Day 3                                Watch Where You Step!                            1 John 1:3,4

             Read 1 John 1:3,4

             Washington DC is home to a beautiful tree that decorates the urban landscape every fall with gold leaves.  The fruit of the Gingko is altogether different.  If stepped on,  it emits a yellow goo and smells like rotten fish.  Every year people around the city petition to have the trees removed from their boulevards.  The city uses a special spray to keep the tree from producing fruit.   In addition to the smell,  the chemical in the fruit is the same chemical found in poison ivy. If it touches the skin,  it can cause painful blisters.  Obviously people who live in that city have learned to “watch where you step.” 

       Christians also have to learn to watch where they step.  We all want to walk with Christ,  but a walk is made up of a series of steps.  If we take one step in darkness,  we forfeit fellowship with our God who walks in the light.  We can lie to ourselves and say that we have a close relationship with Christ.  We can sing the songs and pray our prayers,  but our walk is not one or two steps.  It is a combination of all of our steps.  If those steps take a short cut through a dark alley,  even if it is just a small distance,  that keeps us from Christ and from fellowship with His Saints.

       There is a lot at stake in where we step.  All of us want to have close friends,  but when we walk in darkness,  we not only separate ourselves from Christ,  we also separate our lives from anyone else who is in fellowship with God.  Our relationships suffer when we take a wrong step! 

Think of the beauty of a tree that covers the city in a carpet of gold.  Outwardly,  the tree is like any other tree,  but if the fruit is corrupt,  the tree is corrupt.  This is what Jesus said.

Matthew 7:17  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

In fact,  Jesus made it clear,

19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

  So it is with men.  They appear good on the outside,  but if their fruit is corrupt,  so is their life.  The only way for a man to produce good fruit is to abide in Christ,  to walk in Him.

John 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.