Abide Above

OK, guys, remember what we're studying. We're studying a bite above and it's. I don't know if I'm the only one that gets excited about this stuff. I really do. Let me ask you a question, maybe to start it off. Is it possible? Is it possible? Or is this just pious rhetoric? Abide above. What do you think? We're just talking theology here. Something sounds cool. What do you think? It's true. You know, abide above. Think about that. What does abide mean in a practical sense? It means to dwell? It means to hang up? Have your frame of reference from above? Is that possible?

Absolutely it is. Not only is it possible and probable, it's exactly what God has in mind. You know, those of us who knew Miles Stanford had all these great sayings about being above and what your frame of reference or your perspective is from up there. He used to say, keep looking down for your life is hid with Christ and God.

See how that fits? I was laughing a couple of weeks ago, I was watching this thing on some news and they were interviewing a priest via the Pope, about the Pope. What's the Pope doing now? Here's the answer. He's standing up in heaven looking through the window down at us. You know what I thought about? That's where I am, that's not necessarily where he is. You see what I'm saying?

We're there. We're positioned there, and the work of the Holy Spirit is specifically designed to reveal the Lord Jesus and His glory to us there. We're positioned there. So we're to live from our position. So, the chapter today is called, Think Position. See why? Because if you look at things and circumstances from there, to here, the perspective is totally different. You understand that? Hebrews puts it this way.

We're to boldly enter into the Holy of Holies. Why? Because that's where we belong. That's where we live. That's where our home is. If you're a Jew and you have been told that, that's a really scary prospect. Because only one guy a year got to go in there, and he better be very careful while he was there. We live there.

We're heavenly people. So if you begin to grasp what it means, to be a heavenly person, then you won't get confused with covenant theology, you won't get confused with earthly-minded do-gooders. You understand what I mean by that? You won't get sidetracked by what looks religious, but isn't heavenly. There's a difference.

Having said all that, True or false? The principles on which the Father carries out His purposes in us are eternal, but change depending on the circumstances. What do you think? How many think it's true? You guys are too crafty. Too crafty. How many think it's false? Why is it false?

Yeah, because his purpose has never changed, because he didn't change. He has set the agenda, and so it doesn't change. The verse quoted is James, the father of lights, with whom there's no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He's the same. His purpose is set, and his agenda is set, and he's moving in that direction. Now, what is, based on this chapter, What's the sequence? It's written in the very first two paragraphs. What's the sequence? What's the principle? How does he work? What's that? That's right.

Or the way he put it, he begins in the heights, he goes down to the depths and returns to the heights. Did you pick that up when you were reading? He begins in the heights, He goes down to the depths and he returns to the heights. What's cool about that is that the Lord Jesus comes from heaven to the earth, right? And he dies, is buried, resurrected, and goes back to the heights. Only this time he takes all of us with him. That's the cool part. That's the principle.

True or false? Our Father begins by telling each believer about being in Christ. the very moment he repents and receives him as his personal savior. True or false? How many think it's true? How many think it's false? How many too chicken to raise their hand? It's a trick question, right? Yeah, it is.

How does the Father begin with us? Where does he put us? At the very moment that you believe, where are you positioned? Yeah, in Christ and the heavenlies, the very moment that you begin. So, you start there, okay? Is a believer aware of where he is when he's saved? That's the issue. Probably not. Probably not. And probably wouldn't, even if he knew, had read it, wouldn't understand what it meant to be positioned in Christ.

What is his viewpoint? What does he see? A brand new believer. How much information, or what does he rejoice in maybe is a better way to put it. What's that? Yeah, salvation. Sins have been paid for. He's secure. Maybe he knows that much. He's really excited about that. But he's earthly based. And from his perspective, Christ came to him and fixed everything. Right? He doesn't yet see that he's been taken to heaven. Okay?

So on this question, the trick part, though, is by telling him he does that. It's not by telling him. That's right. The trick part is the telling part, right? guys are too smart, I'm going to have to stay up late figuring out trick questions. I think the thing with me is I was seated position in Christ when I was saved and it just seemed like everything down here was all messed up. The more I had to work through things, the worse it got. Kind of like that catfish in with the herring that keeps you focused. Okay, true or false? The Lord Jesus has promised that you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. This freedom does not come from general truth in the Word, important as that is, but from specific truths. True or false? True.

