3/27/14- Abide in Christ

1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^a so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, as I also 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.

5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.(John 15:1-5)

Thoughts: Jesus is the vine from whom we are nourished and live.  Cut off from Him, we cannot glorify God, and our work for God is just going through the motions. On our own, we cannot produce the kind of fruit that God desires.  So our worship, our prayers, our preaching, our teaching, our helping the needy, our caring for the sick apart from Him is nothing.  We do not have life in ourselves, and we cannot glorify God apart from abiding in God.  The person who abides in sin without repentance and humility cannot glorify God- for sin separates us from the Holy God (Ps. 5:4,5; 66:18).
          The first step in fruit bearing is simply remaining in Him (Maneo- abiding, staying, living in).  The Navigators (Dawson Trottman) came up with the wheel illustration based on John 15.  it involves putting Christ in the center of our lives as the Hub; having spokes of the Word, prayer, Fellowship, and witnessing; and obedience as where the rubber meets the road (see below).  We might add the sacraments in here too.  The point is, our main task is to abide in Him and let Him work through us.