4 October | EVERYONE
«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.» John 15:5
In the beginning there was a wonderful relationship of love between God and the humans He created. But sin crept in and brought about a terrible separation. It opened an insurmountable abyss and today we groan in anguish at living far from the Creator. From this state of detachment from the source of life, develops the irritating dissatisfaction of our heart. We are not what we should be. We cannot achieve what we would like to be. We are far off from living as human beings lived when they left the Creator’s hands.
We feel alone, alienated, and hopeless. We try in vain to fill the emptiness of our heart. We were created to live in close relationship with God, and yet sin dragged us like a dry leaf, down the hill, into the pit of our passions.
It was no longer like in the beginning. Adam and Eve had a wonderful, loving relationship with the Father. They needed God and sought Him at all times. They knew that without Him they would wither and fade like a branch separated from the tree. But sin, like a cruel dagger, severed that relationship and today we are what we are.
Jesus came into the world to restore that lost relationship. To establish a bridge through which we could return to the Father. So that morning, as he passed through the vineyards of Jerusalem, he said to his disciples, “without Me you can do nothing.”
Without Him we are nothing. Just dry straw burnt by the sun of circumstances. “They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 1:12-13).
Take Action
If you have known Jesus, you may have had periods when you noticed His absence. Maybe it happened to you suddenly when you felt that you were missing “something.” And then you realized that it was you, not Him, who had walked away. May you never lack Jesus! Sing “I Am the Vine” (if possible, with your family).