“I am the true vine…”Welcome to our first day of study! My prayer right off the bat is that you will be refined, challenged, and loved on by Christ in this. I pray that you listen to the Gardener as He teaches us what He meant for us when He said we are the Branch and He is the vine.
Our main text for this month is John 15. Please take time to read the whole passage. I’ve put it here so you can refer back to it when you want. Ingest what Jesus is explaining to us and ask Him to teach you something new over this month.
My goal is to keep these devotions short yet poignant and hopefully filled with a choice bite of fruit every day for you to, well, chew on. We’ll study the Word, look at one of my favorite outside sources for this study, The True Vine, by Andrew Murray, and also we’ll take a look at resources that explain real vineyards for those of us land locked in the red dirt of Oklahoma!
I’m so excited to begin our day with the Words of Christ.
“I am the true vine…”Why did He say the “true” vine? Well, many times in the Old Testament, the people of God, the Israelites, were referred to as God’s vineyard. However, she produced no fruit. She became a wasteland and Jesus was telling them He was restoring her to her place. Only this time, He would be the Vine. He would be the life source. He would be everything the people of God needed. They most certainly understood what He said when He used those word “the true vine.”
I wonder as those words sunk in if there wasn’t a sigh of relief in their hearts. They no longer would have to strive to fulfill the law. They would no longer have to feel a sense of hard labor for fruit that would be pointless. Could they really rest in the true vine?
The True Vine?
We can ask ourselves the same thing. To get us started this week consider what you think it means to have Christ say over you, “I am the true vine…”
Do you feel a sense of striving to fulfill the commands of the Bible? Do you feel like you have to work hard to have some sort of fruit of goodness in your life? Do you ever feel like you are spinning your wheels for the church, for others, for Christ?
Can we really rest in the True Vine?
Ask Christ to begin teaching you by His Holy Spirit what it means for Him to be the True Vine in your life. He is the only one who can explain it in your heart.
When Jesus says: ‘I am the true vine,’ He tells us that all the vines of earth are pictures and emblems of Himself. He is the divine reality, of which they are the created expression. They all point to Him, and preach Him, and reveal Him. If you would know Jesus, study the vine. Andrew Murray
6 comments:
Dirk and I love vineyards and wineries.
I'm here listening in! :)
Thanks for putting your bible studies out there on the web. I'm really not sure what in means for Him to be the true vine in my life. I'll be back to learn more!
I believe after the last several weeks, He wants to teach me thoroughly about John 15. Thank you for having these bible studies available! I love your insight and your desire to seek Him, honor Him and love Him.
well I will be reading John 15 and praying and asking God to show my heart what it means for Him to be the true vine. Thanks for making me think
I do believe that Jesus is the true vine, and I am just a branch of Him. Pruning of me can sometimes be painful, but I know that this is necessary for me to become more "Christ-like" in my character.
The greatest problem I have is with my thoughts--thinks that pop into my mind--negative thoughts about others, lack of patience with others.
Thank you for doing this series. I pray that God will use this to help me learn and grow deeper spiritually.
Beth
Yay! I'm so stoked. I'll have to read your reference material. One of my favorite read on this is the Secrets of the Vine by Bruce Wilkerson (PRayer of Jabez). It messed me up - really messed me up.
So this is great!
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