A Branch On The Tree.

A Branch On The Tree.

Charlie Brown, “Snoopy some day we will all die.” And Snoopy says, “True, but on all the other days we will not.” Here's my addendum, -The believer never dies!

The grapevine has always been central to Israel’s agriculture and economy and was an important symbol for Israel’s relationship with God in the Old Testament.

Isaiah spoke of the house of Israel as the vineyard of the Lord, and Jeremiah said that God had planted Israel as His choice vine.

Israel, however, was unfaithful and therefore could not bear the kind of fruit God expected.

Instead of producing large delicious grapes - the fruit of righteousness - as the vine of God they produced sour grapes – the fruit of hypocrisy, greed and all kinds of evil.

God expected to find peace, but instead He found bloodshed; He expected to find justice but instead He heard cries of oppression.

Israel could not produce the type of fruit that God had intended because they tried to produce it on their own- and not God’s way.

Galatians 5:19-21MSG ”It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.“

Just before the death of Jesus on His way to the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper with His disciples, they passed by the valley of Kidron, a vine growing area.

Seeing the grapes and knowing that He would soon be leaving them, Jesus used the opportunity to again teach and remind them, “that every individual is created to bear fruit.”

Jesus states, John 15:1NKJV “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

John 15:1TPT “I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father.

In a vineyard, the vine is the main trunk of the plant. The branches depend on the vine for all their nutrients. Just like the vine, Jesus Christ is the source of life, strength and every blessing under the sun to His people.

We depend on Jesus for everything, for it is in Christ that we have all the nutrients of God’s grace! -I need His grace, don’t you? P.H

John 1:14NIV The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Again, John 15:1 Jesus emphatically states that I am the true vine.

In the time of Jesus, there were many fake vines. Many imposters.

Therefore Jesus states in, John 15:1 I Am the true vine…

The Father tends to the Vine. He’s the Vinedresser. The husbandman.

He has the best soil, hoe, rake, shovel, fertilizer, plenty of water, and spirit filled weed control. Plus, He controls the sun (Son)!

The Father is not just a good, good Father. -He is also a good, good gardener!

Are you connected to the Source? There is no hiding it!

Philippians 2:14-15NIV ”Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky“

Again this I know, “If you are connected to the source you will shine.” P.H

Daniel 12:3NIV ”Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.“

Listen, the righteous will shine forever!

John 15:2NKJV Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Again, “God can take away, and He can bring addition.”

John 15:2TPT He cares for the branches connected to me by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest.

Throughout America, stakes and wire are used to holdup and manipulate the vine. Vines are trained to grow upward. However in Israel, the vines grow and spread on the ground.

To keep the vines and grape clusters from rotting on the miry clay, (on the ground), the vinedresser place rocks underneath the grapes to stop rot damage.

The Bible teaches ‘as we wait upon the Lord,’ God places our feet on a firm foundation, Luke 6:46.’