with the seculars around us? Jesus said, “You cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.” Do we remain in Jesus all day long? No. Whyzat? We are created-dependents functioning as independents, wise in our own eyes, leaning on our own understanding, confident-we-know-what’s-best — analyzers/judges of everyone and everything. We remain in OURSELVES as we go through our day — as self-reliant as the seculars around us. Apart from Heaven, we have nothing they don’t have. We do not reproduce because the Jesus in us is contagious to no one because of our independence — we don’t ASK Him and THANK Him about everything as we go through our day, but rather we ASSUME or willfully DO. And because we KNOW what’s thankable and what’s not. So we don’t go through our days curious and expectant to see what He does NEXT, in us, others, circumstances, but rather go through our days feeling alone and in charge.
I can’t prove this, but I’m convinced that the early believers had a contagious Jesus that made them reproducers — amazingly fruitful with family and neighbors and co-workers. They had something we don’t have. The powerful humility of Jesus-dependency.
— Dave McCarty, GospelFriendships, who works hard to appear humble and gracious on the outside, but can’t make it happen on the inside, and is therefore chief needer of fresh convictions of the sin of independence throughout his day
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