What does it mean to abide in Christ's love?   "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love." John 15:9-10 ESV   Abide means remain or stay. The idea is that we're fully connected, engaged. In our multi-tasking world, this is a single-tasking word. We're doing one thing. We're remaining tethered to Jesus. We draw our life from him. We take our direction from him.   I've learned that no matter how much I think this means that I'm single-minded in my focus on Jesus, I believe there is more room. I don't believe I achieve anything near the ideal or the standard Jesus is describing. He is greater than all I can ask or imagine.   If I can keep his commandments, I can remain in his love. It seems simple. We know the 2 greatest commands. They're from Matthew 22:36-38, which paraphrased is love God all you can and love others the way you love yourself. If I'm honest, I have a gap. If you're in between me and where I want to go, I'm not so loving. I can easily find ways I don't measure up. Fortunately, Jesus paid for the gap. But I'm still called to grow.   Today, let's grow. Let's try to remain a bit longer or to abide a bit longer. Let's try to be slower to get angry at someone else and let's be quicker to love others. In fact, ask God to show you how you can display love to someone right now and do it. If at any moment, you sense a gap between where you are and the center of Christ's love, you know the key: keep his commandments.   Let's be a people marked by keeping his commandments today. And if you want to do that better, check out our online community called Follower of One. Head over to https://community.followerofone.org and check it out.

How do we prove we're disciples of Jesus?   "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples." John 15:8 NASB95   We prove our relationship to Jesus by bearing fruit. But if you read what it means to bear fruit, you can get differing opinions.   Some talk about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 which includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We can always demonstrate more of these. The supply of the fruit of the Spirit is only limited by the strength of our relationship to Jesus.   Others think bearing fruit is leading others to trust Jesus. We actually talk about helping others move one notch closer to Jesus.   We know from this verse that when we bear fruit, we glorify the Father; we help others see him and know him better.   My working definition for bearing fruit is living a life that can't be explained without including Jesus. When an apple shows up, we know it's an apple tree. When a grape shows up, we know it's a grape vine. When the evidence of Jesus is present, we know the person acting is a Jesus follower.   Our job today is to live our lives following Jesus. In the end, we won't look like everyone else. We can practice any of our daily habits and expect Jesus to become a bit more visible to the people around us. Right now, the Holy Spirit may be giving you an idea that he can use to glorify God. Don't tell him "No." Rather figure out how you can do what he asks. You'll experience joy. You'll see the Father glorified. And you'll prove to be a disciple of Jesus'.

What do you want?   "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." John 15:7 NASB   I wonder about this passage regularly. I wonder if I really abide. How many of the things I ask Jesus about are still being answered? How many did I blow because I stopped asking? How many were me being wrong about thinking I remained in Jesus but I was really trying to do my own thing?   Do you have the courage to abide in Jesus and then trust until your request comes to pass? I want to. I want to see Jesus working miracles in my life all the time. I wonder where I don't abide, or in which things I really don't trust him.   I know God answers prayer. I prayed things 35 years ago that are being answered now. I'm not any better than anyone else except that the Holy Spirit helps me remember. I remember praying that God would use the frustration of my career and he is. I remember praying that God would provide for us and he has. So many answered prayers. And yet, I can still get afraid thinking about how we lead this ministry or how we handle our finances.   Today, let's ask God to show us where we can trust him more. As I record, I choose to trust Jesus. I choose to tell myself not to consider my own anxiety. It is less real than the Holy Spirit. May I trust Jesus and invest in the next person I meet. May I trust Jesus and boldly choose to do any crazy thing he tells me to do when I'm interacting with coworkers, customers, vendors and friends today.   Life following Jesus seems too good to be true. That's the kind of God we serve. Let's believe him for more and believe him to be bigger and more powerful than we can ask or imagine. Then let's live accordingly.

