Abiding In The Vine

John 15:1-4

Abiding In The Vine

     “I Am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He (God) takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”- Jesus

     Jesus is showing us the emphasis that God has placed on bearing fruit and that it is the outward sign of where our hearts are. Anyone can call themselves a Christian but it is the fruit of our lives that will show whether we truly are. In fact, God says that every branch in Him that does not bear fruit will be removed which is even more thought provoking. For if a branch already was with Him but stopped abiding in Him it would cease to bear fruit and be removed. Certainly a word of warning to us not to take our daily walk with God for granted. Ezekiel 33:13 puts it even more clearly. “When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die.” This is where the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom as Solomon says.

     So what does it mean to abide in the vine and how do we do it? To abide in the vine is to take our time for seeking the Lord, seriously. It is to make time for Him everyday where we put aside everything in order to be with Him. What friendship have you ever had where spending time with that person no longer mattered? A true friend desires to spend time with you even when it is not possible because of time or distance. So also, our relationship with God does not grow without an effort to make time for Him. So why can it be so difficult to make time for God? It is because we have an enemy who tries to fill our time with pressing things, and other loves that will consume our time that we could use to spend with the Lord. We pursue a sport or a romance or our career as if these things are truly the only thing that will keep us alive or are worth living for. How can we tell if these things have become too important? Look at your reaction if they are taken away. We fall into despair – you got injured and your future in that sport is lost forever, the person of your dreams has left you, someone has seen your business idea, liked it, copied it, and is now undercutting your business. Just look at your response to these things. Anger, despair, getting even, anger at God for not stepping in, these reactions show what our hearts are in love with.  The only way to let go of them is to start spending time with God on a daily basis. As we spend time with Him He places His hand upon us and removes the despair and bitterness and frustration from our spirit and replaces it with His peace. He is able to do the impossible – which is to bring peace and contentment back into our lives. Our hearts let go and are free to take hold of Him and to enjoy His company. The more faithful we are to spend time with Him the more often we enjoy this peace and contentment and the more we look forward to being with Him. This is the beginning of true love for our Savior. Not just the first love of being saved by what He did for us, but a sustainable and ever-growing daily love relationship with Him. The more time we spend with Him the deeper it grows and we find it is not possible to get to the end of it! With the pleasures of this world you reach the maximum it can offer in literally moments, but with God you can never get to the end of it. With God’s love you will never find the end where you feel empty and have to find some new love.

     So let us start spending more time with Him and enjoy the everlasting blessing He has given us which is to have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe! And let us bear much fruit which grows so naturally as we abide in Him. God bless you all!

Patience While Being Pruned

John 15:1-2

Patience While Being Pruned

     “I Am the true vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.”

     “Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.”    Jesus has called us His branches and said that His Father tends us and prunes us that we might be healthy and bear fruit. However, this pruning that God does is not pleasant and often leaves us feeling less than loving thoughts towards Him. We are going along trying our best to serve Him when suddenly the world falls apart around us and we lose our most precious earthly possessions. At first we feel like God has abandoned us in spite of our constant pleading with Him for help, but far from this being the truth, our Heavenly Father is jealously tending us that we might bring forth fruit abundantly. 

     God’s pruning sets us free from the excesses we have let grow up around us that take up all of our time and energy. He prunes things that our hearts are attached to so that we might be free to set our hearts on the treasure in Heaven. Jesus says it well in Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” As we draw close to God very often there are things that we know we need to let go of and yet we can’t do it and we leave them in our lives for a period of time. However, God is faithful to remove those things for us as He watches and sees that we truly desire to be free from those things and yet cannot let go. He steps in and prunes us.

     Many times, however, He prunes us from things that we have no desire to let go of and this is where we can get angry with God for His work in our lives. There are things we have that we feel we could never live without and God says, – “They are holding your heart hostage to the earth which is passing away and I have promised to set you free and preserve you for eternal life.” I call this pruning – A Severe Mercy – a blessing that we only truly appreciate years after He has done it. However, it is not fun for Him. He listens to our anger towards Him and endures it for our good. We are very often not grateful for this pruning process! If only we could bless His heart by patiently enduring it with a cheerful and hopeful heart. However, this hopeful heart is only attained by having our treasure in Heaven and it is our treasure on earth that He is pruning which means that our heart is being torn in the middle of it.

     So what can we do to more quickly come to peace with this pruning process? Surrender – we need to surrender the things that God is pruning rather than trying to re-grow those branches. The pain remains while we fight to re-grow what He has pruned, but if we surrender and focus on our roots – digging deeper into Him and drawing from His Living Water, we will grow and mature our roots so that we will be able to support the fruit that will come forth as the season changes to summer in our lives.

     I want to encourage you to not resist God’s pruning in your lives, but embrace it and bear it patiently. Set your heart on our treasure in Heaven so that your heart will be at peace and no longer feel the loss of this temporary earthly life. May God bless and encourage you in your walk with Him!

