1 John 2:27 is pretty “straight to the point” as it says “Just as [the Holy Spirit] has taught you…remain in fellowship with Christ.” As we move into the New Year, I recall over the last month (December) during Advent, we opened our hearts to be ready to receive Jesus. We were challenged to grow ever closer to Him. After the world-changing, calendar-defining, cosmos-altering birth of Jesus, we flocked to Church to receive Jesus in a deeper way at Christmas. Now it is just over a week past Christmas. Numerous people are packing away the ornaments and taking down their Christmas trees (even though the Christmas season doesn’t officially end until January 6, 2019). The verse from 1 John (at the start of this article) challenges us to "remain in" Jesus rather than, like our Christmas decorations, to "pack Him away until next Advent" (which, by the way, starts Sunday, 1 December 2019). The worst possible condition for a human being is to “not remain” in Jesus
Clever, Missouri (Christian County)