Abide in Me – A Social Initiative

 

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” – John 15:1

 There are so many social initiatives to better our world. I doubt anyone can count them.  We want to save the climate, the whales, the sea turtles, the forests, the grasslands, and so forth.  But the greatest initiative we have is to bring Jesus to all people.  Saved people are eternal people.  It is Gods plan in a nutshell. 

Yet in our world today, there’s very little evidence of God’s ways.  We have children killing their parents, parents killing their babies, young people killing total strangers on our highways and in gatherings of people.  We have no care for life at all anymore.  Life means nothing! Why? Because we’ve left the giver of life out. 

Jesus said “abide in me”.  That means our life should be lived through Him.  Think of it as putting on a full body suit of Jesus.  Our hands become His hands.  Our feet become His feet.  Our words become His words.  If we abide, live in Him, we bear the fruit God wants from us: saved souls, the lost being found, the 1 sheep that wandered away is found. 

But Jesus goes on to say in verse 5 “for without Me you can do nothing”.  Oh that doesn’t mean we do absolutely nothing, sitting on our hands every day.  It means that nothing good can come from us.  Remember what is says about our heart?  It is deceitful, desperately sick, evil continually (Jeremiah 17:9, Genesis 6:5).  Reflect on that…deceit, sick, evil.  Is that not what the world is like today?

Now, here’s the hard part.  If we, Christians, are supposed to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), and the world is full of evil and darkness, who went wrong?  It wasn’t God.  It wasn’t Jesus.  It wasn’t the evil people of this world.  If the light goes out, it’s because we don’t abide in Jesus.   We abide where we can do nothing good.

My Christian Brothers and Sisters, it’s time to get out of the dark closet and be who we’re supposed to be – a city on a hill that CANNOT be hidden (Matthew 5:14).  We need to fall in love with Jesus again.  We need to dwell in Him – our feet are His, our hands are His, our voice is His.  Our fruit is going rotten because we no longer abide in Him.

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me,” – John 14:11a

“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” – John 14:18

“ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” – John 14:23

“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. “ – John 15:14

“ You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” – John 15:16