a GROW lesson

Focal Passage Outline and Scripture Passages:
Have a Heart for God (Ezra 7:1a,6-10)
Build a Reputation of Integrity (Ezra 7:25-28)
Identify with the People You Lead (Ezra 9:4-6; 10:10-12)

Background Passage:
Ezra 7:1–10:44

Focal Passages:
Ezra 7:1a,6-10,25-28; 9:4-6; 10:10-12

What This Lesson Is About:
People lead from the essence of who they are. Leading successfully involves walking with God in such a way that both unbelievers and believers recognize the person’s integrity and trust the person to lead.

How This Lesson Can Impact Your Life:
This lesson can challenge you to walk with God in such a way that both unbelievers and believers recognize your integrity and trust you to lead.

a CONNECT lesson

Focal Passage Outline and Scripture Passages:
Rejoice in God’s Faithfulness (Ps. 31:7-10)
Trust in God’s Power (Ps. 31:14-16)
Express Your Love for God (Ps. 31:21-24)

Background Passage:
Psalm 31:1-24

Focal Passages:
Psalm 31:7-10,14-16,21-24

What This Lesson Is About:
This lesson is about the presence of a powerful and faithful God, whom we can trust even in the midst of difficult circumstances.

How This Lesson Can Impact Your Life:
This lesson can help you acknowledge God’s constant presence in spite of circumstances and feelings.

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 branch, and the branch circulates it back to the vine. To stay alive and be productive, the only thing the branch needs to do is keep staying attached.

There are times when a branch is grafted in. Something unique happens. Small shoots from the branch enter into the vine, and other small shoots from the vine enter into the branch. A bond is built and shared. A give and take relationship. With growth,such a bond can become just as strong as a natural branch. That new bond makes a physical connection, and builds strength. Once those firm connections are made, a foreign branch needs only to do what the natural branches are doing. Abide, stay connected to the original vine.

If you want to be a new branch, and bbe part of the Kingdom of God. Attach yourself to the vine by reading the ‘How to be Saved’ page, elsewhere on this web page. If you are somehow reading this somewhere else on the Internet, visit http://altamontfirstbaptist.org where you’ll find that page.

There is no religious ceremony, no church tradition, no rituals, nothing at all that we do to force our fruits to pop out. Who cares what the other branches are doing, or how they may move around in the winds of tribulation. Do some moving around yourself. Move in your natural places, but stay attached. Keep abiding. Preserve that unity with the vine.

It is such a simple act, just abiding. It may seem like there should be more that is required that we do. Obey, by staying attached. Trust that that simple act will be all it takes to bear fruits.

Focal Passage Outline and Scripture Passages:
Misplaced Trust (1 Sam. 4:3-5,10)
God Is Not in Them (1 Sam. 4:20-22)
Treating the Holy as Common (1 Sam. 5:1-4; 6:19-21)

Background Passage:
1 Samuel 4–6

Focal Passages:
1 Samuel 4:3-5,10,20-22; 5:1-4; 6:19-21

What This Lesson Is About:
This lesson is about the defeat of the Israelites and the loss of the ark of the covenant after they falsely assumed that the mere presence of the ark would bring them victory.

How This Lesson Can Impact Your Life:
This lesson can help you come to a new appreciation of the holiness of God and renew a right commitment to the living God. It will lead you beyond the symbols of religious faith to the true and living God.

Easter Coordinated Evangelism Lesson

Focal Passage Outline and Scripture Passages:
Know Where You Stand (1 Cor. 15:1-4)
Imagine a Faith Without Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:12-19)
Live Like Jesus’ Resurrection Matters (1 Cor. 15:54b-58)

Background Passage:
1 Corinthians 15:1-58

Focal Passages:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4,12-19,54b-58

What This Lesson Is About:
This lesson is about the eternal and practical implications of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

How This Lesson Can Impact Your Life:
This lesson can help you choose to trust in the resurrected Christ and to live each day in the light of the reality of His resurrection.

Andrew Murray

VIII.

Genesis 39: 1-3.–Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an
officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him at the
hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. And the Lord
was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of
his master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was with him.

We have in this passage an object lesson which teaches us what Christ is to
us. Note: Joseph was a slave, but God was with him so distinctly that his
master could see it. “And his master saw the Lord was with him, and that
the Lord made all that he did prosper in his hands; and Joseph found grace
in his sight, and he served him,”–that is to say, he was his slave about
his person,–”and he made him overseer over his house,”–that was something
new. Joseph had been a slave, but now he becomes a master. “And he made him
overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hands. And it
came to pass, from the time that he had made him overseer in his house,
and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for
Joseph’s sake, and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the
house and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and
he knew not all he had, save the bread which he did eat.”

We find Joseph in two characters in the house of Potiphar: first as a
servant and a slave, one who is trusted and loved, but still entirely a
servant; second, as master. Potiphar made him overseer over his house and
his lands, and all that he had, so that we read afterward that he left
everything in his hands, and he knew of nothing except the bread that
came upon his table. I want to call your attention to Joseph as a type of
Christ. We sometimes speak in the Christian life, of entire surrender, and
rightly, and here we have a beautiful illustration of what it is. First,
Joseph was in Potiphar’s house to serve him and to help him, and he did
that, and Potiphar learned to trust him, so that he said, “All that I have
I will give into his hands.” Now, that is exactly what is to take place
with a great many Christians. They know Christ, they trust Him, they love
Him, but He is not Master, He is a sort of helper. When there is trouble
they come to Him, when they sin they ask Him for pardon in His precious
blood, when they are in darkness they cry to Him; but often and often they
live according to their own will, and they seek help from themselves. But
how blessed is the man who comes and, like Potiphar, says, “I will give
up everything to Jesus!” There are many who have accepted Christ as
their Lord, but have never yet come to the final, absolute surrender of
everything. Christians, if you want perfect rest, abiding joy, strength to
work for God, oh, come and learn from that poor heathen Egyptian what you
ought to do. He saw that God was with Joseph and he said, “I will give up
my house to him.” Oh, learn you to do that. There are some who have
never yet accepted Christ, some who are seeking after Him, thirsting and
hungering, but they do not know how to find Him.

Let me direct your attention to four thoughts regarding this surrender to
Christ: First, its motives; second, its measures; third, its blessedness;
lastly, its duration.

