Exodus 19:5-6

19:5. `Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
19:6. `And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
–NKJ

To evangelize comes from a word that means “a good message.” It is the word behind the word “gospel.” To evangelize is to spread the good message. In the closing chapter of Matthew, Christians are directed to spread the good word to the ends of the earth. But before we can take that message to anybody, it has to start somewhere. Take a long look in the mirror and start with that person looking back at you.

Nobody is perfect, and we don’t have to understand all that the Gospel has to say before we tell others. A witness in a courtroom doesn’t have to study law, mechanics, engineering, forensics, or any number of specialties before they testify. All they do is tell what they witnessed. That’s all it takes to spread the word. Tell the part that you do know.

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Key Scripture:
John 15:14. “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

Key Idea:
Our Lord has said what He gave as proof of His friendship: He gave His life for us. He now tells us what our part is to be–to do the things which He commands. He gave His life to secure a place for His love in our hearts to rule us; the response His love calls us to, and empowers us for, is that we do what He commands us. As we know the dying love, we shall joyfully obey its commands. As we obey the commands, we shall know the love more fully.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:
O my Lord, let Thy holy friendship lead me into the love of all Thy commands, and let the doing of Thy commands lead me ever deeper into Thy friendship.
– Murray

Key words:
Friends.

Jesus showed his friendship by laying down his life. We can best show our friendship to him by doing what he asks. Obeying.

At one time, a friend had been doing some things she shouldn’t have been doing. Taking advantage of situations. When I confronted her, she said, “I won’t do it anymore.” I wasn’t impressed. The words were the place to start, but until her actions proved that change of heart, there wasn’t any substance yet.

To demonstrate friendship, all the talk won’t mean a thing until action takes place. Whether it be a reaction to an outright request, or taking initiative and doing something for our friend. Meeting a need before they need to ask.

Jesus wants to be a friend to us all. Who are the friends of Jesus? Let others know that you are a friend by your obedience to his commands. The things he asks, the things he commands are really easy when we draw on his strength.

Key Scripture:
John 15:9. “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

Key Idea:
… some have told of a wonderful change, by which their life of continual failure and stumbling had been changed into a very blessed experience of being kept and strengthened and made exceeding glad. If you asked them how it was this great blessing came to them, many would tell you it was simply this, that they were led to believe that this abiding in Christ’s love was meant to be a reality, and that they were made willing to give up everything for it, and then enabled to trust Christ to make it true to them.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:
Obey and abide. Gracious Lord, teach me this lesson, that it is only through knowing Thy will one can know Thy heart, and only through doing that will one can abide in Thy love. Lord, teach me that as worthless as is the doing in my own strength, so essential and absolutely indispensable is the doing of faith in Thy strength, if I would abide in Thy love.
– Murray

Key words:
Love, Abide

Love is an amazing thing. When you are the recipient of love, there is nothing better that can compare. True, unconditional, wide open love that comes to us for no reason at all. It comes just for being yourself. Nothing is asked in return. Just sit there and enjoy its benefits.

What about this command to abide? Isn’t that the catch? Yes and no. God’s love reaches to the far corners of his creation. He loves us no matter where we are. We feel the full affects of his love as we turn to face him. We feel those affects increasingly as we move toward him. To keep feeling those affects, it is only natural to want to abide, to set up our house and live near to him. Being told to obey God’s commands, or to abide in the true vine only seems like a demand when we abide far from him.

Love is our greatest gift we can recieve, and our greatest spiritual gift that we can share with others. For now, just draw near to God, learn about his true love and obey by staying near to him.

Key Scripture:
John 15:4a. “Abide in Me, and I in you. …

Key Idea:
“Abide in me”: that refers more to that which we have to do. We have to trust and obey, to detach ourselves from all else, to reach out after Him and cling to Him, to sink ourselves into Him.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:
Blessed Lord, Thou dost bid me abide in Thee. How can I, Lord, except Thou show Thyself to me, waiting to receive and welcome and keep me? I pray Thee show me how Thou as Vine undertaketh to do all. To be occupied with Thee is to abide in Thee. Here I am, Lord, a branch, cleansed and abiding–resting in Thee, and awaiting the inflow of Thy life and grace.
– Murray

Key words:
Abide.

Abide, as it is used in this fragment of the verse, means to continuously be abiding. Where we abide is where we live, where we set up residence. Staying with the comparison of the vine, the natural branch is at unity with the vine. They are of the same nature. The vine sends sap into the Read More…