Key Scripture:

John 15:7. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Key Idea:

Here is the difference between the branch of the natural and the branch of the spiritual Vine. The former abides by force of nature: the latter abides, not by force of will, but by a divine power given to the consent of the will. Such is the wonderful provision God has made that, what the power of nature does in the one case, the power of grace will do in the other. The branch can abide in the Vine. If ye abide in me…ask whatsoeve r…
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Yes, Lord, the power to pray and the power to prevail must depend on this abiding in Thee. As Thou art the Vine, Thou art the divine Intercessor, who breathest Thy spirit in us. Oh, for grace to abide simply and wholly in Thee, and ask great things!
– Murray

Key words:
Abide,
Ask.

In this verse is the whole message of abiding. It is a two way street. As we commit to abide in Jesus, he also will abide in us. Abiding is not a demanding relationship, but one of mutual give and take.

As humans though, we are not plants, or branches. In nature, branches have no choice but to be what they are and they just grow, and produce, unless some outside force causes them to not remain with their vine.

We humans are animated. We have Read More…

Key Scripture:

John 15:7. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Key Idea:

The Whole place of the branch in the vine is one of unceasing prayer. Without intermission it is ever calling: “O my vine, send the sap I need to bear Thy
fruit.” And its prayers are never unanswered: it asks what it needs, what it will, and it is done.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Abiding fully means praying much. Ask what ye will. O my Lord, why is it that our hearts are so little able to accept these words in their divine simplicity?
Oh, give me to see that we need nothing less than this promise to overcome the powers of the world and Satan! Teach us to pray in the faith of this Thy
promise.
– Murray

Key words:
Abide,
Words,
Pray,
Receive.

At last some actions that we can do. Abiding involves prayer, a way of communication. Abiding involves words, the way we communicate. Look at the parts of this verse.

Going backwards, we have the promise that anything we ask will be given. Whatever is desired will be given. Those are some pretty far reaching words.

Can anybody really get everything they ask for? Yes, but remember that God isn’t a wishing fairy, or some kind of genii to be our wishing slave. He is the farmer who controls the branch. Branches are at the mercy of the farmer.

God wants us to grow. He likes it when we grow, so start growing.

The first part of this verse contains some really big words too.
If our prayers are more–>centered on things that involve our abiding in the vine, what ever is asked will be given. Simple. If you were to ask me for something I had, I could give it to you. If you ask for something that I don’t have, or is irelevant, I likely won’t be able to give it. The whatsoever that the verse is talking about is asking God for anything that relates to you and taking part in your place in his kingdom.

Abiding. If we are abiding, staying attached, and if the sap, the words, the Holy Spirit sent from Jesus, is flowing back into us, then we will understand what to pray about.

In his book, where these devotions are derived from, Andrew Murray talks of the Holy Spirit. Both the preceding chapters in the Gospel of John talk about the Holy Spirit. In our parrabel, the life giving sap is said to relate to the Holy Spirit and his job in this word picture.

Prayer. The Holy Spirit will guide you in what to pray for. Spend time quietly listening, meditating. Make a prayerful effort to just sit and listen.

Use your conscience, let the Holy Spirit inspire you. God wants to hear your concerns about the troubles you face. Tell him about it and leave the burden at his feet.

Pray for the small things and the big things. Pray for the close and the far. Those in your family, your close circle of friends, the people you work with. Pray for local governmental leaders and officials, move out to state and higher level leaders, and those others who serve under them.

As a prayer list grows, it may become to large to pray through in a short, devotional time. Just get as far as you can, bookmark where you left off, and start at that spot the next time you return to devotion and prayer time.

God answers prayer before we even know there is a need. Spend quality time, not necessarily lengthy time.

Prayer is like a conversation with God. Take time to stop and listen.

