Tag: John 15

Our Valentine Promises

The true Valentine keeps promises to His own.

To all who receive Him, He makes their heart His home.

He is the Vine, our Valentine.

He asks that we abide and unite with His Word and fruit will come forth bringing glory to the Lord:

Speak aloud age-old hymns and be revived in the soul. Actively respond, and discover, it is so:

“Quicken’d by thee, and kept alive, I flourish and bear fruit; My life I from thy sap derive, My vigour from thy root. 

I can do nothing without thee; My strength is wholly thine: Wither’d and barren should I be, If sever’d from the vine. (1)

He is faithful. That we might trust Him more and more.

Faith grows as we hear His Letters of love. Ears that hear, with souls refreshed, as words are read of Jesus’ faithfulness:

“Come just as you are, for Jesus invites Poor sinners to share substantial delights: Ye weary and burden’d who happy would be, And wish to be pardon’d, come listen to me.”

“The ear of your heart if you will incline To you I’ll impart my fulness divine, Your souls by my Spirit made meet for the sky, The life shall inherit which never shall die.” (2)

Valentine comfort. Valentine hope. This is Jesus, to all whose heart will take hold.

“My precious Lord, for thy dear name I bear the cross, despise the shame; Nor do I faint while thou art near; I lean on thee; how can I fear?

No other name but thine is given To cheer my soul in earth or heaven; No other wealth will I require; No other friend can I desire.”

Yea, into nothing would I fall For thee alone, my All in All; To feel thy love, my only joy; To tell thy love, my sole employ.”(3)

He makes beauty from ashes. Will you join me in praise? His Name together, with thankful hearts, raise!

(1) From Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible

(2) From Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible

(3) From Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible

Picture Credit: LegacyandCo

To be fruitful

Worship.

Wait.

Worship still.

Occupy, watch, wait some more, being nourished by daily water in His Word.

With continual Love from the Son, and grace sufficient for each day to abide, rejoice that He produces the fruit of joy in our soul.

Rejoice always. He alone is good.

He will do what He has said He would.

 “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.  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.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love” John 15:5-9.

Abiding Branches

There’s a struggle, a pull, to break away, to break off.

Abide? Remain. What are reasons? Why the effort?

Fruit.

Fruit is the reason we must abide. Fruitfulness is a reason to remain. Without abiding in the Vine, there will be no fruit. Nada, nothing. No love, no peace, no gentleness. No power for obedience.

God’s Word says,

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 . . . 

 John 15:5.

So, first we must surrender to the Vine, as a branch.

Easier said than done, for most of us. But fruit is a desire. How we want in our lives the fruit of the Spirit. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.”

 

 

Oh, there are plenty of examples of faithlessness in the Bible. Not in God, ever, but in man, often.

I think of Jonah. A man of God. A prophet. A book of the Bible is all about him. But there is no covering. This man is written up exactly as he was.

God gave him a job. Jonah ran the other way.

But God loved him and sent a big storm. Yes. And a bit of a drowning. And a whale for a lifeguard, that later spit him up on dry ground.

Hey, this could look, from certain perspectives, (lacking faith and God’s point of view,)  as if God messed up somehow.

But read the book of Jonah with open ears and heart, and discover the beauty of trial. It kills pride and spits us up on a solid ground of humbleness.

So, “What does all this have to do with fruit?”

Well, Jonah was broken after the steamy, hot trial of being trapped in the belly of a whale. And it brought a complete surrender. Jonah was now ready to let God lead his steps.

He willingly put off his pride, due to great brokenness, and put on a garment of humbleness.

Perhaps we can say, Jonah was now ready to “abide.”

He hears our thoughts, He receives us to Himself, even though He knows full well, we are full of faithlessness.  He grafts us into the Vine which is Christ. And instructs us gently to keep close focus on Him, not enlarging the wisdom of man above His ways.

Like insects clinging to the leaf to sap strength, we must “put off” those things that invoke fear and lack of hope:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God, Colossians 3:1-3.

“But everyone else s doing it,” we might think at times. But we are called to abide:

” . . . now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices,” Colossians 3:8,9.

Only in abiding do we have power to put off all of these.

To abide is not to do as we “naturally” want.

Fruit. Fruit is the desire.

“Self-control, please.”

Second, to focus on the Vine increases  faith with hope for tomorrow and contentment for today that the Living waters of life and peace might flow through our veins:

 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, as I also remain in you, John 15:2-4.

Through the Word we are cleansed. Through God’s Word we are branches trained up:

Having, “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator,” Colossians 3:10.

Yes, the third ingredient to successful abiding that fruit might be ours, is “renewal” of the mind, day in, day out. Taking our own inventory first and not worrying about everybody else. (Perhaps, this proves to be the biggest test!)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will,” Romans 12:1,2.

