Day 244

Day 244

Pray (ACts)

Read - 1 John 2:28a, John 15:17 'Abide in Him'

Message - Alan Burke 
When we look around to what is happening at this moment we may feel overwhelmed, anxious, fearful, filled with uncertainty. Well John had just written warning those to whom he had wrote to how this is the last hour (18), this world is perishing (17), the antichrist is coming and there are many antichrists have come (18). On one hand it would be easy for them to feel overwhelmed anxious, fearful, filled with uncertainty, on top of that there would have been all those things that they would have been dealing with that all of us have to deal with. Yet John now turns to encourage them and us for even though we may feel overwhelmed, anxious, fearful, filled with uncertainty at what John has taught and what we face, what we need to do in the midst of it all is to ‘abide in him’. We need to abide in Christ, for it is by abiding in Christ that we can have confidence in all that we face. On Wednesday we will look to the confidence that we have when Christ appears but for now let us think of what it means to abide in him. 

What thought does it mean that we are to abide, the idea is to continue, to remain, stay with, what ever way you want to put it John is encouraging them and us to keep running the race, to keep going. It means to allow his Word to fill our minds, allowing his Word to direct all that we do and say, allowing his Word to transform who we are and our affections. Abiding in Christ is letting His Word dwell in us and the Spirit fill us. This is only possible through the work of God in us, but it does not exclude the need for human responsibility and effort. That is what John wants those whom he writes to and us to understand, for if we remain in him, if what we have heard from the beginning the truth of the gospel remains in us (25), so that they and we can know the promise that we have eternal life (26). Abiding in him, in what he has done, knowing that it is not about position or performance, it is not about seeking His approval rather to abiding in Christ, trusting in him, knowing our dependance on him and what he has done.

Abide in Christ this day even though this is the last hour (18), this world is perishing (17), the antichrist is coming and there are many antichrists have come (18), when you are facing so much in your every day life, the ordinary every day toils, if you are weary, tired, grieving abide in Christ. The only begotten son of God that came to make an atonement for our sin so that we might be redeemed and become the children of God (John 1:12) and when this live ends or when he appears we might have confidence before him not our position or performance, rather in who he is and what he has done for us through faith.

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q21 Who is the Redeemer of God’ s elect?
The only Redeemer of God’ s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, (1 Tim. 2:5–6) who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, (John 1:14, Gal. 4:4) and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever. (Rom. 9:5, Luke 1:35, Col. 2:9, Heb. 7:24–25)
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