Meditate On These Things

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8

It makes perfect sense to me that our inner life is an ecosystem that is even more sensitive to pollution than the visible world in which we live is sensitive to pollution.  When we pollute our outer world the quality of our biological life decreases and when we pollute our inner life the quality of our spiritual life and our love decreases.

Back in the 1970s Francis Schaeffer wrote a book called  “Pollution and the Death of Man”.  Written before the global warming debates and the rise of environmentalism’s radical fringe, which makes man wholly evil and nature supremely good, Schaeffer correctly called the church and all believers to have no part in polluting anything.

Schaeffer’s point was that man glorifies God by caring for His creation not destroying it or using it for personal gain.  For Schaeffer polluting is sinful because it defaces what the Creator did.  He was right to say to the church and to every believer  “ Don’t pollute the Creation!”

In the inner life polluting is also sinful because it impedes the flow of love..  We glorify God by having a well cared for and clean inner life where love can flow freely.  When we pollute our inner life we deface love and fail to be the loving creation we were meant to be.

To the extent that we pollute our inner life we limit our ability to use our mind, emotions and will to glorify God.  When we pollute our inner life we impede the flow and delivery of love.  We are right to say to the church and to every believer  “Don’t pollute you!”
 

We would all do well to meditate on these things.

Bud McCord

Abide International

The New and Flexible You

Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.   And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”  Luke 5:33-39 

Jesus was the master of teaching the profound with simplicity.  He helped simple people see clearly by using what they had already clearly seen with their own eyes.  He didn’t invent new illustrations. He used what they had already seen.

The people of Jesus’ day had seen weddings, old and new clothing, old and new  wine and old and new wineskins.  They had certainly seen people drinking wine!  They had already drawn conclusions from what they had seen.  Teaching them something new  meant helping them see Him in the things they had seen.  

Jesus’ questioners needed to see Him as the bridegroom, the new cloth and the new wine. They need to see Him as a cause for celebration. They needed to see that trying to sew Him on the Old Testament would not last.  They needed to see that trying to pour Him into the limits of the Law would not give Him the space He needed to be all He came to be. They also needed to stop comparing His “taste”  to the “taste” of the old.

“Celebrate while you can”  may not seem profound, but it is.

“New must be completely new”  may not sound profound, but it is.

“New needs a flexible environment to succeed”  may not sound profound, but it is.

“People who have acquired a taste for something do not change easily” may not sound profound, but it is.

When you see Jesus with your own eyes you will see the truly new Jesus looking for the new flexible you.

Bud McCord

Abide International

It Is Not Fair!

Seems like everyone is suddenly very upset because so many things are not fair.  Apparently an entire generation has been intently focused on things that are not fair and they are mad and motivated.  They have come of age and they are upset.

On the one hand this is exciting news.  Some good changes are certainly on the way with all this new energy being unleashed against unfairness.  On the other hand, this is not the first generation to throw itself fully against what is unfair.

As a person who was a teen in the 1960’s in the USA I saw Martin Luther King, Jr. go beyond what was fair.  He dreamed of and fought for something much greater than what is fair.  He called a generation to be fair and to love at the same time.  He died for more than fairness.  He died for love, too.

As noble a goal as fighting what is unfair is, it is far short of what is needed.  Unfair only gives way to genuine, sacrificial love.  I believe that is what Dr. King believed because he believed in Jesus.

I know the passion for fairness is wonderful to feel and to see.  Even so, I pray that among those who are screaming so loudly in other people’s faces there  would be many who remember that fair needs love and true love is always fair and even more than fair.

Jesus never used the word fair.  He used the word just.  Just includes love that is fair.  It is hard to think of Jesus getting up in anyone’s face screaming.  It is easy to see him getting up on the cross bleeding.  Kind of reminds me of Martin Luther King, Jr.  I never saw him scream in anyone’s face and I never saw him back down or stop loving.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Declaring Who You Are

We are always communicating to others who we are.  We just cannot help ourselves.  We want others to properly understand us.

Never has this been more clear than in today’s world where different cultures are now getting to know each other.  The messages about identity are non-stop among us.

