Remain in the Vine!

It's true.  

I was in a Nerd Gang.  For a while growing up I invested a ton of energy and time and turned my back on core values to try to be accepted by a bunch of guys that seemed so cool at the time.  Looking back I realize that we were all nerdy kids in advanced Math & English classes, yet we strutted around like hotshots and did a lot of things I'm not proud of.  

In John 15, Jesus says,

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings glory to my Father."

I have spent far too much of my life trying to find my identity in people and things that are simply inadequate!

Jesus promises Life! Jesus promises to remain in us and help us become the men and women we were designed to be!  Jesus invites us into relationship and a life worth living.

It is very easy for me to forget who I need to be living for... myself or the Lord.  I think that when I am at my worst it is often because I am attempting to find my identity apart from God.  (My ongoing prayer is that my identity would be so intertwined with the Lord that there would be no difference)

Remain in the Vine.  Save yourself head and heartache.  We are called to seek the Father and become more and more like Christ so we can continue on the journey before us.  

The Woman at the Well

I love John 4.

The first half of the chapter zooms in on an outcast woman who encounters Jesus, and it changes everything.

This woman has been married five times and is with yet another man that she is not married to.  She has an identity issue.  She is continually trying to find hope, security, and acceptance in guys, and it is just not going to happen!  Granted she likely has few other options as a first century Samaritan woman who culturally needs to be connected to a man to survive.  However, to me that just amplifies the reality that when everything around us screams that life is found in earthly things (sex, possessions, etc...), we must cling to the Lord and figure out how to pursue him in everything. 

As their conversation ends, the woman heads back into town and starts exclaiming to her neighbors, "Come! See a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?!"

There's a great scene in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" where John Candy and Steve Martin are unaware that they are driving down the expressway towards oncoming traffic.  Another car comes alongside them and screams, "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!"  But John Candy sloughs it off saying, "How do they know which way we're going?"  The scene ends in a near-death experience as the men squeeze between two oncoming semi-trucks.

This woman becomes the one of the first people to point others to Christ!  One of the first evangelists!  She doesn't know a whole lot about Jesus, but she now realizes that she has been headed one way and after encountering Christ she has found new hope and new direction!

My prayer is that my identity would be found in Christ, and that I would be known for an overflow of joy and hope that comes from security in the Lord.  May this be true of you as well...