Notes of Faith July 30, 2024
8,000 Dead Branches
I am the true vine…. I am the vine, you are the branches.
John 15:1, 5
The so-called “Tree of Life” is as dead as a rock, but it’s still impressive to see. In the middle of Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, it towers upward 145 feet, and more than 300 animals are carved into its trunk. It’s patterned after a baobab tree, with more than 8,000 branches and approximately 102,000 artificial leaves. Yet no roots pull nutrients from the soil, and no fruit grows on its limbs.
John 15:1-9
"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 bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
NASU
Jesus Christ is alive, and in His John 15 metaphor, we are living branches connected to Him. The “sap” of the Holy Spirit flows from His life into ours, and as we abide with Him in unbroken fellowship, we will bear fruit—the qualities and attitudes of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the source of life. Some people may be like impressive trees towering over the rest of us. They may even seem to do all the right things, but in reality they are not connected to Him. They are as dead as Disney’s famous tree. Abide in Him daily through consistent fellowship in His Word, and you’ll find Him as the center and source of life today.
We need Jesus like we need oxygen. Like we need water. Like the branch needs the vine.
John Eldredge
The truth of life is that all things will die except that which belongs to God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Believers in Jesus are the only eternal beings that will live with Him forever, blessed beyond our current understanding and imagination, loved more than we love back, even now receiving grace upon grace and forgiveness for our sin, redeemed into perfect relationship with the God of life! Live in and with the truth of life, not the false deceit of this world.
Pastor Dale