The Oil of the Holy Spirit

John 14:16-17

The Oil of the Holy Spirit

     “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.” – Jesus

     Jesus says that He will send us the Holy Spirit and the world cannot receive Him or know Him, but we will know Him because He will abide in us. I think that it is interesting that Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will be our Helper forever. That means that He desires to be part of our lives and to instruct us in the ways of our Heavenly Father for all time. In other words, the Holy Spirit will truly be our closest companion. Think about what that means, the Spirit of Righteousness and Truth abiding in you. You will never be without a constant reminder of what it truly means to live a holy life before God. However, not only will He teach us what righteousness is but will be our helper in being obedient and in overcoming our sinful desires and weaknesses. He will both convict and overcome our sinful nature. What a wonderful blessing.

     Now let me ask each of you, have you truly in your heart desired such a Holy Being to be in your life? One with whom you can never get away with any sin because He stands there with conviction in His hand? It is the most fearful and yet the most desirable thing in the world to have Him reside in you and to have His Holiness upon you. You will truly never be the same again. It’s amazing how much compromise we desire to have in our lives even after we have become Christians. There are parts of our old lives that we hope we can incorporate into our new lives with Christ. However, to have the Holy Spirit dwell in you is to know that you can never pretend ignorance to the sin you desire to keep in your life.

     Brothers and Sisters, it is time to rise and wash our sin stained robes once again and pray for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit and to recommit ourselves to the changes He wants to bring into our lives. We need to go back to the days when we first were saved and wanted to be free from sin more than anything else in the world. Over the years we have fallen back into the sleepiness of the world’s distractions and temptations and have become unfruitful. Jesus gave us the parable of the ten virgins who fell asleep. Brothers and Sisters, it is time to wake up for our Savior is coming soon! Not only do we need to stop sleeping but we need to wake up everyone around us that we might refill our lamps and not be caught without oil at His return! 

     Time is short and our brothers and sisters need us to rise and wake them. Let us ask God to refill us with the oil of His Holy Spirit! God bless you all and may you go forth and bear much fruit for our Lord and Savior!

A Wake-Up Call

John 14:12-15

A Wake-Up Call

     “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”- Jesus

     “The works that I do shall he do also.” Let us explore the works that Jesus did which He has for us to do also. As we look through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John we see that the miracles Jesus did all related to helping others, and when someone asked Jesus if he could join Him Jesus replies by saying that He has no place to rest His head. In other words, He has no home and the life He leads will be an uncomfortable one. When Jesus sent His disciples out two by two they were not to take any money or extra clothes with them but to live wherever they were welcomed and to eat whatever was set before them. Jesus was not concerned with His own comfort and support. His every effort was for the sake of other’s needs and salvation.

     If I could I would just like to open our eyes as Christians to show us how selfish we have become. We complain to God for every inconvenience that comes upon us and we strive every day to make our lives more comfortable. We rarely have time for a neighbor in need or a sick family member. As brothers and sisters of Jesus – these things should not be this way! Jesus was only concerned with His neighbors and never took a thought about Himself. His life was so busy helping His neighbor that He would have never even had the time to think about Himself. Can we see how far from our Savior’s example we have come?

     Jesus is not speaking poetically and romantically when He says, “Sell all you have and come follow Me.” Jesus is turning our lives as we have known them upside down, and every fleshly love is getting scraped off of us. We think we know Jesus already, but is He removing your foundation from under you right now? Are terrible things happening in your life right now and your’re finding yourself saying, “These things aren’t coming from the God I know”? I tell you – don’t resist this upheaval in your life. Your God whom you thought you knew is real, and He is changing your comfortable view of what it means to be a Christian! You say, “This is not the God I know.” You are right for you have not known Him as well as you thought and He is shaking out your false foundations so that He might replace them with His solid Rock.

     Give your lives anew to Him and say – Lord, your ways are above mine and Your wisdom for my life is higher than mine and from now on I will no longer create You in my image but will become like You! Show me who You are! God has to shake us out of our sleepiness. We need to be out on the streets serving Him with passion. We need to speak boldly to our coworkers and really care that they are heading for eternity in Hell!

     Brothers and Sisters, wake up! Turn off your TV’s and go out and see the world as it is, full of sin and hopelessness. Rise up and save this upcoming generation that has no hope of escape from the constant bombardment of sin and temptation!

     Where are my brothers and sisters of God? Rise up and take back this country! Get on your knees and pray like you have never prayed before! We have been asleep in this world’s pursuits but the time for sleep is over! Wake up and save our land! These are the works that Jesus did and greater things will He do through us!
     God bless you all and fill your lives with new life and encouragement!

What We Are To Be Doing While We Wait For Jesus To Return

John 14:18-21

What We Are To Be Doing While We Wait For Jesus To Return

     “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.”- Jesus

     What can compare to the love of God! What can compare to knowing that the Creator of all has His eye on you and that His heart is fixed on you? If we love Jesus and desire to keep His commandments with all our heart, this is a good indication that we have been born again! “After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also.” We live in the days where the world does not behold our Savior for He has gone to prepare an eternal home for us and has not come back yet. However, to each of us who eagerly await His coming back, He has promised to reveal Himself to us and to send His Holy Spirit to be our constant companion. I urge us not to treat this gift lightly or to take it for granted. Our Lord and Savior reveals Himself to us daily and desires us to walk among the world and do the work He would be doing if He were here in person. He desires for us to take care of one another. He said before He left, that we would do the works which He did and greater works as well, and what things did He do? He healed the sick, preached the Gospel to the poor and made disciples. If we are to follow in His steps these are the things we should be doing. I want to talk a little bit about preaching to the poor. It gives us the proper heart attitude as we serve the Lord, for the poor have no way to repay you for your work in a physical way and so all of your provision for the work must come from God. This is a good lesson because it weans out selfish ambition and greed from the hearts of all who serve in this way. Love becomes the motivation for all that is done and Jesus says that if we give even a cup of cold water to the least of these we are doing it to Him.