Key Scripture:

John 15:6. “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

Key Idea:

The lessons these words teach are very simple and very solemn. A man can come to such a connection with Christ, that he counts himself to be in Him, and yet he can be cast forth. There is such a thing as not abiding in Christ, which leads to withering up and burning. There is such a thing as a withered branch, one in whom the initial union with Christ appears to have taken place, and in whom yet it is seen that his faith was but for a time.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Withered! O my Father, watch over me, and keep me, and let nothing ever for a moment hinder the freshness that comes from a full abiding in the Vine. Let the very thought of a withered branch fill me with holy fear and watchfulness.
– Murray

Key words:
Withered,
Cast out,
Burned.

Let’s consider a normal vine. A fact of life is that some branches will, at some point, just wither and stop producing.

The same thing also happens in the spiritual context of the vine. Sometimes, what seemed to be a productive, healthy branch shrivels. A person loses their grounding, or somehow limits their contact with Jesus. While living life, swinging in the breeze, outside things begin to seem more important. Let’s not point fingers at who might be a withered branch. It just might be you. I hope not.

Rather than pointing fingers, or being judgemental. As fellow branches, there isn’t much we can do. We can encourage, we can show our concern, but the relationship for any branch is to be attached directly to the vine itself.

The only person your decisions are garanteed to affect is you alone. The motivation for abundant living, or to stay attached, or to not be distracted by outside influence, or just the desire to do your own thing, is something that each individual is in control of.

Bad decisions affect others as well, but the person making Read More…

Key Scripture:

John 15:5c. … for without Me you can do nothing.

Key Idea:

The one lesson of the parable is–as surely, as naturally as the branch abides in the vine, You can abide in Christ. For this He is the true Vine; for this God is the Husbandman; for this you are a branch. Shall we not cry to God to deliver us forever from the “apart
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Lord, I gladly accept the arrangement: I nothing–Thou all. My nothingness is my highest blessing, because Thou art the Vine, that givest and workest all. So be it, Lord! I, nothing, ever waiting on Thy fullness. Lord, reveal to me the glory of this blessed life.
– Murray

Key words:
Do Nothing.

What a concept. To be abundant in God, all you do is nothing.

Abundant life just happens when you accept your part in God’s plan.

It’s time to lay aside those old style, worldly habits. Sinful activities, and things that are not pleasing to
God. Stop doing them. Even when it comes to religious things, do only what you need to do to stay attached. Don’t over do the activities if it begins to get in the way of spending time attaching yourself to the true vine, Jesus.

Being nothing is also the result of cutting off our bond to the vine. We become nothing. Any life that is left in us is soon gone as we lay, cut off from the vine. Our busy activity has broken off from him.

Hardships come and go. Storms blow and rage. It still affects the vine, and its branches just the same as anything else in the environment. Doing nothing but staying attached, abiding, we have assurance of our place. The dead, withered branches are the ones to blow away. But more on that tomorrow.

Just what is a branch? As a unit, connected to the vine, it is a living part of the whole. By itself, it is nothing and soon dies. It can’t shoot down its own roots into the soil and be its own plant. Some plants are known to have that ability, but we’re not talking about those. Vine branches wither away when detached.

Where does the fruit come from? If we were to disect a branch to cut it apart to see what surprises are inside, all we would get is wood. There isn’t any baby fruits in there, just waiting to pop out. There is sap that flows, but the sap itself isn’t the fruit. How does it happen then? When the parts are not apart, when they are united, work can be done that is far greater than any single part.

No matter how small we feel that we are, we can be used to purposes far beyond our imagined ability. Keep on abiding.

Key Scripture:

John 15:15b. … He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; …

Key Idea:

A law can compel work: only love can spontaneously bring forth fruit. Work implies effort and labor: the essential idea of fruit is that it is the silent natural restful produce of our inner life.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

I pray you, take time and ask the Holy Spirit to give you to realize the unspeakably solemn place you occupy in the mind of God. He has planted you into His Son with the calling and the power to bear much fruit. Accept that place. Look much to God, and to Christ, and expect joyfully to be what God has planned to make you, a fruitful branch.Much fruit! So be it, blessed Lord Jesus. It can be, for Thou art the Vine. It shall be, for I am abiding in Thee. It must be, for Thy Father is the Husbandman
that cleanses the branch. Yea, much fruit, out of the abundance of Thy grace.
– Murray

Key words:
Much Fruit,
Abundance.