Muslims of all types make it clear who they are by disciplines and clothing.  People who love tatoos leave no doubt what they want you to know about them with their public tatoos.    Company executives dress for success so you will know that they are.  Hipsters always make sure we know they are “hip” by their hair and their clothes.

Should Christians declare clearly who they are?  If so, how should Christians identify themselves in public? 

There are at least two public declarations that allow us to say who we are as Christians.  One is a public baptism and the other is participation the Lord’s supper or Communion.

Both Baptism and the Lord’s supper say Jesus is vitally important for us and in us.  Both of these special moments, if observed authentically and thoughtfully, say we are forever connected to what Jesus did for us and what He is in us.

Even with these two fantastic declarations, the most powerful way that we are to declare publicly who we are as disciples is by the quality of our daily love.  For a Christian continuous love is our very visible “discipline”,“clothing”, “tatoo” and “success”.  And high quality love is always “hip”.

Declare clearly who you are in Christ. Be baptized and join other believers in taking the Lord’s supper.  Above all things, live high quality love rooted in God.  Jesus certainly did.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Bud McCord

Abide International

Law or Light

If you wanted to change the behavior of human beings, including yours, would you choose law or light to inspire change? 

When confronted with humanity’s need for change, which did God choose?

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John 3: 17-21

Law can inform, educate and inspire but law cannot change human behavior.  Human behavior needs Divine light if there is to be hope for real change.  Human behavior needs the light that Jesus is.

When we sense a need for change in ourselves or others we will choose something that we hope will work.  We often choose law but according to Jesus we should choose Him.

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “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

The most practical thing I have ever learned about Christianity is that I need to take all of my behaviors to Jesus so I can see them for what they are and from where they originate.  When I come with myself and my behavior into the light of Jesus,  I can see what matches with Jesus and what does not. 

When I walk in the light of Jesus I see the change I need in Jesus and then I can receive the change by His grace and generosity.  

When you want yourself or others to change, take them to the light of Jesus not the law.

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Final Week and a Good Death

As Jesus lived his last week He knew certain things were true about Him.

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

During His final week He knew…

That His hour had come.

That He would leave this world and go to the Father.

That he had loved His own who were in the world.

That He loved them to the end.

Take a close look at this list of Jesus’ certainties.  See which of these are yours.

Can you say…

I know my hour will come.

I know I will go to the Father.

I know I am loving those given to me to love.

I know I will love them to the end.

Jesus lived with “the end in mind”  and so should we.  Our final week will come and our final week should even include a good death.  Jesus made this clear for us by the way His final week was full of certainty about who loved Him and who He had loved to the end. This is how His final week included a good death.

Make your final week certain by knowing right now who loves you and by loving right now who you should love.  Make your final week and death good starting today.

Bud McCord

Abide International

"Where Am I?"

Anyone who travels regularly and sleeps often far from home knows what it is to awaken in a dark room and ask “Where am I?”.  This disorientation disturbs sleep and makes falling back asleep hard.  Until the question of where we are is answered rest just will not come.

When this happens to me I stay very still and ask Jesus “Jesus, where am I?”.  He kindly says “In Me.”  The peace comes quickly and I can rest again.

It really does not matter where I am, what time it is or how dark it is around me because I am always “in Christ”.

In Christ abundance of love, peace, water and bread await me.  Jesus is all.

In Christ I know what work awaits me in the light. My work is to believe in Jesus.

In Christ I know that I will be surrounded by equality.  In Christ there are no men or women, no slaves and free and no Jews and Greeks.  There are only people living equally in Christ.

In Christ I know that everyone’s goal is the same.  We all exist to love those we need to love in the right moment, in the right manner and in the right measure.  I know that this love will come to me and through me from being in Christ.

It really does not matter where I sleep because I will sleep in Christ.  It does not matter where I awaken and it is dark, I will awake in Christ.  It doesn’t even matter if today is my last day in this world because I will leave this world and live on in Christ.

