“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.”
John 15:5 (NIV)

Back in December our daughter and her family moved in with Wendy and me. They had been in Scotland for five years where they lived in a flat in the heart of Edinburgh. Now they’re back in the States living with us, and they have been in the process of hunting for a house which will be the first that they have owned as a family. The hunting, comparing, discussing, and making offers have brought back many memories of the different domiciles I’ve called home over the years.

Chapters 14-17 of John’s account of Jesus’ Story are fascinating because it’s basically one long discourse between Jesus and His disciples that ends with a discourse of prayer between Jesus and His Heavenly Father. In other words, John spends almost one-fifth of the entire book recounting what Jesus had to say on the fateful evening of His arrest.

One of the things that I look for as I’m reading and meditating on a chapter is patterns. A repeated word or phrase, for example. In today’s chapter, the word “remain” appears eleven times as Jesus repeatedly tells His followers to “remain” in Him as He “remains” in the Father and the Father “remains” in Jesus. The Greek word that Jesus repeats here is menō. It means to “dwell” or “abide” as in you move in and continue to live.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, it brought back memories of when I surrendered my life to Christ as a teenager. There was this subtle yet infinitely profound difference between me being a religious, believing church member and me being a disciple of Jesus.

As a believing church member, I paid Jesus a visit each week in the church building which I had been told since I was a child was “God’s house.” God lived on 49th Street just south of Urbandale Avenue. I lived on the 31st block of Madison. I attended. I took the classes. I agreed that I believed what the church taught me, and I got my membership certificate and a box of offering envelopes. I paid God a visit each week and then went about with my own life.

When I invited Jesus into my life and asked Him to be the Lord of my life, I suddenly experienced something new: His indwelling. No longer a god I visited once a week, Jesus was the Lord who made His dwelling in me 24/7/365. Instead of thinking about God for a couple hours on Sunday and casually throwing up a prayer before meals, I became aware of God all the time because He was abiding in me and I realized that I was abiding in Him even if I couldn’t fully comprehend it.

I continued to meditate on this abiding presence, I couldn’t help but consider what Jesus asked and expected from this mutual indwelling relationship:

• “Remain in me…” (vs. 4) Persevere, press on, don’t give up
• “Bear much fruit…” (vss. 5, 8, 16) Never stop increasing the yield of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in my life and relationships.
• “Keep my commands…” (vs. 10) There are only two commands: Love God and love others. Everything else flows from them.
• “Love one another” (vs. 17) The command that is worth repeating.
• “Get ready to be hated and persecuted…” (vss. 18-21)
• “Live differently than the world…” (vs. 19)

In the quiet this morning as I contemplated our children’s search for a house and my mutual “dwelling” with Christ, I found myself praying that the fruit of God’s indwelling Spirit within me will continue to increase in yield each day of this earthly journey. And, may this lead others to say of me as it is said of one of my all-time favorite movie characters, The Big Lebowski:

“The dude abides.”

I’m back on Facebook for those who liked to read my chapter-a-day posts there! Facebook refuses to give me access to my old, hacked account, but I have started a new account. Please feel free to search for me on Facebook and friend me. If Facebook won’t let you friend me, please go to my Facebook profile and “Message” me on Facebook Messenger, which should then allow me to friend you. Cheers! -Tom

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.