Today’s post will make little sense if you have not yet read what I shared here yesterday.

I know some of us tend to roll our eyes and scoff some, when we hear ‘other gospels’ out there suggest all a person needs to do is ‘walk an aisle, repeat a prayer’, and then immediately are told they are now a ‘child of God and a guaranteed room in heaven is waiting on them’.

That is not to suggest that someone who hears some form of the gospel and responds with a broken and contrite heart, maybe ‘raising a hand’ or going forward to an altar’ where they ‘pray to receive Christ’ is not a bad start.

Let’s be honest here without getting overly graphic...many a child have been ‘naturally’ ‘conceived under a great variety of ‘occasions’, settings and/or circumstances.

Personally speaking my own ‘spiritual conception’ took place in a pick-up truck following a very simple, yet sincere prayer. There were no tears or goose-bumps or angelic music playing while this took place. But it was a start, a beginning, and as I have shared my personal testimony here in the past, God began a work in me that very evening.

My concern is that just maybe the modern day ‘church’ has made the mistake, or misguided practice of thinking a ‘newborn child of God’ can be produced outside of experiencing a gestation period inside the ‘womb’, or more specifically, outside of truly ‘abiding in Christ’. As I suggested yesterday, medical advancements have come a long way in helping infertile couples produced a child. But to date, no human child has been produced or brought to full term in an artificial ‘womb’ (outside a human body) that I am aware of.

I would submit to you than none of us can reach full maturity of becoming a genuine ‘child of God’ unless we are truly abiding in Jesus. Let’s say that your ‘spiritual walk’ thus far has maybe been a series of ‘highs and lows, mountains and valleys’ where some days you do well to ‘abide in Jesus’ and other days you don’t, for a host of reasons. That sounds more like a person who is struggling through life walking in a ‘form of godliness’ void of any power (2 Tim. 3:5).

Any mother who has had an embryo implanted within her via IVF knows that it must remain (abide) in her the whole time...if she has any hopes of being...’fruitful’. How ludicrous would it be to think that embryo-turned-fetus could be removed and then reimplanted every other week ...and anything healthy or ‘fruitful’ will come from it.

There really is more to this ‘abiding in Jesus’ than I think we have been taught to believe. Jesus Himself made it clear...that apart from Him, we can do nothing; as in there will be NO fruit unless we ‘abide’ or ‘remain’ in Him. (John 15:4-6)

And how often have you heard/read me say: “Fruit Matters!” (Matt. 3:10; 7:17-20; Luke 13:6-9; John 15:6). Meet me back here tomorrow, Lord willing?