A living relationship

I have been blogging mostly about John 15 during the month of January.  I came again to the text this evening, knowing that God Spirit would have something fresh again.  And he did.

As I was reading about the vine and the branches, about bearing fruit, about abiding, again I saw the living relationship. God brings life. He is life.

This past summer my grandchildren had a great time in our raspberry patch.  The raspberry crop was abundant...and tasty!  They would push through the bushes, exploring under the leaves, finding more and more fresh berries.  And no matter how many they ate, there were always more to follow.

What a picture of God's garden he has prepared for our lives.  His fruit is abundant.  There is no danger of exhausting the supply of love, joy, peace, patience and the rest of the fruit of the Spirit. No matter how much we partake, there is always more.  In fact, the more we partake and enjoy his fruit in our lives, the more we will find under the next leaf, behind that next branch.

A husband's love

In John 15:13 we read this: "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."  

Ephesians 5:25 says this: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."

How great is the love of Jesus toward you?  Great enough that he  willingly laid down his life.
Love Song - Third Day from Kevin Porter on Vimeo.

Hide and Seek

Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the garden.  God came waking in the garden in the cool of the evening seeking them.

When the one sheep was lost, the good shepherd left the 99 and came seeking the one lost sheep.

When you are lost or hiding from God, he will come seeking you as well.

The Bible says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found."  Psalm 119 says, "Your Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you."

"Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you:"

"You are my hiding place."

What is in a name?

Depending on who is giving the name, there is a whole bunch in a name indeed!

The first names were given by God himself.  God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” That's some pretty powerful name calling!  God then shared the naming role with Adam, inviting him to name the animals. 

God's delegated authority was given to Adam. And when Adam named the animals, "whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name."

What name does God give you? 

John 15:15

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

He calls you "friend".  What a great name! 

From slave, to friend.  But it doesn't even end there.  In Ephesians 5:25-27, he even calls us his bride. What a love! What a God!

He is divine, you are de branch

John 15:5 NASB

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

I was reminded of a Keith Green song as I read this :

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Home is where the heart is

Where are you most at home? Where is that place that just fits, that you know is just right? Even when physically away, your thoughts and your heart return to home. It is the place your heart and thoughts abide.

John 15:9-10 NASB

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

Reading the verse above, what is the most recent commandment that Jesus could be referring to in verse 10? It is right there in verse 9. He commands us to abide in his love.  He calls and invites us to make his love our home.

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Getting Personal

I was just reading John 15 in the NIV instead of the NASB that I usually read.  I noticed an interesting wording difference.  Instead of saying "If any anyone..." like is says in NASB, it says "If you..."  Ultimately, if you are anyone, it still applies to you, regardless of the wording.  But it is a good thing when God taps you on the shoulder and says, "I'm talking to you."

You may have heard the suggestion of doing this with John 3:16, the most quoted verse of all Scripture.  Rather than saying, "For God so loved the world", put your name in there.  "For God so loved Mark"

Who your enemies are says much

John 15:18-19 NASB

"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

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Great Love, Great Friend

What value would you place on a good friend? A friend is a priceless treasure.

There are two phrases about friendship with God that appear in adjacient verses in John 15.

13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

Friendship with Jesus involves great love.  He laid down his life freely.  But there is another slant to this also. He calls us to lay down our lives too.  Great love is seen in both verses. Obedience involves laying down our lives. It is laying down our self-will, preferring God's will over our own.

What a friend we have in Jesus.  Jesus, may I be your friend too.

God's equation

John 15:9 NASB

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

In algebra class I remember my teacher talking about the left and right sides of the equation. The two sides balanced. God's equation has his love for you on one side, and his love for Jesus on the other side. The value on both sides of the equation are equal. You are loved with an amazing love.

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Firewood

This morning I worked for a while on splitting up some of the remaining logs that I had on the back patio from the summer's wood gathering.  This wood has been separated from the roots.  It is dead, and, over the course of time, is becoming dryer and dryer, loosing any appearance of life. It is firewood, after all.  Green wood doesn't burn well.

Then I just sat down to read from John 15, and I found this in verse 6:

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

Firewood becomes ashes over the course of time.  The pieces of wood will be gone. The ashes will be discarded. 

I was reminded of Isaiah 44.  Isaiah describes the foolishness of the one who takes a piece of wood and carves a god to worship and to whom he prays for deliverance. The rest he burns. 

Psalm 135 says this:
¹⁵ The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
¹⁶ They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
¹⁷ They have ears, but cannot hear,
nor is there breath in their mouths.
¹⁸ Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them.  

 

We become like what we worship.  What a joy, then, to worship the living God and be truly alive!

Guarantees

Guarantees are hard to come by.  And the "guarantees" that you may encounter can be loaded with disclaimers and provisions that make them almost meaningless.

But here is a guarantee that is iron-clad:

http://bible.us/John15.5.NIV
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Would you like a guarantee that you will bear, not just fruit, but much fruit?  Remain in him.

Would you like a guarantee that you will do nothing fruitful? Separate yourself from him.

Remain

Remain. The word has a sound of stability. It is like an anchor. It is a firm hold on a firm foundation. It roots reaching into the soil with a commitment that doesn't let go. 

http://bible.us/John15.4.NIV
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Our tie to Jesus is marked by that quality of "remaining" - both from his perspective and from ours. He remains in us. We remain in him. That is how fruit is born.

A fruitful life - only with the right gardener

Think about starting a garden. It takes a great deal of work. Last summer I expanded our garden a bit. First I had to strip away the grass that had been growing on that ground. It didn't exactly want to give up easily. Working with a flat-ended shovel, I undercut the sod, severing the roots and saving as much of the topsoil as I could. Then I broke up the ground underneath. I put a border around the area to help keep the grass from encroaching again. Finally, when the ground was prepared, we could start to plant. But even then, we had to go back multiple times and pull out grass and weeds that had either been missed initially or had found their way into the garden space some other way. Add to that watering, waiting, fighting the critters (deer, chipmunks, and rabbits primarily in our case), and gardening demonstrates that it is not an activity for the faint of heart, weak of back, or for those lacking determination. Successful, fruitful gardening requires a committed gardener.

In the garden of our lives, I am so thankful that we have such a committed gardener!

http://bible.us/John15.1.NIV
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener."

The cleansing Word

John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

God's Word does have the effect of cutting away the unfruitful things in our lives. What diverts our attention and dilutes our fruitfulness for God's purposes? It needs to be brought into the light of God's Word. There the priorities can be re-aligned. There the God-intended focus of our lives can be sharpened.