First of all, its motives. What moved Potiphar to do this? I think the
answer is very easy: he was a trusted servant of the king and he had the
king’s work to take care of, and he very likely could not take care of
his own house. All his time and attention were required at the court of
Pharaoh. He had his duty there; he was in high honor; but his own house got
neglected. Very likely he had had other overseers, one slave appointed to
rule the others, and perhaps that one had been unfaithful, or dishonest,
and somehow his house was not as he would have it. So he buys another
slave, just as he had formerly done, but in this case he sees what he had
never seen before. There is something unusual about the man. He walks
so humbly, he serves so faithfully and so lovingly, and withal so
successfully. Potiphar begins to look into the reason for this, and finally
concludes that God is with him.

It is a grand thing to have a man with whom God is, to entrust one’s
business to. The heathen realized this, and between the need of his own
house and what he saw in Joseph, he decided to make him overseer. I ask
you, do not these two motives plead most urgently that you should say: “I
will make Jesus master over my whole being?” Your house, Christian, your
spiritual life, the dwelling, the temple of God in your heart,–in what
state is that? Is it not often like the temple of old, in Jerusalem, that
had been defiled and made a house of merchandise, and afterwards a den of
thieves? Your heart, meant to be the home of Jesus, is it not often full
of sin and darkness, full of sadness, full of vexation? You have done your
very best to get it changed, and you have called in the help of man, and
the help of means; you have used every method you could think of for
getting it put right; but it will not come right until He whose it is,
comes in to take charge.

If there is any trouble in your heart, if you are in darkness, or in the
power of sin, I bring to you the Son of God, with the promise that He will
come in and take charge. As Potiphar took Joseph, will you not take Jesus?
Has He not proven Himself worthy to be trusted? Come and say, “Jesus shall
have entire charge; He is worthy.” Think not only of His Divine power, but
think of His wonderful love; think of His coming from heaven to save you;
think of His dying on Calvary and shedding His blood out of intense love
for you. Oh, think of it; Christ in heaven loves every one who is given to
Him, and whom He has made a child of God. “Having loved His own that were
in the world, He loved them unto the end.”

Must I plead in the name of the love of the crucified Jesus; must I plead
with you Christians, and say, Look at Jesus, the Son of God, your Redeemer,
and ask you to make Him overseer over all? Give Him charge of your temper,
your heart’s affections, your thoughts, your whole being, and He will prove
Himself worthy of it. Joseph had been for a time just a common slave, and
with the other slaves had served Pharaoh. Alas! many a Christian has used
Christ for his own advancement and comfort, just as he uses everything in
the world. He uses father and mother, minister, money, and all else the
world will give, to comfort and make him happy; there is danger of his
using Christ Jesus in the same way. But oh, brethren, this is not right.
You are His house, and He has a right to dwell therein. Will you not come
and surrender all, and say, “Lord Jesus, I have made Thee overseer over
all?”

But now, secondly, the measure of that surrender. We read in the 4th verse:
“All that he had he put into his hands.” Then in verse 5: “And it came to
pass from the time that he made him overseer over all that he had”–there
you have it the second time–”the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house, and
the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had”–there the third time.
Then in verse 6: “And he left all that he had”–there you have the words
the fourth time–”in Joseph’s hand, and he knew not all he had, save the
bread which he did eat.” What do I see here? That Potiphar actually gave
everything into Joseph’s hands. He made him master over his slaves. All the
money was put into Joseph’s hands, for we read that Potiphar had care of
nothing. When dinner was brought upon the table, he ate of it, and that
was all he knew of what was going on in his house. Is not this entire
surrender?–he gives up everything into the hands of Joseph. Ah, beloved
Christians, I want you to ask yourselves: “Have I done that?” You have
offered more than one consecration prayer, and you have more than once
said: “Jesus, all I have I give to Thee.” You have said it, and meant it;
but very probably you did not realize fully what it meant.

With the word surrender there seems always to be a larger and more
comprehensive meaning. We do not succeed in carrying out our intentions,
and afterward we take back one thing and another until we have lost sight
of our original intention. Beloved Christians, let Christ Jesus have all.
Let Him have your whole heart, with its affections; He Himself loves, with
more than the love of Jonathan. Let Him have your whole heart, saying,
“Jesus, every fiber of my being, ever power of my soul, shall be devoted
to Thee.” He will accept that surrender. He spoke a solemn word: “You must
hate father and mother.” Say you to-day: “Lord Jesus, the love to father
and mother, to wife and child, to brother and sister, I give up to Thee.
Teach Thou me how to love Thee. I have only one desire, which is to love
Thee. I want to give my whole heart to be full of Thy love.”

But when you have given your heart, there is yet more to give. There is the
head–the brain with its thoughts. I believe Christians do not know how
much they rob Christ of in reading so much of the literature of the world.
They are often so occupied with their newspapers that the Bible gets a very
small place. Oh, friends, I beseech you bring this noble power which God
has given you, the power of a mind that can think heavenly, eternal, and
infinite things, and lay it at the feet of Jesus, saying, “Lord Jesus,
every faculty of my being I want to surrender to Thee, that Thou shouldst
teach me what to think, and how to think, for Thee and Thy Kingdom.” Bless
God, there are men who have given their intellect to Jesus, and it has been
accepted by Him. And in this connection there is my whole outer life. There
is my relation to society, my position among men, my intercourse in my own
home, with friends and family; there is my money, my time, my business; all
these should be put in the hands of Jesus. One cannot know beforehand the
blessedness of this surrender, but blessed it surely is. Come, because He
is worthy; come because you know you can not keep things right yourself,
and make Christ master over all you have. Give father and mother, wife and
child, house and land, and money, all to Jesus, and you will find that in
giving all you receive it back an hundred fold.

Thirdly, look at the blessing of the entire surrender. You have here the
remarkable words: “And it came to pass from the time that Potiphar made
Joseph overseer over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s
house for Joseph’s sake, and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he
had in the house, and in the field.” I ask you Christians, If God did this
to that heathen man, because he honored Joseph; if God, for Joseph’s sake,
blessed that Egyptian in this wonderful way, may a Christian not venture to
say: “If I put my life into the hands of Jesus, I am sure God will bless
all that I have?” Oh, dare to say it. Potiphar trusted Joseph implicitly
and absolutely, and there was prosperity everywhere, because God was with
Joseph. Beloved friends, if you but surrender everything, depend upon it,
the blessing from that time will be yours. There will be a blessing within
your own inner life, and a blessing in your outer life. He blessed Potiphar
in the house, in the field, everywhere.

