Over the next few days, we'll be having a conversation about what I see as the basic call of the New Testament after the four gospels. I'll lay out my proposal in this post and then take a look at Scripture over the next several days to see what it has to say.

If the call of the gospels is "repent and believe," I think the call of the remaining books is "abide and obey."

Abiding means "living in" or "making one's home in." The call of the New Testament is to make our home in Christ as he and the Father make their home in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Abiding is an active verb and includes daily scripture reading, prayer, meditation, worship and many other creative ways in which we place ourselves in God's presence.

Obedience is pretty straight forward - to do what we are told. Did you bristle when you read that stated so bluntly? It's not easy for individualistic, self-reliant types to simply do what we're told. When we abide in Christ, the Spirit directs our thoughts and actions to those of Christ, and obedience is our following that direction. It involves submitting to God - recognizing God id God and we are not. (Sound familiar from this past weekend?)

Here we go!

- Rob