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Remain In Me

Jesus is the True Vine! John 15:1  This is one of my favorite “I am” passages in the Bible because it gives us a picture of this beautiful relationship we can have with our beloved Jesus.

Remain in Me. Jesus says this 5x to his disciples. What does that me?  It means to abide, dwell, to live.  Do we make our dwelling place near to Him?  Do we abide connected to Him?  Do we continue to stay near to Jesus’s side what ever happens to us.  Do we keep up a relationship with Him.  

Bear much Fruit.  Our connection to Jesus is key to us bearing much fruit.  Jesus is our life line!  Life flowing from Him to us is what produces fruit.  It goes on to say that when we produce much fruit we are His true disciples. vs 8.  Oh how we desire to bear much fruit for Jesus!

Apart from Me.  When we do things apart from Christ it says we can do nothing.  I believe that is nothing of eternal value.  He desires to produce eternal lasting fruits in us.  This only comes by dependance on Him.  He does the fruit bearing in us as we stay closely connected to Him. 

Let us choose to stay closely connected to Jesus and look with eager expectation of what He can and will do through us.  He is our true vine and we are the branches.

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Light Of The World

Jesus is the Light 💡of the World!  Light illuminates a way for us to see where we are going. Have you ever been out for a walk at night without a flashlight?  Without light we can easily stumble on a rock and fall.  Jesus has marked out a clear path for us to follow that leads us to Him, eternal life.  

In John 9:5 it says “While I  am in the world, I am the light of the world.  He was letting his followers know he wouldn’t always be with them.  But wait!  There is still light! In Matt 5:14 it says You are the light of the world!!  You and I are beacons of hope and life and light in our world.  We can gently point others to Jesus who is the way, the truth, the life! 

 In vs 16 it goes on to say, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  Let Your light shine!  How can you and I be doing that today?  What deeds of love can you be about that will point others to a loving Savior?  “We are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden.” vs14.

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Our Great Shepherd

Jesus is our Shepherd!  Hebrews 13:20 says that Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep.  John 10:11 tells us that He is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.  Though we see in the Old Testament as God as our Shepherd too in Psalm 23 and Isaiah 40:11.  Jesus claimed to be the Good shepherd was putting him in equal status with God.  This would have been evident to the Jews who studied the scriptures.  Thus, pointing them to the Messiah!

Not only is Jesus our shepherd, but Revelations tells us that the He is our Lamb.  This just hit me today as I read it.  Jesus identified with us as sheep by becoming a lamb, He became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14 “He is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” 

“He will lead them to streams of living water”  This living water is available to all who thirst. (Rev 21:6) In John 4:13, Jesus is speaking to woman at the well.  “Whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

“God will wipe away every tear” Isaiah 25:8 tells us that “God will swallow up death forever and wipe away all tears.”  How comforting our Father is with his children.  He is so tender and compassionate that he would take time to wipe our tears.  Let’s extend that same love to a hurting and grieving world.  Let us too embrace Jesus as our Shepherd and Lamb and drink deeply in the springs of living water.

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Bread of Life

Jesus is our bread of Life!  Context: When is the first time bread is provided for his people?  In the wilderness God provides manna.  This sustains the people for 40 years!  Then in John 6:1 we see the feeding of the 5,000.  Jesus asks Philip as a test where they should buy bread for the people to eat. Andrew finds a boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish.  Jesus then takes the loaves, gives thanks and gave out as much as people wanted.  There was enough bread for everyone.  

Today Jesus is the Bread of life.  He provides eternal life for us, sustains us, He cares for us, He feeds us physically and spiritually.  This reminds me of Isaiah 55:1&2.  “Come all who are thirsty, come to the waters..why spend money of what is not bread?”  We are invited to partake of the only thing that is life giving and eternal.

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The Triumphal Entry

This day marks Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  So we are well acquainted with the scene.  Jesus comes into town riding on a colt and his followers response is praise for all that Jesus has done!  They have seen him heal the blind, the demon possessed, the sick, calm the waves, and even raise the dead.  Who does these things?!!  They want to praise Him and make him King!  They sing “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in Heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”  

The only problem was that they want him to reign there and now.  Though Jesus was on another mission, to save the world!  Little did they understand that this would require a criminals death.  How grateful I am that Jesus stayed on mission.  He is our lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

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I AM He

Context: In this passage of scripture Jesus is speaking to unbelieving people. Though the next verse says after this passage that “many who heard Jesus say these things believed in Him”.  How wonderful is that! 

My thoughts: The 1st thing that stands out to me in vs 28 is the phrase I AM.  We see this the 1st time in scripture when God says to Moses, I AM who I say I AM in Exodus 3:14. I AM is the Hebrew word for Yahweh.  He is the self existent one.  This is one of the clearest references to Christ’s  deity!   

Jesus goes on to say He does nothing on his own but teaches what His Father taught.  Even though He claimed deity, in his humanity he modeled dependence and obedience to the Father.   He desired to reflect God in all He said and did. Lastly He says, “I always do what pleases God.”  Is my end goal to please the Father? I confess this isn’t always on the forefront of my mind, but I desire for it to be.  Let us choose to submit ourselves to God and choose to do what please Him.

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Christ Fulfills

I want to share scripture about Jesus and what He has done for us!  Did you know the law was made up of 613 commands?  The purpose of the law was to point us to Christ. In Galatians 3:24 it says “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”  

In the NLT it says “The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.”  The Word that became flesh and dwelt among us communicated God’s infinite love and faithfulness to us!  Jesus showed this in His words, actions, and deeds. He stretched out his hands, died a criminals death and ultimately gave his very life for us!

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God My Refuge

This is a passage is one that I keep coming back to.  Did you know the word refuge is in the Psalms 25 times?  God is our refuge, our place of safety, shelter, and protection from the storms of life.  

This shelter brings personal aid and relief to His children.  We are covered with His feathers and sheltered by His wings.  This speaks of a nearness and an intimacy God has with us.  And lastly His faithful promises are our armor and protection.  

This is one of my favorite pictures.  God’s faithful promises fasten themselves around me like armor that protects when I meditate and hide his truths in my heart.  

What truths are you clinging to and finding hope in during these challenging and difficult days?  Share them with me and someone else that they too may be encouraged.  Oh how we need one another!  Let us encourage and build each other up!  1 Thes. 5:11

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Depending On Him

 

Let’s look at the scriptures today that I shared.  The phrases that stood out to me is depend on Him and search for Him.  To depend on means to trust or rely in.  

Do I trust the Father right now with all the scary things going on this this pandemic?  Am I solely relying in Him for everything that I need?  He is our provider and protector in all that we face each day with this very serious virus.  Let us run to him for all that we need today knowing that he already knows each one of our needs but He desires that we step into His beautiful presence.  

Let us also search for Him too! Psalm 105:4 says “Search for the Lord and his strength, continually seek Him!” The dictionary defines search as to explore or examine in order to discover!  Let us discover new things about the Lord as we search the scriptures.  Let it be like digging for hidden treasure. 💎