East5B24.   Acts of the Apostles 9:26-31.  Saul, as the newly converted Paul, makes his entry into the community of the followers of Jesus, whom he had formerly viciously persecuted.  As the Holy Spirit had worked so magnificently with Paul, he also was working successfully to build the Church in “all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria.”

John 15:1-8.  This gospel gives us what we truly need to live the Christian life.  The supply chain to receive what we must have to live in Christ comes from God the Father through Jesus to us.  Jesus tells us, “Remain in me, as I remain in you.”  The Christian life only comes through the life of Jesus living in us.  “I am the vine, you are the branches.”  Our humanness naturally encourages us to seek life from other sources sending us in useless or destructive directions.  God prunes away all that extraneous growth.  Who I am is no longer my body and this world.  We glorify the Lord when we were live solely with him as the source of our lives.  Daily I am being created by the Lord.

1 John 3:18-24.  “Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.”  Our intimate and deep union with the Lord leads us to live our lives out of the love he has for us.  His will is our never ending wish and desire since his will comes out of his love for us.  The Holy Spirit enables us to live spiritually, helping us to get infinitely beyond this material world and body we live in.