Ancient Words For Today - 15
One day I did some tree trimming, cutting back overgrown branches that obscured the main tree trunks and encroached into areas where they shouldn't be. I placed the branches into small piles, bound them with cords and placed them out for the trash men to collect. A few days later, I noticed that those same severed branches had shriveled and changed from the lively green color they had been to a dull brownish dead-looking hew. The branches died because they were separated from the source of nutrients they had received from the tree trunks, without which they could no longer function and therefore perished. But the branches that remained on the trees were healthy and vibrant in color.
As I thought about this, I remembered the words of Jesus when He told His disciples that He was the vine and they were the branches, and without Him they could do nothing. We, in effect, are just like those severed branches when we separate ourselves from the life giving vine, which is Jesus Christ. If we don't abide in Jesus, we cannot produce spiritual fruit or accomplish the works our heavenly Father has planned for us. We only can do that through the work of the Holy Spirit in our life as we abide in Jesus. Here is the way Jesus explained it:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:
and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
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.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. John 15:1-14
May God bless you and bring forth much fruit from your life as you keep His commandments and abide in His love.