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Peter, outside the boat, sinking in the water; cried out to Jesus saying, “Lord, help me.” In that scene we see how our abiding with Him functions. Hearing Peter, and seeing him, “Immediately” Jesus reached out to Peter and the two gripped hands. Whose grip do we suppose was the greater? Surely Peter’s was with all he possessed of strength. More surely than that was the Lord’s sure grip of Peter: sure – immediate – a permanent offer – more than sufficient for helping Peter.

“WITH OUTSTRETCHED ARMS AND A MIGHTY HAND.” Let us include the cross —- “The Lord has saved us,” Our abiding in Christ is His desire for us — and for Himself who desires our fellowship. He is Love. And Love suffers long — until the circle of love is complete.

We are meant to live in fellowship with God. On our side of things, a choice remains to be seen. On His side of things, the choice was never even really a choice. “He came unto His own,” we read; “But His own received Him not.” There, with His continuous “outstretched arm and mighty hand” — coming for His own — it is, people that reject the Lord, not the Lord who rejects men. “Instantly,” with no needed plea except an honest asking for help, Jesus reached out and grasped the hand of Peter.

To “abide in Christ, from the inside of ourselves looking out, is a struggle – is a battle of faith. But when we focus on His goodness – His unfailing love – His “immediate” response to Peter – the cross He bore long before our lives began — and when we hear softly and tenderly that Jesus is calling — when we grasp that the strength of our hope is Him giving— we can rest assured that Jesus never changes; never fails and He will not fail us.

He is the way. Abiding in Him is a constant choice in our new life in Christ. His choice of us is fixed — our choice of Him becomes fixed as well. As we grow more into His likeness — here a little — there a little — line upon line — precept upon precept: our failures, like Peter’s denial of Him three times — remind us that He never fails us. We have nor do we want anyway other to turn than to Him. “If we abide, He abides faithful” He is the surety of our success, the Savior of our lives, Lord by our own adoration.

This is a historical narrative. It happened. It is recorded for our viewing. It tells us nothing about Peter repenting, or changing His thinking — that was yet to come in Peter’s life — and would happen after he was told that he would deny his Lord — three times he would deny the Lord.

We cannot “abide in Him” in our own strength. We can, however, cry out to Him saying, “Lord help me.”
Is this not what He desires? – to help us? Can we even imagine that He would refuse? And even then — to abide in Him — do we not see again and again — the “Outstretched arms and mighty hands” freely reaching to us — for us? He is the Giver of all good things.

Buddy

I do not easily find my rest in Him alone. And until I do, I will find that I am in constant struggle; or a lazy Christian walk; or in a sense of failure; or in a self-defense mode built on comparing my accomplishments with others.

The extent of “Christ in me; the hope of glory;” of “The Lord My Righteousness,” and of “I can do all things through Christ my strength” —- must be complete. Otherwise, I have something of my own accomplishments, of my “hidden resources” upon which I very secretly – or boastfully when I am most a hypocrite – rely upon.

We do not initiate the search that brings us to God; He does; for intimacy, joy, and fellowship for Love’s sake —- and our sake.
He makes us in the likeness of Himself: He is Love.
Jesus; praying to “Our” Father said: “My glory I give to them.”

We cannot by life’s best efforts; and certainly not – due to the sin in our lives – “make” ourselves good. Life was given us. An eternally pure life must also be His workmanship. Would not the absolute need for holiness only be an atrocity if God had not known that He and only He can be our Righteousness?

We must be born again. We must be born from on high. We must be washed of our sins.

In this life, we have the choice to come clean; that is, to confess that we have been part of the problem for we have sinned. We will be in hypocrisy if; by comparison with other’s bad deed, we excuse ourselves.

Dare we ask Him to altogether be our Savior? It can be no other way.

Buddy

Religious teaching and preaching always – always; involves prompting the hearer to pray more, give more, and to try to be perfect.

Biblical teaching changes the focus saying, “The just shall live by faith.”

Does faith nullify that a Christian should pray, that he should give generously, or that he should not give of himself all that he has or is? NO!

The difference is – the difference between all religion and the Christian’s message – is that the Christian is introduced to God the Savior: The Savior saves him who cannot save himself.

Religion teaches that we are alone in the struggle of life. The Bible teaches that God has never left us to ourselves – and alone.

“For, by grace are ye saved through faith, and not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works (sheer self-effort) lest any man should boast.”

Can we imagine heaven be a place of boasters saying, “This is how I made it!” No!

In heaven – and here on earth – the most normal Christian thing is his boast about His Savior. Actually, a normal Christian thing also, the Christian may say of himself, “I was the chief of sinners.” The worst!

The Bible teaches that a Christian is a twice-born person: born of his mother through natural birth, and born of the Spirit through supernatural birth.
. We can “become” a child of God in much the same way as was Jesus. He is “The only begotten of the Father,” one of a kind. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth shall not perish, but has everlasting life.”

Our believing God is a faith response to the inner voice of the invisible Holy Spirit. Faith is always a response – the right response. Faith is pure honesty and is not blind. Faith and love, both having to do with invisible reality, are inseparable. Normal Christianity is distinguished from all religions: every Christian must have become one through a love-faith encounter with the Lord. The Bible teaches that Jesus; “Came to His own, but his own received him not.”

Things we think that we can understand we tend to call natural; however, we actually only understand fragment of the whole truth concerning anything. And much of what we have thought we understood has been overturned by further information later on. Actually the existence of anything that exists is miracle — a product of divine creation.

A Christian is a divine re-creation; that involves forgiveness of his wrong doing; and payment for the debt he occurred by sinning.

Religion always has to do with correcting our deficiencies by our own efforts. True Christianity reveals that God is merciful, that out of His loving-kindness He “saves our lives from destruction,” if we will be honest with Him so He can – He gives us that option.
Furthermore, the Lord desires – as any worthy parent should, desire to “Crown our lives with loving-kindness.” (Psalm 103)

Religion does not present the divine as a Savior. The Bible does.
Religion does not expect the miraculous, but the normal Christian lives by such hope. The Christian’s God is “Mighty to save.”
Religion often mocks the concept of being saved.

But some common sense key factors which distinguish Christianity from religions are cherished.
We agree that for one to lay down his life for another is “The ultimate sacrifice.” God did that.
We agree that forgiveness is greater than judgment and accusation: the Gospel of God offers divine mercy.
We agree that generosity is greater than accumulation and greed: never has generosity been so on display as has it been on the cross of Calvary.

The statement by Jesus, “The thief came but to steal, maim, and destroy” — we see on earth throughout all its days this happening.
“But I have come to give you life, and give it to you abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Abundantly “ever-lasting and eternally blessed. He chooses to have us live in fellowship with Him forever.

A “normal” Christian is someone who took the invitation of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “If any man is burdened or heavy laden” –whoever has eyes to see the condition of this world today must be burdened, or the weight that our sin has brought upon us and those we’ve wronged.
Those suffering as we speak, the terminally ill, the sorrow in the Middle East, their ambitions there clearly expressed – let such as person … “come unto Me.”

A normal Christian is someone who did come unto Him. The normal Christian’s story, his testimony, has been a gospel message ever since and has been there for any willing to seek God in all ages

There is only one, Christianity that is normal to all centuries: “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.”

Normal Christianity is a brotherhood of like-minded faith; Jesus being the Elder Brother, by the Spirit, doing miracles in all ages.

He that ministers to you in the Spirit and worketh miracles among you (does so) by the hearing of faith.”
(Galations 3:5)

Buddy