GRAPES!

I love grapes. I love fresh, sweet grapes. I love grape jelly, not strawberry. If you give me a piece of toast, you better give me a LOT OF GRAPE JELLY. To me, PEANUT BUTTER and JELLY meant GRAPE JELLY, nothing else was the same. I have never really tried wine, so I am not sure about that, but grapes are one of my favorite fruits. I read a little bit about the care of a vineyard. Watering is tricky. depending on the age of the vines, or the time of the season, the watering demands are quite different. Besides watering, caring for a vineyard is meticulous work. It is not like farming CORN or other crops. Each vine needs PERSONAL CARE and PRUNING. Caring for the vine is a HANDS ON venture. The workers have to physically interact with the crop to ensure its growth. Isn't that the kind of care we receive from God, even though he is the Creator of all things? God cares for us individually. He personally touches our lives, prunes us, and loves us with his own deeply personal love. 

I was reading Isaiah 27 this morning and it started out with singing about the vineyard and then God watching over it carefully:

"In that day, sing about the fruitful vineyard. I, the Lord, will watch over it, watering it carefully. Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it. My anger will be gone. If I find briers and thorns growing, I will attack them; I will burn them up -- unless they turn to me for help. Let them make peace with me. The time is coming when Jacob's descendants will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with fruit!" (Isaiah 27:2-6, NLT)

The nation of Israel is God's vineyard. God has always watched over his special people. But the key here is the "BRIERS and THORNS!" Yep, that's ME and YOU. We are the gentiles, those outside the nation of ISRAEL. God says he will burn them up --- "unless they turn to me for help." When we make peace with God, instead of fighting him and opposing him, God will treat us as HIS SPECIAL PEOPLE. 

In the New Testament Jesus uses the metaphor of the vine and the branches. This time JESUS IS THE TRUE VINE and WE ARE THE BRANCHES:

"I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me." (John 15:1-4, NLT)

When we have joined the family of God, we have now been grafted onto the vine. We are a part of GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE. But, if we do not bear fruit we will be cut off from the TRUE VINE and thrown into the fire. When we remain in JESUS he will carefully water us, care for us, and protect us. If we choose to separate ourselves from the branch we will be allowed to do that, but that way leads to death. 

Lord, I love you. Thank you for your personal touch in my life. even though your vineyard is filled with millions of followers, millions of branches, you care for me like I am the only one that matters. I am humbled by that. My desire is simply to produce fruit for you and your kingdom. I cannot do that without your watering, your pruning, and without your personal care. Please Lord continue to guide my path, correct those things in my that need corrected and remove those things that need to be removed that I might be a GOOD BRANCH on YOUR VINE. Thank You Lord! AMEN!

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If you haven't repented of your sin, accepted what Jesus did for you on the cross, dying for your sins, or if you have not committed your life to Jesus, TODAY could be that day. give your life to the Lord. 

"because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." (Romans 10:9-10, ESV)

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