Abiding in the Vine

This morning, whilst on the way to work, both when driving to the KTM station at Taman Wahyu, and whilst on the train to Bank Negara station, I was thoroughly blessed by this message on 'Abiding in the Vine', by Pastor Vance Pitman, from Hope Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, preached at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's chapel service on March 4th of this year.

You can see and hear Pas Vance here ... http://www.sbts.edu/resources/ or here http://vimeo.com/88172946

What was truly awe-inspiring was the hard-hitting truth that in John 15:1-8, where Jesus teaches on Himself being the vine, and of the believers being branches to bear fruit, the stunning realization that Jesus had given only one command, and that is 'Abide in Me', and the fruit will be realized! His one commandment is that we abide in Him, and He will produce the life, which is in Him, through us, to the glory of God.

The awesome implication is that He has called us to abide in Him, the Divine Logos, the Word of God Himself! The truth has not changed from the OT to the NT. Christ is the Life-giving Spirit, and upon His death and resurrection, is now available to us by faith. This faith comes when we recognize, through the work of the Holy Spirit, our utter sinfulness and our total inability to save ourselves. This brings us to our knees, and coming to God as our only Savior.

Corollary to this wonderful truth is that the work of sanctification proceeds in like manner; Christ lives His life by His Spirit in and through us. We cannot give Him glory which He does not already have. It is purely His pleasure and will to give of Himself to us, by His Spirit, and produces fruit, much fruit, unto the God's glory alone.

Amen!