Jesus said to his disciples:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Richard Rohr says
"It's not addition that makes one holy but subtraction: stripping the illusions, letting go of pretense, exposing the false self, breaking open the heart and the understanding."
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
people will gather them and throw them into a fire
and they will be burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
"The community that Jesus calls us to is one that embodies an African proverb:
Because we are, I am."
Without pruning a vine will only produce a fraction of its potential harvest.
Vineyards have only one purpose: to produce grapes. Energy spent on anything else is wasted.
The pruner has four things in mind:
- removing what's dead or dying;
- making sure sunlight gets to the fruit-bearing branches;
- increasing the size and quality of the grapes;
- encouraging new grapes to develop.
- To make room for all this, Christ will cut away the parts of your life that are draining precious time and energy from what's truly important to Him.
- Sounds painful ; yes...........................
But look at the end result.....
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