“I am the Vine... Peace!” John 15:1-2; Eph 5:22

One wonders how the pruning hook will be used by God to give us more and better peace, than we already experience.  Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my Peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."  Did you see it?  Jesus said don’t LET your hearts be troubled and don’t LET you hearts be afraid.

It seems to me that God wants us to be in control of the direction of our hearts!  We have the ability to LET our hearts do things that are contrary to the will of God as well as doing the will of God.  I don’t think that He was kidding when He gave this command.  And He also adds: (Phil 4:7) “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”^NIV

So, He guards, that is to say that, He is the sentry that stands to alert us of upcoming danger to our heart.  He sounds a warning of things that will disturb the peace He gives, things that will trouble our hearts.  To me the question is “Which ears are we listening with to hear His voice of alert?”  Is it our physical ears or our spiritual ears that we use the most and are the most sensitive?

We tend to listening with our physical ears more than our spiritual ears. We tend to “go with the flow” of bad news that is happening around us.  When Jesus told us of his coming, did He not say, (Luke 21:28) “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near?"^NIV

The pruning takes place when we do not listen to the Master’s warning of upcoming danger.  Instead we take it upon ourselves to be independent and make the choices on our own.  It is then that we lose our peace and our hearts become troubled and afraid.  When we don’t ask for wisdom in buying a new car, for example we go ahead and make the deal because it sounds like such a good deal and anyway we really like the looks of the car.  After a while we learn that it needs daily repair and nickel and dimes us to death.  Some of you know what I am talking about.

The only way to have real peace and keep our hearts from trouble and fear is to be totally committed to, and obedient to God’s leadership asking for His wisdom in everything.  In everything! 

I really know what I’m talking about because I have had the pruning hook used on me.  I now listen hard with my spiritual ears for the voice that knows and has my best interest at heart.  Your fearful and troubled heart just told on you were you listening?

Just a Thought.

“I am the Vine... JOY!” John 15:1-2; Eph 5:22

Many Comedians are funny because they were brought up in a rather difficult way.  Many had alcoholic parents along with physical and emotional abuse.  They tell of having to be funny in at an early age in order to compensate for the sadness in their childhood.  Just about any Comedian’s life story is sadder than the average person. 

As we look at JOY, we know that happiness is the outward demonstration of JOY. Men have pursued JOY in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it while others have not. Perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found:

Not in Unbelief -- Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: "I wish I had never been born."
Not in Pleasure -- Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: "The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone."
Not in Money -- Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: "I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth."
Not in Position and Fame -- Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: "Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret."
Not in Military Glory -- Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, "There are no more worlds to conquer."
Peter Sellers – Said, “I don’t know how it is that I am so talented and rich and yet I am incredibly unhappy.” (The Bible Friend, Turning Point, May, 1993).

Where then is real joy found? -- The answer is simple, in Christ alone.                                                                                 

It is my thought that JOY only comes from complete obedience to the will of God.  When we know that we are in the exact center of God’s will for our lives.  Joy is an inward feeling of the Spirit of man that knows that he is in a right relationship with his God.

I must admit that I don’t see much JOY in our churches today.  We see a lot of entertaining things that wow our parishioners for a while then they seem to want more “frillies” in the service.  Still there is no JOY shown.  C. S. Lewis said, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite JOY is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”  Do you suppose he is right?

I have two grand-daughters, Jessica and Jennifer, which give me great JOY!  I feel the same JOY in Jesus when I take time to stop and contemplate who He is and how He relates to me day after day.

Just a Thought

John 15:1-2 What kind of fruit do you produce?

Jesus said He is the “TRUE” vine. And He is!  He said the Father will prune the branches, that are us, we who follow Christ.  He will prune unproductive branches that bear poor fruit and will cut off branches that bear no fruit at all.  We as Christians have a dilemma.  We must produce fruit and if we do not we will be pruned.  There are no exceptions.  I know that some feel that they have arrived in the center of God’s will and need no more attention to their fruit bearing, but Jesus says that it is an ongoing process.  If we bear fruit He will prune us so we can bear much richer fruit.

Let me ask:  Have you felt God’s pruning hook lately?  Have you prayed for the pruning hook to be used so you can bear better fruit?  If not, why not? 

Let’s look at “LOVE.” We start out with the kind of love that is self-centered.  Everything for me and I am the center of all attention.  As we grow older we find out that the world is made up, chiefly, of other people, some worthy of our love and others not so worthy.  When grafted into the “TRUE VINE” we experience the kind of love that is expected of us in Christ.  Now we are traveling to the other end of the spectrum, where we love all humanity and want to share with anyone the love God has shown us.

Along the way, we feel we are entitled to a mild relapse, and we begin not to love as we should.  God comes with his pruning hook and prunes us so we get back on the track to “perfect love,” so we can be more like Him.  What does it feel like when God is pruning us?  Believe me it is not easy to have the Father prune us in the Love category.  We are shown how selfish we have been and we need to go to that person or group of persons and ask forgiveness for bearing the wrong fruit toward them.  It could be family members, or relatives, or friends or even strangers.  It is far better to love the unloved, than to go back and ask forgiveness.

I had my car repaired at a dealership.  I was in a hurry!  I needed to get out of there because of some meeting or appointment that I thought, at the time, was very important.  I spoke harshly to the cashier about how slow the repair had been.  God didn’t say anything right then to bring me to my senses.  I left in haste and did whatever it was I was going to do.  I knew that I was justified in what I had said what I did, to the little girl taking the money.

Several days later I was driving by the dealership and was suddenly alarmed with conviction that I had had the wrong attitude and spoken too harshly.  I tried to shrug it off but every time I went by the dealership I felt the same sting in my heart.  One day as I was passing by, about a weeks later, I was tired of the struggle and I pulled in and went to the little girl and asked her forgiveness for being so sharp and acting like I did.  She said, “It doesn’t matter, I get that all the time.”  I replied, “It really matters to me and I want you to know how deeply sorry I am for that incident.  I know better and I shouldn’t have spoken to you in that way!”  I left the dealership, not with joy in my heart, but remorse that I had to be pruned so that I could bear better fruit.  It hurt and it has become a guard to my heart not to speak in that manner to anyone ever again.

How can we be pruned if we don’t feel the pruning hook of God?

Just a thought!
Jerry