I’ve been here in Rwanda for over two weeks and it is nothing like I expected. The beautiful hills and mountains. I do believe they have a word for this place referring to the endless peaks and valleys you find here, something like “land of a 1000 hills.” Anyways we have a small patch of grass in the back yard of our compound with a single tree. I’ve hung my hammock in this space connecting to the tree and I love coming out here to sit in the mornings.
One morning, I woke up to my alarm at 8 and immediately rose to find myself in my nest under the tree. I have been reading this book called Mansions of the Heart. I’ve had to read and re read it multiple times because the amount of time it takes for me to process what my eyes tell me. It speaks of a love relationship with God being the rightful primary focus of oneself. Time with the father, Jesus showed us that he does what he sees his father doing.
YET I, as well as some of you, default to secondary focuses to seek God, that in all actuality are products of this love relationship with God. We THINK that holiness or service or whatever will bring us into the fold where God is, and somehow after we achieve that we will find a cure for the void in all of us.
I think about this place, my hammock under the tree. I wonder what life would look like if I didn’t have this space. Will I always make a space for me and my father to meet? I’m resting under the tree all the while I am tied to it, connected to it.
John 15 speaks of branches connected to Christ as the vine. I feel as if we have taken the simplest of meanings from this. We automatically highlight the negative and positive of this passage. In verse 2 “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
So why do we stop there with what Jesus was trying to say to us. I, including myself tend to run off and begin to work and serve our way closer to God, why?
We must bear fruit and we must produce or we will be gathered and thrown into the fire to be burned says verse 6. Sounds scary right? Our heart posture about WHY we are serving and WHAT we are doing needs examining. Do we serve out of guilt, out of our own inadequacies? See in verse 7 that abiding in him we can ask for whatever we want and it will be done for you.
So do we believe that our services to God, our productivity, our knowledge, our value of what we bring to the table(kingdom) is how we abide in God? Remember that Jesus did nothing on his own accord, he sought out the father in every moment of his life.
Do we truly understand what abiding in him means?
I think we’ve lost something
We are lost
Abiding in our own self governance
Mark 6:45-52
In this chapter, after Jesus feeds the 5000, he sends his disciples across the sea. They have just seen a miracle of multiplying fish and bread that fed the masses. The disciples find themselves struggling to make way after rowing late into the night. We have two examples here worth digging into. Here we have Jesus who went to seek out the father and the disciples out on the lake. They were so focused on mission and their own ability to traverse the lake that they were terrified of Jesus in the short time of being away from his presence. Remember abiding? Jesus went to be with the father and pray. You can’t work your way into a relationship with him like rowing a boat. I just wonder who the captain of the boat was…
How many times have we been given direction to start something that God has entrusted to us do and then forget to keep him first through the whole process?
He was walking on water about to pass them by… They were so unaware of his presence until they realized he was about to pass him. Talk about being focused on God. They weren’t relying on him. He had just done the impossible multiplication of fish and bread, and now defying surface tension of water… and yet, they were terrified.
So where does this leave you and me?
Will we stop with the mission objectives and make God the objective?
I wonder what our boat and struggles would look like if we stopped relying on our own means and began to tether to God. Are we afraid that he might ask us to do something we think impossible? I mean must he be too good to be true, or just truth and love that we don’t know how to accept. Perhaps one day we can get out of the boat and walk against the wind and on the water, because that’s what he is doing.
We can’t even begin to experience God and all that he is if we don’t ditch our perverse mindset of self focus that we think brings favor upon us in the fathers eyes. He’s not impressed with our strength and our own ability to govern our own life. If you aren’t sure about that statement, ask yourself why the disciples chose a boat? Jesus chose to walk on water to pass them up like chumps in the middle of the sea.
New International Version (NIV)
John 15
The Vine and the Branches
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 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. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Mark 6
Jesus Walks on the Water
45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.
47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
