Life in the Vine

A simple message connects us to the heart of the gospel.

"I am the vine and you are the branches. Remain in me and I will remain in you...I have called you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. This is my command, love each other."

Mike Cope reminded us today about our consistent desire to participate in an active Christianity. It is easy for us to focus on the go and bear fruit. However, this is not the central message found in John 15. Here, the key word is remain! It is a very passive word yet it can be the most powerful way to participate in life with God in Christ. To remain in Christ...to be branches connected to the vine, allows us to bear fruit and that fruit is to love one another. In all things may we desire to remain...remain connected to the one who freely gives us life!

"This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
--Jeremiah 17:5-8