Stay close!

There’s a horrible story at the head of the news today of a couple on honeynoon in Cape Town. Did you hear it? Carjacked at gunpoint, the man was later dumped unharmed while his new wife was taken, killed, and her body left in the car. Truly horrific. Evil. And for what purpose? Money? To feed a habit? Some kind of perverse ‘pleasure’? Who knows.

I’m not going to sermonize on the state of the human heart because I know my own only too well. Yesterday I was preaching from John’s Gospel chapter 15, on the words of Jesus “I am the true vine”, and the essence of that discourse is, to put it bluntly, “the fruit of my life really matters but I can’t produce the good stuff.” If only we would get this matter clear once and for all. God wants me to be something that I can never be in my own strength - period. So there’s no point it me being religious or pious or super-spiritual in a vain attempt to squeeze some fruit out of my life. At best it’s bitter fruit, at worst foolish pride.

But once we’ve got clear on this impossibility, it opens the door to the amazing, awesome, wonderfully liberating alternative - namely that my life (and yours) can become something radically different and increasingly fruitful as the result of an encounter with Jesus and a vital, living, ongoing connection to Him!. Jesus put it very clearly to his disciples: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ” (John 15:4, ESV)
So the bad news is that we can’t produce good, God-pleasing fruit in our lives. No way, not even a bit! But the outstandingly good news is that in getting connected to Jesus as Saviour and Source of our lives, the Forgiver and Focus of our lives, then not only do we get to massively enjoy knowing Him, we also find that bit by bit, a different kind of fruit emerges in & through our lives that pleases our heavenly father. What a great deal! It’s a win, win situation!

Of course our twisted culture tries to persuade us that there is more joy to be had in illicit sex, in drug-induced highs, in gold & goodies than in Jesus, but surely, that lie is wearing thin isn’t it? And isn’t it time that we Christians pointed out the obvious truth with greater boldness? Sam Storms puts it like this: My aim as a father, preacher, teacher, and now grandfather is to hammer home with unrelenting zeal that the joys of knowing Jesus are simply incomparable. His capacity to please knows no rival..... In the presence of our great God and Saviour there is joy that is full, not partial, half-baked, measured, or parceled out; at his right hand there are eternal pleasures, not the fleeting, transient, toxic sort that promises so much and delivers so little.’

So abide in Jesus this week (& for the rest of your life!!). Stay close!

Goff