What do you do with yard trash?   If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." John 15:6 NASB   When you trim a tree, or pull weeds in your yard, you pile them up somewhere and eventually they're burned. Jesus continues his analogy of the vine and the branches. When we don't abide in Jesus, we are cut off, hauled off and burned. That's a pretty vivid analogy.   Do we believe this? Abide can also be translated remain. Our life, both the temporal life and the eternal life, come from God the Father. We get them by being connected to Jesus. Eventually, if you don't connect to Jesus, and remain in him, you'll burn up. It's not a pleasant thought.   Fortunately for those of us who put our trust in Jesus, he is the one who helps us remain, or abide in him. When we abide in him day-to-day, we can do work that will last forever. But in this verse, Jesus isn't talking about our accomplishments. I believe he has flipped the analogy to people, not works. This clearly says, "If anyone..." It's like Jesus has said up through verse 5 he was talking about our fruit. But now he's talking about those who don't remain in him.   Do you remain in Jesus? If you have trusted and bent your life to follow him, I believe you will abide and that will result in salvation. In a 5-minute devotional, it's hard to finish the argument. Let's trust Jesus today. Those that don't abide in him will end up being cast off like dead branches. It's a challenging thought.   Today, let's abide in Jesus. That may mean that we remind ourselves what we know and trust about him. It may mean doing something you know he wants you to do. Whatever it is, do it, and let us know what happened. Send a note to info@followerofone.org to share your experience.   Thanks for being a marketplace minister and for remembering that what we do because we follow Jesus matters, forever.

Are you the kind of person who enjoys checking things off your to-do list?   I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 ESV   We spoke about abiding in yesterday's message. Look for it if you haven't heard it. Today, I want to concentrate on the phrase, "for apart from me, you can do nothing." What did Jesus mean?   Certainly, he couldn't mean absolutely nothing. Apart from Jesus many things have been done. But I think he's talking about things that will matter forever. We can't bear any eternal fruit. We can't lay up any treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:20) apart from Jesus, either.   Are we just in this life for what we can get in this life? Or do we want to believe in something beyond this life? If you want to believe something beyond the years in this body, then Jesus is very clear. There is only one way to get to the next life with any choices.   And when I consider this 2nd life that lasts forever, I can consider how by abiding Jesus I can do something. Apart from him I can do nothing. So I concentrate on Jesus and what he would have me do. Then I must trust that what I'm doing amounts to "something."   Today, do you want to do "something?" Let's concentrate on Jesus and then trust him. If we can join him, know him, grow our trust in him, believe him, study him. If we can learn about him from our local church and from trusted teachers and friends who follow him, then we can expect we're doing something. Our life makes a difference. This is one of the reasons we say, what we do because we follow Jesus matters, forever. If you'd like to grow closer to Jesus and abide in him, get around his people. One place you can do that online is at https://community.FollowerofOne.org.

In the day-to-day, where are you focused? What do you pursue?   "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." John 15:4 NASB   What does it mean to abide? Some translations use the word "remain," or "stay." I think of resting, persisting, persevering, hanging on. To abide in Jesus means that I don't abandon him and try to do things my own way. No branch can bear fruit unless it is connected and drawing it's life from the vine.   We're pretty powerful and wealthy. It's easy to believe that we have the power to do the things we want. But we can't make ourselves right with God. And I wonder what we miss because we do things on our own instead of trusting and waiting for Jesus.   We even mentioned about focusing on Jesus yesterday, too. When we focus on him, he makes things work. I confess I even struggle with this from time to time. I want to trust him. I want to remain in him. I turn to him to make that happen. I don't have the power in and of myself. Trusting God is an active choice. I have to choose to abide or remain. Deep down, I know I can't do anything without him. However sometimes abiding in him takes a long time.   I hope I can remember to stick to my pay grade. How long is God's problem. How much fruit is also his problem. What I have to do to be pruned, again, that's God's problem. My challenge is to remain.   What would help you remain? For me, I'm a community person. I need people around me to help me abide, as well as friends who are also abiding and waiting on Jesus. If you need a community like that, check out a local church. Or, you can also connect with us at https://community.followerofone.org. Remember what we do because we follow Jesus matters, forever.