In Christ is where every believer is at all times.  Orient yourself to Jesus and rest.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Nothing

The word “nothing”  should be rarely used.  Once this word leaves a person’s mouth there is all the time in the world for someone to prove us wrong.

Jesus used this word nearly 2000 years ago when He explained to His disciples they could never do the will of God on their own.  Here is how He used the word:

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

When we set out to produce what the Father wants, we can do “nothing’ without a living connection to Jesus.  2000 years later no one has found a way to prove Jesus wrong.

Anyone who has ever seriously tried to live the same kind of life Jesus lived always comes to the conclusion they cannot.  Only those who have seriously tried to live what the Father wants from us are useful witnesses concerning Jesus’ famous statement.  Those who simply want to debate the subject of doing God’s will have no credibility in this debate.  Only those who have tried to repeat Jesus’ cooperation with the Father’s will know there is nothing they can do.

According to Jesus,  true cooperation with the Father’s will requires direct contact with the kind of life that does the will of God naturally.  Jesus called this continuous contact “abiding”  or “remaining” in Him like a branch in a vine. 

Doing the Father’s will on our own is not natural to us.  When we abide in Jesus we can do something instead of nothing. Jesus can enable us to do the will of God fruitfully. 

Abide in Him and nothing can become something God wants.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Jesus Christ Only

The Apostle Paul reached a place dealing with believers where he knew that the only focus He could use to help them calm down and grow was a Jesus Christ only focus.  Here is how he put it in his own words:

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I Cor. 2:1-2

Paul’s only  Jesus Christ focus included two very important parts. First, he focused believers on who Jesus Christ really is.  Second, he focused them on what Jesus Christ really did.

Focusing a Christian only on who Jesus is and what Jesus did seems too limited.  It seems like the Christian would never be able to become what the Father wants with such a limited focus. 

It may seem that way at first, but anyone who has learned Jesus for who He is and what He did will never say it is not enough.

Paul came to this conclusion because the Scriptures and his own experience with who Jesus is and what Jesus did was the only thing that calmed him down and made him grow. He was the one who wrote “Jesus is all and is in all.”  Col. 3:11

It would be wonderful if the churches of today thought this highly of Jesus again.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Generosity

A Christian who is walking in the Spirit of Christ is generous.  The Spirit of Christ in every believer is a river of generous living water.  A Christian does not have to create or sustain this river of generosity.  The Christian must believe Jesus within is the source of this river and simply release the river of generosity.

Human generosity exists because Jesus exists.  Jesus and generosity are one and the same.  The Christian and generosity should also be one and the same.

Generosity and sin do not mix.  They are opposites.  Sin is afraid to be generous.  Sin is concerned with acumulating and taking.  Generosity is open and unafraid.  Generosity always believes the source named Jesus will never run out of resources.

All of the metaphors Jesus used to describe the kind of human life and behavior the Father desires are metaphors of generosity.  Light is generous.  Salt is generous. Seeds are generous.  Sheep are generous.  Even children are happilly generous when deeply loved.

If we want to witness to others about who Jesus is, we would do well to begin with acts of generosity and then speak generous words.

“Preach the Gospel always and when necessary use words.”  These words attributed to Francis of Assisi are a good place for generous Christians to start. Perhaps we can also say “Be continuouly generous. When the right moment comes explain with words that Jesus is the source of your generosity.”

Walk in the Spirit and you will walk in generosity.  Sooner or later someone will want to know where your generosity comes from.

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Perfecting of Love

Imagine a world where every person believed that they exist to love.  Imagine every person in that world spending each day loving others and allowing God to perfect the quality of their daily love.  As hard as this kind of world is to imagine, the church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be the beginning of this kind of  world.

Jesus died to forgive us for every thought and action that was not rooted in love for God and for our neighbor.  Having once and for all forgiven us by His death on Calvary, Jesus then came with the Father and the Spirit to make a home in each believer.  From this new home in us and with us the love of God is being perfected in us and through us one day at a time.

The world of perfected love is not an impossible dream.  This world of perfect love is already here in every one who has received Jesus and is cooperating with Jesus one day at a time.