You know, I would identify this as one of the major problems with people who are beginning to grow spiritually. I was talking to a guy a few weeks ago and I said, you know, and this was a serious conversation, he didn't take offense by what I said, but I said, you don't know enough. He said, oh yeah, I do. I study and I read Romans and I said, no, you don't know enough. You don't know enough specifically. Precisely. Do you see what I mean by that?

Yeah, faith has to have the facts. Yeah, and one of the problems with contemporary Christianity is that it's general truth, not specific. You know, it's general. Specific truth vis-à-vis the identification truths, positional truths, the specifics of them are what set you free. Now, is it just the truth that sets you free?

Explain. You're already free in the person. Yes, it's the person. The liberator is what liberates you. The truth about him is the information, the specific information. But he's the one that frees you. Frees you from what? What's that? Old self? What else? What else is he free of? From the devil? What else? The law? What else? This place? The war? Bondage?

Miles made the point that as important as Romans 1.1 through 5.11 is, it's really those four and a half chapters or five and a half chapters are specifically designed for salvation or justification.

There's no information in those first five and a half chapters that would even give you a clue about what God has done to you. It's all done for you up to that point. In other words, it's all sins, it's all the bad stuff you've done, it's all standing before God, it's all you and your relationship with God or lack of same. Once you start in 5.12 through 8, the issue changes from sins to you the sinner.

What did God do? You have to ask that question. Okay, He took care of my sins, but what did He do about me? Tuesday we had this extended conversation that what believers are are safe sinners. I said, no, they're not. Are they safe sinners? Are believers safe sinners? If they're not safe sinners, then what are they? A new creation?

Yeah. You're not a sinner positionally anymore. Abide above. Oh, but I don't know, you know. I'm still sinning. How come? If I'm not a safe sinner and I'm not a sinner positionally, how come I still sin? Because you didn't get the memo? Right. I think that's... You know, that's the other thing, right?

You know, the truth of the truth is knowing it, but it's believing it. You know, I go back to what you say, you know, when counsel or something, what does it say? You believe that. And I think, you know, we may know a lot of facts, but you believe that's true. And what you started out with, you really believe that, you know, what what's going on now or is it just An exerciser, you truly believe that. And that's the hard part, I think. You can know the facts, but to believe them and trust in them.

Right. That they are true. The tough part. And true for you. Yeah. Yeah. We could also go back to knowing the truth of Christ. I think all of these point... You can know the facts, but if the facts are not connected to the person, then you're out of luck. Yeah. No, I think that's absolutely right. I think that the Word of God needs to be viewed from the perspective that it's full of facts. But what happens is the study of the Word of God goes from objective facts to love and affection with a person. That's what it's really designed to do, is to reveal the person to you.

So, you know, I can't tell you how many believers over my life I have said to them, when you sit down tonight to read your Bible, or whenever you do it, get out of your mind that I'm in there to learn stuff. You're not in there to learn stuff. You're in there to behold Him. This developing intimacy with the Son of God happens in here. That's what it's designed to do. The facts are all true because they are true about Him. But they're designed to reveal Him. So expect to meet Him. Expect to have fellowship with the Son of the Most High God right here. That's why you have it.

Are the facts important? Yeah. But the facts in and of themselves aren't the end game. The facts lead to this affection or this revelation and affection of the person of Christ. See that? So, if you go into it with that perspective, it gets exciting, I think, because you get to really see and behold and fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Okay, not in your notes, but two questions.

What does the blood do for you? What is it specifically designed to do? Yeah, you get forgiveness of sins because the blood is spilled. What does the cross do for you? Delivers you from you. Yeah, from the old man. That's right. It delivers you. So the blood is for your sins. The cross is for you. See the difference? The blood is for your sins. The cross is for you. It secures your deliverance. Our Father takes us down until the self-life is uncovered and then up as the truth of the self-life is discovered. What do you think? True? Do you think that's the way He does it?

But they don't teach you this in seminary. When you go to seminary, it's totally the other way around. In seminary, you're going to learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. No one gives you a clue that you're going to have to do this downward trip. Spiritual growth is like this, not this.

Do you think that's true? Maybe I ask it this way. If God in his wisdom decided that the minute that you believed, in the next hour, you were going to get the full blast of what your sin nature really is, would you be able to handle it? No. I mean, what do you think? No, you wouldn't. You couldn't handle it, because we always think we're better than we really are.

