Today Our Daily Bread Rom 16:19-20, Acts 17:6 & John 15

Romans 16:19-20 19 For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
How can grace be with you? By inviting it. How does one invite it? By action. Remember action speaks louder than words, especially in the spirit realm. Ya know how Hebrews says angles are messengers to those who are heirs of salvation? How do the angels know to be our messengers? How do they know we are saved or not? Our life is known by our actions and by our words that flow from the genuineness of our hearts. They listen in our bedchambers. In the spirit there are no walls. How does grace know to "be with" us? Obedience brings grace. It is not earned, but it is invited and welcomed or rejected by our acts of obedience. Our actions must follow our words. Even evil forces know this also. There is no fooling an angel, just as there is no fooling God. They know the signs of believers, real ones. Grace is a characteristic of Our Father God. It is not stupid. It acts on the principles in God’s words. It is on assignment to those who desire it and need it to desire it and act upon it.
Acts 17:6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
Why did you come here? Why are you here? In this place today, where you live, where you work, where you fellowship? Why are you reading this stuff right now? Because God has called you to join in with His purposes in the earth and turn your own and others’ world upside down. It is time now more than ever to not only get right with God, but to join in with a Body of believers who are serving a purpose to further God’s kingdom and know they are joined together on a mission to change their and others’ world! That’s why you are here!
John 15:1-27
The True Vine
Christ the True Vine
1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; F77 and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will F78 ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Love and Joy Perfected
9 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. 11"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. 14You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17These things I command you, that you love one another.
The World's Hatred
18 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you, "A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, "They hated Me without a cause.' F79 The Coming Rejection26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
Footnotes
F77: 15:2 Or lifts up
F78: 15:7 NU-Text omits you will.
F79: 15:25 Psalm 69:4
Lena’s Journalin’
If you have not yet read, "Secrets of the Vine", you’ve got to read it. I was just looking up the Greek words here, "taketh away" and "purgeth". It is NOT what we’d think by glancing quickly at. We think, ok, I’ve taken so long to respond to God, He’s tired of my non-responses and is impatient and irritated with me, so He’s gonna cut me off! Let me tell you something very key- God Is NOT like your earthly authorities. He is NOT impatient, nor does He "cut us off". He is merciful and kind and longsuffering. As long as there is breath in your lungs God’s spirit is drawing you to Himself. As you’ll read in "Secrets of the Vine", he "taketh away" means, that he picks your life up off of the ground and dusts you off and props you up so that there is stilllife in you and you can grow! Yes, if you never receive Him and live for Him there will be hardship beyond comprehension, eternal hardship and suffering, BUT in Him you will have and find eternal life and peace with His spirit who is striving for you. Please DO NOT wait till you’ve wasted time in life or already raised your kids up or whatever. You’ve got so much purpose to fulfill and there’s no time like now to join in with the purposes of God in the earth! The word "purgeth" does not mean He replaces us or prunes us off of the vine, it means He takes the blood of His Son and receives us no matter how long it took us to get here where we now desire Him and His will, no matter what we went through or participated in to get to this place. He picks us up, dusts us off and cleans us. God is SO good. Don’t listen to God’s enemy any longer telling you God hates you. That is a lie! An outright, in the character of satan’s nature, lie! (notice I refuse to capitalize his name- ergh)
Now this "abide" thing is very, very important. We do not come to God, to meet Him for a brief moment, get cleaned up, feel right for a time and then excuse ourselves politely as we go our merry way. Dear God if we do that, we are in for more trouble than we started with! We’ve got to come to faith in Christ and stay there all of our days. We cannot serve our purpose without Him. It is His purposes we are serving. Apart from Him we can do a lot of "things", but none of them will be of the eternal nature, none. We can do many many good works and be all nice and kind and physically our emotionally loving, but true love is only found by being in Him and He in me. We’ve been led astray by well meaning doctrine. The scripture most use for salvation (Rom 10:9-10), says if we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus….we have to see that as it is speaking. It does not mean make a faith statement with words, It means make a faith statement with your life, from now on! Stick with your confess by backing it up with your life force. Who do you live with, walk with, eat with etc? Christ is your life! The word "confess" actually means to stick together as with glue.
What does love do? Puts another’s desires before themselves. Do we put God’s will before ours? Or do we live out our day to day lives doing whatever it is we like to do and ask His blessings on what we do? That is the difference between a servant and a friend.
Whatever we do or do not do is bearing witness of Him, especially if we say we believe. People watch us to see what believers do. Our kids are #1 in watching what we do. Do we say we love God, but put all of life’s other activities first, before God, before being in the fellowship of the strategies of God? We might be unspokenly saying to our kids, other things are more important than being faithfully in the house of God. Being faithful to one house, is like being faithful to one family. If we bebop from house to house whenever it is convienient, we may be unspokenly saying to our kids, you don’t have to be faithful to just one "family", you can come and go (in relationships) as you please, it’s up to you, its your own choice, do it when it is convenient for you, get out of it what you can for you. Where if we become a part of one household of faith and stay there through thick and thin and become a participator, we are drawing a counter picture from what they see everyday in the world. We teach them to do the will of God when it is not convenient, and to be faithful, putting God and His will 1st. We show we value His bride, the church, and enough believe in its power to change our world, that we’d participate in its works.