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Saturday, January 08, 2005
It's a truly funny scene.
In the movie "Meet the Parents," Ben Stiller's character is asked to say grace over a meal. He's not a spiritual person, but in an effort to establish a better relationship with his future in-laws, he agrees to pray. What follows is a rambling prayer, all over the map of religious phrases...complete with quoting a traditional well-known hymn. We laugh because it's true in our lives. We know we're supposed to pray, so we do, and it can be awkward.
It's another truly funny scene.
In the movie "Vacation," Chevy Chase's character is told to say a prayer over the death of his wife's aunt, who they (of all things) are leaving on the back porch of his wife's brother. His prayer goes all over the map, too. He actually uses the phrases like "beseech Thee" and "land of the Canaanites" before winding up singing a Gregorian chant of some type before his wife gets on to him. When she does, her tells her to give him a break because he isn't an ordained minister.
It can be awkward.
Yet, In John 15: 4--5, we come across a word that we came across earlier this week: Abide. To live there.
"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. 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."
Imagine that.
Apart from Christ we can do...
...nothing. Not even breathe.
In fact, going backwards through the verses, we see a contrast. That, if we're apart from Christ we can do nothing. However, if we abide in Him, we bear "much fruit." So, the way I see it, we're either bearing much fruit, or doing nothing. There isn't much wiggle room there.
And we also learn that we can't create the fruit ourselves. The tree has it's own thing going inside of it that most people never see the process. They just see that in due time, the tree has fruit hanging on it. There has to be a process at work within us that we don't do in order for the fruit to show.
And the key to that is abiding in Christ. We've already learned that we're to abide in the Word...and now we're supposed to live with Christ.
That can be difficult to do in 2005, right? I mean, Christ isn't here physically on earth at this moment...and He's seated at the right hand of the Father. So, how do we live there?
It's prayer.
And it can be awkward.
But it doesn't have to be...
All you need to know for today is that we are supposed to abide in Christ. And that we do that in 2005 through the vehicle of prayer. Talking to God and listening to God are going to be the vehicle through which the vine bears much fruit.
And we'll begin talking about that tomorrow.
Brent 8:40 AM
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