Oh, Christian, what is that blessing you will get? I can not tell all, but
I can tell you this: if you will come to Christ Jesus and surrender all,
the blessing of God will be on all that you have. There will be a blessing
for your own soul. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed on Thee.” Try that; trust Jesus for everything, and trust everything
to Him, and the blessing of God will come upon you–the sweet rest, the
rest of faith. It is all in the hands of Jesus; He will guide you; He will
teach you; He will work in you; He will keep you; He will be everything to
you. What a blessed rest and freedom from responsibility and from care,
because it is all in the hands of Jesus! I do not say trouble and trial
will never come; but in the midst of trial and trouble you will have the
all-sufficiency of the presence of Jesus to be your comfort, your help, and
your guide. Joseph was sold by his brethren, but he saw God in it, and he
was quite content. Christ was betrayed by Judas, condemned by Caiaphas, and
given over to execution by Pilate; but in all that, Christ saw God, and
He was content. Give over your life, in all its phases, into the hands of
Jesus; remembering that the very hairs of your head are numbered, and not a
sparrow falls to earth without the Father’s notice. Consent now and say: “I
will give up everything into the hands of Jesus. Whatever happens is His
will regarding me. Whether He comes in the light or in the dark, in the
storm or on the troubled sea, I will rest in that blessed assurance. I give
up my whole life entirely to Him.”

In reading the Book of Jonah, we find God’s hand in each step of Jonah’s
experience. It was God who sent the storm when Jonah went aboard the ship,
who appointed a whale to swallow him, who ordered the whale to cast him
out; and then afterwards it was God who caused the hot wind to blow when
the sun was sending down its scorching rays, until the soul of Jonah was
grieved, and made the gourd to grow, and sent the worm to kill the gourd,
and set a sea-wind to dry the gourd up quickly. Do we not thus see that
every circumstance of our living, every comfort and every trial, comes from
God in Christ? There is nothing can touch a hair of my head. Not a sharp
word comes against me; not an unexpected flurry surrounds me, but it is all
Jesus. With my life in His hands, I need care for nothing. I can be content
with what Jesus gives.

God blessed Potiphar in the field; in the visible life outside of his
house; and God will bless you, that, in your intercourse with men, you may
be a blessing; that by your holy, humble, respectful, quiet walk, you may
carry comfort; that by your loving readiness to be a servant and a helper
to all, you may prove what the Spirit of God has done within you. Oh, my
brother, my sister, you have no conception of it,–I have not–how God is
willing to bless the soul utterly given up to Jesus. God can delight in
nothing but Jesus. God delights infinitely in Jesus. God longs to see
nothing in us but Jesus, and if I give up my heart and life to Jesus, and
say, “My God, I want that Thou shouldst see in me nothing but Jesus,” then
I bring to the Father the sacrifice that is the most acceptable of all.
Oh, believers, come to-day; come out of all your troubles, and all your
self-efforts and your self-confidence, and let the blessed Son of God
take possession.

Let me direct your thoughts, lastly, to the duration of this surrender. I
want to emphasize this–because in many cases the surrender does not last.
Some go away, and for a time have much gladness and joy, but it soon begins
to decrease, and in a few weeks or perhaps months is all gone. Others who
do not lose it entirely, complain sadly at times, that it goes away and
comes again. They say: “My life has been very much blessed since that
surrender I made to God, but it has not always been on the same level.”
What did Potiphar do? We read in the 4th verse: “He made him overseer over
his house, and all that he had he left in Joseph’s hands.” What a simple
word! He left it there.

And oh, children of God, if you will only get to that point and say, “For
all eternity I leave it in the hands of Jesus,” you will find what a
blessing it is. Potiphar found now that he could do the king’s business
with two hands and an undivided heart. I might try to rescue a drowning man
by holding fast somewhere with one hand, while I reached out the other hand
to the man, but it is a grand thing for a person to be able to stretch out
both hands, and that person is the one who has left all with Jesus–all his
inner life, all his cares and troubles, and has given himself up entirely
to do the will of God. Will you leave it there? I must press this, because
I know temptations will come. One temptation will be that the feelings you
had in your act of surrender will pass away; they will not be so bright;
another, that circumstances will tempt you. Beloved, temptations will come;
God means it for your good. Every temptation brings you a blessing. Do
understand that. Learn the lesson of giving up everything to Jesus, and
letting Jesus take charge of everything. Leave all with Jesus. Do not think
that by a surrender to-day or on any day, however powerful, however mighty,
things will keep right themselves. You need every morning afresh, when
God wakes you up out of sleep, to put your heart, and your life, and your
house, and your business, into the hands of Jesus. Wait on Him, if need be,
in silence, or in prayer, until He gives you the assurance, “My child, for
to-day all is safe; I take charge.” And morning by morning He will renew to
you the blessing, and morning by morning you will go out from your quiet
time in the consciousness, “To-day I have had fellowship with my King, and
it is all right.” Jesus has taken charge. And so, day by day, you can have
grace to leave all in the hands of Jesus.

In conclusion let me speak to two classes. There are times when your heart
is restless; there are times when you are afraid to die.

There are some true believers who have perhaps never yet understood that it
was their duty to give up everything to Christ. Beloved fellow Christians,
I come with a message from your Father, to come and to-day take that word
into your hearts and upon your lips, even though you do not understand it.
“Jesus, I make Thee Master of everything and I will wait at Thy feet, that
Thou wilt show me what Thou wouldst have me be and do.” Do it now. And
let me say to believers who have done it before, and who long with an
unutterable longing to do it fully and perfectly,–Child of God, you can
do it, for the Holy Spirit has been sent down from Heaven for this one
purpose, to glorify Jesus; to glorify Jesus in your heart, by letting you
see how perfectly Jesus can take possession of the whole heart; to glorify
Jesus by bringing Him into your very life, that your whole life may shine
out with the glory of Jesus. Depend upon it, the Father will give it to you
by the Holy Spirit, if you are ready. Oh, come, and let your intercourse
with God be summed up in a simple prayer and answer–”My God, as much as
Thou wilt have of me to fill with Christ, Thou shalt have to-day.” “My
child, as much of Christ as thy heart longeth to have, thou shalt have; for
it is My delight that My Son be in the hearts of My children.”

Andrew Murray

VI.

Colossians 3: 4.–Christ who is our life.

