Crutches

There is a time and place for crutches in our lives.  When we have been injured  and we need support to begin on the path to recovery there is no shame in using crutches.   Crutches may fit the moment but In most cases they are to be temporary not permanent.

Some people get so used to some kind of daily support that it takes a good friend who comes along and takes away the crutches.  With a word or a action the friend sends a clear message that it is time to walk without the crutches. Good friends don’t let crutches become permanent when they do not need to be.

Jesus called us His friends.  As our friend Jesus will come to us and take away our crutches when the time is right.  He can see that we have become too dependent on the support and sympathy we receive from an injury we have experienced.  Sometimes we have stopped moving toward full recovery because we like the attention we get from our pain.

Professional beggars are seen sitting on the same street corners day after day asking for support.  At the end of the day some of them quietly stand up and make their way to their car which is parked a few blocks away.  They have made their weakness permanent so they can always keep the support of others.  How sad for them!  They truly need an honest friend to come and take away their crutches.

As hard as it may be to perceive, we all have a tendency to elicit sympathy and support from our past injuries and the injustices we have suffered.  We often spend our time on our own street corners wanting people to notice our pain and pay attention to us.

Our good friend Jesus will not let us do this forever.   Sooner or later He will come and take away our crutches.  He loves us too much to leave us on our crutches when He knows we can walk with Him.

Real friends know when crutches need to go or stay.   Ask Jesus if it is time for you to walk with Him without the attention or sympathy of others.

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.  John15:15-17

Bud McCord

Abide International

From There to Here

How far away from here is the kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God?  Is it far away?  Is it so far away it is unknown to us?

Perhaps  three other questions can help us move toward an answer.

Do you have someone you deeply love who has passed away and you believe they are in heaven?   Do you feel they are far away from you as you think of them in heaven?  Has the distance to heaven closed for you since they are there?

Distances change when you know someone who is alive in another place.  It seems they cannot be too far away if you can still sense they are there, they are fine and you, too, could someday go there.

Jesus taught us to pray about the Kingdom as if it could come here.  He makes it sound like the question is not one of geography or distance but one of behavior and cooperation with God.

Read again the Lord’s prayer and notice the idea of there and here.  See if the distance between there and here closes in this prayer.

In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power 

and the glory forever. Amen.

Matthew 6:9-13

The key to understanding much of Jesus’ teaching is to remember He came from the Kingdom of God where the will of God is always done.  In a very real sense, because of His obedience to the Father while here,  He is the Kingdom coming from there to here. He is the answer to the prayer “You Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

Jesus obeying His Father here as He always had obeyed Him there brought the Kingdom close and closed the distance forever for those who believe.

In a very real sense Jesus is the Way from “There” to “Here” and back again.

“For I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father, except through me.”  John 14:6

Jesus with us means the distance has closed between “here” and “there” forever.  The more we cooperate with Jesus, the closer the Kingdom comes to here.

Every obedient Christian is the Kingdom coming here.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Cause and Consequence?

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Romans 2:1-4 It is perfectly clear in the Scriptures that the Creator is the cause and consequence of everything and everyone.  The Creator is the pure and eternal truth.  We need not concern ourselves with the question of whether there is a cause and a consequence that governs all of us. Cause and  consequence is the reality of every human being that exists. God sent his only Son to call us all back to the original cause and consequence.  He did not send Jesus to judge us and condemn us.  He sent Him to call us back home to the true light. The question for disciples of Jesus in these days of ever changing morality and behavior is if we are called and sent to be the cause of change in others lives and the consequence if they do not change.  Should we as Jesus’ followers in the world assume the role of judge and jury?  Should we work  as the cause and the consequence of God in the world?  Should we evaluate and punish in Jesus’ name? Another way to ask this question is this.  Is there a Christian “jihad”?   Is there a Christian “crusade”?  Are we called to impose our will in God’s name on others? Are we called to become a punishment? There does not exist either a legitimate Christian “jihad” our “crusade”.  There is, however, a call to be salt and light.   There is, however, a generosity and revelation that we are called to be in a world that grows darker by the day. Jesus never became a negative force or consequence in the life of any human being.  The Pharisees wanted Him to be the cause and consequence in the lives of others in God’s name, but he refused.  In the process of refusing to condemn those on the the Pharisee’s list,  Jesus lost their support and gained their hate. Jesus did not use His power to coerce  change and He did not use his perfect judgment to create consequences.  By His presence He became an invitation to live a new life that would cooperate with the original cause and consequece the Creator is  and will always be. As disciples of Jesus we are an invitation to repentance which is a rethinking of everything we do and defend.  As disciples we are an invitation to rethink.  We are not a forced change but a call to a new birth where all things are becoming new. Force and judgment cannot produce this kind of repentance.  Only  goodness, tolerance and patience over time and rooted in God who is the cause and consequence  can lead a human back to the original cause and consequence. Bud McCord Abide International

