Our blog is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
people will gather them and throw them into a fire
and they will be burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” Emphasis mine John 15:1-8
“I am the vine, you are the branches” is, for me, a beautiful explanation of our relationship with the Triune God.
Jesus is the vine, and we, as branches, get our energy, Love, sap, if you will, from Jesus.
We are dependent upon Jesus for everything.
In thinking about this blog, I believe satan enters our minds and convinces us this statement is not true.
Satan tells us we can live and live very well on our own. I know in my younger years, this was true for me.
I had all the answers!
I felt I didn’t need God until just before I died; then, I would say a few prayers ask to be forgiven, and would get into Heaven by my own power.
Wow!
I can’t believe we just typed this, but as I have said in previous blogs, this statement was sadly true.
What a shallow life.
Where’s the Love?
Well, I did love my family, job, house, the good name I had built up in the community,
But,
It was not the type of love that Jesus taught.
What was missing?
Giving GLORY to God the Father.
My love was all about me and what I had and was doing.
When I started to think about Jesus as the Vine and I as a branch, life began to take on a new meaning.
I realized the energy I get is from the Love of the Father through His Son, living in the “Spirit World,” running on the sap of God’s Love.
The energy, of course, is the Joy and Peace of this relationship.
And,
I get Joy and Peace knowing God has my back.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified.
Once again, we are talking about prayers being answered.
I didn’t say the above lines; Jesus did!
But notice.
By this is my Father glorified.
Question,
Do you give Glory to God the Father, ALL of the time, for ALL the good that happens in your life?
Or,
Are you like the nine lepers who DIDN’T return to thank Jesus for their healing?
Jesus said His Father prunes so that it bears more fruit, which I have interpreted as allowing difficulties in our lives to bring us closer to God the Father.
Yes, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches; maybe today you will pause to give thanks for being a branch and giving glory to your Father, Brother, and the Holy Spirit for Their Outregaous Love for you.
“The nine” We pray you will grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
I looked at Therisa’s picture, which reminded me of the Joy I felt every time I went climbing.
The Joy came when we reached the mountain’s top and looked at God’s creation below.
One year I climbed Mount Washington with my friends and saw all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, approximately ninety miles away. What a sight!
Before the Joy came the hard work of getting to the top of the mountain, the mountains on the East Coast are hills compared to the mountains in the West.
On every climb, I reached a point where I had the thought of quitting and turning back. Quitting and or turning back, it turned out, were not options I would embrace.
I couldn’t quit because how would I get back down the mountain? Turn around; I just couldn’t do it.
When Gail and I were in Banff, Canada, on our last hiking day with Country Walkers, we went on an eight-mile hike. I said I would go up with the stronger walkers and down with the weaker walkers. The reason for this decision was I had bad knees from playing football, and going down had always been a problem.
The strong walkers arrived at the top first, and the weak walkers soon contacted us, about halfway up, that two in their group were having severe problems, and the whole group of weak walkers was going back down.
The question posed was, “What does Fred want to do?” If he wanted to join the weak walkers, both groups had to head back down because they wouldn’t allow me to go alone.
Gail was a strong walker; I knew she wanted to complete the hike.
For the first time in my life, I was using hiking poles, God was taking care of me, and I decided to have a go at it.
I next prayed for help. I was very concerned about my knees holding up.
Well, the walk down was a piece of cake because the walking poles took all the weight off my knees and transferred my weight to my shoulders. I arrived at the bottom in better shape than others in our group.
I also arrived at the bottom and said a prayer of thanksgiving for my good fortune in having the walking poles.
God took care of me! Until we typed this, I hadn’t put that connection to this episode in my life.
Leaping ahead to Monday of this week.
Our son David came up to play eighteen holes of Golf on Monday. It was a beautiful day; we walked the eighteen holes, logging in over fifteen thousand steps. The joke in our family is that I can’t die until Dave beats me in Golf.
Well, I am happy to report Weeee won, but I was so tired Tuesday that my mind was blank for the Sidebar.
Nothing!
I will have to take a pass.
Quit!
I returned at 4 pm and looked at the picture Therisa submitted, and the words started flowing. Letting God take over is very scary at times. Between 10 am and 4 pm, I didn’t know what we would write.
I prayed multiple times,
Nothing!
Not even a tiny thought of what we could write about.
It’s 5:30 pm, and I am filled with Joy. I didn’t quit but had Faith that God would take care of me.
Therisa, thank you for your picture, which was the catalyst for completing OUR (the Holy Spirit, you, and my) blog.
Picture:
Waterfall in Animas Fork, Colorado (old silver mining town that is now a ghost town) close to Silverton, Colorado. It is located deep in the San Juan Mountain range with an altitude of 11,200 ft. Therisa Lany
This is Therisa’s second picture of three, bringing back many happy memories of hiking in the mountains back East. Gail and I did hike in the Grand Tetons and saw a Grizzle Bear a quarter of a mile away, and we hiked Glacier National Park, which is beautiful.
But,
After looking at Therisa’s picture, I wish we had made even more climbs.
We are starting to run out of pictures. Let’s get snapping.
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph; in the comments section at the bottom of our blog, tell me you want to submit a picture, and I will send you my email address in our reply on Thursday.