One question that rises in every mind is this: “How can I live that life
of perfect trust in God?” Many do not know the right answer, or the full
answer. It is this: “Christ must live it in me.” That is what He became man
for; as a man to live a life of trust in God, and so to show to us how we
ought to live. When He had done that upon earth, He went to heaven, that
He might do more than show us, might give us, and live in us that life of
trust. It is as we understand what the life of Christ is and how it becomes
ours, that we shall be prepared to desire and to ask of Him that He would
live it Himself in us. When first we have seen what the life is, then we
shall understand how it is that He can actually take possession, and make
us like Himself. I want especially to direct attention to that first
question. I wish to set before you the life of Christ as He lived it, that
we may understand what it is that He has for us and that we can expect from
Him. Christ Jesus lived a life upon earth that He expects us literally to
imitate. We often say that we long to be like Christ. We study the traits
of His character, mark His footsteps, and pray for grace to be like Him,
and yet, somehow, we succeed but very little. And why? Because we are
wanting to pluck the fruit while the root is absent. If we want really to
understand what the imitation of Christ means, we must go to that which
constituted the very root of His life before God. It was a life of absolute
dependence, absolute trust, absolute surrender, and until we are one with
Him in what is the principle of His life, it is in vain to seek here or
there to copy the graces of that life.

In the Gospel story we find five great points of special importance; the
birth, the life on earth, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension.
In these we have what an old writer has called “the process of Jesus
Christ;” the process by which He became what He is to-day–our glorified
King, and our life. In all this life process we must be made like unto Him.
Look at the first. What have we to say about His birth? This: He received
His life from God. What about His life upon earth? He lived that life in
dependence upon God. About His death? He gave up His life to God. About
His resurrection? He was raised from the dead by God. And about His
ascension? He lives His life in glory with God.

First, He received His life from God. And why is it of consequence that we
should look to that? Because Christ Jesus had in that the starling-point of
His whole life. He said: “The Father sent me;” “The Father hath given the
Son all things;” “The Father hath given the Son to have life in Himself.”
Christ received it as His own life, just as God has His life in Himself.
And yet, all the time it was a life given and received. “Because the Father
almighty has given this life unto me, the Son of man on earth, I can count
upon God to maintain it and to carry me through all.” And that is the first
lesson we need. We need often to meditate on it, and to pray, and to
think, and to wait before God, until our hearts open to the wonderful
consciousness that the everlasting God has a divine life within us which
can not exist but through Him. I believe God has given His life, it roots
in Him. I shall feel it must be maintained by Him. We often think that God
has given us a life which is now our own, a spiritual life, and that we
are to take charge; and then we complain that we can not keep it right.
No wonder. We must learn to live, learn to live as Jesus did. I have
a God-given treasure in this earthen vessel. I have the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. I have the life of
God’s Son within me given me by God Himself, and it can only be maintained
by God Himself as I live in fellowship with Him. What does the Apostle Paul
teach us in Romans VI.; there where he has just told us that we must reckon
ourselves dead unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus? He goes on at
once to say: “Therefore yield, present yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead.” How often a Christian hears solemn words about
his being alive to God, and his having to reckon himself dead indeed
to sin, and alive to God in Christ! He does not know what to do; he
immediately casts about: “How can I keep it, this death and this life?”
Listen to what Paul says. The moment that you reckon yourself dead to sin
and alive to God, go with that life to God Himself, and present yourself as
alive from the dead, and say to God: “Lord, Thou hast given me this life.
Thou alone canst keep it. I bring it to Thee. I cannot understand all.
I hardly know what I have got, but I come to God to perfect what He has
begun.” To live like Christ, I must be conscious every moment that my life
has come from God, and He alone can maintain it.

Then, secondly, how did Christ live out His life during the thirty-three
years in which He walked here upon earth? He lived it in dependence on God.
You know how continually He says: “The Son can do nothing of Himself. The
words that I speak, I speak not of Myself.” He waited unceasingly for the
teaching, and the commands, and the guidance of the Father. He prayed for
power from the Father. Whatever He did, He did in the name of the Father.
He, the Son of God, felt the need of much prayer, of persevering prayer, of
bringing down from heaven and maintaining the life of fellowship with God
in prayer. We hear a great deal about trusting God. Most blessed! And we
may say: “Ah, that is what I want,” and we may forget what is the very
secret of all,–that God, in Christ, must work all in us. I not only need
God as an object of trust, but I must have Christ within as the power
to trust; He must live His own life of trust in me. Look at it in that
wonderful story of Paul, the Apostle, the beloved servant of God. He is in
danger of self-confidence, and God in heaven sends that terrible trial in
Asia to bring him down, lest he trust in himself and not in the living God.
God watched over his servant that he should be kept trusting. Remember that
other story about the thorn in the flesh, in 2 Corinthians XII., and think
what that means. He was in danger of exalting himself, and the blessed
Master came to humble him, and to teach him: “I keep thee weak, that thou
mayest learn to trust not in thyself, but in Me.” If we are to enter into
the rest of faith, and to abide there; if we are to live the life of
victory in the land of Canaan, it must begin here. We must be broken down
from all self-confidence and learn like Christ to depend absolutely and
unceasingly upon God. There is a greater work to be done in that than we
perhaps know. We must be broken down, and the habit of our souls must be
unceasingly: “I am nothing; God is all. I cannot walk before God as I
should for one hour, unless God keep the life He has given me.” What a
blessed solution God gives then to all our questions and our difficulties,
when He says: “My child, Christ has gone through it all for thee. Christ
hath wrought out a new nature that can trust God; and Christ the Living One
in heaven will live in thee, and enable thee to live that life of trust.”
That is why Paul said: “Such confidence have we toward God, through
Christ.” What does that mean? Does it only mean through Christ as the
mediator, or intercessor? Verily, no. It means much more; through Christ
living in and enabling us to trust God as He trusted Him.

Then comes, thirdly, the death of Christ. What does that teach us of
Christ’s relation to the Father? It opens up to us one of the deepest
and most solemn lessons of Christ life, one which the Church of Christ
understands all too little. We know what the death of Christ means as an
atonement, and we never can emphasize too much that blessed substitution
and bloodshedding, by which redemption was won for us. But let us remember,
that is only half the meaning of His death. The other half is this: just as
much as Christ was my substitute, who died for me, just so much He is
my head, in whom, and with whom, I die; and just as He lives for me, to
intercede, He lives in me, to carry out and to perfect His life. And if I
want to know what that life is which He will live in me, I must look at His
death. By His death He proved that He possessed life only to hold it,
and to spend it, for God. To the very uttermost; without the shadow of a
moment’s exception, He lived for God,–every moment, everywhere, He held
life only for His God. And so, if one wants to live a life of perfect
trust, there must be the perfect surrender of his life, and his will, even
unto the very death. He must be willing to go all lengths with Jesus, even
to Calvary. When a boy twelve years of age Jesus said: “Wist ye not that I
must be about my Father’s business?” and again when He came to Jordan to be
baptized: “It becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” So on through
all His life, He ever said: “It is my meat and drink to do the will of my
Father. I come not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.”
“Lo, I am come to do Thy will, O God.” And in the agony of Gethsemane, His
words were: “Not my will, but Thine, be done.”