The order and purpose of the branches, vine and farmer have been well established in the preceding verses. A plant is what it is. As humans, we are not plants. The model spoken of is a word picture, and example of being part of God’s kingdom. As humans, we have the option to choose.

When choosing to be part of God’s plan, we are branches. We produce fruit. Not because of anything that we do. Our only real work is staying attached to the vine, and letting the production take place through us.

That’s it. All that is needed to produce fruit, and do it abundantly, is to abide, remain, stay attached. Accept the pruning of the master farmer.

You can still have a life. You can still wave freely in the breeze and enjoy the sunshine. Just stay attached, and realize that your abundant products are only because the farmer is working the vine. The true vine is working through you.

Key Scripture:

John 15:5a. “I am the vine, you are the branches. …
–NKJ

Key Idea:

Let us present ourselves before our Lord, until He speak to each of us in power, and our whole soul feels it: “I am the Vine; you are the branch.”
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Ye are the branches. This word, too Lord! O speak it in power unto my soul. Let not the branch of the earthly vine put me to shame, but as it only lives to bear the fruit of the vine, may my life on earth have no wish or aim, but to let Thee bring forth fruit through me.
– Murray

Key words:
Vine,
Branches.

Really this is about the relationship of the vine to the branches. Who the vine is, and the role it plays. Who the branches are, and the role they have.

It is about dependencies. The vine, can survive without any branch. Even if many were to leave, the vine would survive and sprout more. The vine, Jesus, is the source of life to a branch, and it’s strength.

Branches, all humans, can’t attach to another branch. Not in the context of a grapevine. Each branch needs to be attached directly to the vine. Branches, we humans, depend on what the vine gives.

So, think the concept of relationships, strength, and dependancy over. To think there is no God, or Jesus, is to be a branch that has ben cut off and to lay, dieing on the ground. Or to be some foreign plant, like weeds or thorns, that have no place in a vineyard and certainly dug out, for the vine to have the soil to itself.

Once you understand your place in God’s big picture, be the best that you can be in that position. You are a branch, so be the best one you can be.

A focal point is something we acutely need in order to negotiate the maze of choices and all the tugs-both internal and external-concerning money and possessions. In his book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster suggests,

Inwardly modern man is fractured and fragmented. He is trapped in a maze of competing attachments. One moment he makes decisions on the basis of sound reason and the next moment out of fear of what others will think of him. He has no unity or focus around which life is oriented.

Such a focal point is just what Jesus provides in Matthew 6:33 when he says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” The importance of Jesus’ words cannot be overstated. According to him, everything hinges on putting the first things first.

What would this week look like if you really sought first God’s kingdom and righteousness-particularly concerning your money and possessions? As you contemplate purchases, financial decisions, or lifestyle choices, stop and ask, “How can I seek first his kingdom and his righteousness right now in this choice?” If the answer isn’t immediately clear (and often it won’t be), consider waiting before acting, if possible. Invite a few trusted believers into the conversation. Pray about it. Let Scripture speak to you. Seek the Spirit’s guidance.

Key Scripture:

John 15:5a. “I am the vine, you are the branches. …
–NKJ

Key Idea:

… the lesson, simple as it appears, it is the key of the abiding life–that the only way to obey the command, “Abide in me,” is to have eye and heart fixed upon Himself.
–Murray

Pray for revelation:

“I am God’s Vine,” Jesus says; “all I am I have from Him; all I am is for you; God will work it in you.” I am the Vine. Blessed Lord, speak Thou that word into my soul. Then shall I know that all Thy fullness is for me. And that I can count upon Thee to stream it into me, and that my abiding is so easy and so sure when I forget and lose myself in the adoring faith that the Vine holds the branch and supplies its every need.
– Murray

Key words:
Vine,
Branches.

