Friday, February 1, 2019

"We... Us"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…



"We… Us"



     The Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that His Father lived in Him, and that "the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works."  He proceeded to assure the disciples that the Holy Spirit would ultimately come to dwell in them, and thereby reveal the Savior not only as their side by side Companion, but as their in the heart Content to enable their walk with God (John 14:9-19).

    "At that day, ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you" (John 14:20).

    Such truth characterizes every born again believer in the Lord Jesus.  He lives in us, we live in Him, and we set forth day by day on a shared journey for the glory of God.  How well we know and embrace this "hope of glory, which is Christ in you" determines our experience of the journey and our fulfillment of honoring the Lord (Colossians 1:27).  We live life as a "we" and an "us" rather than a "me" or a "Him."  Certainly the Christian life is not just ourselves struggling to do the will of God by our own inadequate devices.  Nor is it only Christ obliterating our humanity in order to program us as mere machines to automatically do His bidding.  "We have this Treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us… The just shall live by faith" (II Corinthians 4:7; Romans 1:17).  Our Lord serves as the indwelling power; we serve as trusting recipients of such freely given grace.   He lives in us so that we may live through Him (I Corinthians 3:16; I John 4:9).  We… Us.  For today's journey and forevermore, the Lord Jesus embarks with and within us.  We thereby walk in the faith that acknowledges His promised presence.  "I will dwell in them and walk in them… We walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 3:16; 5:7).

    Again, we must know this doctrinal truth as well as possible in order to experience Christ's living truth as faithfully as possible.  We will not think about this in every moment, nor is such consciousness required or even appropriate.  Our Savior's indwelling presence rather flows within us a subterranean stream that springs forth into conscious awareness when necessary, but most often leads and enables us without our left hand even knowing the doings of the right hand (Matthew 6:3).  We believe the Lord's promise of His indwelling, remember and affirm it as necessary, and make our way in confidence that His Word is true, and His presence assured and dynamic within us.  "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (I Corinthians 15:10).

   Let us not set sail today in the illusion of aloneness.  For born again believers in the Lord Jesus, nothing could be further from the truth.  "We Us."  This is life in Christ, and the life of Christ in us.  May we better know such blessed Truth, and thus better live in God's wondrous gift, the Gift of Himself to our hearts, hands, and feet.

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." 
(John 17:20-23)

Weekly Memory Verse
     Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."
(Hebrews 4:13)
  


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