Abide

Okay so I have going to this group on Sunday nights that they call DOXA. I know I should know what that means, but I don't. For all I know it could mean sell your soul, give you money and sacrifice a goat but I don't think so. Last Sunday we sat around and talked about the idea of the vine and branches that Jesus used to illustrate what it meant to be one of His disciples, as recorded in John 15. We were also given the assignment of reading that chapter and meditating on that illustration over the course of the week, to see what stood out to us individually. For me, I have continued to chew on the picture of what a grapevine looks like. When I look at a plant, whether it be a tree, bush, shrub or vine I don't see pieces - I see the whole thing. Meaning, yeah a tree is made up of a trunk, roots, branches, leaves and seeds - but it is all still a tree. Also, with the passing time the whole structure continues to grow and sooner or later, even though in your mind you know that it all started with a seed you can't help but see the tree as being completely connected as a whole entity. Another way of saying it is; the top branch is connected not only to the trunk but also to the bottom branch as well as the deepest root. The youngest seed is connected to the oldest leaf, etc. Now if Jesus is going to decompartmentalize the plant by saying that He is the vine (or trunk) and we are the branches then it is not only true that we cannot separate ourselves from Him, but we would not be able to separate ourselves from one another as well because through Him we are all connected. And this whole paragraph is a rant that I didn't mean to focus on so I will move on now.

What I did want to focus on was the idea of being grafted with Christ and what that means in our day to day lives. It is the whole idea of being able to truly say that in my life there is no way to pinpoint where my life is separate from Christ, or as Paul put it in Galatians 2:20; "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer life, but it is Christ who lives in me". Is it true that I can be so intimate with Christ that my life really is an extension of His life on earth and if so, what does that look like? The following is my opinion and, as always, please know that you are invited to share yours as well (and yes agreeing with me and sharing it will go along way to boost my ego). I truly believe that the key to the ministry if Jesus, and the work of God on earth, is recognizing and seizing the opportunities as they present themselves. Jesus said clearly that His ministry was "watching what the Father was doing and doing likewise". The miracle of Jesus was that, in the records we have of Him, He always knew the right thing to say or do to the right person at the right time. Even in His willingness to be martyred for the sake of humanity, it wasn't until the right time. It is widely known that some of Jesus' travel to certain regions was to avoid other regions where He would have been hunted down as well as instances where He fled through the crowd as they were going to stone Him or throw Him off a cliff. Other times we have recording where He walked into entire communities of the sick and impoverished and only heals a few and then leaves. Also in His teaching, there were times where He was very direct in what He was saying and other times where He spoke in riddles. All of this to say that Jesus was the master of recognizing what was needed in each particular situation.

I would even say that was the difference in the ministry of the disciples pre and post Pentecost. Pre-Pentecost we see instances where the disciples either failed to recognize an opportunity because they were focused on meeting their own needs (ie John 4) or they recognized the opportunity but failed to see what was needed for the situation (ie Matthew 17). On the other hand, the first half of the Book of Acts is dedicated to telling the stories of how the disciples reacted to situations they found themselves in. I would submit that the "Filling of the Holy Spirit" was/is not for the purpose of endowing the disciples of Christ with the abilities to react in supernatural ways. The purpose is to endow the disciples of Christ with the ability to recognize, just as Jesus did, what God is doing in the world around us and to act accordingly.

So, back to the original question; "What does it mean to Abide in Christ?" To me it means this, 1) Recognize the fact that as I am grafted to Christ, I am also grafted to everyone else who is "called according to His name". 2) To be a "minister" of Christ means to live my life as normal and as I am doing that when I see the opportunity to extend His hand or speak His words, do so knowing that as I do - He does. 3) Maturity in Christ means to recognize more and more the opportunities to rest in the knowledge of both 1 and 2.

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Where I have been

First of all, sorry for not posting anything in almost a month - I haven't felt like I really have had anything to say. I feel like have been in a place of pensiveness for the past few weeks and I am happy to say that it has been a place that I have not tried to shy away from. During this silent period I have also taken, what I believe to be, a few steps forward in my spiritual journey. One of the reasons I agreed to move back to NJ was because I felt like it was time to take some "steps of faith" in regards to connecting with a community of faith and after about 6 months I can honestly say that I have a sense that the community we have aligned ourselves with is where we feel comfortable to "flesh out" what it means to be apart of a community again. So, I have continued to have conversations with John and Beth Jackson and they have graciously allowed me to join in with their leadership team for "The Sanctuary". What this means, I have no idea. At this point, I am not leading anything or really even "doing" anything. I basically just sit there and try to provide comedy relief by being sarcastic - something that I have always been very gifted at! I am still not really interested in "leading" anything, but I do believe that I have the responsibility to be involved with the community I align myself with and I thank the people at the Sanctuary for: 1) Not pushing or rushing Erica and I to be apart solely based on our previous experience. 2) Respecting the fact that we are still learning how to guard one another (and Kayla now as well) but still be open to life in a community. 3) Not pushing us away from being involved and observing the involvement of others until we feel ready to jump in head first. It is truly because of these things that we have been comfortable enough to move forward at all. I would also like to take the opportunity to restate my opinion that just because I talk about moving forward in my spiritual journey and being involved that does not mean that I am moving towards "full-time ministry" (meaning, collecting a paycheck from a non-prof org. again). I really have no idea what I am saying right now or what I mean by the last statement, maybe that is why I have been pensive lately - because I am silently excited about the safety I feel to figure things out and the freedom to move forward as I see fit, but at the same time a little apprehensive of where that might lead. With all that I am I want to live and breath truth but at the same time I don't want to wall myself off from those desire to hear it from my life. I just wish I knew what that looked like. To quote someone that I deeply respect, the statement that has haunted me since I heard it - "In the absence of light, darkness prevails - so I am out trying to save the world...".

To all that read this, Thank you for your grace.

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