[nazerene] *Life in God's Vineyard

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 05:51:11 -0800

 
 
Life in God's Vineyard
 
(John 15:1-8 KJV) 
Jesus said,
 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
{2} Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:
and every branch that beareth fruit,
 he purgethG=cleanses, prunes) it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
{3} Now ye are clean(G=pruned) through the word which I have spoken unto you.
 
{4} Abide(G=make your home) in me, and I in you.
 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine;
no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
 {5} I am the vine, ye are the branches:
He that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me ye can do nothing.
 
{6} If a man abide not in me,
he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
{7} If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
{8} Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;
so shall ye be my disciples.
 
 While lying in a hospital bed a while back, I was watching a travel show about Italy. The host was talking to a man who raised grapes for wine-making, and this grower was talking about the philosophy of raising grapes for good wine. He made this statement...
 
"In order to get good wine you have to make the grapes suffer...you have to 'stress' the plant. The best grapes are grown from the poorest soil, in fact there is an Italian saying among grape growers that goes "the poorer the soil you plant me in, the richer I'll make you".
 
In addition, he said that if you want good wine from your grapes, you don't water them liberally either. In fact, in Italy it is against the law to artificially water a grape vine at all. When you treat them in this way, the root has to go down deep into the soil for the water, and thus becomes stronger, thereby becoming better able to bring nourishment to the fruit-producing vine.
 
Furthermore, you don't allow too many leaves on one vine or too many bunches of grapes, otherwise the leaves take all the energy from the plant and not enough energy goes into making the fruit large and delicious.
 
And you have to prune back any bunches of weak fruit so that the stronger bunches can flourish. Pruning is so important, that in Michigan grape- growing technology, there is a regular science of pruning, with mathematical formulas for the ratio of the weight of branches and leaves to the weight of fruit you want to develop for maximum quality of fruit.
 
It is then that I thought of a plant we had in the backyard of our old house. It seemed to be a grapevine, but it was mostly leaves and the "grapes" were inedible and tiny. It was just a nuisance plant, and we eventually cut it down and burned it. After hearing all this about what care a real grape plant needs to make useable grapes,  I began to wonder if we actually did have a real grape vine there, but since we knew nothing about all this care and pruning and husbandry, it was virtually worthless and fruitless. Apparently, real grapes don't just happen by accident. 
 
Can you see here a parallel between our own lives and the symbolism of the vine and the branches that Jesus gives in the verses from John 15? God is looking for useable fruit from us, not just leaves and stems. What is fruit? It is both character and reproduction. God wants us to flourish and become more Christ-like, and thus bring many more souls into the Kingdom. But in order to do this, apparently we must suffer so that we focus on God in our time of need, and dig down deep into His word for answers and guidance during times of stress.
 
But we like our lives to go swimmingly along with no adversity, and we even tend to get angry at God when things go wrong and we have to suffer. But God is a wise gardener. He knows that when things are going too well, the quality of our christian growth can suffer. We can develop bad habits or a prideful attitude. We may start to focus our attention on worldly pursuits and issues, and lose sight of the eternal perspective of life. Even non-christian psychologists will tell you that a person does not really make any significant change in their lives unless brought to a state of crisis. And so suffering is actually our "friend", and not our "enemy".
Remember,
 
(Rom 8:28 KJV)
  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose.
 
 
(2 Cor 4:15-18 KJV) 
 For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God.
{16} For which cause we faint not;
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
{17} For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
 worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
{18} While we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen:
for the things which are seen are temporal;
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
 
(2 Cor 5:1-10 KJV) 
 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
{2} For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon
with our house which is from heaven:
 {3} If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
{4} For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened:
not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon,
 that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
{5} Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God,
who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
{6} Therefore we are always confident,
 knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body,
 we are absent from the Lord:
 {7} (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
 {8} We are confident, I say,
 and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
 {9} Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
{10} For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;
that every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad.
 
May God Bless You this day,
as you flourish and bear fruit in His Vineyard.
In Christ....brother bob......<><
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