So we learn of Christ. As we learn of him, though, this other thing is going on. We're more and more capable to see us for who we are in self. I shouldn't say us. To see our old man for who it really is. If you don't have some growing intimacy with Christ through the Word, then you don't have very much intimacy with good old self.

Because you have to have an understanding that what I'm looking at isn't me. Do you see that? This is what I'm capable of. It's my sin nature and it certainly can act out. But boy, there are things in there that I never dreamed were true of me. When you get to see old self for what it is, you start looking at some of these guys like Saddam Hussein. He's a piker compared to you.

The stuff you're capable of in your own heart Then, why would God do that? Why would he show you the blackness of your heart? Why would he do that? Because of the whole human race. I mean, I had a dad, and I've had to go through things I don't understand, but maybe when we're all up in heaven, My dad will understand.

It uncovers our need for him. There you go. That's a great answer. Did you hear that answer? It uncovers our need for him. Do you see that? I mean, if you're a basic middle class American, right? Got a job, a Volvo, and here you go. How many needs do you really have in your life?

I mean, I'm watching The Great Race. You guys ever watch that show? My sister-in-law got hooked on it on vacation. And they're going through Africa in this race. And I'm looking around at the people and the culture and the environment. These people are so poor and live in such squalor. And I'm thinking, and here come these Americans, right? They're running around the world. And the perspective is amazing. They don't understand. I don't think even the people in the race understand the viewpoint.

So here comes the Lord in His grace and He begins to show us by showing us ourselves our great need for His Son. And it prepares you to be a servant of the Lord and to deal with the foibles of others, because you have learned through His gracious, kind working with you, how patient He was, how careful He was, how loving He was, which gets you qualified to deal with somebody else. You see that? That's one of the reasons, because you're not here for you. you're here to be a servant of the Lord.

He doesn't have ready-made servants. He has to prepare them, and that's how he does it. That's how he gets your heart right, so that you have the proper perspective to deal with your brothers and sisters in the Lord who have no patience, who have no whatever.

They're telling your story. You've heard all this before. They're talking about you. So the freedom is centered where? Right in the middle of the Lord Jesus Christ. True or false, the believer's enlightened faith follows after some effort because he now sees himself exactly where he has been positioned all along. True or false? This is a tricky one. True or false? False. Why is it false? Effort.

The believer's enlightened faith follows effortlessly because he now sees himself. Do you think that's right? What do you think? I mean, actually, right here is where the rubber meets the road. It's very difficult to see that following is effortless.

And also the Holy Spirit, too. If we face through the Holy Spirit in His Word, it should be effortless for us. It's a very interesting dilemma because as you walk in newness of life, how do I describe this? There is so much energy and so much fruitfulness that from outside it looks like you're really cooking, you're really working hard, but from the inside you're not expending any spiritual effort at all.

A lot of people have come to me and asked this very question. How do you do this? Don't I have to? Don't I need to? Tell me what to do. And when you say to them, well, what you need to do is learn your position and believe it. And from that, the life will come. It makes no sense. It doesn't make any sense. What do I do? You learn of Christ, and then you're doing... The being comes first, then the doing, right? Now, the doing is effortless. How come? Because Christ lives His life.

Yeah. The being being effortless, does that mean your body will get worn out? Yes. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. And things don't fall through something like that? Yeah, sure does. But the energy that it takes to live this life comes from where? It's free-flowing. Yeah.

The best verse I know is Romans 8. The new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That life has set me free from the life or the law of sin and death. The Lord Jesus doesn't get up in the morning and decide to be holy and then crank it up and go out and be holy.

Why not? He is holy. His life functions that way. And you and I have the same life. Right? So, as he's living this life through us, what are we doing? Procrastinating. No, then that would be flesh. What are we doing? Let's assume that for the next 15 minutes, The life of the Lord Jesus is being effortly lived through everybody in this room. What are you doing? Wow. Wow? What's that? I mean, what are you observing? What are you doing? It's receiving and worshiping. You're resting. In what? In Him.