Some one says: “I do indeed desire to live the life of perfect trust;
I desire to let Christ live it in me; I am longing to come to such an
apprehension of Christ as shall give me the certainty that Christ will
forever abide in me; I want to come to the full assurance that Christ, my
Joshua, will keep me in the land of victory.” What is needful for that? My
answer is: “Take care that you do not take a false Christ, an imaginary
Christ, a half Christ.” And what is the full Christ? The full Christ is the
man who said, “I give up everything to the death that God may be glorified.
I have not a thought; I have not a wish; I would not live a moment except
for the glory of God.” You say at once, “What Christian can ever attain
that?” Do not ask that question, but ask, “Has Christ attained it and does
Christ promise to live in me?” Accept Him in His fullness and leave Him to
teach you how far He can bring you and what He can work in you. Make no
conditions or stipulations about failure, but cast yourself upon, abandon
yourself to this Christ who lived that life of utter surrender to God that
He might prepare a new nature which He could impart to you and in which He
might make you like Himself. Then you will be in the path by which He can
lead you on to blessed experience and possession of what He can do for you.
Christ Jesus came into the world with a commandment from the Father that He
should lay down His life, and He lived with that one thought in His bosom
His whole life long. And the one thought that ought to be in the heart
of every believer is this: “I am in the death with Christ; absolutely,
unchangeably given up to wait upon God, that God may work out His purpose
and glory in me from moment to moment.” Few attain the victory and the
enjoyment and the full experience at once. But this you can do: Take the
right attitude and as you look to Jesus and what He was, say: “Father, Thou
hast made me a partaker of the divine nature, a partaker of Christ. It
is in the life of Christ given up to Thee to the death, in His power and
indwelling, in His likeness, that I desire to live out my life before
Thee.” Death is a solemn thing, an awful thing. In the Garden it cost
Christ great agony to die that death; and no wonder it is not easy to us.
But we willingly consent when we have learned the secret; in death alone
the life of God will come; in death there is blessedness unspeakable. It
was this made Paul so willing to bear the sentence of death in himself;
he knew the God who quickeneth the dead. The sentence of death is on
everything that is of nature. But are we willing to accept it, do we
cherish it? and are we not rather trying to escape the sentence or to
forget it? We do not believe fully that the sentence of death is on us.
Whatever is of nature must die. Ask God to make you willing to believe with
your heart that to die with Christ is the only way to live in Him. You ask,
“But must it then be dying every day?” Yes, beloved; Jesus lived every day
in the prospect of the cross, and we, in the power of His victorious life,
being made conformable to His death, must rejoice every day in going down
with Him into death. Take an illustration. Take an oak of some hundred
years’ growth. How was that oak born? In a grave. The acorn was planted in
the ground, a grave was made for it that the acorn might die. It died and
disappeared; it cast roots downward, and it cast shoots upward, and now
that tree has been standing a hundred years. Where is it standing? In its
grave; all the time in the very grave where the acorn died; it has stood
there stretching its roots deeper and deeper into that earth in which its
grave was made, and yet, all the time, though it stood in the very grave
where it had died, it has been growing higher, and stronger, and broader,
and more beautiful. And all the fruit it ever bore, and all the foliage
that adorned it year by year, it owed to that grave in which its roots are
cast and kept. Even so Christ owes everything to His death and His grave.
And we, too, owe everything to that grave of Jesus. Oh! let us live every
day rooted in the death of Jesus. Be not afraid, but say: “To my own will I
will die; to human wisdom, and human strength, and to the world I will die;
for it is in the grave of my Lord that His life has its beginning, and its
strength and its glory.”

This brings us to our next thought. First, Christ received life from the
Father; second, Christ lived it in dependence on the Father; third, Christ
gave it up in death to the Father; and now, fourth, Christ received it
again raised by the Father, by the power of the glory of the Father. Oh,
the deep meaning of the resurrection of Christ! What did Christ do when He
died? He went down into the darkness and absolute helplessness of death. He
gave up a life that was without sin; a life that was God-given; a life that
was beautiful and precious; and He said, “I will give it into the hands
of my Father if He asks it;” and He did it; and He was there in the grave
waiting on God to do His will; and because He honored God to the uttermost
in His helplessness, God lifted Him up to the very uttermost of glory and
power. Christ lost nothing by giving up His life in death to the Father.
And so, if you want the glory and the life of God to come upon you, it is
in the grave of utter helplessness that that life of glory will be born.
Jesus was raised from the dead, and that resurrection power, by the grace
of God, can and will work in us. Let no one expect to live a right life
until he lives a full resurrection life in the power of Jesus. Let me state
in a different way what this resurrection means.

Christ had a perfect life, given by God. The Father said: “Will you give up
that life to me? Will you part with it at my command?” And He parted with
it, but God gave it back to Him in a second life ten thousand times more
glorious than that earthly life. So God will do to every one of us who
willingly consents to part with his life. Have you ever understood it?
Jesus was born twice. The first time He was born in Bethlehem. That was a
birth into a life of weakness. But the second time, He was born from the
grave; He is the “first-born from the dead.” Because He gave up the life
that He had by His first birth, God gave him the life of the second birth,
in the glory of heaven and the throne of God. Christians, that is exactly
what we need to do. A man may be an earnest Christian; a man may be a
successful worker; he may be a Christian that has had a measure of growth
and advance; but if he has not entered this fullness of blessing, then he
needs to come to a second and deeper experience of God’s saving power; he
needs, just as God brought him out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, to come
to a point where God brings him through Jordan into Canaan. Beloved, we
have been baptized into the death of Christ. It is as we say: “I have had
a very blessed life, and I have had many blessed experiences, and God has
done many things for me; but I am conscious there is something wrong still;
I am conscious that this life of rest and victory is not really mine.”
Before Christ got His life of rest and victory on the throne, He had to die
and give up all. Do you it, too, and you shall with Him share His victory
and glory. It is as we follow Jesus in His death, that His resurrection,
power and joy will be ours.

