SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/14/2016 11:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 The Blessings of Abiding Branches
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 15:2b-5, 7-11
Message of the verses: Now we have noted that as we look at John
15:2-11 that Jesus talks about two kinds of branches and so we will begin to
look at the blessings of those who He calls “The Abiding Branches” in our SD
today and this may take three or four days to complete this section before we
look at the branches that are burned up, the second classification of branches
in this section.
We will begin
by looking at three distinguishing marks of those who are called the true
branches. First these branches bear
fruit as seen in verses 2, 4, 5, and 8: “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.” “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.” “8 “My Father is
glorified by this, that
you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” This characteristic of bearing fruit
distinguishes them from the other branches that will be burned up. Think about a grape vine and what the farmer
has to do when a branch does not bear fruit.
He will cut it off, let it dry out and then burn it up.
The second
distinguishing mark of these branches that they abide or remain, continue to
remain in Christ’s love as seen in verse nine:
“9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide
in My love.”
Now we want
to look at the third distinguishing mark of these branches which is that they
operate in full cooperation with the source of life, as they keep the Lord’s
commandments by following the perfect example of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He
always fully obeyed His Father. John
15:10 tells us “"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.”
Obedience proves that we love the Lord and desire to follow Him, not
this does not mean that we always obey the Lord and His commandments as we have
seen in the 13th chapter when Jesus washed His disciples feet
showing them that even though they were made clean by His Word they still
sinned as they walked around in the world and so they needed their feet
washed. 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we
confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.” Paul
writes to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 3:1-3 the following “1 And I, brethren,
could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to
infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not
yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still
fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly,
and are you not walking like mere men?”
Paul’s readers were not following the commandments of the Lord and thus
needed to confess and grow up in the Lord.
When we were studying the book of Revelation we saw that Jesus rebuked
the Ephesian church because “they left their first love,” they were doing
things out of practice and not doing what pleased the Lord because they loved
Him. This is the first downfall of a
church, losing their love for the Lord.
Let us look at a couple of verses from 1 John “`1 My little children, I
am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the
whole world.” Notice the highlighted
portion of verse one as I am told that the Greek means “so that you may not
sin, but you will.” You can see this by
the next phrase “and if anyone sins.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can see from these verses that first of all
I am to bear fruit, and the only way that I can do this is to be connected to
the vine which is the second thing I learned as I abide in the branch. The last part is to me sanctification, my
walk with the Lord obeying Him because of my love for Him which will cause me
to bear fruit even much fruit.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I am writing this SD from my
little office at my house because of the grace of God. Let me explain. My wife and I were on our way to meet our
seniors church group to see a play in Amish country, Ohio. We ran into a little snow which turned into a
lot of snow and as we were coming down a hill our car began to slide to the
other side of the road near a guard rail with a car coming right at us. Only by the grace of God did we miss both the
oncoming car and also and the guard rail.
All I can say is that the Lord was totally involved in this and for that
I praise His holy name.
Memory verse for the week:
(Romans 6:8) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with Him;”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The serpent” (Genesis 3:1).
Today’s Bible question:
“Without what shall no man see the Lord?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/14/2016 12:15 PM
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