ABIDE IN THE VINE AND BEAR FRUIT - John 15:1-4

Jesus and His disciples just finished the Passover meal.  Soon He would be betrayed by Judas and arrested and by the next morning, crucified.  But He has not yet finished giving His final words to His own.  And so He tells them:

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will 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.”

Two things came to mind by way of illustration that brought these verses home to me.  The first is roses. 

I love roses.  Not hothouse roses like the gorgeous, but scentless ones you get at a florist for Valentine’s Day.  I love the ones you grow yourself.  They may not be as big and beautiful as the hothouse ones, but you can’t beat their fragrance.  It’s heady, and sweet, and delicious!

I heard that rose bushes can be hard to grow, but I’ve really wanted to try my hand at growing one, so I bought a small one.  I transplanted it right away into a bigger plot, settled it in a sunny spot, fertilized the soil and waited to see what would happen.  I was rewarded with two lovely little, very fragrant, yellow roses.  Eureka!  

Then I read in an online article that cutting your roses to display them in a vase would actually increase the production of your plant.  I didn’t know whether this was true or not, but I really wanted the fragrance of those roses where I could enjoy them, so I cut those two lonely little flowers and put them in a small vase in my office.  They left my bush bereft and rose-less.  But my office smelled lovely!

Yesterday when I was watering my plant I noticed a lot of new growth and 4 (Yes!  Four!) new rose buds in various stages of maturity.  Very exciting!   I decided that this time around I would encourage new growth by cutting off perfectly good, but non-rose bearing leaves, so that the new leaf growth that was all over the plant could be encouraged to produce even more.  Time will tell how my plant will react, but if Jesus is right, (and when isn’t He?) then my pruning should produce even more fruit – or roses in this case.

Speaking spiritually now, if Jesus is the vine into which our lives have been planted by faith, then what does our fruit look like?  

How about the fruit of righteousness, by which I mean a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus, as well as right or godly living, which means living in a way that honors and glorifies Him.

Or the fruit of the Spirit, which is godly character, as recorded for us in Galatians 5:22:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.”

The fruit Jesus speaks of could refer to people who come to faith through our witness, like the Ethiopian eunuch who believed in Jesus through the witness of Phillip the evangelist in Acts 8; or the Roman Centurion Cornelius who responded to the gospel as Peter preached it in Acts 10.

It could be the fruit of obedience which Jesus talks about in John 14 that results from our love for Him, recorded in verse 15:  

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Or maybe it could refer to the spiritual fruit that is borne in the church as we use our gifts to minister God’s grace to others for His glory, the kind Peter speaks of in I Peter 4:10:

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. . . . so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.”

Jesus, who knows a lot more about vines than I know about roses, says in John 15 that if we’re going to produce this kind of fruit, we can’t do it without abiding in Him, the way vines abide – or are connected continually - to the life giving properties of the vine.  More about that in a minute.

Jesus said that every branch that does bear fruit He prunes to produce even more fruit.  I’m not sure that I really like that concept.  Since my rose bush is incapable of feeling the pain of snipping off branches or flowers, I don’t feel bad doing it.  I know that ultimately it is going to be for the good of the plant because it will increase the probability of more roses.  I’m not so sure I like the idea of Jesus pruning ME so that I will bear more fruit.  

And what kind of pruning is He talking about here?  Since I am a person and not a plant, I have a feeling that in order to increase my fruit bearing, pruning could hurt!  If Jesus’ goal is to increase the fruit of righteous living in me, or produce greater love or patience, or encourage me to obey in big things as well as small, then He just might present me opportunities to grow that I might not enjoy so much.  

Like the time I behaved in a very unChristlike way, bearing no godly fruit at all and hurting others, and then had to go back and confess and ask forgiveness.  That was a lesson in the trait of humility I’d just as soon have skipped!  I can tell you, that pruning HURT!

Or there was the experience of having all of our closest family members relocate to opposite parts of the country within a month of one another at the same time that we moved to another county.  It was like cutting off the good leaves so the new growth could flourish.  I had to learn then that I was relying too much on my family and not enough on the Lord and it was stunting my growth.  That pruning was not especially fun either, but it surely did result in a great spiritual growth spurt!

I could also tell of countless relationships, at work and at church, with people I didn’t especially like or work well with that the Lord used to produce a greater yield of patience, and love, and kindness.  I would rather have taken the easy way and just avoided those people altogether – but they were God’s pruning tools and they worked!   Result:  more fruit.

If you are currently bearing spiritual fruit, then get ready – pruning will surely follow!  Jesus says so.  The question is, will we submit to the pruning process?

