Fruitful Branch

John 15:1–4 (NIV84)

 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Dear Zebras,

I’m not sure if it’s my imagination but we seem to be having a very windy summer here in Benicia.  And because of that quite a few limbs have fallen off of trees.  The first one was a few weeks ago while I was doing my quite time. I looked up just in time to see a very large branch fall from the tree across the street.

It fell with a large crack and a “poof.”  There were so many leaves on the branch it “fluffed” as it hit the ground taking a few minutes for all the leaves to settle down and quit moving.  Since the house across the street is currently empty the branch sat on the lawn for a few days so I got to look at it every morning for about a week.

What amazed me was how quickly a vibrant branch withered and died when removed from the tree. And I was reminded of Jesus’ warning to His disciples in John 15.

John 15:5–6 (NIV84)

"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.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

As Christians the most important thing we can do is to stay connected to Jesus.  He is what gives us life and the ability to do anything of value.  But too often in this busy world Jesus gets pushed to the background and real quality time with God gets overlooked in our hurry to do “more important” things.

But the truth is there is nothing that is more important, especially if we want to be a fruitful branch.

Love,

Jill

Barking Through the Fence

James 1:25–27 (NLT)

But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.  If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.  Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

Good morning Zebras,

Some of you are probably starting to think I need to get out more because God keeps giving me lessons through my dogs. But I believe it shows that no matter where you are or what you are doing, if your ears are open to the teachings of God, He will teach you.

As I have mentioned, my dogs, Abigail and Joshua have very different personalities.  Abigail is by far the more “high strung.” She is the one who hears and responds to every sound and noise. But she isn’t always content with waiting for “noise” to come her way sometimes she goes looking for it.

Three out of our four neighbors whose fences adjoin our property have dogs. And one of Abigail’s very favorite pastimes is to sit by the fence looking through the cracks trying to catch a glimpse of what the other dogs are doing.  As soon as she spies them she erupts into barking and has to be brought inside.

Joshua’s favorite pastime is to sit on my lap.  He will go outside to see what Abigail has discovered, but he usually comes back quickly to reclaim his place of honor

Watching them has reminded me once again that we need to have our eyes firmly fixed on God and not pressed against the fence of other people’s live to see what they are doing. It doesn’t really matter what they are doing it only matters what God is doing.  And all that time wasted at the fence is time that could have been spent with Him.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to have our eyes FIXED on Jesus, which means we are to look away from everything else and look to only at Him, running with perseverance the race He has marked out for US.  And 2 Timothy 2:4 says: No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

Jesus Christ is the one who has enlisted us, He is the only who knows what we are supposed to do, and that means we need to work to please Him if we want to remain on active duty.  Which leads to the question: What really pleases Jesus?

According to today’s verses I think what pleases Jesus, is looking into God’s Word, applying what we have learned, watching what we say, taking care of others in need and keeping ourselves from being polluted by the world.

Nowhere do I see sit at the fence and watch others, barking when necessary.

Love,

Jill