Stay Connected

You may not think much about the fruits and vegetables sitting at your local produce store but they are, in fact, dying.  No need for tears, for it is simply what happens to fruits and vegetables once they are harvested for us to eat.  Though they look healthy enough, and will continue to look that way for a while, depending on the type of produce and how it is stored, but they are in fact dying or spoiling and nothing can prevent this eventuality.

 

Similarly too, we need to stay connected to our source of life or we will die – not physically but, more important, spiritually.  As Jesus in John 15:5 said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing”.  “Without Me you can do nothing”,  is a mighty and powerful statement that I am sure many disconnected secularists would laugh at, as they list the number of “things” they believe they can do without being connected to Jesus.  However, the fact of the matter is very similar to the disconnected produce.  It may for a time be quite editable and appear to be perfectly good, like the disconnected soul doing his circus act of “things”, but don’t be fooled they are both dying, the produce physically and the man spiritually.

More importantly, you will not have life (eternal life), if you are stay apart from the Lord as John 15:6 reads, “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.”

So, I know what your next burning question is.  How do I stay connected?  It’s very simple, John 15:10 gives you the exact formula, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”  And what is one of Jesus’ commandments?  Well you don’t have to go much further to find that out too.  John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

May you always stay connected with Our Lord and Savior.  You will thank God you did!  Amen!!

Good Advice from Our Lord and Savior

How does Jesus tell us to think about our physical needs:

Matthew 6:25-34  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear.   Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds in the sky;  they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are not you more important than they?   Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?   Why are you anxious about clothes?  Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.  They do not work or spin.  But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.   If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’  All these things the pagans seek.  Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.  Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.  Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

In life we need food for our bodies to live but Jesus tells us:

John 6:35  “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

In life we need water for our bodies to live but Jesus tells us:

John 4:13-14  “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

In life we need rest for our bodies to live but Jesus tells us:

Matthew 11:28-30  “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.   Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.  For my yoke is easy,  and my burden light.”

In life we need to protect our lives but Jesus tells us:

Luke 17:33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.