The
Root
– The
Shoot
– The
Fruit
Marie
McGaha
~ One ~
In The Vineyard
“I am the true vine, and My Father is
the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does
not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may
bear more fruit. You are already clean
because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you,
unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I
in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is
cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide
in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be
done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you
bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
John 15:1-8
~ * ~
My sitting room is
decorated with wall hangings depicting vineyards, grapes, wine, and my favorite
has this verse on it. Everything that I am as a Christian is in these eight
verses. It defines who Christ is to us, who we are to Christ, and how we are to
live as His children. I spend several minutes every day reading just these
verses, and since I have to pass by the sitting room to get to the laundry
room, I always take the time to pause and look at what I have chosen as my
inspiration for not only the room, but for my life.
I would like to be able to say that I
have always used these verses as my guide in life but that just isn’t so. Like
fine wine, I had to age a bit to be able to understand the simplicity of God’s
word and how to apply it to my life. I wasn’t raised in a godly home but
thankfully, I had a godly grandmother whose influence from those summer visits
stayed with me.
Life can be complicated and as such, I
believe we make God and His word just as complicated. I know I did. However,
after years of making a mess of my life, I finally decided there had to be a
way to get through my years on earth that didn’t hurt quite so much. I came
back to the One I knew had been there all my life even through the messes I had
made, the trouble I had borrowed, the people I chose to associate with. God had
never left nor forsaken me (Joshua 1:5), it was I who had left God. And
although He had always been there, He did leave me to my own defenses until I
finally gave up in the knowledge that my defenses were pretty flimsy at best.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
How quickly we tend to forget that
kind of all-encompassing love! How quickly we pull away and try to do
everything on our own, in our own way. We were never intended to live apart
from God. We were never intended to be thrown under the bus of life. Quite the
contrary, we were intended to live life fully. To live life loved beyond measure,
(John 10:10). To live life safely in the arms of God.
We were created
in the image of God in both body (Genesis 1:27) and in spirit (Ephesians 4:24).
We have a God-shaped hole inside of us, yet we spend our lives trying to fill
that hole with everything but God! We use sex, drugs, alcohol, rock stars,
movie stars, music, sports, fast cars, wealth, food, everything under Heaven
except that which we were created for – God.
None of the things of this world can
fill that hole God created within us that yearns for Him. Romans 12:2 tells us
to not be “conformed to this world,”
yet, from the time we can crawl, we are fascinated by the things of the world.
Not all are bad of course, it’s human to want things but it’s how we use them,
and what we use them for, that defines its worth.
Having money isn’t bad. We all need
money to live but when money becomes all we think we need, and it becomes all
we seek to have, our intentions have gone haywire and money has become our god.
Listening to music isn’t bad. Music is
pleasurable, relaxing, motivating and part of our being that God put inside of
us. But when we begin identifying with lyrics that do not magnify the Lord, or
draw our attention away from the important things in our lives, then we’ve made
music our god.
Food is a good thing. We need to eat
to stay healthy but when we allow food to become our focus, our bodies begin to
rebel. We gain weight, arteries harden, and diabetes can develop, along with
heart problems, high cholesterol, and a myriad of other maladies. Food has
become our god.
The list goes on. Anything that takes
our focus off of God is not good for us. Our spirit weakens, our lives get out
of control, and we lose our sense of direction. God is our magnetic north and
His Word is our compass. Anytime we allow ourselves to wander off of His
course, the life path He has planned for each of us, our lives become something
other than what God wants for us. In order to stay on course, we need to be
firmly grounded in God’s Word. That is the root of our existence. Without a
good root system, nothing grows strong.
Anyone who has ever tried to grow
plants, flowers, or a vegetable garden, knows that there is a process to
getting what you want out of what you plant. When you grow plants, you expect
green healthy stalks and leaves. With flowers, you expect tulips from tulip
bulbs, roses from rosebushes, and from a vegetable garden, you expect each type
of vegetable to produce its own fruit.
But you don’t just toss bulbs or seeds
outside on the ground and wait for them to grow. You till up the ground, you
might have to bring in good soil if you live in an area like I do. The ground
is mostly rock, and what soil we have is red clay, so we had to build up garden
beds and bring in soil to fill them. The soil has to have water and fertilizer
to be healthy enough for the plants to develop a good root system. But they
also have to have plenty of sunshine, which is why we plant in springtime and
let the vegetables and flowers grow through the hot part of summer, and then
harvest in early fall.
Another part of being a gardener is
knowing when to prune. When I go out to water my garden, I check the plants to
make sure there are no bugs eating them, no aphids present, and I have to
sometimes prune back some of the leaves and branches so all the fruit can get
plenty of sunshine. Our spirits are like that too. If we don’t get plenty of
God, His Word, and fellowship with other Christians, we become like the fruit
on the bottom of the plants. They grow but they never get quite as ripe or
sweet as the other fruit because they don’t get the same amount of sun until we
prune off some of the leaves.
Malachi 4:2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with
healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the
stall.”
Have you ever seen calves in the fields?
They run and leap about like they are so happy just to be there. And when the
Lord shines on us, we should leap about with that same kind of joyous abandon!
The Lord is our sun. He shines on us with goodness and mercy.
Coming soon on Kindle!
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McGaha ©2017
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