The True Vine: a 31 day guide to prayer E-Book

Andrew Murray

• Herausgeber: Bible Study Books
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Hope messages in times of crisis
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 108

Beschreibung

Meditations for a month in John 15: 1-16. This book is intended for all Christians who seek an experience of spiritual growth with the Lord Jesus. Presents Bible meditations based on chapter 15 of the Gospel of John. The mystery which hath been hid from ages, but now is made manifest to His saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery...which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:26,27

Leseprobe

Summary

"I am the True Vine" John 15:1

"And My Father is the Husbandman" John 15:1

"Every Branch in me that Beareth Not Fruit, He taketh It away" John 15:2

"Every Branch in me That Beareth Not Fruit, He Taketh It Away" John 15:2

"And Every Branch That Beareth Fruit, He Cleanseth, That it May Bear More Fruit" John 15:2

"Every Branch That Beareth Fruit, He Cleanseth It, That It May Bear More Fruit" John 15:2

"Already Ye Are Clean Because of the Word I Have Spoken Unto You" John 15:3

"Abide in Me, and I in You" John 15:4

"As the Branch Cannot Bear Fruit of Itself, Except It Abide In the Vine; No More Can Ye, Except Ye Abide in Me" John 15:4

"I am The Vine" John 15:5

"I am The Vine, Ye Are The Branches" John 15:5

"He That Abideth in Me, and I in Him, the Same Bringeth Forth Much Fruit" John 15:5

"Apart From Me Ye Can Do Nothing" John 15:5

"If a Man Abide Not in Me, He is Cast Forth as a Branch, and is Withered; and They Gather Them, and Cast Them into the Fire, and They are Burned" John 15:6

Whatsoever Ye Will

"If Ye Abide in Me, and My Words, Abide in You, Ask Whatsoever Ye Will, and it Shall be Done Unto You" John 15:7

"Herein is My Father Glorified, that Ye Bear Much Fruit" John 15:8

"Herein is My Father Glorified, that Ye Bear Much Fruit: So Shall Ye Be My Disciples" John 15:8

"Even as the Father Hath Loved Me, I Also Have Loved you" John 15:9

"Even as the Father Hath Loved Me, I Also Have Loved You: Abide Ye in My Love" John 15:9

"If Ye Keep My Commandments, Ye Shall Abide In My Love" John 15:10

"If Ye Keep My Commandments, Ye Shall Abide in My Love, Even as I have Kept My Father's Commandments, and Abide in His Love" John 15:10

"These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That Your Joy May Be Fulfilled" John 15:11

"This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One Another" John 15:12

"This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One Another, Even as I Have Loved You" John 15:12

"Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends" John 15:13

"Ye Are My Friends, if Ye Do the Things Which I Command You" John 15:14

"No Longer Do I Call You Servants; for the Servant Knoweth Not What His Lord Doeth: But I Have Called You Friends; for All Things That I Heard From My Father, I Have Made Known Unto You" John 15:15

"Ye Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You, and Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit" John 15:16

"I Chose You, and Appointed You, That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide" John 15:16

"I Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide: That Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask of the Father in My Name, He May Give It You" John 15:16

THE VINE

"I am the True Vine" -- John 15:1

All earthly things are the shadows of heavenly realities--the expression, in created, visible forms, of the invisible glory of God. The Life and the Truth are in Heaven; on earth we have figures and shadows of the heavenly truths.

When Jesus says: "I am the true Vine," He tells us that all the vines of earth are pictures and emblems of Himself. He is the divine reality, of which they are the created expression. They all point to Him, and preach Him, and reveal Him.

If you would know Jesus, study the vine. How many eyes have gazed on and admired a great vine with its beautiful fruit. Come and gaze on the heavenly Vine till your eye turns from all else to admire Him. How many, in a sunny clime, sit and rest under the shadow of a vine. Come and be still under the shadow of the true Vine, and rest under it from the heat of the day.

What countless numbers rejoice in the fruit of the vine! Come, and take, and eat of the heavenly fruit of the true Vine, and let your soul say: "I sat under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste." I am the true Vine.--This is a heavenly mystery. The earthly vine can teach you much about this Vine of Heaven. Many interesting and beautiful points of comparison suggest themselves, and help us to get conceptions of what Christ meant. But such thoughts do not teach us to know what the heavenly Vine really is, in its cooling shade, and its life-giving fruit. The experience of this is part of the hidden mystery, which none but Jesus Himself, by His Holy Spirit, can unfold and impart. I am the true Vine.

The vine is the living Lord, who Himself speaks, and gives, and works all that He has for us. If you would know the meaning and power of that word, do not think to find it by thought or study; these may help to show you what you must get from Him to awaken desire and hope and prayer, but they cannot show you the Vine. Jesus alone can reveal Himself.