This is simply restating the concept of Jesus as the vine. It is about priorities. As tempting as it is to see our abundant fruit and take the credit for it, it is only due to our constant abiding with Jesus. We can do nothing unless it is through him.

it doesn’t even matter where you stand in the big picture of worldly wealth, or importance. It doesn’t matter if you have a good job, or not, or even none at all. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, or live in a big house, small house, or no house. When we stay connected to Jesus, we can grow spiritually in that place. We may not be happy in our circumstance, but joy can be found in staying attached to the vine.

As we grow in our religious activities, and grow bigger and bigger, we produce fruit, but those religious excersizes also cause us to become more woody. Remember that the wood, even productive wood must be cut back at some point. So, let Jesus work through you. Let the growth come. Use religious activity to put on some wood, because God will know how to keep you pruned back and humble. Just keep your place in the vine. As God works through the vine, let it work through you.

Stay attached, and discover the joy that can only come to our spirits from the vine. It won’t matter what the world hands our way to know that we are part of something bigger.

Key Scripture:

John 15:4b. … As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. –NKJ

Key Idea:

There is but one way for the branch to bear fruit, there is no other possibility, it must abide in unbroken communion with the vine.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Abide in Me. I have heard, my Lord, that with every command, Thou also givest the power to obey. With Thy “rise and walk,” the lame man leaped, I accept Thy word, “Abide in me,” as a word of power, that gives power, and even now I say, Yea, Lord, I will, I do abide in Thee.
– Murray

Key words:
Cannot,
Neither,
Unless.

What? A devotional on such negative ideas? People tend to think of religion in general as a bunch of negatives. Don’t do that, you can’t do this, give up all the things you like to do. That isn’t the true desire of God though.

He wants us to abide. He wants us to live an abundant life. He wants us to produce not just a little fruit, but lots of it. How can we do this?

Branches bear fruit because of one key thing, they continuously keep on staying attached to the vine. They keep on being one with the vine. The only way a branch, or we as real people, can not be fruitful is to choose to not be attached, and at one with Jesus.

Being a productive branch is a good thing. A branch still needs the vine. There is no special thing to do, no excersizes, no mental acrobatics, just keep abiding. Stay attached. Negative things like, can’t stay attached, or don’t stay attached, get in the way of a fruitful life.

Your fruits are not what you did, but what the vine has done through you.

Remove all the negatives of worldly desires that would cut us off from abiding, and all you have left is the positives. Branches bearing fruit. People living abundant lives in Jesus.

Key Scripture:

John 15:4a. “Abide in Me, and I in you. …

Key Idea:

“Abide in me”: that refers more to that which we have to do. We have to trust and obey, to detach ourselves from all else, to reach out after Him and cling to Him, to sink ourselves into Him.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Blessed Lord, Thou dost bid me abide in Thee. How can I, Lord, except Thou show Thyself to me, waiting to receive and welcome and keep me? I pray Thee show me how Thou as Vine undertaketh to do all. To be occupied with Thee is to abide in Thee. Here I am, Lord, a branch, cleansed and abiding–resting in Thee, and awaiting the inflow of Thy life and grace.
– Murray

Key words:
Abide.

Abide, as it is used in this fragment of the verse, means to continuously be abiding. Where we abide is where we live, where we set up residence. Staying with the comparison of the vine, the natural branch is at unity with the vine. They are of the same nature. The vine sends sap into the branch, and the branch circulates it back to the vine. To stay alive and be productive, the only thing the branch needs to do is keep staying attached.

There are times when a branch is grafted in. Something unique happens. Small shoots from the branch enter into the vine, and other small shoots from the vine enter into the branch. A bond is built and shared. A give and take relationship. With growth,such a bond can become just as strong as a natural branch. That new bond makes a physical connection, and builds strength. Once those firm connections are made, a foreign branch needs only to do what the natural branches are doing. Abide, stay connected to the original vine.

If you want to be a new branch, and bbe part of the Kingdom of God. Attach yourself to the vine by reading the ‘How to be Saved’ page, elsewhere on this web page. If you are somehow reading this somewhere else on the Internet, visit http://altamontfirstbaptist.org where you’ll find that page.

