Connection Lost

Everybody that is reading this, is connected to the internet; so we all are familiar with connecting to the internet and also have also experienced losing your connection.  As we are traveling, most hotels have Wi-Fi.  When I fire up my computer, one of the first things it does, is try to find a connection to the internet.  Sometimes it will find a network that needs a password.  Most hotels have a password protected connection; but you have to ask for it.  It's not automatic.  Some restaurants have free internet and some you need to have a prepaid card.  

How does this relate to my current blogs.  Well, you need a connection to God when you pray and you need a password.  The password is a person, Jesus Christ.  Some one had to prepay for your connection.  He did, with his Blood.  The connection is not automatic.  You can't just connect when you are in trouble or want something.  It does not work that way!

Jesus said:

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples”

The Message paraphrases this verse:

“If you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.”

How many of us have a fire extinguisher in the house that we have never used or become familiar with?  In case of fire, will you have time to read the instructions (men don’t read instructions).  I experienced this in my office in Oklahoma.  It was almost panic time, the flames were shooting from my work bench to the ceiling when I walked into the room.  I had to walk past the flames to get to the extinguisher and then figure out how to use it.  Being a man, I did not read the instructions but treated it like a hand grenade: pulled the little red pin, squeezed the trigger and pointed.  It worked, put out the fire and went back to pulling the teeth of the patient that I was delivering a denture to.  Thankfully God watches over fools and little children.

If you are a new Christian, God will cut you some slack; but if we expect to “bear much fruit” to glorify the Father, we need to live by the rules.  “Abide” means to dwell, make a home in, get familiar with.

Psalm 91 is a psalm that people use when looking for relief when in trouble and love to quote:

“No harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.  For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;  they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.  You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

BUT read the whole psalm, it starts out: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”  It continues: “If you make the Most High your dwelling-- even the LORD, who is my refuge--then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent”.

There is a big “IF” in there.  We can’t just drop in for coffee or snack.  He is not a fire extinguisher “for emergency only”.  We need to make ourselves at home with him, like that big chair we curl up in.  We need to make ourselves at home in the Word and make the Word at home within us, become one with the Word.

“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Jesus