And then comes our last point. The fifth step in His wondrous path was: He
was lifted up to be forever with the Father. Because He humbled Himself,
therefore God highly exalted Him. Wherein cometh the beauty and the
blessedness of that exaltation of Jesus? For Himself perfect fellowship
with the Father; for others participation in the power of God’s
omnipotence. Yes, that was the fruit of His death. Scripture promises not
only that God will, in the resurrection life, give us joy, and peace that
passeth all understanding, victory over sin, and rest in God, but He will
baptize us with the Holy Ghost; or, in other words, will fill us with the
Holy Ghost. Jesus was lifted to the throne of heaven, that He might there
receive from the Father the Spirit in His new, divine manifestation, to be
poured out in His fullness. And as we come to the resurrection life, the
life in the faith of Him who is one with us, and sits upon the throne–as
we come to that, we too may be partakers of the fellowship with Christ
Jesus as He ever dwells in God’s presence, and the Holy Spirit will fill
us, to work in us, and out of us in a way that we have never yet known.

Jesus got this divine life by depending absolutely upon the Father all His
life long, depending upon Him even down into death. Jesus got that life
in the full glory of the Spirit to be poured out, by giving Himself up in
obedience and surrender to God alone, and leaving God even in the grave to
work out His mighty power; and that very Christ will live out His life in
you and me. Oh, the mystery! Oh, the glory! And oh, the Divine certainty.
Jesus Christ means to live out that life in you and me. What think you,
ought we not to humble ourselves before God? Have we been Christians so
many years, and realized so little what we are? I am a vessel set apart,
cleansed, emptied, consecrated; just standing, waiting every moment for
God, in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, to work out in me as much of the
holiness and the life of His Son as pleases Him. And until the Church of
Christ comes to go down into the grave of humiliation, and confession, and
shame; until the Church of Christ comes to lay itself in the very dust
before God, and to wait upon God to do something new, and something
wonderful, something supernatural, in lifting it up, it will remain
feeble in all its efforts to overcome the world. Within the Church what
lukewarmness, what worldliness, what disobedience, what sin! How can we
ever fight this battle, or meet these difficulties? The answer is: Christ,
the risen One, the crowned One, the almighty One, must come, and live in
the individual members. But we can not expect this except as we die with
Him. I referred to the tree grown so high and beautiful, with its roots
every day for a hundred years in the grave in which the acorn died.
Children of God, we must go down deeper into the grave of Jesus. We must
cultivate the sense of impotence, and dependence, and nothingness, until
our souls walk before God every day in a deep and holy trembling. God keep
us from being anything. God teach us to wait on Him, that He may work in us
all He wrought in His Son, till Christ Jesus may live out His life in us!
For this may God help us!

Andrew Murray

IV.

Hebrews 4: 1.–Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of
entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Hebrews 4: 11.–Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after the same example of unbelief.

I want, in the simplest way possible, to answer the question: “How does a
man enter into that rest?” and to point out the simple steps that he takes,
all included in the one act of surrender and faith.

And the first step, I think, is this: that a man learns to say, “I believe,
heartily, there is rest in a life of faith.” Israel passed through two
stages. This is beautifully expressed in the fifth of Deuteronomy: “He
brought us out, that He might bring us in”–two parts of God’s work of
redemption–”He brought us out from Egypt, that He might bring us into
Canaan.” And that is applicable to every believer. At your conversion, God
brought you out of Egypt, and the same almighty God is longing to bring you
into the Canaan life. You know how God brought the Israelites out, but they
would not let Him bring them in and they had to wander for forty years in
the wilderness–the type, alas! of so many Christians. God brings them out
in conversion, but they will not let Him bring them in into all that He has
prepared for them. To a man who asks me, “How can I enter into the rest?” I
say, first of all, speak this word, “I do believe that there is a rest into
which Jesus, our Joshua, can bring a trusting soul.” And if you would
know what the difference is between the two lives–the life you have been
leading, and the life you now want to lead, just look at the wilderness and
Canaan. What are the points of difference? In the wilderness, wandering for
forty years, backward and forward; in Canaan, perfect rest in the land that
God gave them. That is the difference between the life of a Christian who
has, and one who has not entered into Canaan. In wandering backward and
forward; going after the world, and coming back and repenting; led astray
by temptation, and returning only to go off again;–a life of ups and
downs. In Canaan, on the other hand, a life of rest, because the soul has
learned to trust: “God keeps me every hour in His mighty power.” There is
the second difference: the life in the wilderness was a life of want; in
Canaan, a life of plenty. In the wilderness there was nothing to eat; there
was often no water. God graciously supplied their wants by the manna, and
the water from the rock. But, alas! they were not content with this, and
their life was one of want and murmurings. But in Canaan God gave them
vineyards that they had not planted, and the old corn of the land was there
waiting for them; a land flowing with milk and honey; a land that lived by
the rain of Heaven and had the very care of God Himself. Oh, Christian,
come and say to-day, “I believe there is a possibility of such a change
out of that life of spiritual death, and darkness, and sadness, and
complaining, that I have often lived, into the land of supply of every
want; where the grace of Jesus is proved sufficient every day, every hour.”
Say to-day: “I believe in the possibility that there is such a land of rest
for me.”

And then, the third difference: In the wilderness there was no victory.
When they tried, after they had sinned at Kadesh, to go up against their
enemies, they were defeated. In the land they conquered every enemy; from
Jericho onward, they went from victory to victory. And so God waits, and
Christ waits, and the Holy Spirit waits, to give victory every day; not
freedom from temptation; no, not that; but in union with Christ a power
that can say, “I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me.” “We
are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” May God help every
heart to say that.

Then comes the second step. I want you to say not only, “I believe there is
such a life,” but, second, “I have not had it yet.” Say that. “I have never
yet got that.” Some may say, “I have sought it;” some may say, “I have
never heard about it;” some may say, “At times I thought I had found it,
but I lost it again.” Let every one be honest with God.

And now, will all who have never yet found it honestly, begin to say,
“Lord, up to this time I have never had it?” And why is it of such
consequence to speak thus? Because, dear friends, some people want to glide
into this life of rest gradually; and just quietly to steal in; and God
won’t have it. Your life in the wilderness has not only been a life of
sadness to yourself, but of sin and dishonor to God. Every deeper entrance
into salvation must always be by the way of conviction and confession;
therefore, let every Christian be willing to say: “Alas! I have not lived
that life, and I am guilty; I have dishonored God; I have been like Israel;
I have provoked Him to wrath by my unbelief and disobedience. God have
mercy upon me!” Oh, let it go up before God–the secret confession: “I
haven’t it; alas! I have not glorified God by a life in the land of rest.”