There is no religious ceremony, no church tradition, no rituals, nothing at all that we do to force our fruits to pop out. Who cares what the other branches are doing, or how they may move around in the winds of tribulation. Do some moving around yourself. Move in your natural places, but stay attached. Keep abiding. Preserve that unity with the vine.

It is such a simple act, just abiding. It may seem like there should be more that is required that we do. Obey, by staying attached. Trust that that simple act will be all it takes to bear fruits.

Key Scripture:

John 15:3. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Key Idea:

… it is the Word of God that is the knife, sharper than any two-edged sword, that pierces even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and is quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is only when affliction leads to this discipline of the Word that it becomes a blessing;
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Father, I pray Thee, cleanse me through Thy Word. Let it search out and bring to light all that is of self and the flesh in my religion. Let it cut away every root of self-confidence, that the Vine may find me wholly free to receive His life and Spirit. O my holy Husbandman, I trust Thee to care for the branch as much as for the Vine. Thou only art my hope.
– Murray

Key words:
Clean,
Word

Jesus brings his parrabel of the vine to the real world for this verse. He says the disciples have already been cleansed. At this moment in time, they have been growing, maturing, having the dead weight of religious ideas trimmed out. They are poised for bearing fruit, more fruit, and abundant fruit.

How were they cleansed? Murray titles this reading, ‘The Pruning Knife.’ So, where’s the knife? The cleansing, pruning, purifying, comes from the word that Jesus has spoken. His words, his teachings, the Bible, is what keeps us clean and pure. Hard times come and go, but those troubles come to everybody, even the ungodly. Enduring tough times doesn’t prune us. It proves us.

The word that is a two edged sword, that cuts to the bone, that is the knife that keeps us pruned. The same word that spoke the creation into existance. In our own lives, it’s our own words that demonstrate who we are, and how we are known. Words that can both condemn us or defend us.

Prayer is important. It keeps in a close conversation with God. His word is the thing that lays on the conviction, speaks to our conscience, and purifies us. Spend time in reading the Bible. It will help in getting to know God and his will, and speak to you about areas where pruning is called for.

Pastor Lowell shares the following excerpts from the book, “Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers: Exploring Christian Faith” written by Dr. Bill Leonard.

How do we know God?

In the beginning God … “-so Gen. 1: 1 introduces the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Christian texts echo that affirmation with the writer of Hebrews’ words that we believe God “is and … is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6 KJV). God is present in creation and draws near to those who are thus created. Like their Catholic and Protestant counterparts, Baptists start with the assertion that God exists and is the author of both creation and salvation. The First London Confession of Faith, written by Particular Baptists in 1644, begins with a statement on the nature of God:

That God as he is in himself, cannot be comprehended of any but himself, dwelling in that inaccessible light, that no eye can attain unto, whom never man saw, nor can see; that there is but one God, one Christ, one Spirit, one Faith, one Baptism; one Rule of holiness and obedience for all Saints, at all times, in all places to be observed. (Lumpkin, 156)

Baptists thus insist that God is not only “knowable” but that God seeks us out and is ready for fellowship whenever it is offered by the faithful. Perhaps it is less a question of our knowing God than it is an abiding assertion that “God knows us.”

Faith in God begins with mystery and transcendence. As the hymn declares,

Immortal, invisible, God only wise;

In light inaccessible, hid from our eyes

God is separate from us, above us, beyond us, outside us. Yet for reasons we cannot fully comprehend, God has chosen to come to us, most clearly in Jesus Christ, God’s “only begotten Son.” In Christ, the Unknowable One has become known. Thus, if Baptists begin with God, they continue with God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. In the mystery of God’s existence, Baptists sing the rest of the hymn:

Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days

Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise!

Key Scripture:

John 15:2b. … and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Key Idea:

All that is inconsistent with the most entire devotion to Christ’s service must be removed.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

O our holy Husbandman, cleanse and cut away all that there is in us that would make a fair show, or could become a source of self-confidence and glorying. Lord, keep us very low, that no flesh may glory in Thy presence. We do trust Thee to do Thy work.
– Murray

Key words:
Cleansing,
Pruning.

