Word in Christ

Abide. Abide. Abide. Jesus repeatedly draws our attention to this principle in our spiritual lives. The purpose of our lives is to glorify God by bearing fruit as we do the works that Jesus did. And Jesus desires that every disciple bears fruit. God is glorified when we live holy lives, obey His commands and give witness to the resurrection of Christ. It's only possible to accomplish this goal through abiding in Christ. Only then does the power and life of Christ flow through us producing the kind of fruit that makes a lasting difference. A branch cannot produce fruit by itself. Without the life of the vine within it, the branch will just shrivel up and die.  If you aren't bearing fruit, you are not fulfilling God's purpose for your life. On one occasion when Jesus was going to the Temple, He passed by a fig tree with many leaves. Jesus was hungry and wanted to eat the fruit from that tree, but there was none. There were only leaves, so He cursed the tree. The d...

When she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone. (Mark 7:30) The Syrophoenician woman, also called the Canaanite woman, was a Gentile (non-Jew) with a demon-possessed daughter. It was hard for the mother to care for her child, and sometimes the situation seemed hopeless. There was nothing that could be done to free the girl from her torment. The mother had heard of Jesus' power to heal and went to him. She told him about her daughter and asked him to heal the little girl. Jesus said, "First I should feed the children  – my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs" (Mark 7:27). Jesus meant he should care for the Jews first, and this woman was a Gentile. The woman was desperate. She wasn't willing to give up so easily, because Jesus was the only hope for her daughter. The woman answered, "That's true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat t...