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MATTIE'S CHRISTIAN PAGES
Tammy's Christian Writings
April
8, 2000
Compiled by: Tammy Elaine Rudstrom
PORTRAIT OF GOD’S LOVE FOR ALL
CHAPTER
III
Abiding
John 15:1-7; I am the vine, and My Father is the husbandman. 2. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in Me. 5. I am the Vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. 6. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. [Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within you. This is where He came back to receive us unto Himself. This is where He now abides, and this is where we abide in Him. We abide in Him when we receive the Living Word WITHIN us. When we live IN Him – WALKING IN HIS WORD – walking as Jesus walked by Him living His life IN US and through us – We are ABIDING IN HIM and HE IS ABIDING IN US. ‘ABIDING’ AN ‘ABODE’, A DWELLING PLACE. This is a walk of faith in God’s word, resting IN Him by grace alone.]
John 14:2b; I go to prepare a place for you. 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. [Jesus was telling His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for us, that when He came again He would receive us unto Himself, that where ‘I am, there we may be also’. Where was He when He spoke those words to His disciples, saying they (or we) might be where He ‘was’ when He spoke those words to His disciples? It is plain to see He was on earth, yet He was speaking of another place where He abided while on this earth, a place that He was going to prepare for us, where we would abide in Him when He came back to receive us; preparing us an abiding place to continue our walk on this earth. So we could continue our walk in Him, even as He walked on this earth, yet abiding in the Kingdom of God.]
In Mt. 6:33, During His sermon on the mount Jesus said, ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. In verse 32, He said, ‘It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. He had been showing His disciples a way of life without any worry – a way of resting in, trusting in our heavenly Father who knows all our needs, who is our supply for today and tomorrow’s needs, as well.
I love the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is our Good Shepherd; we shall not want. He is with us providing for us and giving us abundance all the way and we know surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life; and we will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. What house is the Psalmist speaking of? He speaks of it in the 91st Psalm, verses 1 and 2, I love this Psalm also, ‘He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.’ This is the same place Jesus dwelt while on earth, and the very place He prepared for us through His eternal blood sacrifice and covenant with God for us. It truly is a secret place because few there are that find it.
Paul refers to this place in Hebrews as
the rest that is for the people of God. This is for the church today just
as it was for the Hebrew Church in the day he wrote these words to send to them:
Hebrews 3: 7 wherefore (as the Holy Ghost
saith, To day if you will hear his voice, 8. Harden not your hearts, as in the
provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9. When your fathers
tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10. Wherefore I was
grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and
they have not known my ways. 11. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter
into my rest.)
Then in verse 12. Paul writes: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13. But exort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; 17. With whom was he grieved forty years’ was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? 18. And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? 19. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
In Ch. 4; He continues, Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3. For we which have believed do enter into rest (present tense) as (God) said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4. For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. 5. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11. LET US LABOUR THEREFORE TO ENTER INTO THAT REST, LEST ANY MAN FALL AFTER THE SAME EXAMPLE OF UNBELIEF.
We hear Jesus words that are recorded in Mt. 11:28; when He said, COME UNTO ME, ALL YE THAT LABOUR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. 29. TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU, AND LEARN OF ME; FOR I AM MEEK AND LOWLY IN HEART: AND YOU SHALL FIND REST UNTO YOUR SOULS. 30. FOR MY YOKE IS EASY, AND MY BURDEN IS LIGHT.
Apart from Jesus it is impossible for my frustrated soul to be in perfect rest and peace. I need to go often to Jesus to lay down the heavy burdens that I find myself needlessly carrying, to learn of Him and to find rest for my troubled and sometimes tormented soul. And He is always there, faithfully waiting to show me His yoke is easy, and His burden is light, and through Him I always do find rest for my soul. I learn to cease from my labors, trust everything into His hands and enter into His rest by the faith of the Lord Jesus who abides within me. I enter in by His faith. For the Holy Spirit brings it to my remembrance that it is no longer I living this life, but Christ who lives His life in me and through me when I do rest in Him, in His and our Heavenly Father’s finished work.
Notice throughout Chapter III, ABIDING, I have underlined the most important word, ‘IN’, of our walk of faith ‘IN’ the Kingdom of God which is our dwelling place, ‘IN His mansion. The word ‘ IN’ ‘IN Christ’, ‘IN the Father’, ‘IN the Kingdom of God’, ‘IN the secret dwelling place of the Most High’, and their place ‘IN us’, this vessel, our house where God dwells'IN' US,and in conclusion, ‘IN the finished work of God that was finished from the foundation of the world.’
When God spoke the words, ‘He prepared a
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world’, when He spoke the words, ‘Let us make man in
Our Image’ and when He spoke the words after the 6th day, ‘It is
finished’, His work was truly finished. All were made in the Image of
God, and are whole and, as it is recorded in Colossians 2:10, ‘Complete in
Him’, perfect and entire, and because the Lord is our Shepherd we are
wanting nothing. We can safely enter INTO His Rest with Him who is
our Refuge. He dwells IN us. We are His house.
We dwell IN Him, and we know that we shall live IN the house of
the Lord forever, Amen! He is our house to live and abide IN right
now, and with His goodness and mercy following us FOREVER AND EVER, Amen!
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