Five Minute Friday {Remain}

I love the way vines grow.  

They delicately twist and twirl around anything that stands still.  

Branches and leaves cling.

Life pulses through the sturdy stalks 

Boasting branches grow in a chaotic pattern. 

Flowers wave in the gentle breeze.  

Fruit weighs and bends.  

The lovely green-leafed carpets steadfastly cover latticed structures.

Beauty remains as long as it is connected.

"I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."  John 15:5

Remaining comes with a promise, 

that if we stay attached to 

connected with 

abide in

dwell among

or inhabit

we will have God's life surging through our course branches.

If we allow God's Spirit to abide in us

dwell among us

we will bear 

His fruit

 love...joy

 peace...patience

 kindness...goodness 

 faithfulness...gentleness

and self-control.

Remain.In.Jesus.
Remain.Life.Beauty.

Root.Grow.Bear [John 15]

The Word for Wednesday is John 15: 1- 17 and is one of my favorite sections of red threads found in the New Testament.  I love the word picture that John (the one that Jesus "loved") brings with the vine and the branches.  It's easy to relate that God is the Gardner, Christ is the Vine and we as believers and followers in Christ are the branches.  The branches, if they are to have any kind of fruit or flowers, must get life from the stalk or the trunk of the plant. Each branch or segment of growth has to be rooted or attached to it's main source of nutrition or it dies....becomes useless. 

Stay connected.  It is noted that without the constant contact to the main there is no life or fruit.  Invest in your own spiritual harvest.  Read God's truth daily.  Let His words soak in like a soft spring rain and penetrate the soil of your soul.  Let the Spirit germinate seeds.


Stay pruned.  Allow the shears.  There is one word in verses 2 - 3 that jumps off the page to me.  "Hecuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more.  Did you catch it? ...every branch  While growing we will be pruned.  We need to be pruned, all and every part of our heart, for our own good, for our own fruit-bearing, for His fruit harvest.  If we don't allow the shears, then how will we grow?  To be God's best, change must happen.  To bear fruit, pruning is needed to cut away the deadwood, to rid the the branches of the parts that won't produce fruit.  And as we bear fruit, pruning is needed to bring better and more plentiful growth.  We should welcome the always constant chopping and lopping of His shears, to rid us of the unwanted and undesirable growth. 

Stay with the Gardner.  When we join in with the growth process, there is intimacy with the One who sows.  The Master tenders the buds of growth and young fruit.  His love, mercy, and grace brings forth mature and robust fruit.  

Stay rooted....in God, in Truth, in Love.  Bear fruit in His Name.  


Hear the Word on Wednesday.