Living the God-Life

The last month while reading the Gospels, there seems to be a resounding theme - Live the God-Life, live life God's way!  Not only in my bible reading, but in what I watch on TV.  These mental images are just expoding in my head when I read.  One night my heart was heavy with things of this life, and I was even questioning God's call on my life - was I really doing the right thing by pursuing photography? And the Spirit said, "John 15...the Vine"  I memorized this verse when I was in grade school so I knew this verse well, and had meditated on it.  I opened it up in the Message Bible (my reading bible of choice).  and it said....

"I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.



4"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me.


5-8"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

9-10"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.


11-15"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.

And then it jumped out at me...

16"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.

And as soon as I read the word "fruit" I thought of all the nature shows that I've been drawn to watch on Netflix where there was an abundance in these remote coral reefs where the eco systems were in tact, and not interfered by man and their chemicals, or a foreign species was brought in and threw the whole ecosystem out of balance.  I felt like God was saying that when I live my life according to his principals that can be found in His teachings, that my life will be abundant.  I was made to bear fruit and to share with others as a tree shares it's fruit to share with others. When I don't, my life gets poisoned, and I become self-centered and no good to nobody.


If you feel like your at the end of your rope, remember, that God has chosen you to be alive on this earth and there is a reason - to bear fruit.  To be alive to help others, to know who He is and have a relationship with Him and to encourage others to serve Him also.  If you don't know who He is, I encourage to find out by reading the Gospels.  Don't listen to what other people have said- find out for yourself, and make a quality decision for yourself.  I guarantee that the people that talk smack about God - don't know Him and haven't experienced His goodness.  They are so angry, and hurt and He seems to be the easiest person to blame it on.  God from the very beginning, has been all about love.  Unconditional love.  He DIED on a cross, knowing FULLY what was going to happen.  But He stood and faced everything - the excruciating pain, the suffering, because He knew that by shedding his blood it would cover the sins of humankind and bring us back into right alignment with Him.  He brought the spiritual ecosystem back to balance, so we can have Heaven's life here on earth, and in the earth to come.