In speaking of the Lord’s discipline, the author of the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 11 says this:

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

The Lord’s discipline, or pruning, isn’t pleasant when it is happening, but later, it produces a greater yield – not just a single plant but a whole spiritual harvest of righteous living and peace.  We only benefit from the pruning if we yield to it.  

The other word that strikes me from these words Jesus spoke to His disciples is the word “remain”, or “abide” as it’s sometimes also translated.  He said:

“Remain (abide) in me, and I will remain (abide) in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain(abide) in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain (abide) in me.”

When I watered my rose bush this morning I noticed something.  All those perfectly good and healthy branches I cut off yesterday were shriveled up and dead.  There was no way in the world they would ever produce fruit now that they were cut off from their source of nourishment and life.   

If you’ve read my most recent blogs you know that I was pretty much feeling that way recently.  I was busy working FOR Jesus, but not really remaining close to Him.  Since He’s the source of my abundant spiritual life and nourishment, and I wasn’t staying close, I was spiritually dry, and tired.  I was having a hard time hearing Him and an even harder time acting like Him.  And what about the “fruit” I was producing?  I’ll bet it was stingy instead of abundant.  A small yield when it could have been a harvest.

Apart from my out of state birth, and Jim’s stint in the army, we have lived all of our lives here in New Jersey.  A few years ago now when housing prices were high, we bought a small condo in Florida to be near my mom, so when we visited her we could stay there.  We thought maybe we’d also retire there at some point.  Well, not long after, the real estate market tanked, and my mom died, and we had second thoughts.  Only now we can’t sell at the price we paid.  We spend so little time there that native Floridians probably wouldn’t even call us “snow birds”, those residents who travel south during the winter months to enjoy the warmth of Florida, and then go back home in the spring.  Maybe we’d qualify as “occasional snow birds”.

The condo in Florida is ours.  We own it.  However, we don’t abide there, we abide here in New Jersey.  Since we spend the majority of our time abiding here in New Jersey, we enjoy the “fruit” of neighborliness.  

 We know our neighbors by name.  In the winter, we plow some of their driveways, just because we’re neighbors.  We take in their mail when they’re away, and they take in ours.  We occasionally share cakes or ethnic dishes.  We invite one another in.  If someone had an emergency, they know they could call us.

Here in NJ, we have church ties and involvement in ministry.  These allow us opportunity to bear spiritual fruit in service and the fruit of godly character as we live alongside believers and unbelievers.

Since we don’t abide in Florida, we know few of our neighbors.  We don’t know the renters from the residents.  It’s always a pain to try and get work done when we’re not there because we have no one to rely on the way we do here in New Jersey.  We attend a church but it isn’t our church home.  We don’t know the pastor and he doesn’t know us.  We don’t participate in ministry or attend church functions.  Since we don’t abide in Florida, we bear no real “fruit”, the way we do in NJ.

If you and I want to bear real, lasting spiritual fruit, then we need to have more than just an occasional “snow bird” relationship with Jesus.  We have to abide and remain in Him.  We have to spend more than 5 minutes with Him on the fly.  We need to stay close, to spend time in His Word, listening to Him as He speaks to us through it.  We have to talk to Him in prayer.  We have to understand that staying plugged in to Him, and remaining there, because He is the source of our spiritual life and power and fruitfulness is critical to fruitbearing.  The further we drift, the less likely we are to produce spiritual fruit.

Jesus actually says, “Neither can you bear fruit UNLESS you remain in me.”

So let me ask you, are you just an occasional snow bird as far as abiding in Jesus in concerned?  How much of your life are you spending abiding in Jesus?  Have you settled down and made yourself at home with Him or are you an infrequent visitor?  

How closely are you abiding?  Close enough to hear Him when He speaks through His Word?  Close enough to recognize pruning so that you can submit to it?  

Close enough so that you LONG to bear MORE FRUIT, even when it hurts?

SO LORD, WHAT'S YOUR NEXT ASSIGNMENT?

Are you a goal setter?  I’ve never been good at setting goals for myself.  For me, it’s like making a New Year’s resolution.  I spend hours writing them, I diligently record them so I can check my progress and then, within a couple of weeks, I’ve abandoned most of them. When it comes to spiritual goals, I do have some, and have carried them out with varying degrees of success.  On the top of my list is “to be more consistent with my Bible reading/study and prayer time”.  

Since the Lord created me with a quiet, contemplative nature, I prefer to do this in solitude, not easy when you live with four other active people, but I try.  At various times over the years, I’ve sought out and used a number of quiet spots.  I’ve retreated to the library’s quiet study room, and then prayed as I walked around the sports track behind the building.  I’ve gone to our local pool in the off season, and sat in the sun.  I’ve gone to the beach, to a park, to what once was our spare bedroom (but is now occupied), to the church, to a coffee shop, even to a hotel, and probably other spots I can’t remember now.  Those times with the Lord bring a soothing calm to my soul, ushering me directly into His presence and enabling me to enjoy Him and the love we share.  And it's in those quiet times that the Lord begins to speak to my heart.

