If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given youâ€
(John 15:7, NIV)
Does this scripture make you laugh or cry? Maybe I should read it from a different point of view?
The Message John 15:7-8
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.”
Ponder!
thedailylily.com 
Now that’s something to ponder!
Without a doubt….Something I can do to get things I ask for?????
Sounds to me like the sequel to “I set before you life and death….Choose life.” We all know what the BONFIRE is!!!
MG,we do all know what it is?
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’__Matthew 7:22-23
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.â€
__Rev. 22:8
I think that (Lake of Fire…..ie hell) is the BONFIRE that Jesus is talking about; that burns with sulfur. When we disengage ourselves from Christ ,the VINE, perpetually, then as the Scripture reads that Sara quoted above…”we shrivel up and die and are not good to anyone but to feed the fires of hell…….into the “bonfire” Very strong language. Choose life.
This is a song I wrote a few years ago based on John 15:7-8
VINE SONG
I AM THE VINE YOU ARE THE BRANCHES
I AM THE ROOT YOU BEAR THE FRUIT
YOU HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME
MY LOVE HAS CHOSEN YOU TO BE
I DWELL IN YOU AND YOU IN ME
IN COVENANT ETERNALLY
ESTEEMING ONE ANOTHER
AS WE WALK IN LOVE
PERFECT LOVE IS ALWAYS GENTLE
PERFECT LOVE IS ALWAYS PATIENT
LOVE IS NEVER JEALOUS, IS NEVER BOASTFUL
AND LOVE WILL NEVER FAIL
JUST AS CHRIST SO LOVES HIS CHURCH
SO DOES HE CHERISH HIS BRIDE
FOR THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL IS POURED IN OUR HEARTS BY THE SPIRIT
THAT LOVE THAT THE WORLD LONGS FOR
IT’S THE LOVE OF GOD; A NEVER ENDING LOVE
NOW AND EVER MORE THAT’S HOW OUR LOVE SHALL BE
AND I WILL LOVE YOU FOR ALL ETERNITY. (C) mghenry
MG, Beautiful song and beautiful truth. O that we and the ones that we encounter of loveless thoughts and action could meet and marry this Love.
For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rockâ€
(Psalm 27:5, NIV)
From both points of view, this scripture reads black and white/absolute to me. Either we are in or out, living or dead, fruitful or fruitless. I don’t see an in between if we are going to produce anything and have prayers answered.
It looks to me as I read a little further to John 15:10 that Jesus set the pattern for us as to the only way we can ‘remain’ in Him or be joined to Him. He let us know that He always kept His Father’s commandments, He always did His will…that’s how He remained in Him. He sought His will, understood His will and applied His will to every situation in His life that He encountered…24/7.
Thanks, Sara.
This reminds me that I also wanted to share a revelation of hers, that Sara pointed out to us in service this Sunday, if I may. She looked all around the sanctuary where flags of many nations hang to adorn our walls and remind us that we have an obligation to the Lord God Jesus Christ to pray for the nations of the world. And then she said, “There are really only two languages on the face of the earth “(paraphrasing her). The language of satan or the language of LOVE i.e. the language of Jesus Christ.” Thus the words coming out of our mouths are either words of love, truth, beauty, encouragement, support, righteousness, justice, godly reproof and correction.; OR we are speaking the language of satan; vulgar, crude, witless, foolishness, catty, chatty, …and so on. That is the language of the enemy and the tongue of asps. But the Language of Love that Jesus talks about and John writes about in John 15:7-8…That is the language of LOVE..VINE LOVE. BRANCH LOVE; ROOT LOVE; Abiding LOVE.
If one remains in Christ and family or friend chose a different place to live where will we find them?
According to the blog written above, Message John 15:7-8: family or friend who chooses a different place to live will be…”…Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire.”
Ultimate destination: fires of hell forever.
We are only to be bond servants to Jesus Christ. Bonding ourselves to family and or friend is making them like unto Jesus Christ. Only Christ can be Christ. He is the one who died for our sins. Based on what you said in Sunday’s service they are NOT choosing life. They have chosen death – we will find them Hell.
O man, how easy one can forget. I was so happy to think on all the blessings and answers to prayer that we can expect that I blocked the deadwood part.
Oh yes, Sara, all the blessings and answered prayer that we receive in one day, like today’s wonderful reports, can be blotted out the next day when we become deadheads and deadwood, INDEED.
We like our addictions more than we love our Jesus. And those addictions are not just drinking or shopping or drugs; they can be “bad temper”…which we refuse to control; or lying which we can’t seem to stop or even running red lights. OOPs!
So if we choose to remain in HIM then we cannot remain in the other stuff.
