Recently a friend came over for dinner and we started talking about life in general, about how our spiritual life influences our regular lives. She said that she heard a pastor say " Hold on or you'll be swept away ". And I realised, I can relate to that. You see unless we hold onto Christ with everything we've got we get swept away by the strong current of Satan's lies. We no longer become stagnating Christians but backsliding ones.
The Tuesday before last our church had a youth program where the theme was 'Be Fruitful', and one of the competitions held was a preaching competiton, one of the participants quoted the Bible verse which says :
" I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoeverlives in Me and I in Him bears much abundant fruit. However, apart from me, you can do nothing " ( John 15:5 )
In this passage our life as a christian is described as a branch of a vine, who is Jesus Christ. Now if you take the branch away from its source and plant it else where it will not grow on its own, it cannot even stay in its present condition it will eventually wither and die. Thats what Jesus means when He says " apart from Me you can do nothing " and also what my friend meant when she said that you will be swept away. There is no middle ground, you're either supported by God's grace or you're dying.
I can give you an example from my own personal life. When I was in the 11th grade I had this girl who I called as my 'Best Friend', but at the back of my mind I knew that she was not the true friend that I needed. But my desire to have a friend was so strong that I ignored all of God's warnings and went on with the relationship, and all the while this girl was betraying me on the side. I went out of the way to stay in this relationship and in the process was pushing God away, but then God opened my eyes to see my folly through the wisdom of my mother, so the next year as we happened to be in the same class again I cut her relationship off from my life and it was as if my relationship with God was suddenly renewed with a new bond and strength, and although I did not get a friend, I know that God is in control, and more than that He is my best friend.
Our part of this relationship with God is so simple, all He asks is that we accept the eterna life that He freely gives us, but if we reject that life we will wither and die as it is written in the 6th verse of John 15. So accept the love that Jesus gives to us through His death and resurrection
The Tuesday before last our church had a youth program where the theme was 'Be Fruitful', and one of the competitions held was a preaching competiton, one of the participants quoted the Bible verse which says :
" I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoeverlives in Me and I in Him bears much abundant fruit. However, apart from me, you can do nothing " ( John 15:5 )
In this passage our life as a christian is described as a branch of a vine, who is Jesus Christ. Now if you take the branch away from its source and plant it else where it will not grow on its own, it cannot even stay in its present condition it will eventually wither and die. Thats what Jesus means when He says " apart from Me you can do nothing " and also what my friend meant when she said that you will be swept away. There is no middle ground, you're either supported by God's grace or you're dying.
I can give you an example from my own personal life. When I was in the 11th grade I had this girl who I called as my 'Best Friend', but at the back of my mind I knew that she was not the true friend that I needed. But my desire to have a friend was so strong that I ignored all of God's warnings and went on with the relationship, and all the while this girl was betraying me on the side. I went out of the way to stay in this relationship and in the process was pushing God away, but then God opened my eyes to see my folly through the wisdom of my mother, so the next year as we happened to be in the same class again I cut her relationship off from my life and it was as if my relationship with God was suddenly renewed with a new bond and strength, and although I did not get a friend, I know that God is in control, and more than that He is my best friend.
Our part of this relationship with God is so simple, all He asks is that we accept the eterna life that He freely gives us, but if we reject that life we will wither and die as it is written in the 6th verse of John 15. So accept the love that Jesus gives to us through His death and resurrection
