Spiritual LIfe--Goals and Pace

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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Abundant Life-Being, Having and Doing

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

"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?

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

“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?

"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

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

“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.

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Discipleship That Isn't

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."

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

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

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

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!

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?

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

“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

“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