Who or What?

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

John 14:6  

Is Christianity a "Who" or a "What"?  When missionaries cross an ocean to see Christianity grow in a new place, do they carry accumulated knowledge about what Christianity is or do they carry someone with them?

The difference between Christianity and all other religions is that Christianity is not words about words.  It is the word that became flesh and dwelt among us and now dwells in us.  Christianity is a "Who" not a "What".

When a missionaries make a disciple they take them to the living Jesus not a body of knowledge accumulated over time. They baptize the new believer in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  They baptize them into "Who" not "What".

Never take your eyes off of Jesus.  He is everything the Father has for all of us and He now lives in us.  Take people to Jesus and leave them there.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Cain Still Kills Abel

In the first two chapters of the Bible things in the world are “very good”.  By the time one reads on to chapter 4 of the Bible Cain murders his brother Abel in a religious rage. Evil moves fast.

Based on this Biblical story of the rapid human descent into family, social and religious violence, it is hard to defend the idea that today’s world is essentially worse than it has ever been.

Things have been as essentially bad as they are for a very long time.  What has changed is the scale and size of evil, not the essential nature or speed of evil.  In reality there are simply more Cains killing more Abels.

The  Bible narrative continues to be relevant because it always tells the truth about humanity.  No matter how ugly or beautiful the human story may be the Bible still explains it perfectly.

Though humanity may not be all of “one religion”, we are all biological blood brothers and sisters. We are all biological family and Cain continues to kill Abel.

“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, " Acts 17:26

Whenever one person in the name of religion murders, they murder their own “blood brother”.   In doing so,  they are Cain killing a truly innocent family member.  This kind of orginal, religious hatred is exactly what the Apostle John pointed out in John 3:10-12.

"In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous."

In God’s eyes the murderous religious rage that afflicts our world today is nothing new.  It is the same religious rage that led Adam and Eve to conduct the first family funeral.

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Way in 2016 “I am the way…” Jesus

There is a Way. There is a way that is not the way.

Acts 19:23

And about that time there arose a great commotion about the Way.

A way that satisfies. A way that does not satisfy.  

Gen. 2:15-17

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 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.”

A way that leads to God. A way that does not lead to God. 

Gen. 5:2

And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

A way that prospers us. A way that consumes us.

Psalm 1:1-6

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.

A way that ends well. A way that does not end well.

Psalms 23:1-6

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

A way that is the truth. A way that is a lie.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

A way that few find. A way that many find.

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

A way that harmonizes everything. A way that destroys everything.

Col. 1:15-20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Which way in 2016?

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Theft of Christmas

The headline of today’s News  should be  “Christmas Stolen!”.  

Stolen by commerce.

Stolen by busyness.

Stolen by religion.

Stolen by family.

Stolen by sports.

Stolen by lack of attention.

There are rumors that  something of the orginal Christmas still thrives in the privacy of some hearts.  As far as today’s public Christmas is concerned the true meaning may be gone forever.

Of course that was the same thing they said when Jesus was crucified and buried 2000 years ago.

Christmas has a way of rising again!  Nothing about Jesus can be permanently stolen.

Bud McCord

Abide International