Vine
“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 one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring
forth more fruit. Now you are clean through 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
remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine,
you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth
much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:1-5
Jesus goes on to explain this relationship between the vine and the
branch; that if the branch does not “abide” in the vine, it withers, and is
cast out. Indeed, without the Vine, branches are pretty useless. “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast
out as a branch and is withered. And they gather and cast them into the fire,
and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall
ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. In this My Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit, so you shall be My disciples.” John 15:6-8
At our home (in the US), we have several grape vines.
One kind we have are wild, “riverbank” (without the river) grapes, that
are small and sour. Let me repeat. They are WILD. We trim them when they get in
the way, but otherwise, they are left to make it on their own. Some of the
branches sprawl out on the ground, where people and animals alike often trample
them; while a few branches cling to trees, often killing them in the process. A
few actually found their way to the fence placed there for their benefit. THESE
are the branches from which we get fruit, small, extremely sour grapes.
However, we also have another kind: concord grapes. In stark contrast,
these vines are well groomed (well, for amateurs) and produce juicy fruit. The
branches are not allowed to sprawl anywhere they want, but have been trained to
grow in a safe, well-watered, beneficial place. Some of the branches are pruned
off the plant to allow for the vine to concentrate on fruit. It actually took a
few years for us to reap the benefit of our work. Surprisingly, these vines are
the healthier, beefier ones; not the vines that are wild and left to themselves.
We wait in anticipation for Concord grapes to ripen each summer!
The question is this:
Which vine are you on?
You have to be on one of them, for we are designed to be “abiding” in
something, whether the indulgences of worldly pleasures or the simple walk of
faith.
Every once in a while I get a taste of spiritual fruit that it is SOUR.
What a wake-up call! Looking at my branch, I see that it’s attached to a vine of
selfishness, pride, slothfulness, or something similar. Yikes! When did that
happen? That is not where I want to be. That is NOT the fruit I want to be
producing. Tearfully, I cry out in repentance for God to prune that branch, and
graft it back in the True Vine. He does. Each and every time. And then, as I
abide in Him, and His Word abides in me, I begin to experience His sweet fruit.
It is well worth the work and wait!
Are you abiding in the True Vine?
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| Unripened Concord grapes before I left the US last summer. |
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