Welcome! Enter the Abiding Life is meant to be a help to Christians who want some practical tips they can apply to live a life that abides with Jesus.
My name is Tim and my wife Anne and I have been discipling others for several years now, as God has helped us to engage with Him and step out in faith we’ve learned lessons we want to share! We are not pastors but do have our own ministry engaging with a few to come to know Christ and to know Him more intimately. We hope that you will be encouraged to seek to taste God’s faithfulness even more in your own life.
Being with Jesus starts with coming into a relationship with Him, in 1 John 5:13 John states he is writing this letter to help those who have believed in Jesus know they have received eternal life, meaning if a person has truly believed in God’s Son Jesus then that person does have eternal life! Making this decision involves repentance Mark 1:15 and then belief in who Jesus has said He is, the risen Lord Romans 10:9-10.
Six categories that are crucial to abiding with Jesus can be found by clicking the gadget on the top right.
Why these categories? They are sure ways we can approach God:
Word:
John 8:31-31 “If you abide in my word you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
“The Word of God I think of as a straight edge, which shows up our own crookedness. We can’t really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.”- Elisabeth Elliot
The word of God is a means of changing our minds to think according to the truth, if we invest time in it, and obey it, our thinking will incline more to God’s way of seeing the world.
Prayer:
Phillipines 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
“O, let the place of secret prayer become to me the most beloved spot on earth.”- Andrew Murray
Prayer draws us near to God, it places our burdens on Him and it reaches beyond us into the hands of our Father in heaven.
Fellowship:
Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
“When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” – The Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 14:26b)
Fellowship is often misunderstood it is more than just attending a Bible study together instead it is a stirring up, it is like iron sharpening iron. When we meet in fellowship everyone involved ought to go away stronger. There are three primary modes of fellowship: corporate or as a church, in a small group (think Jesus and the 12), and life to life (think Paul and Timothy, or Jesus and Peter, James and John).
Witnessing:
Matthew 4:19 “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”
“There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God – admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world.”- William Wilberforce
Following Jesus has consequences and one of those is an attractiveness identified in Scripture as salt, light and the hope that is in us. When that hope shows forth we need something to say about what God has done in our lives.
Spirit Filled Life:
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Galations 5:22-23a “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
The Christian life is meant to be a supernatural life with supernatural fruit, this is only accomplished through allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us deeply and to express Him outwardly.
Critical Thinking:
Acts 17:11 “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”
“Knowledge is indispensable to Christian life and service. If we do not use the mind that God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality and cut ourselves off from many of the riches of God’s grace.”—John Stott
Finally, critical thinking is a skill that has largely been ignored but the Bible is full examples of God’s expectation that we have thought through our faith and act accordingly. We are called to love God with all of our mind, this is why I think we are not simply told to believe, instead God seems always concerned with making the case for what we should believe. See John 15:22-27 or 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 for some clear examples of this. As we begin to understand the reasons behind those parts of the Christian faith we are strengthened to abide closer to Christ.
“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.” – J. Hudson Taylor
