{"id":8219,"date":"2021-04-30T15:56:25","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T07:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tfscc.org\/?p=8219"},"modified":"2021-04-30T16:02:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T08:02:40","slug":"gospel-vine-and-branches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/resources\/gospel-vine-and-branches\/","title":{"rendered":"Vine and branches"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n


This Sunday\u2019s Gospel reading is Gospel of John 15:1-8. In the Old Testament, the vine is often used to describe the people of Israel. For example, \u201cIsrael was a spreading vine.\u201d Hosea 10<\/span> However, in another passage, Jesus compared himself to the vine and God to the gardener\u2014\u201cI am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.\u201d John 15:1<\/span> Jesus went on to point out that God \u201ccuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes.\u201d John 15:2<\/span> In another word, God has excluded those who do not belong to the Lord Jesus, and kept those who do; he did that \u201cso that it will be even more fruitful.\u201d John 15:2<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n


How does a disciple become more fruitful?<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n


\u201cRemain in me, as I also remain in you,\u201d John 15:4<\/span> Jesus taught His disciples. To put simply, it means to live in the Lord. The apostle Paul said, \u201cDon\u2019t you know that you yourselves are God\u2019s temple and that God\u2019s Spirit dwells in your midst?\u201d 1 Corinthians 3:16<\/span> So how does the spirit of God enter the hearts of people? The only way is to do so is by connecting one\u2019s life with God. \u201cI am the vine; you are the branches.\u201d John 15:5<\/span> The vine and its branches are intertwined\u2014the branches rely on the vine for nutrients in order to blossom and bear fruit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n


Jesus is the Lord of life.<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n


Similarly, Jesus is the Lord of life, He is who our spiritual lives need to connect with in order to grow and thus become fruitful. Jesus told His disciples that if they remain in the Lord, great gifts will follow. \u201cAsk whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.\u201d John 15:7<\/span> He encouraged His disciples to become more fruitful in life.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n


What about unfruitful people?<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n


It will come with serious consequences\u2014as Jesus advised His disciples, \u201cApart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5<\/span> He especially warned His disciples that if they do not stay in Him, they will be \u201clike a branch that is thrown away and withers,\u201d Jesus explained, \u201csuch branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.\u201d John 15:6<\/span> Jesus reiterated: all spiritual lives who belong to the Lord connect to Him. Once one leaves the Lord, they will no longer receive nourishment from the Spirit of the Lord\u2014their spiritual lives will stop growing and their minds will not be renewed for the Lord, and thus wither and even die. As a result, they will no longer belong to the Lord, and will be \u201cthrown into the fire and burned.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n


What is worth thinking about today is: are our lives always in Christ and connected with the Lord? Does our life bear fruit in the Lord?<\/em><\/p>\r\n

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This Sunday\u2019s Gospel reading is Gospel of John 15:1-8. In the Old Testament, the vine is often used to describe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-for-the-soul"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8219"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8231,"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8219\/revisions\/8231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taofongshan-staging.pandawork.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}