The True Branches
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. John 15:5-8, NKJV.
There are only two kinds of branches (that is, only two varieties of church members)--the fruitful and the barren. Those who are barren are cut off from the true vine. And those who remain get pruned by the hardships of life as God shapes them into ever more fruitful disciples.
Of course, none of us like to get pruned. But God uses the challenges of life to refine us as Christians. As Paul puts it in Romans, "we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rom. 5:3-5, RSV).
There is nothing that happens to us that God does not use to prune, cleanse, and shape us for His purposes and glory. In that we can be thankful, even though the process might be uncomfortable.
Pruning is what happens when the caring gardener prepares His vines to produce even more fruit. Some aspects of our lives get sheared off so that God might direct our energy to increase our productivity in bearing more and better fruit.
But what is the fruit? It comes in two varieties. One is the making of further disciples. God uses Christians to witness to His love and win others to the ways of Jesus.
A second form of fruit bearing is the development of Christian character. "The fruit of the Spirit," Paul tells us, "is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22, 23, RSV).
Both types of fruit are intertwined in a person's life. After all, it is the beauty of a Christian's character that leads others to Jesus. And both types of fruit result from the work of the Holy Spirit. We can do nothing apart from Jesus and the Spirit. But with Them we naturally produce the sweet clusters of the vine.
Help me today, my Father, to stay connected to Jesus that I might be ever more fruitful.
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. John 15:5-8, NKJV.
There are only two kinds of branches (that is, only two varieties of church members)--the fruitful and the barren. Those who are barren are cut off from the true vine. And those who remain get pruned by the hardships of life as God shapes them into ever more fruitful disciples.
Of course, none of us like to get pruned. But God uses the challenges of life to refine us as Christians. As Paul puts it in Romans, "we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rom. 5:3-5, RSV).
There is nothing that happens to us that God does not use to prune, cleanse, and shape us for His purposes and glory. In that we can be thankful, even though the process might be uncomfortable.
Pruning is what happens when the caring gardener prepares His vines to produce even more fruit. Some aspects of our lives get sheared off so that God might direct our energy to increase our productivity in bearing more and better fruit.
But what is the fruit? It comes in two varieties. One is the making of further disciples. God uses Christians to witness to His love and win others to the ways of Jesus.
A second form of fruit bearing is the development of Christian character. "The fruit of the Spirit," Paul tells us, "is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22, 23, RSV).
Both types of fruit are intertwined in a person's life. After all, it is the beauty of a Christian's character that leads others to Jesus. And both types of fruit result from the work of the Holy Spirit. We can do nothing apart from Jesus and the Spirit. But with Them we naturally produce the sweet clusters of the vine.
Help me today, my Father, to stay connected to Jesus that I might be ever more fruitful.
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