With Or Without Support

Jesus prepared his first followers to succeed in their mission in the world without political, cultural, moral or military support.  They did.

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” Jesus

Every word Jesus spoke and every day He lived led His disciples to the conclusion that His life could be lived and His commandments obeyed even in the face of open cultural hostility.  The needed support for such a  quality of Christan life would come from within where the continuous support of the Trinity remains constant in a person of faith.  The first disciples knew that those willing to cooperate fully with Christ formed in them would have all the daily support they needed to carry Jesus’ presence forward with power in the world.

For Christians now living in western civilization which was heavily influenced by Christian thought, morality, culture and even military might are experiencing an enormous adjustment to a new reality that is quickly forming around them. External support for anything Christian is diminishing across the west.  In other parts of the world this external support has never existed or ceased to exist over time.  The time for the normal Christian life of inner rest, food, water, happiness found in Jesus abiding within is for such a time as this in the west.

“Without Me you can do nothing.”  Jesus

A generation of western believers is being spiritually born into an environment where they will need to hear Jesus’ teaching in a fresh, new way. They are our children and grandchildren.  They will need to personally hear Jesus’  voice again about the normal Christian way to live in a time and a place where they will come to expect no external support for success in their endeavor to see, hear, love and live Jesus one day at a time. 

These new believers and even older cultural Chrstians will need to experience being empowered from within by the Spirit of Christ and nurtured to full spiritual formation in Jesus by communities of believers who know how to abide in Christ alone. Old formulas based on a mix of cultural support and accumulated Bible knowledge will not weather the storm that is to come.  In these days we will be driven within to live in Jesus moment by moment to find the strength to move forward unafraid and living out Jesus through the storm one day at a time.

For those of us who have lived our faith with cultural support of all kinds, our frustration and tears of loss will need to be very brief.  Those being born again right now still need us to form communities of faith, hope and love that manifest true Christianity’s ability to adapt to want or plenty, support or no support.  With or without external support from the culture that surrounds us,  Jesus’ mission will  powerfully move on and on in abiding believers. Nothing on earth can or will stop the fruit of such an inner supported life received from Jesus one day at a time.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Paul. Apostle and Martyr

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Door

Not all thoughts and paradigms that come knocking on the door of our inner life deserve to come inside.  What some thoughts and paradigms carry within do not mix with the presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that now lives in us.

According to Jesus the Trinity has taken up residence in the inner life of every believer.  This perfect presence within must be valued above all other thoughts and paradigms that might want to find a place to abide.  Whatever does not match the Divine presence must never be allowed to move in with us.

We cannot avoid the thoughts and paradigms that come knocking on the door of our inner life, but we can deny them entry and housing.  We are responsible to determine if a thought or a paradigm harmonizes with the Life that now dwells within us. Whatever does not match with who we now are in Christ cannot stay.

Yes, it is true we are in the world and all kinds of thought and paradigms can come to the door of our inner life and knock.  Even so, we do not have to let the world in.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  II Cor. 10:5.

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Way-LIght

“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12

A simple walk through one’s own home can turn into a painful experience when the lights go out.  What should be easy movement through our pleasant surroundings can suddenly become intense pain to numerous parts of our body that are very sensistive to pain. The human toes come to mind!

Anyone who has awakened in the dark and has tried to move through a room trying not to awaken someone we love has felt the explosion of pain of stubbing one’s toes while walking in the dark can create.  It  seems that darkness and pain make pain even more painful and impossible to ignore.

Nothing can substitute for light.  We were made to move with light’s continuous help.  Those who have no light to help them maneuver through their own familiar surrondings can certainly adapt and live, but light still remains the friend we all need to move through life with grace.