Then comes the third word I want you to speak and that is: “Thank God, that
life is for me.” Some say, “I believe there is such a life, but not
for me.” There are people who continually say: “Oh, my character is so
unstable; my will is naturally very weak; my temperament is nervous and
excitable, it is impossible for me always to live without worry, resting in
God.” Beloved brother, do not say that. You say so only for one reason: You
do not know what your God will do for you. Do begin to look away from self,
and to look up to God, Take that precious word: “He brought them out that
he might bring them in.” The God who took them through the Red Sea was the
God who took them through Jordan into Canaan. The God who converted you is
the God who is able to give you every day this blessed life. Oh, begin to
say, with the beginnings of a feeble faith, even before you claim it, begin
even intellectually to say: “It is for me; I do believe that. God does not
disinherit any of His children. What He gives is for every one. I believe
that blessed life is waiting for me. It is meant for me. God is waiting to
bestow it, and to work it in me. Glory be to His blessed name! My soul says
it is for me, too.” Oh, take that little word “me,” and looking up in the
very face of God dare to say: “This inestimable treasure–it is for me, the
weakest and the unworthiest; it is for me.” Have you said that? Say it now:
“This life is possible to me, too.”

And then comes the next step, and that is: “I can never, by any effort of
mine, grasp it; it is God must bestow it on me.” I want you to be very bold
in saying, “It is for me.” But then I want you to fall down very low and
say, “I can not seize it; I can not take it to myself.” And how can
you then get it? Praise God, if once He has brought you down in the
consciousness of utter helplessness and self-despair, then comes the time
that He can draw nigh and ask you, “Will you trust your God to work this
in you?” Dearly beloved Christians, say in your heart: “I never, by any
effort, can take hold of God, or seize this for myself; it is God must
give it.” Cherish this blessed impotence. It is He who brought us out, who
Himself must bring us in. It is your greatest happiness to be impotent.
Pray God by the Holy Spirit to reveal to you this true impotence, and that
will open the way for your faith to say, “Lord, Thou must do it, or it
will never be done.” God will do it. People wonder, when they hear so many
sermons about faith, and such earnest pleading to believe, and ask why it
is they can not believe. There is just one answer: It is self. Self is
working; is trying; is struggling, and self must fail. But when you come to
the end of self and can only cry, “Lord, help me! Lord, help me!”–then the
deliverance is nigh; believe that. It was God brought the people in. It is
God who will bring you in.

One should be willing, for the sake of this rest, to give up everything.
The grace of God is very free. It is given without money and without price.
And yet, on the other hand, Jesus said that every man who wants the pearl
of great price must sacrifice his all, must sell all that he has to buy
that pearl. It is not enough to see the beauty, the attractiveness and the
glory, and almost to taste the gladness and the joy of this wonderful life
as it has been set before you. You must become the possessor, the owner of
the field. The man who found the field with a treasure, and the man who
found the great pearl, were both glad; but they had not yet got it. They
had found it, seen it, desired it, rejoiced in it; but they had not yet got
it. Not until they went and sold all, gave up everything, and bought the
ground, and bought the pearl. Ah, friends, there is a great deal that has
to be given up: the world, its pleasures, its favor, its good opinion. You
are to stand to the world in the same relation as Jesus did. The world
rejected Him, and cast Him out, and you are to take up the position of your
Lord, to whom you belong, and to follow with the rejected Christ. You have
to give up everything. You have to give up all that is good in yourself
and to be humbled in the dust of death. And that is not all. Your past
religious life and experience and successes–you have to give all up and
become nothing, that God alone may have the glory. God has brought you out
in conversion; it was God’s own life given you: but you defiled it with
disobedience and with unbelief. Give it all up. Give up all your own
wisdom, and your own thoughts about God’s work. How hard it is for the
minister of the Gospel to give up all his wisdom, and to lay it at the feet
of Jesus, to become a fool and to say: “Lord, I know nothing as I should
know it. I have been preaching the Gospel, and how little I have seen of
the glory of the blessed land, and the blessed life!”

Why is it that the blessed Spirit can not teach us more effectually? No
reason but this: the wisdom of man prevents it; the wisdom of man prevents
the light of God from shining in. And so we could say of other things;
give up all. Some may have an individual sin to give up. There may be a
Christian man who is angry with his brother. There may be a Christian woman
who has quarreled with her neighbor. There may be friends who are not
living as they should. There may be Christians holding fast some little
doubtful thing, not willing to surrender and leave behind the whole of the
wilderness life and lust. Oh, do take this step and say: “I am ready
to give up everything to have this pearl of great price; my time, my
attention, my business, I count all subordinate to this rest of God as the
first thing in my life; I yield all to walk in perfect fellowship with
God.” You can not get that and live every day in perfect fellowship with
God, without giving up time to it. You take time for everything. How many
hours a day has a young lady spent for years and years that she may become
proficient on the piano? How many years does a young man study to fit
himself for the profession of the law or medicine? Hours, and days, and
weeks, and months, and years, gladly given up to perfect himself for his
profession. And do you expect that religion is so cheap that without giving
time you can find close fellowship with God? You can not. But, oh, my
brothers and sisters, the pearl of great price is worth everything. God is
worth everything. Christ is worth everything. Oh, come to-day, and say,
“Lord, at any cost help me; I do want to live this life.” And if you find
it difficult to say this, and if there is a struggle within the heart,
never mind; say to God, “Lord, I thought I was willing, but I see how much
unwillingness there is; come and discover what the evil is still in the
heart.” By His grace, if you will lie at His feet and trust Him you may
depend upon it deliverance will come.

Then comes the next step, and that is to say: “I do now give up myself to
the holy and everlasting God, for Him to lead me into this perfect rest.”
Ah, friends, we must learn to meet God face to face. My sin has been
against God. David felt that when he said, “Against Thee, Thee only, have
I sinned.” It is God on the judgment seat whose face you will have to meet
personally. It is God Himself, personally, who met you to pardon your sins.
Come to-day and put yourself into the hands of the living God. God is love.
God is near. God is waiting to give you His blessing. The heart of God is
yearning over you. “My child,” God says, “you think you are longing for
rest; it is I that am longing for you, because I desire to rest in your
heart as My home, as My temple.” You need your God. Yes, but your God needs
you, to find the full satisfaction of His Father heart in Christ in you.
Come to-day and say: “I do now give up myself to Christ. I have made the
choice. I deliberately say, ‘Lord God, I am the purchaser of the pearl of
great price. I give up everything for it. In the name of Jesus I accept
that life of perfect rest.’”

