Growing Up

I've been working on mission stuff today. Trying to network with church planting pastors in Nigeria. These are great guys who are serving inspite of the economic, political and religious difficulties of serving in northern Nigeria.

I'm looking forward to connecting them to some of the churches in the Strand area. The opportunity to work with and support national preachers is a real blessing. It is also very convicting to understand how faithfully they serve under the most dire circumstances.

Yesterday, I met with the guys for our Tuesday noon Bible study in John. We looked at John 15 and saw that as we abide in Christ we will produce "fruit." Fruit can be people being redeemed in Christ (John 4:36), Christian characteristics (Galatians 5:22) or good works (Colossians 1:10). It all comes from abiding in Christ. Verse 5 says, "I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."

Our dependence on Christ is for more than salvation, it is also it is for everything pertaining to our spiritual life. We depend on Christ for our character, for our good works and for the privilege of effectively sharing our faith.

The center of our life is Christ. He is the center of our worship. He is the center of our relationships with each other. He is the center of our growth. He is the center of our service. He is the center of our sharing. This is reflected in our Focus Five logo and is the reality of the Christian life. In our physical life, we grow up as we learn to do life on our own. In Christ, we grow up as we learn to abide in Him and do life in Him.

Check out John 15:1-10 and then rejoice in verse 11.

Abiding.