Tag Archives: pruning

Do you need a trim or a pruning? (John 15:1-4), April 4, 2017

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast


Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

 

  1. Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
  2. I’m not a gardener as anyone who knows me can attest. But I do know the difference between trimming and pruning. We don’t mind trims, but most of us don’t care for pruning very much.
  3. Scripture
    1. John 15:1-4
    2. Jesus: I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.  My Father examines every branch in Me and cuts away those who do not bear fruit. He leaves those bearing fruit and carefully prunes them so that they will bear more fruit;  already you are clean because you have heard My voice.  Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. A branch cannot bear fruit if it is disconnected from the vine, and neither will you if you are not connected to Me.
  4. Devotional
    1. I don’t have any fruit trees in my yard anymore. I do have several bush and I try to keep them reasonably shaped so I don’t get nastygrams from my Home Owners’ Association.
      1. Want to keep them all about the same size and shape
      2. Don’t want sprigs poking out everywhere
      3. Want them to be need and attractive from the street
      4. I trim them occasionally to make them look okay when driving past the house
      5. I have never pruned them
    2. Took a trip to Disneyland a few years ago
      1. Bushes formed in the shape of cartoon characters
      2. Takes careful pruning to ensure each branch retains the right amount of foliage and grows in the right direction to form those familiar shapes
      3. Pruning takes away what might look like good healthy branches, but they are not contributing to the purpose for which the gardener planted that particular bush
      4. Looks good, but the wrong direction, the wrong growth, non-contributor to the cause
    3. Fruit trees are like that
      1. Orchards filled with trees that are not very tall
      2. Produce extraordinary crops
      3. Every branch that doesn’t produce fruit is removed
      4. It doesn’t contribute to the purpose for which the tree was planted
      5. Just soaks up nutrients that the fruit bearing branches could use to produce more and better fruit
    4. Jesus wants to do that for us
      1. Prunes us
      2. Wants to take away everything that doesn’t produce fruit
      3. Wants to remove the things that just soak up time and energy with no purpose
      4. Wants to transform us into His likeness
    5. Doesn’t want to just trim the edges to make us look good from a distance; wants to prune us to make us better, more productive in His kingdom
  5. If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Pruning the vines (John 15:1-17) December 23, 2015

Leave a reply

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready -John 15:1-17

Set – John 15-17

Go! -John 15-18

John 15:1-17
Jesus: 1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. 2 My Father examines every branch in Me and cuts away those who do not bear fruit. He leaves those bearing fruit and carefully prunes them so that they will bear more fruit; 3 already you are clean because you have heard My voice. 4 Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. A branch cannot bear fruit if it is disconnected from the vine, and neither will you if you are not connected to Me.
5 I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear great fruit. Without Me, you will accomplish nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is like a branch that is tossed out and shrivels up and is later gathered to be tossed into the fire to burn. 7 If you abide in Me and My voice abides in you, anything you ask will come to pass for you. 8 Your abundant growth and your faithfulness as My followers will bring glory to the Father.
9 I have loved you as the Father has loved Me. Abide in My love. 10 Follow My example in obeying the Father’s commandments and receiving His love. If you obey My commandments, you will stay in My love. 11 I want you to know the delight I experience, to find ultimate satisfaction, which is why I am telling you all of this.
12 My commandment to you is this: love others as I have loved you. 13 There is no greater way to love than to give your life for your friends. 14 You celebrate our friendship if you obey this command. 15 I don’t call you servants any longer; servants don’t know what the master is doing, but I have told you everything the Father has said to Me. I call you friends. 16 You did not choose Me. I chose you, and I orchestrated all of this so that you would be sent out and bear great and perpetual fruit. As you do this, anything you ask the Father in My name will be done. 17 This is My command to you: love one another.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Here again I gave My disciples a metaphor that was very clear to them, but perhaps not as clear to you, so let Me explain a little. Vineyards grew everywhere in Judea. Almost everyone had their own small vineyard, in fact. Anyone who owned property grew a small garden to raise some vegetables and grapes. Vegatables to eat and grapes to drink. Wine was important to everyone because the surface water in Judea is exceedingly poor to drink. The rivers flow fast and pick up a lot of dirt and silt as they flow down the mountainside. You just can’t drink it. So from an early age, wine with meals just happens.

Fermentation allows the alcohol in the wine to kill the bacteria in the water with which children’s wine is commonly diluted. But everyone drank something other than surface water in My day. So everyone knew about vineyards and how to grow grapes. You probably get grapes from your grocery and may have never seen a vineyard except in pictures. But it’s hard work to maintain a good vineyard. The growers take great care of their vines.

Those branches without fruit, though, take up precious water and nutrients from the soil and do nothing except grow useless branches and leaves without giving anything back. So the grower cuts off those branches, removes them from the vineyard and burns them. They aren’t good for anything. They’re not strong enough for making things. They’re hollow, but porous, so you can’t even use them as straws. They’re crooked so not really useful at all. They usual have a foul odor when you burn them, so they’re not even good for kindling. So the grower makes a pile of the branches, lets them dry and burns them in a great heap.

The good grower also cuts off the runners from the branches that grow fruit so that those runners don’t take away extra nutrients from the fruit. Once again, those runners are useless, so they also go into the heap and end up as part of the blaze. If you’re the vine, the cutting might sound painful, but it is necessary for production of the best crop.

The same happens metaphorically between God and His creation. Those who do not obey Me and therefore do not obey Him, are like the branches that do not produce fruit. He cuts them off and burns them in the fire. They will forever be separated from Him at the end of time. Those who do follow Me and therefore obey Him, He still prunes so they produce the best fruit possible. Pruning is an important part of the growing process. He cuts away those parts of us that are unproductive, ineffective, useless to His plan and His kingdom. It may seem painful when He prunes things from our lives, but remember the Father is God, the Creator. He knows how best to use you and how best to help you grow. Trust Him to prune your life for your best advantage as the perfecter of your faith.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.