One of the areas in which I try not to have any goals or expectations, right, or wrong as some might see it, is when it comes to serving the Lord.  There, I prefer to let the Lord take the lead.  I guess some might look at the lack of goal setting as a way of avoiding having to make decisions, out of fear or a desire not to take responsibility.  If that were the case, I should have done my own choosing because I know I would have been easier on myself!   The Lord has never failed to provide plenty of assignments. Many of them have surprised and sometimes terrified me because they have taken me way outside my personal and “professional” comfort zone.  They have also been the means the Lord has used to grow and stretch me and teach me to depend on Him.

Preferring to fade into the background, I never would have chosen leadership of any kind.  I certainly would have avoided speaking before an audience of any size.  I never would have sought out assignments that required me to train others, find leaders, lead other people in prayer, work with teens, teach junior high Sunday school, or serve on a committee that included men.  (Working with men has always intimidated me.)  Yet, when I’ve let the Lord choose, He has led me into all of those things.

This time of the year for me is like New Year’s resolution time – without the resolutions.  Ministry assignments undertaken last year through the leading of the Holy Spirit have been completed.  During the summer when church ministry slows down, I want to “delight in the Lord” so that He can “give me the desires of my heart”, desires that are consistent with His will for me in the coming ministry year.  

The early September morning I was asked to pray about teaching 4^th and 5^th grade Sunday school it was easy to say yes, because I had already been praying for the Lord’s will and I knew that this was it.  Teaching Sunday school became His assignment for the next two years, until the Lord began to burden my heart for women’s ministry and then opened a door to a new assignment providing opportunities for women to grow in their relationship with the Lord.  Last spring our women’s ministry team members all went on to other assignments and so during the summer I began praying again for the Lord’s direction.  When both our youth leaders left in August, women’s ministry was temporarily put on hold as God’s new assignment was to teach junior high Sunday school and work with the senior high ministry.  Now that we’ve hired a new youth director, I’m wondering what next year’s assignment will be.  

Until the Lord shows me, my summer “assignment” is to keep on seeking the Lord, drawing close, spending time enjoying Him, and waiting with anticipation the planting of His desires in my heart.  I don’t know what lies ahead in terms of ministry for the next church year – but I do know it will be exciting and stretching, both personally and “professionally”, and it will come as a direct invitation from the Lord, as Henry Blackaby says, to join Him in the work He is already doing in His kingdom.

LEAN IN CHILD OF GOD - John 13:25

I have a dear friend and prayer partner named Lisa.  She and I have been meeting regularly for years to pray for one another and our families.  When I arrive at her home, Lisa always greets me with a hug and a kiss.  But I don’t have to wait for Lisa.  Before I even ring the doorbell, I can hear her dog Elbe barking his own greeting.  She tells me he starts long before I actually get to the door.  He recognizes the sound of my car door slamming and is preparing his own unique welcome!

Once I’m inside the door, I’m suddenly made of Velcro!  Elbe, tail wagging furiously, gets as close as he can, and sticks!  I can bend down to pet him, and start moving into the living room, but not once does he separate himself from me.  He leans in and refuses to let go.

I’ve been slowly reading through the gospel of John the last few months.  This morning I read from John 13, verses 21-30.  Jesus’ divine appointment with Calvary’s cross is just a day away.  He and his disciples are celebrating the Passover supper together.  Jesus knows that He is about to be betrayed by Judas, one of his 12 closest companions for the last three years.  As he and the twelve recline at the table, troubled in spirit, He says:

John 13:21 “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.”

The disciples simply stared at each other, with no clue at all of whom Jesus spoke.  John, referring to himself by the title he often used, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, was seated right next to Jesus.  Peter motioned to him to ask the Lord which of them He meant.

We’re told in verse 25 that John leaned back against Jesus and asked him which of them it was.  Jesus didn’t directly name anyone.  He simply answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish”.  Then He did so, and gave the bread to Judas.

There is a lot upon which I could comment from just this portion of the passage, but the simple thing that struck me this morning, and led me to think of my good canine friend, Elbe, was the intimacy between John and Jesus.  It’s reflected in John’s name for himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, and in the act of leaning against the Lord.

