THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES – JOHN 15:5-8 THE PRODUCTIVE CHRISTIAN Through the Scripture reading that was mentioned above, after reading it, one should be able to understand that God is the ‘gardener’ of our life. What does it mean? It means that God is responsible in caring for His children. Remember that God is our life giver and He is fullyresponsible in our life. Well, that is the purpose ofGod being our gardener. Now, what is the purpose of vine? Vine’s purpose is to produce fruits. I am not talking about producing mangoes, grapes, strawberries, and etc. I am talking about the fruits that supposed to be produced as written in Galatians 5: 22-23. Our focus of attention should be on the ‘branch’ because we must make sure that it produces the wanted ‘fruits’ so that the ‘crop’ (our life) will grow well and be productive. Hope I made everyone clear with the statement above. There are few actions that need to be done to make sure that the crop grows well and to be productive. First of all is pruning. Look at John 15:2- it says that “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruits he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” What does it mean? It means that our life is full of challenges. When, we go through challenges, there will be some unwanted fruits inus. For example, in working place, maybe an individual goes through too much stress till he/ she starts to be hostile. Well, isn’t anger/ hostility is a fruit which we shouldn’t bear? So, God will cutthat fruit off and prune is to be able to cope up with that challenge. With that, we will be more matured and wise. Remember that, no matter what circumstances or trials that we go through, we should continue to bear the fruits that God wants us to bear. We are God’s tree, so, we must continue to witness God and let others see God in us. Why do we need to act like the world does? Aren’t Jesus’s children are special? So, let the world see Jesus in us. Next is about cleaning. Look at verse 3. “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” Well, how to be clean? We should list our all painful experiences to God. Let Him know your expectations through that experience. Was it hard to forgive? To forget? Ask God to heal you. I told Jesus how hard I felt due to that experience. I asked for healing. And I wanted to make sure that I don’t go to hell because of my unforgiving nature to these people. So, at last, I forgave them.Remember that, when you walk closer to God- like how I did, you are actually getting rid of the darkness and heading to the light. Let go the grudges and those painful experiences, and you will start to realize that there will be much peace and happiness. Besides that, we should know that once the Lord’s light is on us, we will soon start to realize our sins and weaknesses. Confess our sins. Let our Lord clean us. Remember that Godforgives our sins. After all, we are His children. This is when, one will be tempted by Satan. How? Satan lies. He will start to influence and play withyour mind. So, what are you suppose to do? Never ever buy lie from Satan. Don’t make him happy. Infact, embarrass him. Stand against Satan by claiming and declaring the presence of the Lord. Why should we embarrass God by giving chance to Satan when in fact it should be vice versa. Next action is to remain in Him. Look at verse 4 and 5. “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Nobranch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.” How to remain in God? Look at verse 7. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you”. So, what are we supposed to do? Read the Bible! Declare God’s presence and His promises. Read the Bible whenever and wherever you can. In school. In office. Anywhere and at anytime. Listento His songs. If we can have time for our worldly songs- romantic, jazz, blues and blah blah blah, spare some time for Biblical songs too. We don’t lose anything. Let me know if any of you lose anything after doing the activities above. We will fix it. Last but not least, we should pray to God for the fruits that He wants us to bear. What are those fruits? Love,joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Don’t you know that when you ask, Jesus will give it to you? So, ask Him so that your life will be filled with those gifts above. With that, we will be able to become branches which are productive and able to produce good and healthy fruits- not the rotten one. Make sure that we remain in our vine (Jesus). Remember that when we live close with God, we will live a very amazing life despite of the circumstances and trials. You know why? Because we chose to remain in Jesus and our Christ lives in us. What else we need in our life when we have our Saviour who has done, doing, and will do lots of miracles in life?
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 23:41:03 +0000