When Jesus says He is the light of the world, He sets Himself apart as the friend and ally of every single human being on the planet.  He is telling us He is essential to our successful movement on earth.  He knows we often awaken in darkness so He is cotininously with us to light the way.

No matter the depth of darkness that we may awaken to  in this world, Jesus is already awake and lighting the way.  When we try to walk without Him we will most certainly become acquainted with sudden, intence explosions of pain which will also awaken all those we love and involve them in our pain.

To walk in the light is to let others around us rest.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Confusion

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.                    I Cor. 14:33.

Confusion drains life and energy from love.  An unfocused, confused mind exhausts good intentions.  Just these two thoughts about confusion make it clear that God is not their author.

If not God, then who is the author?  Sometimes me.  Sometimes you.  Sometimes us.  Sometimes the Evil one.  Whoever it is, they must be resisted and we must submit ourselves and our confusion to God.

How much of life, love and good intentions are lost each day while we are confused?  How many people go unloved because we are confused.

Oh Jesus, deliver me from confusion and bring to me your light!.

Noise or Voice?

“My personal world is noisier than it has ever been.” 

Is this statement true of your personal world?   Have you lived long enough in this world to perceive an increase in noise?  This statement is true in my world.

If we define noise as anything that gets our attention and forces us to consider what it means for us, then the world is noisier than it has ever been for all of us.  More attempts are made to get us to pay attention to messages and thoughts today than at any time in human history.  Noise is everywhere.

To survive and flourish in a world where noise is everywhere and becoming impossible to ignore, we will need to define and discipline our listening.  We will need to choose what noise deserves our attention.  We cannot simply listen to all the noise and stay sane.

To define and discipline the noise in your world, choose which voice is the defining voice in your life.  Choose carefully.  Make sure this voice gets your attention at any time and in any situation.  Put this voice on your list as your favorite voice.  If you are a disciple of Jesus this voice should be His voice.

Next, make a list of the voices of those who genuinely have your best interest at heart.  Add them to your favorites list.  When they call, listen to their voice.  This list may not be long, but it can grow over time.

When the voices of those who have your best interest are in order in your life, give them your attention.  Do not make them compete with this noisy world to speak to you.  Give them access to you.

Be careful who you add to your favorites list and block all enemies of the way to authentic life and love. 

The world may be noisier than ever but we can still define and discipline our listening by only accepting voices of those who have our best interest at heart.

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Circumference of Love

The chief aim of discipleship is the perfecting of our love for God and others. Discipleship expands the circumference of our love.

All of us have a circumference problem when it comes to love.  All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’s circumference of love. (Romans 3:23) We all reach the limit of our love and love stops.

When we listen to the Sermon on the Mount for the first time, we get an idea of a kind love that is far beyond the current circumference of our love.  To be anywhere near Jesus is to feel just how far beyond our love Jesus extends his love.  To follow Him over time is to be taken little by little to a new circumference of love.

When Christ is formed in us His perfect love within us pushes against the outer limits of our love.  This inner stretching of the circumference of our love hurts us like growing hurts the body of a child who is headed for full maturity. This inner stretching of our love feels like carrying a cross.

Just when we think the circumference of our love is where it should be, God brings even more difficult people into our life.  We are tempted to say, “Stop! Isn’t loving like this far enough?”

With Christ within us, the stretching continues until the racists become missionaries, the bigots become servants, the haters become lovers and the fearful become forgivers. This expanding of love is the miracle of Jesus’ presence in us.  All who were once afraid and unwilling to love become unwilling and afraid to stop growing in Jesus’ love.  They would rather die than stop loving.  Finally, we are like Jesus.

When the circumference of our love becomes one with Jesus then we discover a new reality.  There is no circumference to love with Jesus.  This continuous growth in love is our permanent destiny just as it has been His permanent reality.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Life’s Classroom

“O God, you teach us the way through Christ and Catastrophe.”   E. Stanley Jones

Our day to day experience in this world is “Life’s  classroom” where we discover the way and not the way.  Every moment of every day is an opportunity to see what cooperates with God’s original plan for mankind and what does not. 

If we will open our eyes to God as we move through every day we will see clearly what produces life and love and what produces fear and death.  We will see that our decisions and behaviors have predictable results.  None of us can say we saw nothing of the true way.  The way is written into our DNA by God and we are all enrolled at birth in class 101-The way and not the way.

