#vineandbranches

In my last newsletter I shared that the small group of us girls that just arrived in July have been digging into a bible study together. It's called His Last Words and it reviews John 13-17. When I originally bought it I thought Really only 5 chapters of John, for 7 weeks? Let me challenge you the same thing I've been learning... do not be focused on the quantity, you will miss Him in that mindset. We are often so focused on getting through the Bible. Flexing our muscles that we've read all of the books. Or showcasing the amount of scripture we get through daily. That is not what it is about friends (I'm reminding myself as well).

We are currently only starting to work through John 16. It has been so valuable to slow down. To mediate on each sentence. Read these words from various translations. And to see the beauty of scripture intertwined together from different authors of the Bible from across a wide time gap. Journal through your thoughts. Search for other messages on the same scripture and learn another perspective. Sometimes God is breathing life into one verse or chapter and we must be still enough, present enough, and willing to listen when it happens.

So I share all this because of what happened this morning. With Uganda still under a COVID-19 lockdown, I have been unable to visit churches here on Sundays. That is bittersweet because one of the first things I do when I move somewhere new is to explore a new community for me to call home. However, the beauty of what COVID has brought is more churches offering online services. My last church in Kansas City, Restore Community Church, has modeled an amazing path of this online community. They saw the need of connecting those who are unable to be in person Sunday morning due to distance, job schedules, or even medical reasons. I have transitioned from being in person to now joining the online community from across the globe. Uganda is 8 hours ahead of Kansas City so I had to find a different rhythm of watching Restore's message on Youtube a week after it happened because my Sunday mornings happened before it did there.

This morning during my Sunday message, Theo was discussing John 15:5 "I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear great fruit. Without Me, you will accomplish nothing" Whoa. God is speaking. And I am here for it. Same scripture I've been praying over with a group of girls from different walks of life called to Uganda to serve Him. Previously, I might have been annoyed and been like Yeah, yeah I don't need to hear this I just talked about it last week and might have tuned out or even turned off the message because I selfishly believed I had heard all that I need to or knew all the things Theo would say about this scripture. However, I was so excited to see God speaking life into this scripture and showed up with a willing heart to listen to what He is teaching about himself. What is He revealing that I missed? What in my current life is He speaking to?

I am the True Vine,

You are the Branches.

Our lives are intertwined

Each branch the tree enhances.

-

Reach out to brother branch each day

you may never know

What you have done in some small way

To make it bloom and grow.

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Don’t ever say to any other branch, 

“My flower is sweet, my way is right”

The gardener is tending

Each day and night.

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The gardener will prune,

The gardener will groom.

Never judge another branch

For how it comes to bloom.

-

I never ask too much from you,

Justice, mercy for each other.

Remember, you can’t love me

Until you love your brothers.

The Body and the Vine: A Glimpse at Paul and John’s Metaphors for the Church

In looking at Paul’s understanding of the church as the body of Christ we see a set of relationships, that of the individual believer to Christ and the believer in community. It is through baptism that both the individual believer accepts salvation through the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, and is joined to the community, the body, of fellow believers. Likewise, through the…

Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.

 A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike; to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one's right hand.

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 27: 14-17

Again we find ourselves examining multiple verses that at first seem as if they have nothing in common but they in fact have a common theme.  For these four verses, that theme is: relationship.  These verses explain how someone should relate to their neighbor, to their wife, and to their friend.

Let's start with the first, and perhaps the simplest of the three: the neighbor.  Simply put, be considerate. Don't be that obnoxious neighbor that plays loud music really late into the night.  If your neighbor (more relatable: roommate) isn't a morning person, don't force it!  Try to love the people you live around as Jesus would have.  Pray for them.  Pray over them.  Laugh with them...when they're ready to. Be generous and show them you love them through your works and not just your words.

"But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:17-18).