Isn't it interesting, the principle, the way the Lord set it up? He doesn't have you go to Him, get the set of things you're supposed to do today, and then go out and do them. Right? But that's the way our minds think. Don't they? What He says is, you just behold Me, rest in Me, and the life will be. It's moment by moment. It sure is. It sure is. And what you're doing is functioning by faith. and beholding the Lord Jesus. Do you agree with that?

You know, I think of the, I don't know if it's still up, but it used to have the footprints in the sand and then onto the rocks. I keep thinking how many people, oh, that's so great, you know, the rocks he carried. There's only one set of footsteps and he's carrying them. There were two and then one? Yeah, two and then on the rock, you know, in the sand where he walked. It's wonderful. He's beside me within the rocks. It's only one set of footsteps. Oh, what happened? Right now he's carrying me.

It's going to be one set of footsteps all the way along. That's right. In my life, it's only one set. Trust me. It's only him. That's exactly right. So, I would say this. When you start into a discussion like this, I think it's absolutely proper for you to say, well, I don't know what they're really talking about. That isn't what my life's like, right? And that's okay.

But the cool thing is that we're heading in that direction, and the Holy Spirit is at work to conform every one of us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ so that The effortless life is characteristic of the way we live and function. In the meantime, we get to behold His glory. When I was in the Marine Corps, they used to come up this close to your face and say, Boy, you need to get your mind right. I used to think, What's wrong with it now? There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Marine Corps way. The analogy fits, as I behold the Lord Jesus Christ, I have the mind of Christ.

And I have His very life. And I have the privilege to fellowship and walk effortlessly with Him. And as that's going on, His life is being carried out around me and it's effortless. I may be working really hard physically, I may be doing a lot of stuff, But the energy, from my perspective, it's effortless. I'm not gnawing at anything. I'm not pushing the wagon up the hill. Do you see that? And it's because of this intimacy with Christ and my position in Him. Okay? It's actually kind of cool. But it totally goes against the whole mindset of the natural man, because he doesn't function. He wasn't even created to function like that. Fill in.

Although the Christian has been positioned above, he is what? He's unaware of these facts when he comes to the Saviour, where? At the foot of the cross. In the key book of Romans, there is what? Nothing. Said about what? Growth. Until what happened? The problem of righteousness is completely solved. Yeah. And trust me, God will not move on until we're settled on what we're dealing with now. Until the issue of righteousness is totally settled in the heart of the believer, You're not moving on. And let me tell you why it's so important.

You know, we talked in weeks past about the basic issues of justification and how important they are and how wonderful it is to be able to sit down and rest in those and they form the foundation to move into spiritual growth but you can't grow on those verses, right? Last night I'm watching this station with this guy who is the proponent of open theism, and he's the one that wrote that book that says that God doesn't know the future. You know, he kind of speculates, and under his name is da-da-da-da-da, PhD. Well, could that guy have settled righteousness? because from his perspective there may be something that he's going to do in the future that's going to screw up this whole righteousness thing that he thinks he has. See, your standing before God has to be settled in your mind and your heart before you're going to move on.

Romans 1.1 through 5.11 has to be settled. You have a standing before God You're the righteousness of God in Christ and you have to be persuaded about that before you get to do this little trip through the cross. And if you don't, if you aren't settled, when you start, if you try to move on, you're going to be loose in the corners, trust me.

There's little things that are relevant in my brain. The previous one where you said it was false and spiritual growth. We must start at the bottom and work its way up. I think you do it for growth. You've got to start at the bottom. You've got to start through the foundational things first before you ever start. Oh yeah, that's a good point. before you ever start growth. Because if you don't have the foundation, you can't start the growth process.

Was it in the Reckoning that counts or one place where Miles made an interesting comment? He said that God will show you the mountaintop. But then he takes you right back down to the bottom and you got to walk every step back up. But you know the position. You know, it's just like the body concept. You start as a baby. You start at the bottom. You start as tiny and you, you know, you have birth. From a conditional standpoint.

Yes. I always thought of it as the locks on a... I forget what they're called, where the ships pass from one ocean to the other. Oh, yeah. They fill up? Yeah. Yeah, we've got a lot of babies around the church, and I look at them that way. Within Hadley Matthews is everything to be an adult woman. It's all there. But it's going to take another 18, 20 years before it's visible. But it's all there. Okay.