To be absolutely sure we can see the way and what is not the way, God sent Jesus who is the way made flesh and dwelling among us.  To see Jesus is to see God’s original intention for human life and love.  Jesus was not and never will be the cause of human catastrophe, He is and will ever be the way out of human catastrophe.

When Jesus makes a permanent connection by His Spirit with any human being “Life’s Classroom” moves into our inner life where Jesus begins to live and teach by His Spirit.  This inner teaching about the way becomes much more intense and personal.  We begin to see catastrophes and their impact more clearly and the pain we feel seeing so clearly would overwhelm us if it were not for Jesus revealing to us moment by moment God’s forgiveness and love.

It is within our inner life with Jesus that our love is being perfected.  It is within our inner life with Jesus that the Way  becomes our Way  It is in our inner life that Jesus is the true teacher.

Jesus does not take us out of the catastrophes.  He takes the catastrophes out of us.

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

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful."  Col. 3:15

"These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him."  I John 2:26-27

Bud McCord

Abide International

Jesus, You Are Welcome Here!

For the last 20 years it has been my practice to awaken every morning  finding the presence of Jesus in me, acknowledging His presence and welcoming His presence.  These words from C.S. Lewis taken from his book  “Mere Christianity” certainly played a central part in this wonderful spiritual discipline that has so blessed me and many others:

"The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through.

He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said, ‘Be perfect,’ He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder—in fact, it is impossible.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." From Mere Christianity

Never start any day in which you wish to be the kind of human being you were meant to be without first focusing on Jesus and finding Him to be all He is for you and in you.  I find that starting every day with the simple phrase “Jesus, you are welcome here”  while placing my hand over my heart gives me the right starting point for every day.  It is time to fly!

Bud McCord

Abide International

Holy Spirit Come!

One of the most common prayers heard during modern worship is “Holy Spirit Come!”  As with many prayers the intention is great, but this request is off center.If the Holy Spirit has not taken up permanence in us at the center we are not of Christ.

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.  Romans 8:9-11

When we fail to begin with all we need already living in us, we begin to seek what we lack to live elsewhere.  With the Trinity living in us there is no need for looking elsewhere.  We are truly the Temple of God.  All the Christian life we will ever need or ever lives already abides in us.

Perhaps a better, more centered prayer is  “Holy Spirit inspire!”  or “Holy Spirit fill!”.  To keep asking someone to come who is already present seems off  and close to offensive.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Fight, Flight or Fearless?

Think of the three words fight, flight or fearless.  Which one describes Jesus as He walked among us in this very dangerous and faithless world?  Easy question if you know Jesus’ story. Jesus was, is and always will be fearless.

Now think of Jesus abiding in you as you right now. If  you are sensing the desire to fight or flee because of the circumstances that surround you, can you see you are taking Him with you as you respond?   Are you sure your response is what He wants?  Is your response what you really want?

Can Jesus’ fearlessness be yours?  Can Jesus eliminate your normal reaction to what you fear so much that all you can think of is to fight or flee? Yes, He can but you will  have to move beyond simply imitating Jesus and begin to live Jesus as your life.

Imitation of Jesus still leaves you in control of your reactions.   Living Jesus puts Him in control of your reactions.   Imitating gives you an excuse since you have your limits.  Living Jesus makes His ability the limit of your ability.

The next time your fight or flight desire is moving you to act, ask Jesus is He wants to fight or flee with you.  He will clearly give you an answer if you are willing to obey His answer.

Fear torments and inspires the worst in you. Jesus empowers you to fearlessly love.

Somehow you know that fearless love is what you were made to live.  Jesus in you is what you were made to live.  Live Jesus fearlessly!

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”  I John 4:17-18

The Bottom Line

Sometimes the bottom line of our day leaves us full of fear.  Sometimes the bottom line of our day leaves full of happiness.  No one can escape the bottom line of every day.

It is impossible to know the truth about any subject of our  daily lives without dealing with the bottom line.  How much we have and what is left over each day are the bottom lines that give us direction and inspiration or leave us afraid and paralyzed.

Jesus is the bottom line of the universe every day.  Jesus should become the bottom line for every human being because He came to give us abundant life one day at a time.

It is really easy to become disoriented, afraid and paralyzed in this world.  When we take our eyes off of Jesus what is left without Him at the end of the day soon becomes clear and frightening.  The bottom line without Jesus is loss.