And then comes my last thought. When you have said that, then add: “And
now, I trust God to make it all real to me in my experience. Whether I am
to live one year, or thirty years, I have heard it to-day again: ‘God is
Jehovah, the great I AM of the everlasting future, the eternal One; and
thirty years hence is to Him just the same as now;’ and that God gives
Himself to me, not according to my power to hold Him, but according to
His almighty power of love to hold me.” Will you trust God to-day for the
future? Oh, will you look up to God in Christ Jesus once again? A thousand
times you have heard, and thought, and thanked–”God has given us His Son;”
but will you not to-day say, “How shall He not with Him give me all things,
every moment and every day of my life?” Say that in faith. “How shall God
not be willing to keep me in the light of His countenance, in the full
experience of Christ’s saving power? Did God make the sun to shine so
brightly, and is the light so willing to pour itself into every nook and
corner where it can find entrance? And will not my God, who is love, be
willing all the day to shine into this heart of mine, from morning to
night, from year’s end to year’s end?” God is love, and longs to give
Himself to us.

Oh, come, Christians, you have hitherto lived a life in your own strength.
Will you not begin to-day? Will you not choose a life in which God shall be
all, and in which you rest in Him for all? Will you not choose a life in
which you shall say: “Oh, God, I ask, I expect, I trust Thee for it. I
enter this day into the rest of God to let God keep me; to let God keep me
every hour. I enter into the rest of God.” Are you ready to say that? Be of
good courage; fear not, you can trust God. He brings into rest. Listen to
God’s word in the Prophets once again: “Take heed, and be quiet. Fear not,
neither be faint-hearted.” Joshua brought Israel into the land. God did
it through Joshua; and Joshua is Jesus, your Jesus, who washed you in His
blood; your Jesus, whom you have learned to know as a precious Saviour.
Trust Him to-day afresh: “O my Joshua, take me, bring me in and I will
trust Thee, and in Thee the Father.” You may count upon it. He will take
you and the work will be done.

Numbers 14:2
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
–NKJ

The children of Israel were a bunch of complainers. It seems they they couldn’t be content if they didn’t have anything to complain about. They complained because they were in slavery to the Egyptians, but who wouldn’t complain about that? God saw fit to rescue them anyway.

God raised up Moses, who wasn’t entirely without complaint, but at least his desire for his nation, andfor God over rode any reluctance. Now think about this, Moses came to set them free, and the children of Israel complained about that too. God gave Moses certain signs to do, so that the people would know that Moses was the genuine article, and that freedom was at hand. Their work duties were increased and they complained.

In the desert, they complained there wasn’t enough water, and God gave them water. They complained about food and God sent mannah, which is bread from heaven. The whole time they were in the wilderness, God provided and gave them what they needed.

He was about to offer them the promised land within a short time of leaving Egypt. Spies were sent in, and gave good reports about the land. The people became afraid of the inhabitants and refused to follow God and let him fight this battle as well. God’s desire will be done, but nothing says that you, or anybody in particular has to be a part of it. God will raise up someone who is willing to get his job done.

In the second part of this verse, the children of Israel complained, and wished they had died in Egypt, or in the wilderness. They would get what they wished for. God made them to wander in the wilderness until that old, sinful generation died away. It would be the upcoming generation, one who could see how God cared and provided for them. , A generation who was willing to follow God and anticipated his promise.

That model still exists for us now. god has raised someone up to rescue us, Jesus. God’s plan to save us comes to us when we are a bunch of complainers who don’t deserve it. There’s a saying that says, “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” Or another, “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Moses took the people out of Egypt, but they carried their sinful ways with them. Jesus offers a better deal than what Moses did, but we can carry our sins with us and keep ignoring his gift.

God leaves us to wander around in our own wilderness of sins. We are normally too busy complaining to see how he has provided for our needs despite ourselves. He won’t keep contending with us forever though. He’ll just allow us to die off. On an individual note God lets us wander around and live in our sin, but we do have the power to cast off those burdens and recieve the promise that awaits.

When we come to realize, like the young generation of the Israel people, that God really does what he says he does. We don’t have any room to gripe. Trust that there is no obstacle that God can’t pick us up and carry us through. That’s when we have made our old generation to die off. God works best when you let him into your sensitive innermost part. He can transform you from the inside out. Then there won’t be anything that you can’t handle. Once you have that trust in him, you’ll find that there isn’t anything that God can’t handle.

Key Scripture:
John 15:15. “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Key Idea:
The highest proof of true friendship, and one great source of its blessedness, is the intimacy that holds nothing back, and admits the friend to share our inmost secrets. It is a blessed thing to be Christ’s servant; His redeemed ones delight to call themselves His slaves. Christ had often spoken of the disciples as His servants. In His great love our Lord now says: “No longer do I call you servants”;
– Murray

Pray for revelation:
O Saviour, speak the word with power into my soul: “I have called you My friend, whom I love, whom I trust, to whom I make known all that passes between my Father and Me.”
– Murray

Key words:
Servant, Master, Friend.

It’s graduation day. The 12 disciples are passing from that phase of having to be told what to do, how to do it, when to do it. Jesus has taught them all they need to know. It is time for them to be on their own. They can do it because they have spent time abiding with Jesus. They don’t know it all yet, but through their close relationship as disciples under instruction to their master, they are now accepted as friends. They have a unity to the source of all the power and answers they will ever need.

We have been using a comparison to a vine to learn our place in God’s kingdom. That word picture has helped us understand the importance of staying connected as branches to the true vine. Forgetting ourselves and the limitations of what we can do and giving in to allow our higher power source to work through us.

Jesus is talking directly to his closest disciples in these verses, but just as the vine is a model for us, the disciples should also be a pattern for our lives. The same truth that is being told to them, and the promises made, are equally relevant and true for us.

I know the word that appears in most English versions is ‘servant,’ but it comes from the Greek word for slave. Even outside the books of the gospel, Paul and other writers often refer to themselves as the servant of Christ,or really the slave of Christ. It is through their humility that they write words like those.

Jesus tells the disciples that they have reached the point where their abiding relationship elevates them to the status of friend. They don’t have to ask anymore, because they know what Jesus would do.

Maybe you don’t yet know the will of Jesus that well yet. Well, make every effort as the servant of Christ to draw closer and become a friend. He doesn’t want to hold secrets back. He is waiting to tell it all to you.