     To keep the commandments means that we have God ordained work that needs to be done. He has work for each of us to be doing so that we might be a blessing to one another and strengthen one another. Isaiah 58:6-8 says, “Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh (family)? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”

     God wants us to love one another and to consider the wellbeing of our neighbor before ourselves. It is a life of real love that God has called us to and it is a deep and sincere love that He has for us. Let us rejoice and depend upon His love that we may go forth without worry as we set out to love one another as He has taught us.

     God bless you all!

Jesus’ Desire For Us To Know Our Heavenly Father

John 14:8-12

Jesus’ Desire For Us To Know Our Heavenly Father

     Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.”

     Jesus’ words in this passage are so sincere. He longs for Philip to understand that He and the Father are so completely one that to know Him is to know the Father. He says to Philip that He doesn’t even speak on His own initiative but that whatever the Father desires to share or do is what He does. This is a very touching conversation Jesus is having. He is about to be crucified and He really wants to convey what is in His heart to Philip, the other disciples and to us. He really wants us to know that He and the Father are one and to know Him is to know the Father.

     How do we apply this heart stirring conversation to our own relationship with Jesus? He has told us many times that He desires for us to be one with Him just as He and the Father are one. And He explains how He lives every moment in such close fellowship with His Father that He is continually speaking His Father’s words and acting on all He has for Him to do. This is our guide to how close a fellowship He desires for us to have with Himself. We can see the heart of God through Jesus’ tenderness towards the blind and the lame and the hungry, His tenderness towards those who are condemned to be stoned to death and for the ones who were horribly demon-possessed. We can see His tenderness for the dying daughter and for the woman who came to the well to whom He gave Living Water instead, and His tenderness to the handful of rough fishermen who became the pillars of His church. We see His heart when He looked down upon Jerusalem with anguish saying how many times He desired to gather them under His wing like a mother hen gathering her chicks, and with His final words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

     The final word for this message is this. We have been called to share in this intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. He desires for us to be so close to Him that we are constantly conveying His love and compassion to others both speaking and doing all the things that are on His heart. Jesus says that because of His finished work on the cross not only will we do the work that He was doing but would do even greater things. So we have to ask ourselves, “How closely have we been fellowshipping with our Heavenly Father?” Enough to always know what He is thinking, enough to always know what He would have us to do, enough to be completely one with Him in every area of our life? It is such a close relationship that He desires for us to have with Him and these are some of the facets of it. This kind of relationship with Him requires keeping the final commandment that He left for us which is to love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.

     Let us renew our desire to walk this closely with Him. We need Him this much in order to avoid all the temptations and to be fruitful workers in His vineyard. May God bless each of you and fill you with a fresh love for Him that willingly puts down all distractions to follow Him.      God bless!

I Go to Prepare a Place For You

John 14:1-3

I Go to Prepare a Place For You

     “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am you may be also.”- Jesus

     Where is your heart today? What are you striving to achieve? What drives you when you wake up each morning and confirms to you that you’re on the right path? I know that I have days when my life makes sense and I’m excited to be alive, however on other days I wake up and wonder, “What am I doing with my life?” “Where is it going?” “Does it have any purpose?” There are days when my trust in God falters and my faith is weak and I say, “Jesus are You really there? Are You really watching over me because so many things in my life just aren’t making sense?”

     Jesus wants to assure us that His love for us is great and in these few verses He redirects our sight to eternal things. We get distracted and discouraged by the everyday occurrences and forget that these days are only temporary. “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me, in My Father’s house are many dwelling places.” “I will come again and receive you to Myself.” These are words Jesus means for us to take to heart. He says these things with compassion knowing how easily our hearts are troubled – minute by minute, day by day. He desires to assure us that He has an eternal place prepared for us and that He will return to bring us safely home to Himself.

     I want to encourage us all to redirect our hearts today towards our Savior. He is faithful and whatever earthly thing you struggle with, He will see you through it. He left us with words of comfort and assurance that we might meditate upon them and be comforted by them. In Jeremiah 33:19-22 God confirms that His promises to us cannot be broken. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘If you can break My covenant for the day, and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed times, then My covenant may be broken with David My servant that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests, My ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.” As God has promised that nothing can break His covenants with His people or with the day and night, so also He will not break His promises that He has made to us that we would become part of the heritage of Abraham by being grafted in to his family.

     Let us remember His promises to us today and let us renew our vows to walk in holiness before Him each day. He loves us and will be our Heavenly Father for all of eternity! God bless you all this day!