When you live each day with Jesus as your bottom line the disorientation, fear and paralysis with be replaced with the peace and joy of God’s bottom line which is Jesus.

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

A Sickness Called No and a Healing Called Yes

“For all the promises in Him are yes…” 

II Cor. 1:20

God did not create mankind in His own image to live with no as our starting point. The opening two chapters of Genesis are clearly yes in every aspect. God is the essential yes in all life. He created us to live a healthly yes.

The introduction of man’s independence from God began man’s descent into a deadly sickness called no. No breeds negativity, blame, distress, violence and death.

The sickness of no began spreading through human experience until it had humanity clearly in its negative grip. Then Jesus was born. The healing called yes was back. The sickness of no could be healed by yes in Jesus.

One of the surest signs Jesus is alive in our inner life is that our natural no turns to a supernatural yes. We slowly begin to see yes filling the spaces where we only saw no. We become people who speak a healthy yes in moments where our usual response would have been a sickly no.

Jesus’ power to turn a person in the grip of no into a person in the grip of yes does not seem so impressive until that person is you. When living with you is a healthy yes you will be duly impressed with Jesus’ positive, healing power. Those who live near you filled with yes will soon be impressed, too.

We were created to live yes and that yes is in Jesus.
 

Jesus’ Love - Invincible and Vulnerable

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Romans 8:31-39

The earliest Christians understood that their conversion to Christ was a conversion to invincibility and vulnerability. They understood that love would never again be only an option in their lives which were rooted in Jesus. They knew the invincible love of Jesus would also be their vulnerability in this world.

Since the beginnings of Christianity in Jesus’ incarnation and sacrificial love for us at Calvary, disciples of Jesus have been taught that to love with His love is to be continuously invincible and vulnerable. All disciples have been taught that they will carry a cross. All disciples who love with Jesus’ love do carry a cross. Whenever any disciple loves with Jesus’ love they are both invincible and vulnerable in this world.

There is, however, a difference in begin taught that love makes one invincible and vulnerable in the world and actually living this reality in the face of cultural and religious violence toward Christians. There is a great gulf between a Bible study about the invincibility and vulnerability of living Jesus’ love and living both during expulsion from one’s home and rejection from one’s culture.

Some verses in the Bible and some stories of Christian persecution can only be truly understood when the reality of living the invincibility and vulnerability of Jesus’ love comes to where we live. And it always comes in some form because it is the normal Christian life.

Jesus showed us that His love makes us invincible and it also makes us vulnerable. Only those who see His love in them as invincible will be able to endure the levels of vulnerability that have come to our time. We knew this time for us would come. It is here.
 

Bud McCord

Abide International

Rooted

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.Col. 2:6-7

The health and development of a tree depends on its capacity to receive all it needs from its root system. The tree must be deeply rooted in its source of life to be all it can be. The quality of a tree depends on its roots and receptivity.

In the Christian life the disciple must be rooted deeply in Jesus to live and manifest the Christian life. The Christian life is 100% Jesus and only those rooted deeply in Him can live His life.

Author E. Stanley Jones who was a missionary in India for over 50 years speaks of a process the Japonese people developed to control the development of certain beautiful trees by limiting the normal receptivity of the tree’s taproot.

In the forest the trees grew tall. Because of their height the beautiful trees could not be used as decorative trees for home gardens. The Japonese farmers discovered they could limit the tree’s growth by tying off its taproot. Less receptivity meant less height.

Jones saw in this practice of tying off the taproot a perfect illustration of modern Christianity. He could see that the world had discovered how to tie off the taproot of Christians and domesticate them for the world’s use. Without deep roots in Jesus the Christians could never hope to attain the stature of Jesus.

To be an authentic manifestation of Jesus in our world there must be nothing that interferes with the taproot of our spirit going down deeply into the life of Jesus. We must be forever rooted deeply in all that Jesus is.

We were not born again and connected to Jesus to be decorative trees for the world’s gardens. We were born and rooted in Jesus by the Spirit to reach His beauty and height. We were born for the forest of liberty in Christ and not for the gardens of men.

 

Bud McCord

Abide International

Face to Face with Jesus

Yesterday I had the privilege of helping a lady at church have a face to face encounter with Jesus where she accepted Him as her Savior.  To hear her pray to receive Jesus’ forgiveness and life was truly an emotional and special moment.  I believe leading another person to see Jesus face to face and receive Him as Savior and Lord is one of life’s greatest joys.

