- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
We've been having many storms the last two weeks. Ice, sleet, freezing fog, snow, and wind. Three winter storms in the last two weeks, a lot for us. The first storm was the worst. Many thousands of people were without power. Many tree limbs came down.
There was a branch in my yard that came down yesterday. It was a biggish limb, torn right off from a large tree in the back yard. I'd planned to take a photo of it to illustrate the verse, but the yard got cleaned up before I came home from work. So I found this branch in the sheep pasture instead.
Look at it. The limb is dead, that kind of dead, rusty brown that pine trees turn when they are good and dead. It is no longer connected to the tree. That limb can stay on the ground there as long as it wants but it will never do anything except lay there and get dead-er. It will not grow longer. It will not spring pine needles, It will not bear pine cones. It will not house birds. It will not shade worms. It will only lie there, dead.
It is apart from the tree.
Do not be apart from the vine. Jesus is the vine, providing life-flowing sustenance, strength, power. Abide in Him.
We've been having many storms the last two weeks. Ice, sleet, freezing fog, snow, and wind. Three winter storms in the last two weeks, a lot for us. The first storm was the worst. Many thousands of people were without power. Many tree limbs came down.
There was a branch in my yard that came down yesterday. It was a biggish limb, torn right off from a large tree in the back yard. I'd planned to take a photo of it to illustrate the verse, but the yard got cleaned up before I came home from work. So I found this branch in the sheep pasture instead.
Look at it. The limb is dead, that kind of dead, rusty brown that pine trees turn when they are good and dead. It is no longer connected to the tree. That limb can stay on the ground there as long as it wants but it will never do anything except lay there and get dead-er. It will not grow longer. It will not spring pine needles, It will not bear pine cones. It will not house birds. It will not shade worms. It will only lie there, dead.
It is apart from the tree.
Do not be apart from the vine. Jesus is the vine, providing life-flowing sustenance, strength, power. Abide in Him.
This is analogous to losing salvation.
ReplyDeleteNo. It isn't. A true Christian cannot lose salvation. Here is Matthew Henry comment on the above verse, John 15:5, focusing on the unfruitful branch.
Delete(1.) The doom of the unfruitful (v. 2): They are taken away. [1.] It is here intimated that there are many who pass for branches in Christ who yet do not bear fruit. Were they really united to Christ by faith, they would bear fruit; but being only tied to him by the thread of an outward profession, though they seem to be branches, they will soon be seen to be dry ones.... From him that has not real union with Christ, and fruit produced thereby, shall be taken away even that which he seemed to have, Lu. 8:18.
Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume
Very real persecution is coming to the "evangelical" "church" very soon. Our local paper this morning has an article announcing the arrival of a Jesuit.
ReplyDeleteThe underhanded usurping method is nearly past. The "church" in America is weak in understanding. This site has been diligent to reveal many of them. Every single group in America has been infiltrated to some level.
Rome is seeking her wayward daughter. And for many reasons many will feel compelled to comply. If you are called out of the world to follow Christ, that would include false religious systems.
http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/2015/02/27/father-clifford-honored-boston-adored-lewiston/1661704
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/jesuits.htm
I read the article. Small world...when I taught school in Lewiston I taught with Ann Clifford. She died in 1989. This Jesuit man is her brother, Rev Richard Clifford, who preached at Ann's funeral. Lewiston is a very Catholic city, still, from the 'adoration' I see displayed in the article. Sad.
Delete