Abiding In Christ

Now and For Eternity

A theme that God laid on my heart almost a year ago has come up in several sermons over the last couple of months. The pastors who delivered these sermons live in different parts of the country and come from various denominations, offering confirmation that I need to pay attention.

By age thirty, I had been married for twelve years and had three beautiful daughters. I accepted Christ when a speaker asked a very pointed question: If I were to die that day, where would I spend eternity. With almost a smugness, I stated heaven. The speaker then asked why? Again, I answered because Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Then the young man on the stage asked if we were sure. And again, I was extremely positive.  The passage he was using for his talk was in Matthew 7. Continuing, he asked: do you think God is going to let you into heaven because you do all these amazing things? As he read all the work that religious people did, I heard my own impressive resume, all the great things I had accomplished. The speaker then said but this is what Jesus has to say, “depart from me you evildoers. I never knew you.” Would He say that to me, too? I knew it was time to answer the invitation to give my life to Jesus.  I was baptized in front of my church family the following week, but to be honest, nothing in my life changed. Actually, it got worse for a season and my church family turned its back on me. 

Fast-forward a few more years. I was beginning to feel my relationship with the Lord was stagnant in spite of following what I assumed was His purpose for my life. You know the life that says you go to church on Sunday for a few hours, maybe read your devotional calendar every morning that tells you how wonderful Jesus is and that He wants you to be happy. And raise your children to be good, moral, law-abiding citizens. But God was telling me I wasn’t anywhere close to where He wanted me, even though I was copying the behavior of every other Christian I knew. 

This is when my husband, who was studying Romans, had an AHA! moment. Romans 12 says that we are supposed to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. It goes on to say that this is our true and proper worship. But Paul, the author of Romans, didn’t just leave us there to figure it out; he told us that we should not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. 

This was the start of a new way of life for our family and for the first time I felt like maybe, just maybe I was on the right track, but I was still confused with the scripture from Matthew 7 that said, “Many on that day…” Not a few but many.  That word in the Greek is polus. It literally translates: much, many, largely, abundant, plenteous…  

I know lots of people who call themselves Christians. Our churches are filled with them. How, then, do you explain Matthew 7:14 that say the road to heaven is narrow and few find it?

I think God finally answered that question for me recently when I heard a sermon on John 15. Verse 4 says abide in Me and I will abide in you. The Greek word for abide is meno and it means to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy. To continue, dwell, be present. The first part of this chapter says that Jesus is the true vine and that His Father is the gardener. It clearly states that those who are not bearing fruit will be cut off. If we don’t think Jesus means that, He goes on further into the section and says, “if you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” 

Paul, in 2 Timothy 3:16, says all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Paul also goes on to warn Timothy that there will come a time when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. I always wondered how they would get a great number of teachers to do this. 

Paul addressed it as he finished his letter to the Roman Christians. Not only did he urge them to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in their way that are contrary to the teaching they had learned, but to keep away from them. Paul went on to say that such people are not serving the Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And how do they do that? With smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.

So with the time we have left on this earth, my prayer is that you will take inventory of your relationship with the Lord. Take some time to search your heart and ask, am I truly abiding in Him as He has asked or am I living as the world has taught?  It’s important to remember your different choices have two totally different outcomes.