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Good Morning! Yesterday we looked again at that all familiar passage in John 15:8 where we read "Herein". That is to say, "IN HERE" "is my Father glorified." And he listed only one thing: "that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples". The disciple that Christ is looking for bears much fruit. We learn in this passage that there will be no fruit in our lives unless we abide IN the Vine. For without Him, that Life giving Vine, we can do nothing.

Again, today, we reiterate, this is the goal of every disciple of the Lord Jesus-to bear much fruit. It comes as a supernatural result of abiding IN Christ. But what does it take to abide in Christ? It will take strong discipline to reject the things of this world that we may choose the life that IS Christ. To be a disciple is to be a "disciplined one".

Our discipline is not to do the work, but to submit to the work that needs to be done and His grace will sufficiently do the work. We will then experience His empowerment when our energies and excitements seem to be missing. To be disciplined is to "continue in the things that [we] have learned". Consistency is the key to discipline. However, how consistent must we be in order that we may be the disciple that He is looking for? The answer of course is to do the right things the right way every single day! Daily Disciplines are the answer to remaining in Christ.

Yet, there are only four very easy things that God has listed that must be done with such consistency that He indicated they should be done daily. We looked at the first last Friday and the second yesterday. To date, we have learned that God wants us to search the scriptures-daily and God wants us to take up our cross and follow Him-daily!

Now, today we will look at the third of only four disciplines that God has indicated should be done every single day. It is our well known Biblical admonition to "exhort one another daily".

"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Hebrews 3:12, 13

Again today I placed in bold type things I want to consider concerning daily exhortation. First of all, the Hebrew writer warned his Christian brothers to beware of a heart of disbelief departing from the living God. Please realize this evil heart of disbelief is not a change from belief in Christ as our Savior to disbelief in Christ.

Rather, it is a disbelief leading us to depart from the "living" God. It is referring to doubts that lead away from the Christ life that is living within each believer. "For me to live IS Christ." Many believers allow hardened hearts to lead them to evil hearts.

If our hearts were soft to the leading of the living God within us, then we would embrace the Christ life. But because our hearts have been deceived, they have hardened themselves to the point that we often reject the promises of the Christ life for some sort of self absorbed "Christian" living.

Christian living is not acting right. Christian living is thinking right! We think in our hearts and when our hearts are hardened, they cannot think Phillippians 4:8 thoughts.

So what brings believers their hard hearts that provoke us to evil hearts of unbelief? God said it was because we refuse to exhort others every day. It's that simple. When we exhort people, it doesn't soften our hearts. It softens the hearts of the exhorted.

However, the Bible promises that if we give it shall be given unto us. So we can be sure that when we exhort, God will lead others to exhort us. We have given exhortation and we shall receive exhortation. One compliment often leads to being complimented. Especially when that compliment is a spirit prompted exhortation of a fellow believer.

Thus we see that it is the return exhortation, "pressed down and shaken together" that softens our heart, awakens us to the spirit of the Living God and gives us the faith to do what others would never even attempt.

So give all the reasons you want for why you can't exhort people daily. But God gives only one reason for it. And that reason is . . . a hard heart!

A PRAYER FOR TODAY: "Good Morning, Father, I love you and cannot wait to begin my day living my moments in Your Spirit of Power. But I cannot do it unless I hear from you clearly. That clarity, I understand comes from having a pure heart of belief. That pure heart comes from a soft heart toward others. That soft heart comes from being willing to exhort one another-daily. Empower me with your Spirit of Wisdom. I pray these things in the blood stained name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!"

A QUESTION FOR TODAY'S MEDITATION: "When you get to heaven will your place that he has prepared for you be larger than the place you live here?"