at Church, etc etc kind of made my head spin. I felt like throwing away all theology books .... but I didn't, because I understood that my crisis wasn't there. It was simply my approach to reading, learning: Today, when reading theology books, surfing the Christian net etc, even my reading, studying the Bible, is first of all to knowing HIM better, WHOM I believe.

I think I have been led by God's Grace to re-phrase my "belief". If someone would ask me today what I believe in, I would simply say "I believe Jesus". Full stop. I tend to even leave the "in" out. This is my Faith, summoning up EVERYTHING.
This is it !

I am dancing with joy :=) :=) :=) and send my greetings to you & Pam with joy

Every Blessing

This new friend's words gave Pam and me instant joy. "Christ is all and is in all" Colossians 3:11

I believe Jesus!

Azores Islands

2009-09-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would be holding an abide retreat on an Island chain called the Azores. Situated about a four hour flight from Boston, these incredibly beautiful islands are home to over 250,000 people who are a part of Portugal. Much like the Hawaiian Islands are part of the USA, so, too, these islands and their people trace their history back to Portugal.

Much of life in the Azores islands has remained pretty much unchanged. The local residents say their world is the "old Europe".
That is most clearly seen by the dominance of the Catholic faith on the islands. Santo Miguel island, where we ministered, is home to about 140,000. The Evangelical population is about 500 on that island. Being separate from the Catholic church is to be separate from the island's culture.

A new church is being started on this island and Pam and I were guests of the two families who are leading this challenge.
The task they have before them is truly one that will require abiding moment by moment in Jesus for satisfaction and fruit.

Enjoy a few pictures of these fine people and their beautiful island home.

The power of a Metaphor

2009-09-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

People often ask me why I believe the metaphor of the Vineyard is such a powerful way to communicate how the Christian life works for ever believer in every place at all times. The reason I believe this is because Jesus used this metaphor on the last day of His life before he was crucified. Metaphors allow us to see clearly and they allow us to see the together as one.

If you ever come to Portugal for a visit, you will find that the Catholic churches of the past 500 years of Portuguese history are the heart and soul of any tour that would attempt to explain Portuguese history. Take away the influence of the Catholic church in Portugal and you cannot understand their history.

Right in the middle of the Portuguese Catholic history is the influence of Mary as the Catholic metaphor for how God solves human needs. Mary is the most prominent and consistent feature in the Portuguese history. Mary has been for centuries the most important metaphor of God's activity among the Portuguese.

About 100 years ago three children claimed to have seen an appearance of Mary. From this dramatic testimony Portugal's most famous holy site was born. This is the power of a metaphor. We people begin to see the same thing clearly and as one then things will begin to happen on a bigger and bigger scale.

Whenever you enter a Catholic Cathedral in Portugal you will most easily find Mary. Finding Jesus is not as easy as finding Mary.
That, too, is the power of a metaphor that becomes the main metaphor for explaining God's love to people.

We must choose our metaphors of God's dealings with us very carefully. If Jesus is not the metaphor that is easiest to find it could take centuries to give to Him the preeminence he should have.

The metaphor of the Vineyard is one sure way to keep Jesus clearly seen by all. That is why I encourage people to go back to the vineyard and find the vine.

(The photos of the large church square are taken at the shrine of Fatima where the children claimed to have seen Mary. The three children kneeling are at the entrance to the Seminary we have called home for the past 13 days. The grapes are growing in the back yard of a missionary family who served us dinner last night. Finding Jesus in their home was easy.)
Click on photos to enlarge

Progress!

2009-09-07T03:27:00.000-07:00

The true hope of being able to disciple thousands of Brazilian Christians is in multiplying leaders and teachers who see the abiding life as the normal Christian life. This multiplication is beginning to happen. We now have 5 pastors and leaders in Brazil who are developing their own network of retreats and teaching opportunities.

One of our abide leaders has already given the 8 hour abide course to over 300 believers in the Rio de Janeiro area in the past 15 months.

Enjoy a few pictures from Pastor Walter and his wife Karine who are our Abide team in the northern Brazilian city of Recife. They just completed their second retreat. They are the best!

More Portugal 2009

2009-09-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ministering the course Six Metaphors of a Happy Marriage to missionaries and pastors was a special opportunity this weekend of September 4-6. Though the number of evangelical believers in Portugal is very small compared to Brazil or the USA, their love for Jesus is second to none.

Their openness and willingness to learn is impressive. On Saturday we started at 8:30 A.M. and ended at 10 P.M. They stayed engaged in every moment.

Surely there is hope for a time of spiritual harvest with disciples like these.

Portugal 2009

2009-09-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

September 1st, 2009. Pam and I spent the day getting to know a little more about Portugal and a lot more about the city of Lisbon. Pastor Paulo Pascoal was our guide as we visited the historic downtown area with a special visit to a monastery that was built in the 1600s. The great explorer Vasco de Gama is buried in the church.

We also stood on the river where the Portuguese ships set sale to discover new lands around the world. Our teaching and retreats get underway soon. It was good to have these two days to see this wonderful city.