Ouch!

  Tonight's post is the 200th in the history of Cup A Joe. The first one was in May of '07. That's insane.

  God the gardener- Verse 2- He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. In other words, their are people that claim the name of Christ, but their actions beg to differ. An orange tree bears oranges and if that orange tree bears anything but oranges, it's not an orange tree. A true Christian bears Christian fruit or he's not a true Christian. We are so far into this study that I don't remember if I have given you the following example or not. Never the less, it's a good one. It's from one of my favorite pastors, Chuck Smith. I am rewriting it from memory but I think I can still remember the gist:

  (Chuck speaking to audience)- If I were to stand up here, very calmly, and begin to tell you that there was a bomb under the alter that was set to go off in 5 minutes, you would pay very close attention to my next actions and words to see if I really believed that. If I was smiling and joking and asking what kind of mad man would do such a thing but didn't seem alarmed, you would question if I really believed what I was saying. However, if I started screaming and yelling about a bomb and running up and down the aisles trying to get everyone out of here, you would know that I believed there was a bomb. In the case of this bomb, my actions would show what I truly believed. The same is true of a professed belief in Christ. My actions trump any of my words, in showing whether I am truly a believer or not.    

James 2:18-19- But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”   Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

 But there is terrific news in the second part of verse 2. Those of us that do begin to bear Christian fruit, God is going to prune some of our leaves that are dying and don't need to be there, so that we will grow in Christian maturity. We will then be able to bear more fruit. We have sharp edges that need to be rounded and smoothed. We need to feel the suffering of others a little more. We need to have a little more courage to confront a bully. Or may be less of a temper before confronting a bully. Or a love for the bully. Or maybe we need to be a little more color blind. Or need to pray more. If you are "in the vine", Jesus will continue to make you a better man(or woman). That's very exciting but let's all say it together:

Ouch!!

 Verse 5- Another of my top ten verses. A truly great and deep verse. The pro football playoffs have started. All I hear is that what happened during the season doesn't matter, now. And the team that wins the championship will say that nothing that happened in the season matters, now that we have this trophy. All anyone will remember in the future was that we were the champs in 2011. They want even remember who finished second because all that matters to the professionals, is the championship. And all the 31 other teams would agree that nothing we did this year matters, because we didn't "win it all."

  It's hard to think this way but Albert Einstein did nothing..nothing that matters. And He would dearly love to tell you that himself. He was maybe the smartest man ever, a man of great accomplishment but he would tell you now that none of it mattered because he was not "grafted into the vine." That is, he did not believe in Jesus Christ as the savior of the world. The same goes for Ghandi, Charles Lindbergh or Buddha. None believed in Jesus as Savior so, for them, all there accomplishments were nothing.

  We live in the "time box". Our time is limited. We will all die one day and time will be over for us. We will pass into eternity and that has no ending. The Bible says that the earth will burn away one day and Jesus says that even the things we accomplished, if they weren't motivated or if they didn't flow from a relationship with Him, they too will burn away. They will become nothing.

   Matthew 7:21-23- "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² 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?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

  Pretty tough stuff, huh? Don't be fooled by a lamb holding, peaceful savior that accepts any old idea about who He is. This is one tough dude, this Jesus. He fought hard to provide THE way for us to get to heaven but He is a man of His word when He says that He is the only way.

  Sorry so rough tonight. Jesus is relentless in His pursuit of us. I know that some of you are going through some pruning in life right now. I am too. What a great Savior that He sees something worth pruning in us. Do you love Him?

Only six verses tonight but it is a short chapter. I will finish tomorrow night.

 

 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.   ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 

 The following music video is beautiful but what I like best about is my introduction:

The Cellist in this piece is the famous Yo Yo Ma, not to be confused with Yo Ma Ma: