What does "abide" mean? I only hear that word used in church circles. People talk about abiding in the vine of Jesus. Songs are sung about abiding in Him. I've even see the term as part of the name of a church, i.e. Abiding Word Church and Abiding Fellowship. So what does that really mean?
When Jesus gave the command to abide in Him, He was talking to a primarily agrarian culture. Growing olive and grapes were a huge part of the economy of their day. Olive oil had a lot of everyday uses. Just like sugar is the new oil, according to Jimmy Smits, olives were the old oil. Olive oil was used not only in cooking, but also in medicinal treatments and to light lamps (the old light bulbs). Both the growing of grape vines and olive trees used a grafting process to enhance production and the quality of the product. If the grafting process failed, so did the production and quality which affected everything else in their daily world.
Today, I think Jesus probably would have used the term "plugged in" or "connected." He might have used the term "gassed up" or "filled up." Those are phrases we understand. Without electricity or fuel, virtually everything in our life shuts down. The power goes out in my wife's pharmacy, they can't dispense meds or prescriptions to people.
The internet seems to be an integral part of our world today. Transactions, communication, business, information, phone (VOIP) are dependent on connectivity. Have you ever been to a store and can't make your purchase because the network was down? Or have you desperately tried to take care of an issue online but can't because of network failure or no connectivity?
That's abiding. A computer with no connectivity is virtually worthless today. It gets tossed out. Recently my laptop developed a problem with the power jack. I had to replace it so that I could even turn it on. I have all this wonderful information stored on my computer, but it was totally worthless without power.
God, I want to stay connected to you. I'm glad you have a WiFi signal so that I don't have to go to one place to get connected. Your network is hot everywhere I go.
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