Day 240: Stay Joined

John 15:1-16:4; 2 Chronicles 23; Psalm 80

This message from Jesus is intense and at times hard to swallow. Instead of saying "abide" as other texts do, my CEV version says "joined": "Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you....Stay joined to me and let my teachings become part of you." This is the answer to how we will produce "fruit that will last." Jesus calls us to produce fruit in our lives and how we do that is staying joined, connected, to Christ. Otherwise, God will cut us off. The part of the verse that really hit me the other day was, "But you cannot do anything without me." Whoa. Apart from Christ, everything I think I'm doing is worthless. It won't have a positive lasting impact for eternity; it is worthless. I can do NOTHING apart from Christ. So do I need Jesus? That would have to be a loud, gigantic YES.
The next part of Jesus' message here that packs a punch is about how the world will treat us. This is probably my greatest hindrance to sharing the gospel: getting laughed at, rejected, hated because of the message of Jesus. And what is sad, it isn't that they will reject the message; I'm much more selfish than that. It is that I would get laughed at or hated. I'm not proud of that. However, each day, Christ is making me more and more bold and I'm discovering that what matters is not the world's opinion or treatment of me, but God's feelings for me.

Lots of killing in Chronicles. In this chapter, they not only kill the evil queen (think evil step-mother or the one who poisons Snow White) but they also destroy and kill anything that has to do with the god Baal. Jehoiada is determined to set up the temple and people as a holy institution again and he is very strict about it, not in a way that is religiously legalistic, but to reestablish it as God had originally directed. But what did it take to do that? Lots of bravery, planning, risk. They couldn't walk up to the evil queen, Athaliah, and ask, "Hey, you're kind of evil and not doing a good job, can we crown Joash?" They had to be bold for The Lord, have a plan, and disobey human laws in order to uphold God's. This doesn't mean we break our laws of this land, but it does mean that we are to be faithful to God before we are faithful to anyone or anything else.

This psalm talks about a vine! However, it says that enemies chopped down the vine. The vine could represent Jesus, it could represent God's kingdom, and this psalm reveals that enemies have chopped that vine down. Jesus was treated terribly throughout his three year ministry, believers have been killed and persecuted through the ages. This psalm cries out, revealing that the only one who can save the nation, restore it, make it powerful, destroy the enemies is The Lord Almighty. The God we serve is so powerful that we cannot truly understand what he is capable of. I am thankful that The Lord I serve is that incredible.