Dear Kaleid Ladies,
Thanks for staying with us over these last several weeks as we have reflected on Paul’s favorite phrase to talk about being a Christian, being “in Christ.” It’s been dense at times, but dark and deep and wide and luminous is the mystery of our faith, and so sometimes we lean into the mystery and density of life with God. Sometimes we do it together.
Today we turn to Jesus.
Paul did not make up the paradoxical “Christ in me; me in Christ” way of knowing ourselves and knowing God.
Jesus did. He said,
Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. - John 15:4-5
Jesus talked to his followers about remaining in him and being full of him. He told us that mutual abiding is the way to do anything. It is also the way to do everything. The hard things and the habitual things. The big things and the boring things. The “out there” things and the “only I can see this” things.
When we know ourselves as contained in Christ and containing Christ, internal shifts take place. In John 15, Jesus paints a picture of our altered reality. He mentions that in him we will experience…
Insightful and Effective Prayer
Indwelling and Complete Joy
Plentiful and Enduring Fruit
Secure and Self-Giving Love
Friendship and Communication with God
Misalignment and Miscommunication with the World
New life in Christ leads us into an ever deepening awareness of our security in God and it leads us into an ever deepening thirst for more of God.
And so we proclaim with Paul, “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” - Romans 11:33
Pentecost is Sunday.
In John 14 - 16, surrounding Christ’s words about abiding, Jesus also says much about the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not leave us to a thirsty life of imagining the power of abiding. He left us with the one who gives us the abiding life, day after day. God with us in Jesus, our Immanuel, is still God with us. Now he is God with us in the Holy Spirit.
Thanks be to God!
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. - John 14:16-17
I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. - John 14:25-27
It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. - John 16:7-8
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. - John 16:13
This week, leading up to Pentecost Sunday, consider basking in the encouragement of John 14 - 16, asking the Spirit to show you about abiding and about being filled.
May you sense the faithful life of God within you and around you this day, friends. It is most true and most real.
Gratefully,
The Kaleid Team
P.S. If you missed signing up for our Kaleid Contemplative Beatitude Circle, there are still seven weeks remaining, and we’d love to have you! You can learn more and join us here.
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