During Outreach Phase of DTS we went to 3 places. In each place God taught me a new
lesson. When I look back however I see
how all 3 lessons relate in some way.
God allowed me to use these lessons
as messages to the people we ministered to on outreach. I think it is important for believers to
allow the testimony of their life to be shared with others. As we grow closer to God in our personal
experiences we can encourage others to do the same by sharing our experience
with them. As I read through the book of
Acts on outreach I believe this is an important part in the Christian
life.
So now I want to share these same
lessons with you. This first lesson was
learned in Bangkok. It was about the
importance of abiding in Jesus so I can produce fruit that is good. You can find this teaching in John 15:1-17.
A brief summary: Jesus is the vine,
God is the gardener, and Christians are the branches. Fruitless branches are cut off. God prunes fruitful branches so they produce
more. All are cut. None are left
alone. To produce fruit we must remain
close to Jesus, the vine. God answers
the prayers of those who stay close to Jesus.
God wants us to bear lots of fruit not just a little. You will be happier when you are fruitful
because we are Jesus friends, not His servants.
He wants us to produce fruit that will “last forever.”
So what is this fruit God wants us
to produce that will last forever? Well
you can find it in Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.) But the fruit Jesus talks about in this
chapter, and the fruit that He wanted me to work on during this outreach is LOVE. Paul also said
that love is the greatest of all in 1 Corinthians 13.
What can we do to show this
fruit? How can we bear it? First we can be patient when God prunes and
like Job trust what He is doing. When we
trust God we allow Him to work even when we are being pruned and life hurts. The most important thing we need to remember
during this time of pruning is that we need to remain connected to Jesus, the
vine.
There are probably some things in
our life God wants us to change so when we are being pruned we should ask God
what He wants us to change. We need to
be willing to change the things God shows us.
This year, for me, it is my pride.
He really wants me to be more humble in how I serve and respond to
people. With humility comes a type of
love that is genuine, and reflects the love of God more than love filled with
pride.
So what does it look like to abide
in Christ? This world has many
distractions. Even things that aren’t
sins and are good for us can be a distraction (family, ministry,
facebook.) Abiding in Christ and His
love means that we fix our eyes on Jesus not the distractions so….
·
We can have peace in all situations, good and
uncertain.
·
We can have hope and won’t get discouraged when
life dumps all it’s trash on us!
·
It will help us live for Him and bear good
fruit.
·
We can find it easier to love others and see
them the way He does.
I will share more in the next 2
blogs about how we abide in Christ and what that love looks like in more detail!!!
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