Words

Jesus understood the power of His words. We often do not. He also understood that many who heard Him could not understand Him. Listen to how He describes those who could neither hear nor understand Him.

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.” John 8:42-43

Truly hearing the words of another person and understanding their words requires much more than ears that work.  It requires a relational and cultural connection to the one speaking. Communication requires a living history. Only relational and cultural connection allows  words spoken to be heard correctly.

The first part of us that needs to be “born again” is our hearing.  We need to learn like a newborn child learns to hear with understanding.  To abide in the words of Jesus is like learning a new language—the language of God. Jesus is the language of God. It takes time but the rewards of being able to hear and understand in a new language is worth the effort.  It is liberating.

Keep listening to Jesus and you will grow more and more aware of the liberating power of His words.  Disciples of Jesus abide in His words and become more and more aware of what God is saying and doing.  When they do they are see free to join in.

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.” João 8:31-32

Bud McCord

Abide International

A Good Theology

Is your theology good?  Would a face to face meeting with Jesus concerning your personal theology go well for you? Would your theology pass the Jesus test?

In John chapter 5:38-47 Jesus has a very direct and honest conversation with the Jewish theologians of His day.  The conversation did not go well for the theologians.  They definitely did not pass the Jesus test.  Listen to Jesus’ evaluation of their theology.

“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. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

“I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.

How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust.For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

Notice the three things Jesus said they their theology did not give them.

1.     Life.  They thought they had found eternal life in the Scriptures so they did not need to go any farther to find life.  They especially did not believe they needed to come to Jesus for life.

2.     Love. They sought honor from men above the love of God.  God’s love had no home in them.

3.     Faith.  They knew Moses’ words but they did not believe them.  If they believed them they would have believed Jesus’ words.

In the end it will be Jesus who says whether our theology was good or not.  Jesus defines and approves theology.  Theology does not define or approve Jesus.

Bud McCord

Abide International

A Good Confession

Confession is good for the soul.  It reallly is.  Confession is good for the soul because we must continously be reconciled to the truth in order to live freely and well.  Confession is resetting the soul to the truth.

So, please hear my confession:  I confess that I have been continously helped by God to be what I am and do what I do.  Whatever I am and whatever good I have done came from God’s help in Christ.

I cannot honestly claim I am the source of what I am and what I have done that is good.  I have always had Divine help.

Admitting one has been helped by God in Christ generates thanksgiving and being thankful is the will of God for all of us.

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” I Thess. 5:18

We often here people say “If you can dream it, you can do it!”   Really?  Without help? With no one to thank but yourself?

The Apostle Paul dreamed of keeping the law of God.  He tried and failed.  He made a very difficult confession about himself.

“I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”  Romans 8:20-25

Paul confessed he needed Divine help.  “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Paul gave thanks to the One who helped.  “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

As Christians we all have a confession to make. “To be the kind of person I hope to be, I have always needed God’s help in Christ and I always will.”

Paul confessed this way.  ‘I am what I am by the grace of God.”   Confessing this is good for the soul and it makes thanksgiving come easily.  It is also the truth for all of us.

Reconcile yourself to the fact that you have been helped and will always be helped by God in Christ.  This is good for your soul because the truth will set you free.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Armed With Love

True love is most evident when it faces danger and death for others unarmed. Look for weapons in Jesus' hands. In a very violent world Jesus held no weapon but love. No weapon could have loved us or died for us. Only Jesus lovingly and voluntarily facing danger and death unarmed could.

There will come a time in every believer's life when love will be the only weapon they can carry to save the lives of those they love.  Missionaries have understood this for centuries. Missionaries used to go to the nations to live, love and die unarmed. Most still do.

Depending on where we live in the world we may or may not bear arms legally. No matter where we may live we can always love for against love no law or weapon can permanently succeed.

In these violent days do we really believe in love's power? We will all find out when what we face can only be overcome by love.

"Love never fails." I Cor. 13:8

Bud McCord

Abide International

Exit

Great Britain just voted to exit the European union.  Some are celebrating and some are weeping.  Most of the world is a little confused about what this all  this means.

There are times when an exit means loss and there are times when an exit means gain.   Exits always change things.

Time always reveals what an exit really means.   Over time one will either say “That was a really great decision!”   or  “I wish I could go back!”.  Read the story of Israel in the wilderness and you will see both reactions.  Disagreements over exits are nothing new.

For every believer in Jesus there was a moment when His invitation to follow Him came to us.  We accepted the invitation and exited our old life and entered His new life.  Through Jesus’ initiative, we changed kingdoms.

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love…”  Col. 1:13

As you remember your decision to exit with Jesus what do you say today about that deciision?

Bud McCord

Abide International

Resilience

Resilience seems to be the hot word for these turbulent times.  Resilience is the quality one needs to adapt to a constantly changing world.  It is the quality one needs to face and overcome the 24/7 news cycle of each day.  Without resilience nothing survives.

Jesus was way ahead of His time.  In fact, Jesus was from before time!  Jesus is the very source and definition of resilience.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

In the Sermon on the mount Jesus defines resilience using one of the most necessary elements of life-Salt.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."  Matthew 5:13

Men step on anything that is not resilient.  Just take a drive through a city with a depressed economy that once thrived and you will see what being trampled underfoot by men looks like.

Every Christian can and should be resiilient because the very essence of resilience is Christ within.  One day at a time every disciple of Jesus can be renewed and resilient.  Jesus is bigger than any change that mankind faces. 

Bud McCord

Abide International

The Final Mirror

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.  II Cor. 3:18

Good mirrors do not lie.

People who want to know the truth about themselves use mirrors that are as good as possible.

Godly, honest people are good mirrors. 

A friend who will reveal your weaknesses to you in private is a good mirror.

The Scriptures honestly read and free of human distortions is a perfect mirror.

The best mirror of all is Jesus. God has chosen Jesus as His perfect mirror that will judge humanity. Eventually every human being will look into Jesus and see their final truth.

Jesus will be the final judge of what human perfection is and He is the only person to whom we can look to become what we must become.  Only Jesus can change us into the kind of human beings God has intended for us to be from the beginning.  Jesus is the final mirror.

People who want honesty about their true state surround themselves with godly people, good friends and the Scriptures properly taught. All of these wonderful mirrors help us because in the end they all say “Look to Jesus.  He is the final mirror.”

Bud McCord

Abide International

“All For” and “All In”

Christianity rises and continues based on what Jesus is for us and what Jesus is in us.  All things truly Christian begin in and are sustained by Jesus.  If He all for us and all in us then all of Christianity is ours to live.

 

The good news is that Jesus is all for us and all in us.

 

John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. “He gave all for us.

 

Collossians 3:11 says  “Christ is all and is in all.”   He now lives as all in us.

 

When we connect with all Jesus is for us and all He is in us we can truly say “For to me to live is Christ.”

 

When we connect with all Jesus is for us and all He is in us we can truly say “I am what I am by the grace of God.”

 

Christianity is always and “all for”  and “all in” experience with Jesus.  Someone well said that one does not have to be much of a man or a woman to be a Christian. Even so, one must give all one is to Jesus.

 

Are you “all for” and “all in”  with Jesus?  He is all for you and in you.

Bud McCord

Abide International

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