The pressures of this world often make us have valuation errors. Certain things that are incredibly valuable lose their value to things that simply are not valuable in the slightest. Modern marketing techniques understand this all too well. They understand that you will be more inclined to buy their products if you are made discontent with any other product. It is how the human mind works. We tend...

This passage often comes with a degree of conviction for me. Like most people in this world, I like to be liked. If someone does not like me, I have that desire to try to fix things so that I would be more likeable to them. In short, I can be a bit of a people pleaser. It is something the Lord has sincerely convicted my heart about and has been growing me in boldness as I step further away from th...

Greatness of love is a theme that stands out for the believer. Let's take a look at the words Jesus spoke to His disciples concerning the love that He has for them and they ought to have for one another.12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever...

If we take a look at the surrounding context, there is a very important lesson here. Let us step back and take a look at the whole of the dialogue we are in the middle of. John 13 places us in the upper room where Jesus tells His disciples that He would be departing soon. He eludes heavily to His death. After Judas takes off, Jesus shifts the conversation more into the role the disciples are takin...

There are ultimately two modes of the believer that are being discussed here. There is the relationship with the believer and other believers, and then there is the relationship with believers to those in the world. The relationship between believers is one that is marked by love. That love, in turn, marks a dynamic of self sacrifice. Jesus proves His love for His disciples that He calls His frien...

12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to y...

Pray that the Lord would teach you to abide. Pray that He would teach you to depend on Him for everything in your life. Give thanks that you have a vinedresser Who desires to see you be as fruitful as can be. Finally, pray for your brother and sister in Christ that they would do the same. Pray for the church as a whole that we would all abide in the Lord with sincere hearts.......

When it comes to making a battle plan toward abiding in the Lord, we have to ask what it means even to abide. It is easy to talk around abiding in the Lord but it becomes more difficult to ascertain what that really means.Abiding means to dwell. We are to dwell in the vine and dwell in His word. Another sense of the word can be described as belonging. He is the source of my strength and my being. ...

I have found a temptation that sits deep within me that has been a common motivation for me in my walk with the Lord. It is that I think I have something worth bringing to the table. I think I have something I can contribute to the Lord. This passage always humbles me.5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.-Joh...

As the lesson of the disciples not being able to do anything to please God in it of themselves, Jesus is showing them how to become pleasing to the Lord. In modern audiences, we have this strange belief that we simply cannot be pleasing to the Lord. This was not the case for the original audience. They not only believed they should be pleasing to God. They believed they could. So it was a two-fold...

There has been a lot of emphasis of imitation from Jesus to His disciples. As Jesus prepares to depart, He is reinforcing them with what they must do in order to continue Jesus' mission of bringing the Kingdom of God forward. To this effect, Jesus brings up an analogy that they would have a decent amount of understanding about. Vineyards and vines were a major part of the ancient Mediterranean lif...

The image Jesus draws in this passage is a clear one. He is still in conversation with His disciples, which is an important thing given some of what Jesus is saying here. Many people believe that Scripture has to apply to all people at all times. That simply is not true, and this passage will demonstrate that.Jesus introduces Himself as the true vine, and His Father as the vine dresser. He then, i...

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in...

I encourage you to pray for the Lord's peace. Accept what He desires to give to you. Lay your anxieties before Him. Call them out by name and rejoice in the Lord. Acknowledge by faith that the Lord desires for you to have peace in Him. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.......

As I shared in yesterday's devotion, fear and focus go hand in hand. I have found for myself that those times of anxiety are most dominant when my focus is off of the Lord. Even worse, I find it thrives when focus is upon myself. Consider these verses:3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you lo...