Abide

Topics without scriptures: Abiathar.

There is a Jeff Goodrich song that goes something like "The foxes have their holes, the birds have their nests, but I have nowhere to rest. I said 'Lord, I know it's just a start, I'll build Thee a home in my heart." This song was playing in the back of my head this morning while I contemplated what to write, which makes sense to me since the main ideas behind these scriptures had to do with God living in us, and us living in God.

When you think of a house, who are the people who live in that house? Family members, right? And in the old days (or if you are rich) servants live there too. So who are the people who live with Christ? Those who are his family and servants. So the question is, if I want Christ to be with me, to be a part of me and dwell in my heart - how do I become a member of his household? With Christmas coming there are lots of opportunities to run around and do good deeds like bake your neighbors cookies and such - but I think that all that is just a start. While the road to Hell may be paved with good intentions, I think the road to Heaven is paved with small, everyday kindness. John basically says this in 1 John 2:6

6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

There are a lot of "he"s in there, so when I read it it was more like this:

"he that saith He abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."

The uppercase "He" is meant to be Christ, and the lowercase "he" is meant to be us. I think Christ did small, everyday acts all the time, and then when the big ones came it was only natural because of his nature. Obviously because Christ was, well, Christ, he was going to do good - but the example is there. If we are going to claim to be Christians, that means to "walk, even as he walked" or to do as he did.

Another interesting point I found in my study was that in Matthew 10:11 Christ tells his disciples (were they Apostles by this point?) that while they go out and preach to find someone who was worthy and then stay at that house until they were done preaching in that town. Then in Luke 19:5 Christ tells Zacchaeus, a sinner that no one likeed, that he is going to stay with him. So what makes someone worthy? I highly doubt Zacchaeus felt worthy or had it in his mind to be host to Jesus when he went out to see him. Christ is the one who determines our worthiness, not our neighbors or friends or family or even ourselves. Maybe what made Zacchaeus worthy was the fact that he REALLY wanted to see Jesus - that he wanted to have Jesus be a part of his life in anyway he thought he could, and then Jesus did the rest. Zacchaeus opened the door of his heart without even knowing it, and Jesus never will reject walking through a doorway that is opened to him.

This idea of Abiding has really struck me. The idea behind abiding isn't for someone to come and visit for a minute or two - or just on holidays like our relatives do around Christmas. It is about living somewhere - clearing out space and having Christ actually be a member of all your meals, in the room for all your conversation, have what decorations you have in your house be his decorations, and whenever you look inside yourself or figuratively "come home" - having him be there.