Once again I realized that all God asks of me as a believer and as a pastor is to take each person to a face to face meeting with Jesus.  I must never get between Jesus and the person I am leading to Him.  For Christianity to work, there must always remain an unobstructed view of Jesus.  All I do is lead people to Jesus and leave them focused on Him.

This morning I left my car with a mechanic and called a taxi to  bring me home.  As I talked to the young taxi driver I took him toward a face to face meeting with Jesus.  I was surprised how easy it was to get beyond issues like churches and dishonest pastors and finally arrive at Jesus.  I was deeply impressed at how much he wanted to focus on Jesus and make his own decision about Christianity.

I told Him Jesus is all the Christianity there ever was or ever will be.  I told him he could never go wrong if He focused on Jesus and chose Him as all of Christianity.

As I paid my fare I gave him my cell phone number and said I would love to continue our conversation about Jesus.  I know he was face to face with Jesus as we drove the crazy streets of São Paulo
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Now I pray that other disciples who are willing to focus him on Jesus will be led to him and not obstruct his view of Jesus.

I believe millions of people are waiting for someone to lead them to an unobstructed view of Jesus.  I pray that all of us who believe Jesus is all will be led to all of them.

Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying,

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” John 12:21

 

Bud McCord

Abide International

One Elevator A Day

I do not like elevators.  When I enter an elevator I feel closed in and anxious.  I know I am not the only person who feels this anxiety. One elevator a day is more than enough for me.

I discovered that I do not have anxiety in every elevator.  I feel anxious in elevators that are completely closed to the outside world.  If I enter an elevator that has a view to the outside of the building I feel no anxiety.  I am totally calm.  The elevator can even stop between floors and I am fine.

The perspective we have during our day to day reality really does impact our level of anxiety.  When people like me who do not like elevators find one that has a view we are fine. No view to the outside equals anxiety.

Everyone feels some level of anxiety during their day.  All of us eventually feel closed in and anxious.  Everyone has their “elevator a day.” One’s “elevator” may be public speaking, traffic, doctor’s visits or just leaving home.  It is when we are going into our “elevator a day”  that we must look beyond our immediate environment for relief.

Someone described faith as “opening the window of the soul in God’s direction.”
I agree!  Opening our soul in God’s direction when our “elevator a day” appears before us is our daily cure for anxiety.

Each day will have its “elevator.”  Open the window of faith and you will win the battle one day at a time.
 

 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 6:33-34

Bud McCord

Abide International

“Je Suis Charlie” “I am Charlie”

A terror attack against free speech rocked France as 2015 stumbles to a violent start.

The staff of a small magazine dedicated to satire and stinging social commentary was killed in a burst of gunfire.  France’s passion for free speech came under attack.

Almost immediately the French people took to the streets declaring “I am Charlie”.
They painted a bullseye on themselves and said we now are the ones you killed. Come for us!

Everyone holding a “I am Charlie” sign knows that they are not the ones who died.  Everyone knows, however, that for those who died to live on thousands upon thousands will need to live on as lives of free speech just like the lives that were so violently taken.

This explosive social reaction signals a change in the landscape of Europe and perhaps the world.  From the death of freedom of expression  in some comes life of expression in others.  Only time will tell if the fervor of the moment will last and reverse terrorism’s  advance across the world.

As I watched these incredible moments unfold in Paris,  I found myself  thinking of Jesus’ crucifixion at the hands of sinful men 2000 years ago.  He was brutally killed in an awful public display of hate for God’s presence and love.  His only “crime” was love.

There was no immediate street demonstration for Jesus on the day of His death.  It took well over a month before His small group of followers would stand openly in Jerusalem and say  “We are Jesus!”.

All who stood for Jesus in Jerusalem painted a cross on themselves and said “Come for us!” They knew they were not really Jesus but they knew He was living in them and wanted to express Himself through them.

Nearly 2000 years later as disciples  of Jesus we are still here publicly saying to the world that Jesus’ death was not an end but a beginning.  Every disciple is a manifestation of His life .

“Le Suis Jesus!”  “I am Jesus!"

Lift up your cross publicly and say “Come for me!"

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

“For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Phil. 1:20

Bud McCord

Abide International