Yea, so like I said earlier...I just got married! Well, not "just" as in yesterday, but "just" as in 6 months ago. Anyways, the lady who makes me look a lot better nowadays is Faith. She was literally "the girl next door". (Remind me to tell you how we met someday.) We're still learning what all this marriage stuff means and are excited about where our path leads us!

As stated previously, we've joined a new church...Church Under the Bridge (CUB). It's quite a shift from the Episcopal Church, that's for sure! CUB has its pluses and minuses, but it's the atmosphere that we, as a young married couple searching to live out the gospel, desire to be in.

Anyways, all that to lead up to my 'a-ha!' thought of the week. Faith and I have recently started leading a CUB small group at our home on Wednesday nights. We're currently studying 31 Days of Prayer by Ruth & Warren Myers. Honestly, it's not something I'd go and pick off a bookshelf of your local bookstore...however, it is very much sufficient for small groups who desire to work through their faith together but have the discrepancy of having varying levels of spiritual maturity. (Another reason I'd shy away from picking this book out myself is b/c I'm quite possibly the world's worst prayer...that is "one who prays". More on that in another blog.)

Let's see, where was I...oh yes, so we just started this small group that is studying prayer together...and it's quite interesting to say the least. We've got singles, couples, newlyweds, oldlyweds, handimen, unemployed, professionals, disabled, blacks, whites, hispanics, and so on. Quite a little petri-dish of the kingdom of God! We typically read 1-3 days worth of prayers over the course of a week and then gather on Wednesday to discuss our thoughts, questions, failures, triumphs, etc. Well, this past week the very last prayer happened to be on abiding in Christ. Not an unfamiliar term for many Christians (of course, neither is prayer but how many of us actually do that??). However, when I got to that part of the book, I purposely avoided that prayer. Rather, I went back and read the prayers we had already covered! You see, I have a problem with this whole "abiding" thing, b/c it's simply a distant concept to me and that's really about it.

As I caved and read the prayer on abiding and the corresponding scripture passages for it, I quickly realized why abiding in Christ was such a faraway concept--it's b/c it involves actual effort on my part. It's a choosing to depend on Christ. John 15 beautifully describes it as "remaining Christ". When have I done such a thing?!? As I read on, I began to look into Colossians 3:1-17, and that REALLY nailed it on the head! It talks of an actual life in Christ, or another way to look at it is as living inside of Christ. Surrounding myself with Him. I remember as a child growing up in the countryside how my brother and I would come in oftentimes covered head-to-toe in mud. Mom would always make us strip down before coming inside the house so that we wouldn't track mud all over her carpet. Then we'd head straight for the tub to clean off. Verses 5-9 talks of the mud that would dirty Christ if we tried to carry that in with us-sexual immorality, impurity, greed, idolatry, lust, evil desires, anger, rage, slander, malice, filfthy language, and lying. I must shed those dirty, tattered rags and put on my "new self" (v. 10) which is constantly being "renewed" or cleaned in the image of Christ. As I enter Christ, I reclothe myself with "compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." (v.12)

A-HA! Finally, after nearly 27 years of existence, I have an idea of what it means to abide in Christ! To choose to live inside of Christ. To shed off my sin and my own ambitions and surround myself with Him (which, I argue, would involve completely taking myself out-of-view).

Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China during the 19th century, was said to have gotten a pretty good understanding of what it means to abide in Christ. He was once asked later in his life if he was always conscious of abiding in Christ. Taylor replied, "While sleeping last night, did I cease to abide in your home because I was unconscious of the fact? We should never be conscious of not abiding in Christ."

May we always be aware of our struggle to keep those dirty rags off of us as we strive to surround ourselves completely with the cleansing love of Christ. Amen.