Each spring I try to attend a ladies retreat held at the Tuscorara Inn in Bethel, Pennsylvania.  On the Sunday of the retreat there is always a time of sharing how the Lord revealed Himself to us during the weekend.  At the last retreat, after many women had shared, my friend Shirley stood up and said, “I hate to tell you this girls, but I am the Lord’s favorite!”  This generated a lot of laughter, but the truth is, Shirley ISthe Lord’s favorite, and so was John, and Peter, and Paul, and you, child of God, and me!

Years ago, in a study called, “The History of Israel and the Minor Prophets”, I came across a verse in the book of Zephaniah that I have come to love because it speaks of the Lord’s love for His own.  It was written to the nation of Israel, but I believe it has application to us as well.

Zephaniah 3:17

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Maybe today you’re confused about God’s plan 

Maybe you’re discouraged 

Maybe you feel unloved by those closest to you

Maybe you’ve been betrayed

Maybe you’re lonely, or sad

Whatever you may be feeling today, you can lean on Jesus.  

If you are His child, then He is with you.  He is mighty to save you.  He takes great delight in you.  He will quiet you with His love.  He rejoices over you with singing.

Lean in, child of God.  However you may be feeling, the reality is:  YOU ARE THE LORD’S FAVORITE, and you are loved.

THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE BEST - Reflections on a cancelled missions trip - Part 2

I guess it was premature of me to write the first of what I thought would be a series of blogs about the senior high youth group’s missions trip to West Virginia.  Not long after I wrote the last blog, West Virginia was hit by a horrific thunder storm.  The effects of high winds, rain and lightening prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency.  On the day we were to leave much of West Virginia was without electricity, or water, and there was widespread damage. The initial reaction of our church leaders was to delay our departure for one day.  

After church on Sunday, students, parents and youth leaders met to discuss the situation.  We were informed that at that moment there was no electricity, no running water for drinking or showering, and no gas for cooking. Everyone listened politely, but emotions were running high. I was surprised at the intensity of the reactions of those impacted.  Even though there would be no daily showers, air conditioning, or hot meals, the enthusiasm of our kids could not be dampened. If anything, it was enhanced.  They were raring to go. 

Church leaders thought going would be an opportunity for greater than usual sacrificial service, and dependence on the Lord.  Parents were primarily concerned for their children’s safety.   Youth leaders’ feelings ran the gamut, from really wanting to go anyway, to being concerned about the responsibility for the safety and well being of 18 young people in much different circumstances than originally planned.    

Next Step Ministries, the organization on the ground, was sending their founders down to access the situation and they would call us later on that day.  In the meantime, we prayed that the Lord would clearly reveal what we should do. And He did, but not through the report we would hear from Next Step.  Out of concern for their children's safety, the parents made the decision for us and the trip was cancelled.

As Christians, we sometimes think we need to have an explanation for unexpected things like this.  We wonder why the Lord allowed this to happen after so many months of preparation and fund raising and praying and excitement.  We speculate over whether the Lord was protecting us from some disaster we may have encountered had we gone.   We wonder whether the change in circumstances was a sign that we shouldn’t go.  

I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, and how can we really?  What I do know is that I was not prepared to go, and so I was grateful we didn't.   

Unlike previous years when I was wildly enthusiastic and expectant of making a difference in the physical and spiritual lives of others, this year I was just plain tired.  I had been so busy all year long with the work of ministry that I hadn’t taken sufficient time to just be with the Lord and it showed - in exhaustion, lack of patience, spiritual dryness, and a too quick desire to drop out at the first sign of changed circumstances.  I was not in any shape to walk by faith.

Back in the spring, when things were hectic, I tried to get back on spiritual track.  For a stretch of several weeks I was leaving the house every morning for the garden of a nearby church so I could enjoy the solitude, read my Bible, and spend time in prayer.  Since it was the period of time before Easter, the sound of the church organ and the choir preparing for Good Friday and Easter accompanied my worship.  It was a glorious time of being with the Lord and simply enjoying Him.

But then ministry demands overshadowed time with the Lord and I was on the run again, focusing on the good, but missing the best, right up until the day we were to leave for West Virginia.  My life was the wrong way round – the cart before the horse – work before worship.  That should not be.

My husband and I have synchronized our calendars and they are surprisingly free of ministry events for the entire months of July and August.  I’m going to try and keep them that way.

I intend to revel in God’s Word, appreciating Him for who He is, enjoying His company.  I intend to spend uninterrupted time in prayer, being led by the Spirit to pray for those things on God’s heart.  I intend to work on the book I’m writing, and a series of studies on the life of Abraham that the Lord spoke to me about last summer.  (If procrastination was a spiritual gift I’d think I’d been blessed with it in abundance!)

This summer I hope to put worship before work.  The best before the good.

And next summer, if the Lord presents me with another opportunity to go on a missions trip, I intend to be better prepared.  

Please feel free to keep me accountable!