1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian LOVE | Page 6

Verse 13 speaks of laying down one’s life for one’s friend, for some people the fact that He states “our friend” could very well make this command more palatable, but won’t you consider who Jesus says is our friend in Luke 10 we have Jesus telling the story of the Good Samaritan and according to His story “your friend” could well be your worst enemy. The Samaritan in the story is a picture of somebody willing to love inconveniently. For many people they are more than happy to love if it is convienent for them and does not demand too much of them, but the Samaritan sets the bar for us very high when he loved sacrificially someone who had offended him, wronged him and rejected him. That, people, is the kind of love that Jesus is talking about. To lay down one’s life for another is the highest expression of love; it proves that the words that yousaid declaring your love were not just words of good intent spoken in an emotional moment. Whenever we respond positively to this command of Christ to love we have to believethat it warms the heart of God and at the same time, as we will see later, activates the supernatural power of God. God gets very excited when people imitate Christ and avail themselves of the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer Thought: There is a beautiful song that we sing in church and the words of the bridge are as follows: “Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen, show me how to love like you have loved me. Break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I am for your Kingdom’s cause, as I walk from earth into eternity.” Won’t you contemplate the words of this song and make them the prayer of your heart this week. THURSDAY John 15 v 5 – “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Today I would like to focus upon the problem that we are faced with as it pertains to verse 5. Verse 5 instructs us to “remain in the vine” and promises that those who do will bear much fruit. This problem of “remaining” is I think a constant challenge to us. There are so many issues that we carry with us and so many pressures from without to hinder us from remaining. Sometimes we carry far too much baggage through life and this will certainly make “remaining” or “abiding” difficult. Some of us have inherited cultural prejudices and prideful stereo-types; these too will hinder us in our “abiding” endeavour. Fear too plays a part as we are a fearful people where we fear what people will say, we fear loss and we fear being abused by others. Some people “unabide” from the vine when the winds of adversity blow, when they feel that they have been wrongly treated or have been dealt with unfairly, but the abundance of the Fruit of the Spirit is reserved for those who learn, no matter what the circumstances of life, to remain and abide in the vine.