We have been talking about the value and the function of God’s Word. We have seen that the Scriptures are not about us they are for us, that God’s words are creative and sustaining, that the Word of God reveals the heart and character of God and that the Bible is, in and of itself an experience with God; that it was written by God, about God for His children. We have learned that we read the Bible for relationship, that through it we come to know the author in the fullness of His character and His heart. The reason that I believe we must read the Bible, first and foremost to see the character of God is that it is difficult to believe that we are loved by someone unless we know they are loving; it is difficult to believe that we have been forgiven by someone unless we know they are merciful; it is difficult to believe that we have been adopted by someone unless we know He is generous. The Bible tells us the character of God so that we can believe the promises of God and obey the commandments of God. Trust and obedience are nearly impossible without a revelation of the character of the One being trusted and obeyed. We read the Bible to see the character of God so that we will enter into a relationship with God as our Father. We read for relationship and we read to abide. As we talked about a few weeks ago, Rick Renner wrote “the word meno [translated abide] gives the idea of something that is rooted, unmoving and stable.” I believe that describes what we all long for, it is what we want from others and it is what we want to be, people that are steadfast and immovable, that are stable and constant, that are invested and faithful. What we desire from others is what God is and what we desire to be is what God has for us. Our struggle is often the in between, getting from being moved to being immovable, from the fear of being left out to the confidence of being loved and secured, from the anxiety of being disappointing to the peace of being chosen. The problem that most of us run into is that we are trying to be something for God that we cannot be of ourselves, of our own strength or effort. When we read the Scriptures to see what we are supposed to be and do we become exhausted but when we read it to see who God is and what He desires to do in us and through us we become energized. Today we will talk again about what it means to abide and more specifically what it is that abiding does in us. There are two key things that Jesus says in John 15 that reveal the nature of abiding, the source and the outcome: He gives a condition and a command, but what He is really showing is the seed and the fruit of abiding: “if my words abide in you . . . abide in My love.” When we are filled with the words of God we become convinced of the love of God, because God’s Word reveals His character and God’s character is love.