At Home in Papa (part 3)

Making our home in Jesus sounds awesome but how is it lived out in the day to day?

I think there is a renewing of our mind that is helpful in getting us to the place of abiding.

First is to stay in the truth. Jesus says abide in the truth and the truth will set you free. The whores and drunks had no problem with this challenge they knew who they were and everyone else did as well. That's why it was so easy for them to rush into the kingdom. For most people the truth about themselves or the situation they are in isn't that easy because they have an image to maintain.

Second is to stay in the present. In Matthew 6 Jesus is telling his disciples not to worry about food, clothing, etc. Actually I love the message translation here because Jesus says, "Relax..."
He says basically stay in the moment because you can't do anything about tomorrow and today has enough mess of it's own to deal with . In Luke 8 when he gives the parable of sewing seeds he says basically the same thing, "the worries and cares of the world choke out the plant..." I know from my own life I often get in the weeds when I focus on the worries of the things around me and what may happen tomorrow or next week or next year. The reason the future is such a stumbling block is simply because God is not there. He is in the present. "I Am". He is a God of the present the here and now. Everything we worry about in the future the things that may happen. Well He isn't there yet. He will be when it is time. He knows about it.

If I follow today, then tomorrow, and so on. A month, year, 10 years from now I will be exactly where He wants me.

Finally, simple obedience to King Jesus. Following the way of love, mercy forgiveness, grace, and truth. I have seen more people get free of inner conflict:
guilt
shame
anger
etc,
when they simply forgive someone who has wronged them. The weight is lifted the conflict gone and the peace of Christ comes rushing in.

At Home in Papa (part 2)

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (Jn 14:2,3)

We have so often reduced these verses, and the whole gospel, to mean that when we die Jesus is going to take us to a mansion in heaven that He has built us. Often this is taken further to say something like depending on how hard you work here that mansion may be big or small so serve hard so you earn a big mansion in which to spend eternity.

Quick sidenote for all my evangelical bro's I still believe in heaven and hell but check out what is really going on in these verses.

The Gk for house is oikia which means abode or by implication "family". The Gk for rooms is monē which is a noun that means residence. The only other place this word is used in the New Testament is in John 14:23

"If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home(mone) with him."

This is a very present reality.

Also this word "mone" is the noun form of the verb "meno" which means abide or dwell that I talked about in part 1. Jesus isn't talking about a physical place, that's what the disciples were thinking and they were confused, but something far better...a relationship that he brings us in to. He uses this intimate relationship language throughout this final conversation he is having with his disciples in the upper room.

Finally, take a look at the present tense of verse 3, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Not sometime out there somewhere but here, now.

You can see this kind of language going on in the old testament as well particularly in the psalms.

At Home in Papa (part 1)

I have been spending a lot of time studying the upper room discourse (John 13-17) and particularly this idea of "abiding" in Him. This reality is central to the good-news message.

We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!(1Jn 1:3,4)

The greek word for communion or fellowship here is koinonia which literally means partnership, participation, intercourse. Jesus describes what this looks like with the abide language He uses in John chapters 14-17.

"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. (Jn 15:4-5)

And then He prays here:

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (Jn 17:21-23)

Simply put? I am in Jesus, Jesus is in me, Jesus is in the Father, the Father is in Jesus again who is in me. I'm in the Father who is in Jesus who is also in me. Then we throw in the Holy Spirit who is also in me as well as in Jesus and the Father...wow! I can't get my mind around it but maybe looks something like this:

The point is that there is this incredibly intimate relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit that has been in place before time existed and we have been created and invited to take part in that relationship fully and completely...mind melting, life changing!