Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Bottle in the Ocean and the Ocean in the Bottle

  The sun shone down with a warmth that soaked into the body and made one feel happy and lethargic. From her vantage point under the shade of the umbrella the mother watched her young son as he played in the sand not far away.The sun shining on his brown curls, glistened with glints of copper.His chubby hands, coated with sand were busily burying an old glass soda bottle  in the sand.

   Her gaze went on out to the vast ocean which went out to blend with the horizon, as wave after wave swept the shore. realizing that the day was fast disappearing, she called her son and taking him by the hand, they left, leaving the bottle mostly submerged in the sand with its mouth pointed towards the sea.

  As the minutes ticked by and the hours passed, the tide washed in covering the bottle, retreating and coming in again. The water swirled around and over the bottle, filling it with water and draining out again, washing away some sand with each wave and then it was submerged completely until morning when the tide went out again.

  In the morning as the tide retreated so did the water in the bottle and it lay there, Stilll trapped in the sand, baking in the sun, until no moisture remained. The feet of many people tramped around it all day long until by evening tide it was almost completely buried again.

  Day after day, the bottle lay caught and held by the sand. Each night the tide waters flowed in, loosening the sand that held it. The water flowed inside and around it. Every morning the water drained out and away, leaving it to bake in the sun and becoming hot and dry.Every day some hand or foot by random passers by would compact it firmly into the sand....

  Until one lovely day. A young man gleefully picked up the forgotten bottle and flung it into the sea. The bottle bobbed up and down happily in the water, completely filled with ocean water as it floated along and sank into the vast waters of the ocean.

  The bottle was in the sea, and the sea was in the bottle.


Photo: Courtesy of Mervin Hostetler

Abide in me and I in you
   Many Christians are falling short of Christ's command,"Abide in me and I in you."

  Like the bottle they are buried in the sands of unbelief. Like the tide flowing in and around the bottle, so they also have times when they feel the presence of God flowing into their life. They may have a time of revival, but when they return to daily living, the water retreats back into the sea.. Because of the sand of unbelief that holds them, their life becomes dry and God seems far away.

  God is calling all his children to a life of faith.God needs his people to believe what his word says....Gal 4:6, Says God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts.That means, that God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts.

  Jesus also says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Our only hope of bearing fruit is to abide in Christ. Otherwise we can do nothing. From Andrew Murray we learn these words. Let us study the beautiful union between Christ and his people. Let us listen and believe until our whole being cries out; Jesus is to me the true vine, bearing me, nourishing me, supplying me, using and filling me to the full.(like the bottle in the ocean) to make me bring forth fruit abundantly.

 Now, thank God, I have Christ; not only what I have room for, but also that which I don't have room for.But for which I will have room for.Moment by moment, as I go into eternity before me. I am like the little bottle in the sea which is as full as it can get. The bottle in the sea and the sea in the bottle. So I am in Christ and Christ is in me. Besides the bottle in the sea, there is a whole ocean beyond. The difference is that the bottle has to be filled, over and over again- every day, And I am in that ocean to be filled continually forevermore. adapted from A. B. Simpson's tract HIMSELF

The story is mine, some of the instruction is adapted from Andrew Murray's book, ABIDE IN CHRIST. I love the things I have learned from Andrew Murray, But some of it is hard to read. This is my effort of breaking it down and hopefully making it easy to read and understand in our world today. God bless you!