To produce the most abundant amounts of fruit, the branches must be closely managed. This means cutting out dead, unproductive wood. Getting rid of the unfaithful ones. With a vine, this is the farmers main job, keeping the vine clean and purged of unproductiveness.

It also means doing some removal on living, productive branches. Sometimes a branch that has gotten a little too big for its own good gets pruned back to a nub. In doing so, more sap from the vine can be devoted to fruit and less to the wood of the branch. Life lessons in humility, giving up unfruitful bad, or even good habits.

The Greek word for pruning is related to the same word used in the first part of this verse. the difference is the earlier word meant to snip, lift up and away, and toss aside. This word is a compound word that adds a word that means justly, or rightly so. That means that God, the farmer, in his infinite wisdom, knows exactly justly so, which areas to trim out to be tossed aside.

Are you feeling loss? Did God take some area of your life away, or is he dropping hints that life changes need to be made? Be a good, united branch and let the farmer decide what needs pruning. In the end you will be more productive for it.

Trials and hardships come and go, but these are just natural events of life. They are temporary things, and not the real purpose of God’s work and desire. With what is left after the storms, traumas, and prunings occur, the real mission is to stay connected. Abie. Bear fruit.

Key Scripture:

John 15:2b. … and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Key Idea:

God longs and fits for, more fruit.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Our Father which art in Heaven, Thou art the heavenly Husbandman. And Christ is the heavenly Vine. And I am a heavenly branch, partaker of His heavenly life, to bear His heavenly fruit. Father, let the power of His life so fill me, that I may ever bear more fruit, to the glory of Thy name.
– Murray

Key words:
More,
Fruit.

God wants the branches to do what comes naturally, and bear fruit. He wants the best conditions that will allow the branch to produce even more fruit. He prunes things back when necessary, but more about pruning tomorrow.

It should be encouraging that the thing a branch does by just remaining in contact with the vine, produceing fruit, is exactly what God’s desire is for us.

When we, the branches, set ourselves on bearing fruit, we will be setting our desires on the exact same things that God wants. As we recognize needs, wants, and desires that we want to be fulfilled, they will be exactly the same ones that God desires.

There is a way to always get the things you ask for in life. Ask for what the givver has to offer. Want the same things they have to give.

Keep in unity with Jesus, and allow God to do his work in you.

Key Scripture:

John  15:2a.  “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; …

Key Idea:

… fruit is the one thing the branch is for, and that if it bear not fruit, the husbandman takes it away.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Our Father, Thou comest seeking fruit. Teach us, we pray Thee, to realize how truly this is the one object of our existence, and of our union to Christ. Make it the one desire of our hearts to be branches, so filled with the Spirit of the Vine, as to bring forth fruit abundantly.
– Murray

Key words:
Fruit – one of those words that translates very well from Greek to English. It means exactly what you think it should. Fruit.
Take Away – to lift up and away.

The purpose of the branch is to bear fruit. Sometimes it feels like life is a fruitless experience, and bearing fruit is just too much extra work. But think of this, all a branch does to produce fruit is to just stay attached to the vine. Fruit comes naturally.

No matter how hard the storms rage, and the wind blows, and the branch waves around, the branch that stays attached just keeps on bearing fruit. All that waving in the breeze doesn’t add to, or take away from the fruit producing. Even if the fruit falls off, don’t worry, there’s more where that came from.

Seriously, when life bogs us down, long hours are worked, family life has us stressed, a medical emergency arises, in all those ways the storms of life rage against us, and our branch is waving around out there in the breeze, all we need to do is stay connected. Branches bear fruit naturally. If feelings are dead, reconnect, check your Read More…

Key Scripture:

John  15:2a.  “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; …

Key Idea:

The branch is exactly like the vine in every aspect–the same nature, the same life, the same place, the same work. In all this they are inseparably one.
– Murray

Pray for revelation:

Lord Jesus, I pray Thee, reveal to me the heavenly mystery of the branch, in its living union with the Vine, in its claim on all its fullness. And let Thy all-sufficiency, holding and filling Thy branches, lead me to the rest of faith that knows that Thou workest all.
– Murray

Key words:
Branch.