When a branch has been pruned, they say it was cleaned. Have you been cleaned by God recently?   "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." John 15:3 NASB   Jesus is speaking. The disciples and Jesus are walking (see John 14:31). We think they may have walked by a vine and Jesus started this analogy of the vine and the vinedresser. He's talking about pruning which we discussed in yesterday's episode. Today, Jesus tells the disciples that at this moment, they're clean. The fruit hasn't come yet. There's nothing to prune. What Jesus has told them has placed them in this state.   When the word of God transforms us, we are clean. That's one way God prunes us. His word changes our behavior. Changing behavior isn't easy. left to ourselves, we drift. the the Bible, the Word of God, transforms us. It causes us to change our behavior. It causes us to re-think our practices. This is one way we're pruned.   Some people feel that pruning is God taking away things we love. I think it means that God is both harvesting his fruit and planning for the future. He is the owner, the vinedresser. The fruit belongs to him. As a branch, my job is to remain or abide in the vine. I concentrate on the vine. The vinedresser focuses on the fruit. He does the pruning. Something in God's word may challenge me, but if I can concentrate on the vine, I live. When I focus on anything else, things don't go so well.   What are you going to focus on today? Your circumstances are an opportunity to show others Jesus. Whatever you do, you can do it with all your will, focused on your Lord and God will bear fruit through you. Let's concentrated on Jesus' word and be transformed, cleaned and ready for the next work.

What does it mean to be "pruned?" It doesn't sound very pleasant.   "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit." John 15:2   Pruning is the act of removing leaves and branch tips and even budding flowers in order to make room for more. The way a vinedresser prunes, what they remove and what they leave, can direct the way the branches grow and how many blooms there are. Vine-dressing is a skill that is learned. It takes time and care.   Jesus states that God prunes us. We're branches. The life of Jesus flowing through us produces fruit. When that fruit is ready, the vinedresser will cut it off. If he leaves it, it will just rot and nothing else will grow there either.   Bearing fruit is the first step in pruning. We want to bear fruit, but we don't like the idea of being pruned. Jesus is giving us a fact of life. Pruning is necessary for us to reach our destiny. The reward outweighs the cost.   We know this principle. We need a community of friends to help us remember this principle and live in it. That's why we created Follower of One, an online community for marketplace Christians. We want our faith to produce fruit every day. Why not join us at https://community.followerofone.org and watch God bear fruit through you, too?

Do you ever think about the fruit of your life?   Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:2 ESV   Notice how both of these activities are painful. The vinedresser is God the Father. If we get life, God works to make sure we produce fruit.   The life comes through the vine. Jesus is the vine. He is the source of life. And the life he gives lasts forever. But God also expects a return on this life. He expects it to bear fruit?   Some people think the fruit is people coming to trust in Jesus. But I think the fruit is the outcome of our lives following Jesus. As we live following him, others see that we're different. For some, that is what God uses to save them. For others, God uses our obedience to him as a way to give him glory. Giving him glory means that we operate according to his will. One day, everyone will operate according to his will. Right now, while we live in the flesh, we have a chance to choose. And our choice matters.   Today, let's choose to live like we believe God. Let's obey him and do what he says. When we do, even in small things, God uses that. He calls it bearing fruit.   We believe we need one another to do this well. That's why we formed an online community. You can join us at https://community.followerofone.org and check it out.

What is your purpose?   "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser." John 15:1   Do you wonder about your purpose? Have you discovered your purpose? Based on this analogy, we bear fruit for the vinedresser. What does that mean to you?   We spoke yesterday about how our life comes to us from the vine and Jesus says here that he is the true vine. Jews thought of Israel as the vine and Jesus upset that idea.   God is the vinedresser. Think a bit about the vinedresser or gardener. The gardener is the one who chooses what is planted. If nothing grows, that's on the gardener. If there is a great harvest from the garden or the vine, the gardener gets the credit. He's the one doing the work. He's the one tending and pulling weeds and pruning and watering. The work is on the gardener or the vinedresser and the outcome is his.   So where does our purpose come from? It doesn't come from inside of us at all. It comes from the outside. You were created for a purpose by a Creator. Notice how he is doing the work and he gets the results.   I'm so money focused. As I enter my 4th quarter, I confess that I worry about money, how much things cost and whether or not Vicky and I will have enough. But if God is the vinedresser, and the fruit isn't money, then what am I obsessing about? He says all throughout scripture, even later in this chapter, that he will provide. That makes me free to make a difference. I'm not free to not earn. I'm not free to consume more than I produce. We live in a free market world. But I'm in control of less than I think in the overall scheme of things. My purpose came from God.   Today, let's focus our life on God. What can we do for our family and the people we interact with today. Jesus came to serve others.   Do you want to work on this more? Join our online community at www.FollowerOfOne.org