Abiding in Jesus Intro

 

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.   John 15:4 ESV 

 What does it mean to "abide" in Jesus? In the passage where He introduces the concept to us, He uses the imagery of a branch and a vine.  The vine is the main part of the stalk of a plant that comes up from the ground. From this vine, many branches spring out, and it is on the branches that the fruit grows. The branches receive their food and water from the vine. If the branches are separated from the vine, they will quickly die. They certainly cannot bear fruit apart from the vine! So, Jesus is telling the disciples, and us, that in order to bear fruit, we need to be connected to Him, as a branch is connected to a vine, 

 That's lovely imagery, and teaches us a deep lesson, but how do we apply it? How do we "abide," or as some versions put it, "remain" in Christ? Over the next two months, we'll be diving into this concept and learning from God's Word. We'll be focusing on: trusting the Gardener's work, bearing lasting fruit, abiding in Jeus through His word, through obedience and through love, and being chosen and commissioned by Christ to bear fruit. 

 At home group last week, we looked at the story of the woman at the well. She had come to the well to get water, something essential for life. She had to do it every day, and because of her standing in the community, she had to do it in the heat of the day when no one else would be there. Why would no one else be there? Because it was hot. It was hot and miserable. You were likely to get burned. It was so much more difficult carrying a heavy, full water jar in the heat. It just wasn't done. But she did it. Why? Because she needed water and she was not welcome at the well with the others when it was cool. On this special day, we get to read about how she encountered Jesus at the well, who offered her living water. That had to be confusing to her. What was "living" water and how was this man, with no bucket, going to give it to her? She asked Jesus these questions, and more, and in Jesus' typical fashion, He replied not with the direct answer to her question, but with what she needed to hear. He was the Messiah. He was the only one who could ever satisfy the longing, the hole in her heart that had never been filled. He was not concerned with boundary lines or worship traditions, in fact He was introducing the concept that it didn't matter where you worship so much as how you do it. In that moment, her life changed, and so did the lives of many in her community. She went from pariah to evangelist in the blink of an eye. And why? Because she recognized her deep need for water, and so when she found living water in Jesus, she was all-in. 

 It is through the vine, through Jesus, that we receive the living water our soul requires to live. Without Him, we are well and truly dead. With this in mind, I am even more passionate about learning how to stay connected to Jesus, how to abide in the Vine. You may not know this about me, but I used to be fairly obsessive about scripture memorization. At one point, I had the first six chapters of the book of John memorized, with a plan to memorize the entire book. Life happened, I got distracted, and it never came about. Can I quote the first six chapters of John to you now? No, but I can do pretty good with the first three. More importantly, when I come upon it in a study, or hear it in a sermon, or see it in a social media post, it hits me differently. Those passages are a part of who I am. They are ingrained in me. My lips move along with the speaker as my heart echoes the words. They have comforted me in trial and tragedy. They have kept me company in a doctor's office when I was alone for nearly an hour and waiting to hear if I had cancer. Memorizing those passages, even if I cannot recall them perfectly now, changed my life. As I looked over this study, I noticed that we are focusing on the first 17 verses of John 15. We are breaking them down, looking into them deeply, internalizing them so to speak, and I felt a desire to add memorization to that process. What's the bid deal? Haven't I done that before? Well, yes, but that was before I had a brain tumor, before I had three brain surgeries, before my entire metabolic system went wonky and dyautonomia took charge in my body and mind. Now I struggle to remember why I entered a room or what I'm looking for in the fridge. This is not an occasional occurrence, but a constant one. Making dinner is mentally exhausting with just trying to keep track of what I'm doing. I have to go back to the recipe over and over and over and over again to see what I'm doing right now, and that's IF I remember that I'm making dinner at all - sometimes I forget that and end up somewhere else doing something else. With all these changes, one of the things that has been nearly impossible is scripture memorization. I've tried, God knows I've tried. I've used all the tricks. And yet, when I look at the verse I've been working on for weeks, it's like I'm seeing it for the first time. There is a beauty in that, for sure. But at the same time, it does not propel me along my path to committing God's Word to my heart very well. Here's my hope: I believe that God put memorizing John 15:1-17 on my heart, and I believe that, with His help, I can do it. We'll see! With our last study, I looked back over what I'd learned and did a recap at the end, so when I do so for this study, I'll be able to let you know if it worked!

 As a heads up, I will be adding links to the bottom of each post in this series, so it is easier to navigate between them since I blog about other things as well. You might notice that there are only six weeks of study broken out below, but because we have a 2-week break in between studies I stretch them out over eight weeks in my posts.

Here's the Thing: This is not out of obligation or fear. I am truly excited about this. I love Jesus SO MUCH and I am looking forward to exploring how I can set the focus of my life on Him! Will you join me? You can follow along here at the Salty Zebra Blog, or maybe you'd like to do the study yourself as well! You can find the materials on Love God Greatly, Amazon*, or on the Love God Greatly app through your phone's app store.  

* I am an Amazon Associate and when you purchase something through this link I will receive a small bonus. This does not change your price at all, it just helps support what I'm doing on the Salty Zebra Blog.

Abiding in Jesus

  1. Week 1: Trusting the Gardener's Work
    1. John 15:1 - Seven Things Jesus Is
    2. John 15:2 - Pinch Those Suckers Out!
    3. Philippians 2:12-13 - Working Out My Salvation
    4. Matthew 5:16 - Stay Salty!
    5. 1 John 1:6 - Walking in Relationship
  2. Week 2: Bearing Lasting Fruit
    1. John 15:3-4
    2. John 15:5
    3. John 15:6
    4. Psalm 1:2-3
    5. Galatians 5:22
  3. Week 3: Abiding in Jesus Through His Word
    1. John 15:7-8
    2. John 8:31-32
    3. Psalm 119:9-11
    4. Psalm 119:15-16
    5. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
  4. Week 4: Abiding in Jesus Through Obedience
    1. John 15:9-10
    2. James 1:22
    3. 1 John 3:24
    4. Matthew 7:24-25
    5. John 14:23-24
  5. Week 5: Abiding in Jesus Through Love
    1. John 15:11-12
    2. John 15:13-14
    3. 1 John 4:10
    4. 1 John 4:11-12
    5. Romans 12:9-13
  6. Week 6: Chosen and Commissioned by Christ to Bear Fruit
    1. John 15:15
    2. John 15:16
    3. Ephesians 2:10
    4. Galatians 6:9
    5. John 15:17

Wrap-Up

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