As we all awaken each day in this world where it seems love is dying, we can say to ourselves “The love of God in Christ lives in me so I can love today. God in Christ by the Spirit will perfect my love today.”

Have no fear.  Love never fails.  Love has already been perfected in Jesus and the new world where love wins is already here.

" No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

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. We love Him because He first loved us."  I John 4:12-19

Bud McCord

Abide International

Jesus. The Cure for Paralysis

“There is nothing that the presence of Jesus cannot cure.” Mike Wells

There are many types of paralysis.  Physical paralysis is the most obvious kind, but there are many forms of paralysis that limit our movement with God.

In Luke chapter 5: 17-26, concerned friends bring their paralysed friend to Jesus for healing.  Ripping off the tiles of the roof of the house where Jesus was curing people, these men literally dropped their motionless friend into the presence of Jesus.

The story ends with these words from Jesus:  “ ’I tell you’ he said to the man who was paralysed, ‘get up, pick up your bed and go home!’  Instantly the man sprang to his feet before their eyes, picked up the bedding on which he used to lie, and went off home praising God.”

In the same chapter in Luke, verses 27-28,  Jesus heals Levi from an entirely different kind of paralysis.  This is the same Levi who became one of Jesus disciples.

“Later on, Jesus went out and looked straight at a tax-collector called Levi, as he sat at his office.  ‘Follow me,’ he said to him.  And he got to his feet at once, left everything behind and followed him.”

Levi was just as paralyzed as the other man who was healed by Jesus. Both needed to get to their feet as Jesus spoke and head home praising God.  Both of them needed to be made able to leave behind the paralysis of their past and folllow Jesus.

All of us are paralysed by something that holds in one limited reality.  When our friends take us to the presence of Jesus or when Jesus comes to where we are paralysed, everything will change when we hear Him say “Get up! Follow Me!”

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill.  I have not come to invite the ‘righteous’ but the ‘sinners’---to change their ways.”  Luke 5:32 Phillips

Bud McCord

Abide International

God Speaks With His Hand

“For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand...”

Isaiah 8:11

How does God speak with His strong hand?   The same way a parent speaks to a child with his or her strong hand.  The parent takes hold of the child’s circumstances with a strong hand until the child will  finally be still and listen.

When God speaks to us by taking hold of us and our circumstances it is unmistakeable.  When God speaks with a strong hand, we find ourselves literally in the grip of circumstances we are powerless to overcome.  We can fight, run, resist and complain but our circumstances hold us.  We cannot move away. We are held too firmly by an unseen hand.

By his strong hand God gets our attention.  We have come to the end of ourselves and we know it.   Finally we grow still and begin to  understand that we are not God,  God’s strong hand brings tears of repentance to our eyes. The tears are the stress of our resistance finally leaving us.

By holding us in the grip of our circumstances God educates us.   Once we have felt the grip of God orchestarated circumstances we are much easier to educate. We learn to be still before God.

When God’s hand has made its point,  we know God is greater than our circumstances. We know we are really in the grip of the hand of His will and voice.

Being stil and knowing He is God is such a relief!

Bud McCord

Abide International

Receive Mode

“The just shall live by Faith.”

Romans 1:17

A just person is one  who loves the right person, at the right time, in the right way and in the right measure.  A just person does not simply want to do this.  A just person does this continuously.

Anyone who attempts to be just will soon learn that loving the right person, at the right time, in the right way and in the right measure is beyond human ability. 

People, including ourselves, are very complex to love justly over time.

The source of justice is God.  Only an intimate connection to and receptivity from perfect justice can make one just.  This connection and receptivity for justice has been made available to us by faith in Jesus who is God’s justice for us and in us forever.  Simply put, Jesus in us must be our continous justice.

The secret of a just life is not effort.  It is receptivity or “receive mode”.  Our ability to be just is directly connected to our growing awareness that in Christ we are being continuously loved as the right person, at the right time, in the right way and in the right measure.  It takes this justice perceived and received continously from Jesus  to allow this same justice to be released by us.

