John 15-4

 What is God moving you to do?  How is God promoting you to be different than you ever have been?  For me, God is nudging me to clean up my mental mess. I need to quit worrying about non essential issues and simplify priorities. I was asked this week about my reaction to the inauguration. The question really wasn’t a sincere interest in my thoughts, but an introduction to the other person’s long rant. What hit me was I wanted to change the discussion toward eternal priorities, to what God might be doing in a global scale to place all things in place for His purpose. I wanted to point out the many things I sense God doing with bringing college students to Christ, how Muslims are experiencing an awakening to Jesus as never before, how the Bible is being downloaded and read globally far more than I the U.a.  But I didn’t. I want to get better at cleaning my up my fog and be ready for deeper discussions. 

“Try to hear what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is talking about a deep sense of belonging. A deep listening. Obedience means listening with your whole body.  Jesus is the obedient one. He is always listening to the Father. He is always connected to the source from where he comes. He never feels alone. Even when people betray him, even when people nail him to the cross, spit in his face, and flagellate him, he never loses the connection with God. Even when he doesn’t feel it anymore he doesn’t lose it. When he says, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” he doesn’t feel God’s presence, but he knows. He says, “My Father never leaves me alone.” It is there that the joy is anchored. It is anchored in that connection.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus by Henri J. M. Nouwen

“Every branch that bears fruit He prunes: The Greek word for “prunes” is the same word translated “cleanse” in other places. This word could apply to either “pruning” or “cleansing” in ancient Greek. The vinedresser cleans up the fruit-bearing vine so it will bear more fruit. 

Leon Morris explains, “Left to itself, a vine will produce a good deal of unproductive growth. For maximum fruitfulness, extensive pruning is essential.” 

Merrill C. Tenney applies this to the Christian life: “Dead wood is worse than fruitlessness, for dead wood can harbor disease and decay…God removes the dead wood from His church and disciplines the life of the believer so that it is directed into fruitful activity.” - Based on The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik.