Fruit

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser" is the beginning to a section of John that is very well quoted. We most likely have all seen a pastor get up on stage and read this passage of the gospel then start to talk about how we need to abide in Christ and His commandments to bear fruit, at which point they will turn to Galatians to read what it says that the fruit are. after that the pastor may use some other passages to back up what he is saying then come up with a challenge to abide in Christ so that we will show the fruit in our lives.

at this point in reading some people who know me well might be saying to themselves this is where PJ starts to go on a rant of some sort but I won't (today) because I don't disagree with any particular point of this talk. all of that is very good and true, we need to rely on Christ and if we do our life will bear a lot of fruit and give glory to God. But in a conversation that I had earlier we discussed this passage which got me thinking about how I always interpreted this passage, I always interpreted this passage while examining how many of the fruit I was displaying in my life.

As I was in this conversation one of the guys in it told about part of the pruning process of grapes saying that if a farmer doesn't prune back some of the branches of the grape plant it will still bear fruit (and it can still bear quite a lot of fruit) but the fruit that it will bear won't taste good and will taste bitter instead of tasting sweet and tart. So as I started to think about this I asked myself is maybe the point of this passage wasn't for us to think about how much fruit we are bearing but maybe it is to get us to think about the quality of the fruit that we are bearing. Yes it is good to bear a lot of fruit but if everything that we produce tastes bitter who will want to take it. On the other hand if we produce a little but everything that we produce sweet tasting we will only be making people leave wanting more.

Then in time we will learn to grow more fruit but in growing more we won't sacrifice the quality. In that way we will become like the land that God promised Israel, flowing with milk and honey.

Scripture Used:

John 15:1-11 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-dresser. 2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 " You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 " Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. 11 "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Galatians 5:16-26 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

Numbers 13:1-23 Then the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 " Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers' tribes, every one a leader among them." 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. 4 These then were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.

17 When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, "Go up there into the Negev; then go up into the hill country. 18 "See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. 19 "How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications? 20 " How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land." Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, at Lebo-hamath. 22 When they had gone up into the Negev, they came to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

23 Then they came to the valley of Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men, with some of the pomegranates and the figs. 24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut down from there.

NASU

I found this in my computer as I was looking for material to teach with and thought that it was interesting. Last year I took a class on world views in which we read a book called “The Universe Next Door”. As we were going through that book I took the questions and tried to answer them based on my world view.

1. What is prime reality-the really real? God exists and created the world. He is omniscient, omnipresent, and ultimately personal longing for a relationship with you.

2. What is the nature of external reality, that is the world around us? Man sinned and broke the relationship with God. So God had to send His one and only son to save man from eternal damn-nation if a person decides to have a personal relationship. Jesus is the only way to God but the way that Jesus gets you to God may look very different from what someone else's spiritual life looks like, no two faith's look alike.

3. What is a human being? A human being is created to serve and glorify God, by doing His will which is communicated through the Holy Spirit.

4. What happens to a person at death? A person at death goes one of two places. A person goes to heaven if they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If a person does not have that relationship he can only go to hell.

5. Why is it possible to know anything at all? God created man back in the garden of Eden where He breathed His life into humans and in doing that imparted characteristics of Himself into us, including reason and logic.

6. How do we know what is right and wrong? God gave us a plumb line with the Bible, which is the start of all morals. Any person who relays on himself to come up with his own morals will come up short and his morals will be based more on the situation that he is facing at that moment more then on any firm foundation.

7. What is the meaning of human history? To show us were we came from, how we got here, and to lead us in an deeper understanding of God through the Bible and human recorded history

I love my Mom

This post is more for my Mom then anyone else, but it is a cool blog so everyone should check it out. http://gmethod.blogspot.com/

Community

Community is a vital part of any Christians walk. We are not commanded to go to church but we are called to be in a community, it is that singular act that can stretch, grow and challenge us the most. Community is a word that is thrown around a lot (especially in Christian “communities”) but when it comes to asking the questions what is community, what is it suppose to do and others it can get a little difficult to explain and define.

The American heritage dictionary describes it as “a social group or class having a common interest” and in essence that isn't far of. When you break down the word “community” it breaks down to “common” and “unity” meaning it comes out of unity from a common goal, task, interest, person, etc. so then the question becomes less what is community but more what is unity. we are called to have common unity with people but what does that mean?

Unity at it's simplest is being single minded, the book of Acts uses “in one accord” (Acts 4:24, 5:12, 8:6, 12:20, 18:12, 19:29). The word that is translated as “in one accord” is homothumadon meaning to be “one mind, the same as” and has a idea that we be unified with each other. In Ephesians we are told that because there is one body, one spirit we are to be unified with one another (4:1-13).

But then the question comes up with all the people at church's how are we to be unified with all of them? I don't even like half of them! The answer to that question is that you don't. We aren't called to like people only to love them, and there is a difference between the two. If we like someone we will go out of our way to be with them, we will want to hang out with them but if we love someone we will look at for their best interest, we don't have to like them for that to take place. Now it is easier to like someone you love but you don't have to, I'm sure that Jesus didn't like the Pharisees (being the ones that had Him killed) but He did love them and look out for their best interest, you can see that in His ministry going first to the Jews and the Pharisees first before the gentile.

So the next question would be if we are to be unified then what are we to be unified through? The answer is very churchly but it is also timeless. The answer would Christ, Christ is called the great unifier for this reason, He is the one that we are to unite over. There are people how I really don't like here at school but we are able to hang out and be amicable because we all have the Holy Spirit living and working through us and when we aren't living according to the Spirit and His will then you can tell because our relationships will be hurting. We are told in Ephesians 4:3 that we are preserve that unity that comes from the Spirit.

There is one picture of unity that I heard from one of my teachers that he took from the show survivor, in which there are two teams running a race but the twist is that all team members are tied together with a rope and are have to run this race together. At the beginning of the race both teams were doing well but towards that end there were people who started to trip on both sides and when somebody would trip the team would pick them up and start to encourage them, saying things like “you can do this, we are almost there”. Then coming into the finish the team that was in 2^nd was gaining on the team in 1^st just as they were crossing the finish line. Most people would look at that and say it true unity, everyone working together to achieve a common goal. The only problem with this is that the race was an immunity race so when it came time for the losing team to vote someone off the person that they chose the person that held them back. Now most people would have held that up as unity but in reality it was an external unity that was selfish in nature, but the kind of unity that we are called into is an internal unity. We are called to to be tied not to each other but all of us are called to be tied to Christ and let Him lead us (Ephesians 4:15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ).

Scripture used:

Ephesians 4:1-16 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says,

"WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH,

HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES,

AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN."

9(Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

NASU

Mentoring

In resent days Mentoring has come up in my conversations many times. In my classes at Ravencrest I am being made to get a mentor to interact with. The thing that really got me thinking about mentoring (more specifically what mentoring is) is Chris' blog (www.ChrisWarren.org) and his post asking what community is. As I was reading and started to think about it some of the conversation about Mentoring came to my mind. As I thought about the subject there were a few things came to mind.

If you take the word at it's original meaning a mentor would come along side a person for an extended period of time (usually years) and would observe and try to impact every part of a persons development. Even Jesus picked out a small group of 12 people to mentor, out of those 12 He picked 3 to primarily focus on (Peter, James and John), Later Paul would become the mentor of Timothy to the point of calling himself Timothy's spiritual father. In his letter the Romans Paul says that he “longs to see in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you” (Romans 1:11-12a).

All of that is good but if you don't have the time to be mentored long term or to mentor a person long term this could make you feel like you aren't going to be used in someone’s life to help grow them, that if someone moves around a lot or they have a job that would only let them meet with someone a few times a year that they can't be used By God. The truth is that you can be used in a very short time. I heard a joke in the past week were a man gets to talk with God, so the man asks God could you explain time to me? So God tell the man that 1,000,000 years is like 1 second and 1 second is like 1,000,000 years. Then the man asks could you explain what money is like to you? So God says 1 penny is like 1,000,000 dollars and 1,000,000 dollars is like 1 penny. So the man then asks can I have 1 of your pennies? God says sure, in 1 second. The same principle would apply to mentoring, it may seem like a short time to you (and a longer relationship is ideal) God can use anytime you can give. This is after all the God who destroyed the temple in 3 days which took man years to build.

Paul says in Romans one of the reasons that he wants to come to them is so that he may, through mentoring them, may be encouraged himself. Mentoring is not only for the benefit of the mentee but also for the encouragement and growth of the mentor. Mentoring can be very challenging to the mentor because in seeing someone else's struggles you can often see what areas of your life you struggle with (whether you want to or not). In those times it is important to have someone who you can go to and talk to so you can work through those problems in your life.

Once you find a struggle or problem in your own life one thought that will come up is how you can mentor someone when you have your own inadequacies and failures, but God can work in your failures and mine. It says in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 “Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong”. The Bible tells us in this and other passages that in our weakness God is strong because for most of us it is only in those that we truly rely on God, which is the most important thing when it comes to mentoring.

The last thing in this post is some more practical things on mentoring. A vary critical part in the mentor mentee relationship is honesty on both parts. Honesty, however, should start with the mentor, If he or she can't be honest they can't expect the mentee to be honest either. Another thing that is helpful is to a have a direction in the relationship, to have a focus, not just coming together to hang out but to clearly define the relationship as a mentoring relationship otherwise that mentoring relationship can fall apart through the course of time the relationship can fall away never to get back to what it could have been. A third thing that can help in mentoring someone is being mentored yourself. It is helpful in those times that you find that you have things to work on and when you face a problem that you don't know how to handle, even Jesus turned to the Father for help when He was down (Matthew 26:39)

The relationship that can be built by a mentoring relationship can be one that lasts for a vary long time and have lasting affects

Scripture used:

Romans 1:9-12 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.

2 Co 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong .

Matthew 26:36-46 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 " Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 "Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!"

NASU