This sort of explains it in a way….for me, anyway….Paul says something in
Romans that has finally hit me….”and if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, then grace would no longer be grace.” What I am getting at here is that….we cannot call something by its connotation if it does not meet all the criteria for denoting that particular thing. Paul was saying that here (among other things which are not pertinent to my point) that works for salvation cannot be “grace” even if you call it grace. And what I am clumsily trying to say is that we can say we are temples of the Holy Spirit, sanctuaries of the living God, called out, set apart and all the other Biblical terminology but if we are not meeting all the criteria for that…being in intimate fellowship with Jesus, abiding in Him and He in us but instead living that kind of separated FROM Christ-life ( being Christian in name only) that is separated FROM CHRIST instead of UNTO Christ…then Christian is no longer Christian like ‘grace is no longer grace’. Get it? (sort of?)
In thinking more on ‘deadwood’…the inner core is dead. A tree can have ‘deadwood’ within it….in its branches, etc and still be considered alive. But when deadwood is detected in a tree that’s a sign that somethng is wrong, insects or diseases, etc have set in somewhere and will usually spread. If caught in time, sometimes deadwood branches can be pruned off and the tree saved.
I was reading Mark Ch 8 and in verse 33 saw that Peter, a disciple of Jesus, appears to me to have some deadwood for Jesus had to say to him, “But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Apparently in the core of Peter’s being and mind there existed a separation from Christ because he didn’t have the same agenda…wasn’t joined to Him in thought and purpose and Jesus called him for what he was and made him face it.
Most interesting, Debi, sounds like Jesus played ‘mind monopoly’ with Peter and the disciples…
Phillipians 4, Paul expresses to the church at Philippi that his God shall supply all their needs according to the riches of God in heaven when they give into Paul’s ministry account.
Paul makes it known in many ways in this letter how to live out our blog scripture. He says, To Live Is Christ…Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 2:5, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus, 3:8…I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 4:13…
As we go back and focus on our key word that gives us a bank boost…remain, abide, dwell, live….We see when we make the right connections we have the rewards of knowing the power….Lots of joy in knowing Christ Jesus, don’t you think?
Yes, I think so. The way you see it is the way I see it, too, Sara. In John 8: 31, Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you REMAIN faithful to my teachings. If you obey my commands, you will REMAIN in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and REMAIN in his love.
I have told you this so that my JOY may be in you and that your JOY may be complete”
So here again, Jesus talks about remaining, remaining and the JOY that comes from remaining. Why would I rather have wars, instead of JOY?
Stress instead of peace. But if I REMAIN and continue to REMAIN then my joy will be complete.
When reading all above, it reminded me of the scripture in Ezekiel 37: 1-14.
Here Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones. They have been there a long time – no life, cracked, no marrow. God asked Ezekiel if these bones could live? Ezekiel said, Oh Sovereign God you alone know.” God asked of Ezekiel ESV “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath2 to enter you, and you shall live. 6 lAnd I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and lcover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.â€7 So I prophesied nas I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling,3 and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, i“Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.†10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”
It seems to me that even though a dead branch is cut off and lying on the ground, God who KNOWS the branch and can graft it back into the living tree of life. Just like the dead bones in the valley, God KNOWS the bones and can bring life to the bones so they know the I AM is the Lord God Almighty. A valley of despair, a valley of death, a branch cut off lying flat before the Lord – GOD KNOWS whether LIFE
is there to again REMAIN in HIM.
One of the most beautiful Words to grace the universe I believe is “Repentance.”
When one takes advantage of this gift and ‘hangs ten’ with it old bones will surely rattle.
There is another scripture that comes to my mind in reading Ezekiel’s dry bone story; “He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged.” Isaiah 42:3.
Luther has well expressed this: ‘He does not cast away, nor crush, nor condemn the wounded in conscience, those who are terrified in view of their sins; the weak in faith and practice, but watches over and cherishes them, makes them whole, and affectionately embraces them.’ The expression is parallel to that which occurs in Isaiah 61:1, where it is said of the Messiah, ‘He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted;’ and to the declaration in Isaiah 50:4, where it is said, ‘that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.’
“Speak a word in season to him that is weary.” Just this morning as I’m doing a bible study from “Conversation Peace”, Quoting from that book by Mary Kassian – ” When Ezekiel spoke the dead, dry bones came to life before his very eyes. Instead of a dismembered wasteland, a vast crowd of living, breathing humans stood to their feet – strong, healthy, and vibrant.
When you speak what God wants you to speak, your words will have the same effect. Broken, dismembered bones will be healed and realigned. Dead, dry skeletons will be clothed with flesh. You will breathe life and hope back into people’s spirits. Your fiends and loved ones will stand to their feet – reconciled to you and reconciled to God. Just imagine it!
“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life” (Prov. 10:11). It brings “healing to the bones” (Prov. 16:24) Don’t think that what happened with Ezeliel is too hard for you or out of your reach. The Word is very near. It is in your heart that you may obey it and in your mouth that you may speak it (see Deut. 30: 11:14).”