The importance to note in Romans 1, 1 through 5, 11, the important... I must have misspelled that. God presents God's what? The penalty of sins. In Romans 6, 8, 6 through 8 present God's remedy for what? Power sin. The blood secures forgiveness, the cross secures deliverance for me, the sinner. It's a really important distinction. And again, it goes back to the specificity of the Word of God. Precisely what am I learning and knowing and believing. Number nine, it is the what? Captive. Right. Dominated. By the what? Wretched self-right. To whom? The identification truth is called.

Now, I put that in there specifically because I want to make a comment about it. As you function within Christian circles, and you begin to see one of your fellow believers begin to experience what this wretched self-life is and what it means to be dominated and be a captive to the old sin nature. You don't need to get on their case that they're missing something in their Christian life. What you need to do is walk beside them and say, I understand what's going on.

Because you don't want freedom until you find out you're captive. Do you? How did you get saved? You got saved because the Holy Spirit showed you that you were condemned and trespassed and sinned. You had a need. To put it plainly, you were going to go to hell. And you were going to fry forever. And that scared you. And then comes the presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. And you are informed that if you believe in Him and His work, you will be rescued. It has no value to you unless there's a need, right? Was it the fear or was it the appreciation?

It's both of those, I think. I used to drive around in my car thinking, every once in a while this thought would come to my head, boy, you're going to go to hell, and that's a long time. And I'd try to comprehend what eternity was, and eternity scared me so much I'd turn the radio up to try to get that thought out of my mind.

At the time you didn't know you were already in hell. Yeah, I didn't know. But it was fear, and then when the gospel came to me, it was the answer to this thing that kept propping up in my mind all those years. Being a good Catholic, I knew that my life wasn't up to Papal standards, so I was in trouble. There wasn't any delusion in me about where I was going to end up. I had no chance. The same thing with spiritual growth.

Here you are, you're saved, you've had a wonderful Christian experience in your life, and then all of a sudden or slowly, oh man, there's doubts in your mind, You begin to discover you're doing things that you wish you weren't doing. And then there are things in your life that you know you should be doing that you just don't. You can't. And you're sinning and you're hiding it because you don't want anybody to know. And most of it's in here. You haven't gone out and yelled at your neighbor, but boy, you don't like them very much.

And so that creates a need, right? Big need. There's got to be more to Christianity than just my sins being forgiven. There has to be more. There's got to be something done about me. Because I'm a dog, you know. And so there's a need created. And as faithful as the Lord is, here comes the information, presented in Romans 6-8, in which you get delivered. So when you see the need being created in your brother, don't get nervous. God is doing his thing. You don't need to give him a bunch of rules so he cleans up his act. Understand where he's going and what's happening with him.

It is when the Christian understands his death position that he is what? Enabled to see his life position in the risen Jesus. So you see death first and then life. Before you died and your life is hid with Christ and God, where does that come from? You're accepted in the Beloved. Where does that come from? In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I have come that you may have life. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning.

James 1.17. Pretty cool.

Is failure a key tool used by God in one's spiritual growth? Yes. Why? Say that again. Shows us our need. So, is it okay to fail? No. No way. No way. It's kind of an odd twist to the normal, you know, double blessings and all the TV evangelists. Don't you find that the principles of spiritual growth are diametrically opposed to the principles of the world? Aren't they? It's failure in the world. It sounds crazy to say failure in the world is the very thing God uses for me to be successful.

So don't quit your job. It makes more sense, though. I mean, it tracks with my life. Yes. Yes, it does. So the folks who are claiming otherwise have just got to be in complete denial. Yeah. Well, there are people who say, well, Christianity is for losers. You know what my answer is to that? Yeah. Sure is. Well, that salvation stuff, that's a crutch. Yeah. Sure is.

And so when you talk to somebody from an evangelistic viewpoint, you know, there are those that are evangelists that can speak salvation out and people come. But from my perspective, you know, I don't ever get a chance to do that because I'm not called by God to do that, but I do talk to individuals and it took the Lord a long time to teach me that the first thing I need to try to do is discover if there's a need there. There's no need. If your car is full of gas, you're not coming to my station.

