The VINE, folks, not another branch!!
Okay, help me out with this one, will you please? We're instructed in Scripture to BE IN JESUS, right? He goes as far as to draw a word-picture for us on this one. "I AM the VINE...you are the branches. "REMAIN IN ME." We act like we get it. We quote it for heaven's sake! I have a really nice plaque in my house with this verse on it from John 15.
However.....do we LIVE that way? Do we really?
My personal observation is that we're actually branches stuck in OTHER branches!! We give ourselves away by what we say. (You know, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks..")
"What study are you doing?" "What is the latest book you are reading?" "Have you heard that ________is in town? Let's go hear her!"
Things that make you go "Hummmmmm"
Comments?
posted by Transforming Together @ 8:46 AM
2 Comments:
This topic has really lead me to some real thought. Sometimes the idea and the action of BEING on the vine is fantastic and a wonderful experience but when it gets hard and growth is happening where do we or I grow... It is easy to find oneself "branching" off another believing that it is all about Christ... and if you think about it vines must be pruned back at times. Will I be that part that is cut off because I am not staying on the main vine. Growing in Him may be hard and trying but in the end imagine the fruit.
I've just had an incredible experience under the teaching of the Holy Spirit. I could have run to another person in my pain, gone to counseling, taken anti-depressants, but even though in my anger I could barely speak to God, He heard my cry and has gently, over the course of two months brought to me what I needed. That included people, Scripture, tears, rest, quiet. And today, He showed me that in my grieving He has a purpose for me to see. It leads back to Him. He wasn't saying, 'Okay, get over it, it's just a house...'. He was saying, 'Yes! your house that you loved is a picture of the heavenly house waiting for you, that eternal security and beauty that is living with Christ in eternity.'
I'm blown away by the way He has nurtured my little branch as i stayed in the vine, hard as it was. He has given me comfort, just as He said he would, and given me a way to take my grieving and use it to look forward to His presence in eternity. Awesome!!
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