When we focus on being just we become frustrated and weary.  When we focus on and receive justice moment by moment from the perfect presence of Jesus in us by the Spirit, we begin to release one day at a time the justice we are receiving.

Focusing on how justly we have been and are being treated by Father, Son and Holy Spirit right now awakens justice in us. Receiving this justice one day at a time and moment by moment equips us with the right justice today’s complex people.  Releasing this same justice to the people who come into our lives each day becomes possible and sustainable in Jesus.

Do not worry about being just.  Let Jesus be the One who is your justice and you will find you can release the kind of justice you receive each day from the Father in Christ by the Spirit.

The just are the right people receiving the justice of God in Christ at the right time, in the right way and in the right measure.  Living like this in the ‘receive mode’ the just can release this same justice they receive from Jesus.

Jesus makes being a just person possible as we receive from Him. “Receive mode” toward Jesus in us makes justice possible. Justice is for those who can receive it.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Cain Still Kills Abel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bud McCord

Abide International

Words In Intensive Care

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Jesus in Matthew 4:4

Words can become sick, kill and even die.  Only the words that God defines and uses carry no sicknesses, death or time limit.

The way men and women use words can lead to a complete departure from the way God uses a word.  When sick and poorly defined words are used in conversation they can contaminate or kill true communication.

On one occasion a man sought Jesus out with a theological question.  Thinking he was communicating respectfully with Jesus he called Jesus “Good teacher”.

Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”  Mark 10:17

Jesus immediately corrected his use of the word “good”. The way the man used the word “good” had stopped any useful conversation with Jesus  The man used the word “good” to describe what human effort can produce for God. 

So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God." Mark 10:18

In Genesis chapter 1 God defines the word “good”.  God uses the word “good” seven times.  Each time it describes the creation from God’s point of view.  God said it was good because it was all He intended it to be and intended it to do.  “Good” describes perfect cooperation with God not personal attainment or effort.

Unfortunately, today the word “good” is abused, redefined and in intensive care.  Only Jesus by the Holy Spirit can cure such sick and abused words.  That is why Jesus made this statement in John 8:31-32:

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

The cure of our words should always be an important part of our discipleship.  Abide in Jesus’ words and the Holy Spirit will cure your words. 

Jesus will stop our conversation with Him when we use words incorrectly.  Let Jesus make your words God’s words and they will give life.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Why Focus on and Believe in Jesus?

Because only focusing on Jesus reveals to us what God is really like.

“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fulness should dwell.”  Col. 1:19

When we see Jesus we see the Father.  Seeing Jesus allows us to answer the fundamental questions of reality:  In Jesus do we see the kind of God we hope exists?  Does Jesus reveal the kind of God in whom we would seek refuge ?

When we focus on Jesus we see in flesh and blood what God thinks, feels and wants.  Focusing on Jesus we can decide if this is the God with whom we want to think.  Focusing on Jesus we can decide if this is the kind of God with whom we want to share our feelings.  Focusing on Jesus we can decide if this is the kind of God with whom we want to cooperate.

No amount of theological thinking about God  can replace focusing our full attention on Jesus. When we focus on Jesus  we meet the Father face to face.

Because only by believing in Jesus we become the  kind of people who can love continuously.

“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.”  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive;...” John 7:37-39

When we believe in Jesus as the drink that satisifes our inner thirst for love , the Holy Spirit becomes in us the river of  Jesus’ love which moves through our lives toward our neighbors.

As we believe in Jesus, He answers the second fundamental question of reality:  How can we become the kind of people we hope to be?  How can we love our neighbors as we love ourselves?  Believing in Jesus allows us to see and become  people who can  deliver love continuously by the Spirit in us.

Why focus on and believe in Jesus?

We focus on and believe in Jesus in order to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength  and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  We focus on and believe in Jesus because we exist to love God and our neighbor. Jesus makes both possible.

No other focus or belief can take us to this place of simultaneous Divine and human love. Only Jesus can take us to this place.  Focus on  and believe in Jesus. Only then love will flow toward God and others.   Without Jesus we can do nothing.  With Him our love can be perfected.

Bud McCord

Abide International