And to help us keep our focus on things we have power to change:

 Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 

 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others, Romans 12:3-5.

Fourth, is the encouragement of community together. To hold each other up. To be watered with the Word. To hope together, to never give up. To look at the good and grow in God’s love:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things, Philippians 4:8.

God is faithful. God is Steadfast. God is merciful. God is Shelter for us. We praise Him who is perfect in all that He is, and ask Him to give us sufficient grace to face the trials we feel.

So, fifth, and finally we who abide can have power to clothe ourselves, as it flows from inside:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity, Romans 12:12,13,14.

Fruit on the branch that abides in the Vine waves with the move of the Spirit, each new day that it yields:

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 

 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts, Col.3:15.

A song of praise to remind us to continue and remain. Love and thankfulness are continually ours in His presence:

 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him, Colossians3: 16-17.

Let us abide in the Lord and bear fruit in this day. With the Lord’s Spirit flowing through our veins!

 

 

 

 

 

The Seed of Love is Jesus

Songs…touching  places that can’t be reached in common conversation. Poetry, songs, hymns and psalms plus some  added strings for vibration – and the waters of our soul are touched and what was without hope… is moved again, to believe. Oh, the songs that we sing…
The world can leave us bitter and torn all apart, and our mind will form its own truth as it recovers from a bleeding heart.  The words of a song have been written and some do know its tone:
“Some say love, it is a river that drowns the tender reed
 Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed
 Some say love, it is a hunger an endless aching need…” (The Rose, Bette Midler),
but somehow, in the emptiness, in the coldness of it all -the Creator of the Universe, has created the answer in hidden places –  in pictures for us all. It might take a whole life-time, or perhaps as young as 5 or even 10 – but I change one letter of an old beloved song, and capitalize the ‘you’… to ‘You’ – it’s the birth of hope… again:
“I say love, it is a flower and You, it’s only seed”. (The Rose, capitalized the ‘you’, by me.)
Yes, I say Love, it is a flower, and You, it’s only Seed.
 The day we choose to believe, the day we choose to receive…each day upon another, step by step growing in Him the ‘Seed’ of hope for today, the ‘Seed’ of hope for tomorrow, we discover through the endless wait and the perseverance of time…that what He says is ‘true’ and the grasping of it all is HOPE DIVINE: (John 15:1-11):
“[]I am the true Vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that continues to bear fruit, He [repeatedly] prunes, so that it will bear more fruit [even richer and finer fruit]. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have given you [the teachings which I have discussed with you].4 Remain in Me, and I [will remain] in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself without remaining in the vine, neither can you [bear fruit, producing evidence of your faith] unless you remain in Me. 5 []I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for [otherwise] apart from Me [that is, cut off from vital union with Me]you can do nothing.”
This is the Word of God, which cleanses and makes you free.
 The rose, has incredible beauty… but there are thorns, oh yes, we know. His word pours forth beauty but there are thorns of warning – yes, ‘the Bible tells me so’:
 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken off] branch, and withers and dies; and they gather such branches and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
These are hard words, but perhaps these words will SAVE our lives!
Perhaps that’s why many reject His Truth, because they only look at the consequences of what it’s like if one never turns. But, oh, I pray so passionately, but not even close to His passionate prayers, that all would see Him as He is, willing to take the heat, be beat, take the thorns, take the scorn, walk the via Delorosa for lost souls like me, in pain beyond belief and weakness unimaginable…oh, I pray that the people of this world would finally see…
“It’s the heart, afraid of breaking that never learns to dance
It’s the dream, afraid of waking that never takes the chance
It’s the one who won’t be taken who cannot seem to give
And the soul, afraid of dying that never learns to live…” (the Rose by Bette Midler).
And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live…
When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long
And you think that Love is only for the lucky and the strong…
“Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snow
Lies the Seed that with the Son’s love, in the spring becomes The Rose”. (the Rose by Bette Midler, with some capitals and letter changes, mine!)
“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” (John 12:23), Jesus came, Jesus died, Jesus rose that we might live, He is the Rose of Sharon the Lily of the Valley, He is life in me, when in fact I choose to die:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. (John 12: 24). 
“He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John chapter twelve verse 25.
The Seed of Love is Jesus. Oh, yes, the Seed has a very piercing point…but allow God to plant His Seed of Love in your hurting and broken heart. He is so beautiful and so powerful so great and so mighty, that you will be changed from sorrow to joy – yes, let Him touch and anoint!
 
“When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snow…
Lies the Seed of the Son’s Love, in the spring becomes the Rose (the Rose by Bette Midler, modified to bring glory to the Creator and Lover of our souls, by me).
Today let Him abide in your heart, simply ask Him in. It’s easy, yet oh so hard for us humans…Jesus is patient and long-suffering!