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.

Resolutions/Revolutions

Resolutions require will power to be effective. Revolutions are an overthrow of the existing power and a replacement with something new. I think revolution will take us much further then resolutions ever could. When the Spirit of God overthrows the power of the old self, tremendous things happen. When the image that is seen is more and more Him and less and less us, we're heading in the right direction for something really revolutionary: a heart fully devoted to Him.

Connectivism and the Apostle Paul

I am currently taking a class on learning theories and design. We have been looking at a number of different theories. One that caught my attention is connectivism. Connectivism is touted as "a learning theory for the digital age" and includes, among other principles, the idea that learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

This morning my wife and I were reading Ephesians 4:15 and 16.

"Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love."

Isn't it interesting that this new (maybe 10 years old) theory is reflected in the writings of the apostle Paul from the first century! What wisdom of God is manifested in how he put us into relationship with others and enriches our lives through these connections and the knowledge and skills that each shares!