You see that? I mean, if you've got it all, you're not coming to see Christ. I remember I was a believer about three years and we went to visit my brother in Boston and he took us down to Newport, Rhode Island where all these huge mansions are. I mean, these were summer homes for these people around the turn of the 20th century, and they were 10, 12, 15,000 square foot marble homes, cottages, right? I walked into this one and I thought, boy, when these people die and go to heaven, they're going to be disappointed. When you're a guy like Bill Gates, do you have needs? Do you have spiritual needs? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, and what is the number one thing in the heart of every man that he doesn't have that he can't get from the world? The number one thing, think about it. Rest.

And the Lord Jesus promised that if you would come to Him, He'd give you that, right? And why would He promise that thing? Like you said, it's the only thing that can't be cheated. You can't achieve on your own. There's no rest. And I'm not talking about taking a nap. I'm talking about rest of heart and soul. So he promises that the one thing you can't achieve on your own, no matter how smart you are, how rich you are, how influential you are, rest is the issue.

I think it's true from the other side too, that no matter how many times you fail in life, in the world's eyes, people tell you you're a failure, you're a loser, you still have that peace. Yeah, you do, no matter what. Zero. Yeah, you're a zero. And that's a hard thing to, as a parent, that's a hard thing to teach your kids. what their friends and what their peers and what they say and what they do doesn't have to affect you. It doesn't change your acceptance. Right. Right. Right. And that's something as parents that a lot of our children don't get. The world's children, let's put it that way. Let's talk about that for a minute. How would your kids get that? How would they ascertain the value of rest or of positional truth? Because you told them? No, they have to find it for themselves. Where do they see it though? They see it in places like here.

Or you. Or in us, as parents. Create a need in your life? Absolutely. I think people just walk by other people and something is sensed. That guy has something. They don't know what, but boy, it just creates chaos in them. Or take your own family. Lots of people say, well, I don't have any spiritual gifts. I don't have the ministry. Well, if you've got a family, you've got a ministry. Trust me. For your children to begin to see the value of abiding in Christ and rest, they've got to see it in you. Because you're the one they watch all the time. Well, Kaylee was an example of this this week.

Because we talked to her about scriptural things and it never seems like it's doing anything. And then this week she got really angry about something. And we were talking about that and I said, you know honey, the Lord gets angry too. When it's sin, it's sin and you can't say it's something else. So we were talking about that. And then Tristan said, but doesn't it say somewhere where you're not supposed to go, you know, let the sun go down on your anger?

I said, yeah, that's in Ephesians, and that is to believers. And Kaylee goes, Mama! She's like, but it's Christ. Cool. And she said, he's not under the law. I mean, it was just one of those, at that moment, she understood, oh, he's not under the law. I'm not under the law. I can't be sinfully angry.

And it was neat. She's like, wow, all those things that you keep cramming into my head for all these years, I guess that one worked. It was good. And what's interesting about that example is there was a need created, wasn't there? Yeah. Vis-à-vis circumstances. And what was the solution to the need? Position. Position.

So, you know, kids are very practical. you know, what's his name, gets his finger slammed in the door, where does he go? The practical solution is take him to the hospital and fix it. Well, when they have emotional or spiritual needs, they want them fixed, don't they? How do they get fixed? That's the issue. You as the parent, how are you going to fix them? Or how are you going to engage in the fixing process, maybe, is a better way to say it. Well, I think it takes a whole lot longer than I know myself as a parent wants it to. Yeah, you'll be a grandparent before it works.

That's what I think. Yeah, that's it. I feel like that. This is a decade long whatever we're doing here. What do you think what the author meant by think position? What do you mean by that? That's a great line, think position. This is where we are. This is from where everything functions in our lives spiritually.

Okay. Anybody else? When you think, try to think as if you were looking from above. Right. Writing a book. Okay. Looking down. Okay. explained the principle of position. I couldn't do it, so I just started looking at scripture. Cool. You know what's cool about that? Big chunks.

Doesn't scripture explain these things better than you can yourself? Miles said, when the Holy Spirit gives us an adequate apprehension of our risen position, we are spontaneously to reckon ourselves alive unto God in Jesus Christ. Thus we are drawn to the source of our life and there we learn to rest and abide above. Isn't that a cool paragraph?

Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for our position and how we thank you for the effort that You and Your Spirit extend to us to cause us to abide in our position in Your dear Son, which means we get to behold Him and learn of Him and be conformed to His very image, which is the image of You, and You are at rest about these issues so we can be. We thank You, Father. We pray in Your Son's precious name. Amen.