He gives His Holy Spirit to open the eyes to gaze upon Himself, to open the heart to receive Himself. He must Himself speak the word to you and me. I am the true Vine.--And what am I to do, if I want the mystery, in all its heavenly beauty and blessing, opened up to me? With what you already know of the parable, bow down and be still, worship and wait, until the divine Word enters your heart, and you feel His holy presence with you, and in you.

The overshadowing of His holy love will give you the perfect calm and rest of knowing that the Vine will do all. I am the true Vine.--He who speaks is God, in His infinite power able to enter into us. He is man, one with us. He is the crucified One, who won a perfect righteousness and a divine life for us through His death. He is the glorified One, who from the throne gives His Spirit to make His presence real and true. He speaks--oh, listen, not to His words only, but to Himself, as He whispers secretly day by day: "I am the true Vine! All that the Vine can ever be to its branch, "I will be to you." Holy Lord Jesus, the heavenly Vine of God's own planting, I beseech Thee, reveal Thyself to my soul. Let the Holy Spirit, not only in thought, but in experience, give me to know all that Thou, the Son of God, art to me as the true Vine.

HUSBANDMAN

"And My Father is the Husbandman" John 15:1

A vine must have a husbandman to plant and watch over it, to receive and rejoice in its fruit. Jesus says: "My Father is the husbandman." He was "the vine of God's planting." All He was and did, He owed to the Father; in all He only sought the Father's will and glory. He had become man to show us what a creature ought to be to its Creator. He took our place, and the spirit of His life before the Father was ever what He seeks to make ours: "Of him, and through him, and to him are all things." He became the true Vine, that we might be true branches. Both in regard to Christ and ourselves the words teach us the two lessons of absolute dependence and perfect confidence.

My Father is the Husbandman.--Christ ever lived in the spirit of what He once said: "The Son can do nothing of himself." As dependent as a vine is on a husbandman for the place where it is to grow, for its fencing in and watering and pruning. Christ felt Himself entirely dependent on the Father every day for the wisdom and the strength to do the Father's will. As He said in the previous chapter (14:10): "The words that I say unto you, I speak not from Myself; but the Father abiding in Me doeth his works." This absolute dependence had as its blessed counterpart the most blessed confidence that He had nothing to fear: the Father could not disappoint Him. With such a Husbandman as His Father, He could enter death and the grave. He could trust God to raise Him up. All that Christ is and has, He has, not in Himself, but from the Father. My Father is the Husbandman.--That is as blessedly true for us as for Christ. Christ is about to teach His disciples about their being branches. Before He ever uses the word, or speaks at all of abiding in Him or bearing fruit, He turns their eyes heavenward to the Father watching over them, and working all in them. At the very root of all Christian life lies the thought that God is to do all, that our work is to give and leave ourselves in His hands, in the confession of utter helplessness and dependence, in the assured confidence that He gives all we need. The great lack of the Christian life is that, even where we trust Christ, we leave God out of the count. Christ came to bring us to God.

Christ lived the life of a man exactly as we have to live it. Christ the Vine points to God the Husbandman. As He trusted God, let us trust God, that everything we ought to be and have, as those who belong to the Vine, will be given us from above. Isaiah said: "A vineyard of red wine; I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Ere we begin to think of fruit or branches, let us have our heart filled with the faith: as glorious as the Vine, is the Husbandman. As high and holy as is our calling, so mighty and loving is the God who will work it all. As surely as the Husbandman made the Vine what it was to be, will He make each branch what it is to be. Our Father is our Husbandman, the Surety for our growth and fruit. Blessed Father, we are Thy husbandry. Oh, that Thou mayest have honor of the work of Thy hands! O my Father, I desire to open my heart to the joy of this wondrous truth: My Father is the Husbandman. Teach me to know and trust Thee, and to see that the same deep interest with which Thou caredst for and delightedst in the Vine, extends to every branch, to me too.

THE BRANCH

"Every Branch in me that Beareth Not Fruit, He taketh It away" John 15:2

Here we have one of the chief words of the parable--branch. A vine needs branches: without branches it can do nothing, can bear no fruit. As important as it is to know about the Vine, and the Husbandman, it is to realize what the branch is. Before we listen to what Christ has to say about it, let us first of all take in what a branch is, and what it teaches us of our life in Christ. A branch is simply a bit of wood, brought forth by the vine for the one purpose of serving it in bearing its fruit. It is of the very same nature as the vine, and has one life and one spirit with it. Just think a moment of the lessons this suggests.

There is the lesson of entire consecration. The branch has but one object for which it exists, one purpose to which it is entirely given up.

That is, to bear the fruit the vine wishes to bring forth. And so the believer has but one reason for his being a branch--but one reason for his existence on earth --that the heavenly Vine may through him bring forth His fruit. Happy the soul that knows this, that has consented to it, and that says, I have been redeemed and I live for one thing--as exclusively as the natural branch exists only to bring forth fruit, I too; as exclusively as the heavenly Vine exists to bring forth fruit, I too.

As I have been planted by God into Christ, I have wholly given myself to bear the fruit the Vine desires to bring forth.