27 April 2016 - real fruit flavor

Guess which part is you.

[ Today's Readings ]

Help us to remain in you Jesus. We need the life which we can only get from you. We can't bear fruit apart from you.

I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.

Help us to remain in you even in seasons of pruning. Pruning can hurt. It seems like losing parts of ourselves. But really it is just removing wasted effort. It is removing parts of us that aren't bearing fruit. In other words, it is removing the selfish parts of us. Precisely because they are the selfish parts of us we cling to them tightly. And precisely because we cling so tightly it hurts to lose them. But they are actually useless. They don't bear fruit. They're lifeless! Help us to let them go. If we insist on holding on we risk becoming entirely what these dead and withered pieces are.

Anyone who does not remain in me
will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
people will gather them and throw them into a fire
and they will be burned.

There is a less painful option, LORD, if we are willing to let ourselves be pruned. If we accept the word you speak to us that very word prunes us. Rather than insisting on learning the hard way, rather than chasing after things which do not satisfy, and seeking life where there is no life, we can choose to learn the easy way. We can trust your word enough that we don't have to test it out for ourselves.

You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.

After all, this word itself can cut. 

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (see Hebrews 4:12).

The experience of it actually doing this is different from mere reading. It is actually quite intense.

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (see Acts 2:37).

Now we are able to let go of things we need to let go. Whereas once circumcision was and the Mosaic law were required for salvation they now no longer are. There are plenty of things in our lives which are good for a season but then no longer bear fruit. We must remain supple. We can't just be open to being pruned once. As longing as we continue to grow we need it. Jesus, help us to choose the easy way. Help us remain in your word! This is the journey we're on and it is meant to be joyful.

I rejoiced because they said to me,
“We will go up to the house of the LORD.”
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.