Pathways Press.com

MEDITATION:

Written by Pam DePuydt, a contemporary author.

As Jesus and the apostles walked to the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus comforts them, explaining many things, telling them they will do greater works than He had done.  However, there is a catch.  In order for them to do all these things, to believe all these things, to trust all these things, they must abide. 

Abide? How does one do that? The Greek tells us they were to “remain or continue.”   So, continue following His teachings and examples and ways, as though He would always be with them.  One of the Hebrew translations would have them to “cleave, follow close, join together as if glued.” A vine is connected to the branch in a symbiotic relationship. Others see this not as symbiotic but connected.  Whichever it is, without the Branch, fruit cannot be born, for it is in the Branch the lifeblood flows.  Abide? Me? How do I do that? Cleave myself to Jesus.  Continue in His Word daily, musing over the wisdom and knowledge and precepts.  Follow the teachings and much fruit will be born.  The fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Let myself be the vine that wraps itself around the Branch, so much so, that without the Branch, I wither and die.  Glue myself so much to His Word, that to rip the Word out of me, would rip out my very heart. And if I don’t abide, what then?  Then it becomes spiritual suicide. Those who are not Christ-followers don’t understand this, for they don’t know what it is to have an abundant life, filled with joy amidst sorrow and hardships.  For those of us who follow after and love Jesus our Messiah, it is essential to our well-being and that of everyone we come in contact with, for our “vine” to remain in the Branch. Oh, sure, we can fake it, but after a time, people will know; you will know.  Then what? You either wither and die or come crawling back to the foot of the Cross, to the One Who washed you clean and ask Him to “wash your feet.” Confession and repentance is not just a one-time deal. The “one-time” confession gives us eternal life, the ongoing confession and repentance is the sanctification of my life.  It’s the journey, leaving my old ways and cleaving to the ways of Jesus. It’s becoming a vine growing because of the Living Water, on the Living Branch that overshadows the Cross on which my Savior died.  It’s continually being washed by the water of the Word. To abide is to continually confess to Jesus that I can’t live my life without Him.  He knows that. He told His disciples that.  He told me that, and you, and anyone else who will read His Word.

PRAYER:

From The Leonine Sacramentary, the earliest surviving collection of Roman Mass formularies and ordination prayers from the early 7th century.

Grant us, O Lord, not to mind earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away , to cleave to those that shall abide; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.