Second, and the one I am least familiar with, marriage.  Of course, addressing the women that read this: don't be quarrelsome.  But in all things submit to your husband (Ephesians 5:24).  To the men, if you do end up with an annoying, nagging wife, trying to control her out of that is not going to work.  This verse says that trying to subdue her by sheer force simply won't work.  Instead, you should love her and lay down your life for her (Ephesians 5:25) as Christ did for the church.  In a phrase: women, respect your husbands and men, love your wives.  As a woman, I know that women don't quarrel over things they feel are going well.  If your wife/girlfriend sees that you make good decisions and trusts you, she'll quarrel with you a lot less.

Last but definitely not least, this passage explains how to relate to your friends.  Having a close friend allows you to be vulnerable and open about the struggles and sin in your life.  It also gives you the opportunity to have someone hold you accountable.  In this, you are making each other into better, sharper people.  By talking about what you believe, you can discuss teachings that may turn out to be unbiblical and therefore rid yourselves of them.  You can hold each other up to the standard that we can now reach by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit.  When you are down, your friend can encourage you in who you are in Christ.

All three of these types of relationships are opportunities for God to make his love manifest among us. These verses share with us a practical wisdom for how to make the best of each of them.

Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.  Do not forsake your friend and you father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity.  Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.

Proverbs 27:9-10

Essentially, these two verses summarize why good friends are so important.  It also tells us that good friends can be closer to us (physically as well as emotionally) than our flesh and blood family.  Verse 9 explicitly states that a friend that gives us sound advice (earnest counsel) is so sweet that it is like a precious perfume, a valuable gift like oil.  The sweetness of friends, however, will make our heart even more glad than those monetarily valuable possessions.

If friends are so dear to us and make us so happy, why should we seek shelter, help, and advice from others that are not so close (verse 10)?  Instead of "go[ing] to your brother's house", shouldn't you go to your friend's house?  You don't always tell your family everything. They don't always know what's going on in your life but a good friend is someone to confide in.  They know your emotional and spiritual history (if you let them) and are therefore sometimes more valuable than your family.  Of course I am not saying that family is not valuable.  Nor am I saying that your family cannot be confided in, on the contrary!  I am simply saying that if you have close friends outside of your family, you should not assume that just because your family is related to you that they are better able to help you through a situation.

It is also fairly true that we surround ourselves with friends.  The last sentence seems to suggest that we keep our friends closer physically to us than we keep our family.  Perhaps this is because we know that our family will be our family no matter how much physical distance there is but we feel less certain that we can maintain a friendship from hundreds to thousands of miles away.  Personally, I know that this is true.  I go to school many many miles away from home so my friends at school ARE my family.  We take care of each other.  We help each other.

I would challenge you to do two things.

1. Find friends that give you earnest counsel.

2. Be the kind of friend that is more valuable than any physical possession.

Today God reminded me of the things He’s impressed so deeply upon my heart. I think I’ve had a hard time seeing these things clearly lately, and a difficult time remembering the things He has called me to. Or rather, life and spiritual warfare and perceived failure and other ugly things have gotten in the way. There are things i now realize i was claiming to be more important than perfectly following what God has called me to, or that i was trying to make coincide with His plan that actually do not. At least, me trying in all my human might and naivity certainly will not be able to make them fit together properly.

So i am letting go. I have to.

Loneliness is something that i hate and something that i’m very sensitive to. But i realize that God continually places me in positions where i am forced to grow and forced to face this perceived loneliness head-on. I realize that these are ideal times for me to trust in God more and more, but i feel that it is more often a time of great struggle. Eventually, i can see that i become stronger in my faith because of it, but more than anything, i just struggle.

I’ve let this struggle hold me back. I have told God that i am not going to go places alone and i have held the idea in my heart that i will not serve Him overseas while i am single. There are things i want really badly, and i tell myself that i want them— scratch that. I tell myself that i NEED them before i can serve God in any greater capacity. But God has so gently and sweetly reminded me of the desires of my heart.. and i know that i can no longer let fear (the fear the Enemy places in me, the fear of loneliness, or the fear of the unknown) hold me back. Going alone.. i’m not going alone. God is my comforter and my strength and my shield. And Lord, i want to claim that in my life and BELIEVE IT.

God, help me in letting go of these things that hold me back.. help me to simply go when You say go