Before a vine can produce fruit, there needs to be a branch. More on fruit tomorrow, but to continue the comparison of Jesus to the vine, we are the branches. Focus on that idea. The vine is the main trunk of the plant. It grows in the ground and provides life giving nourishment for the branches.

A vine doesn’t normally grow fruit on it directly, it grows branches, and those branches is where the fruit is produced.

There needs to be unity. The branch needs Read More…

Key Scripture:

John  15:1b.  …and My Father is the vinedresser.

Key Idea:

A vine must have a husbandman to plant and watch over it, to receive and rejoice in its fruit.
–Murray

Pray for revelation:

Blessed Father, we are Thy husbandry. Oh, that Thou mayest have honor of the work of Thy hands! O my Father, I desire to open my heart to the joy of this wondrous truth: My Father is the Husbandman. Teach me to know and trust Thee, and to see that the same deep interest with which Thou caredst for and delightedst in the Vine, extends to every branch, to me too.
–Murray

Key words:
husbandman, farmer, or vinedresser. Literally a word that means “land worker”. Take your pick on which aggricultural job description to use.

Jesus has declared that he is the vine. A living, growing, living plant. He now declares that his father, God, is the farmer.

A plant grows and can produce fruit, but how did it get there? Somebody had to plant it. The soil the plant is growing in is kept cultivated, and nurtured. It needs a farmer. God’s roll in the universal scheme of things is as high above that of Jesus, as a farmer is above the vine. He keeps the Read More…

Marriage and family therapists diagnose and treat mental and emotional issues and concerns within marriages, couples, and families. They offer free pregnancy tests, post-abortion counseling, assistance for the Mother-to-Be (finding a doctor, available social services, nice maternity clothes, new and used baby clothes, baby furniture, baby layette), teen mother support, and a quarterly newsletter for Moms.

Key Scripture:

John 15:1a. “I am the true vine, …

Key Idea:

All earthly things are the shadows of heavenly realities–the expression, in created, visible forms, of the
invisible glory of God.
–Murray

Pray for revelation:

HolyLord Jesus, the heavenly Vine of God’s own planting, I beseech Thee, reveal Thyself to my soul. Let the Holy Spirit, not only in thought, but in experience, give me to know all that Thou, the Son of God, art to me as the true Vine.
–Murray

Key words:
True.

From a Greek word where we get our word for allegiance. The form of the word and the way it is used means that Jesus is the ‘True One’. He is true, he is real. Truth can be a dificult concept for some people. Jesus also compares himself to a vine. Ah, something that can be seen, touched, and understood. A vine, a living, growing plant. Jesus says Read More…

The purpose behind today’s post, as well as those that will follow, are about daily discipleship. Some of the things I hope to accomplish are:

• To learn about God.
• To live according to what is learned from reading the daily scripture.
• To be accountable to others by sharing in a public place.
• To encourage readers to share their own reflections, and also to put into practice the topics that are being studied.

Accountability. You will notice that I post these devotional readings annonymously. It is not to avoid being accountable. Please use the comment feature on this page to hold me accountable for what I say. It wouldn’t take much work to discover who I am. I would rather that you spend that effort in focusing on these daily readings. It will benefit you more than trying to discover who I am. I have my reasons for being annonymous, but if it bugs you that much, tell me, and I’ll let you know.

Discipleship and devotional time isn’t about me, it’s about God, and how we grow to know him better, and show evidence of him in our lives.

This upcoming study material is a 31 day course in discipleship titled, The True Vine, by Andrew Murray. I’ll be using snippets from his book, add my own reflections, and leave it up to any readers to contribute comments as well.

Andrew Murray’s book, the True Vine, which is in the public domain, can be read in it’s entirety at:

http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Fellowship/Murray.The.True.Vine.html

The link to the book is off this web site, and is out of my control. The link worked when I posted it, but there’s no promise whether it will continue to be valid.

Please, feel free to download the book. Glance ahead. Read Andrew Murray’s entire commentary. However, try Read More…