Daily Devotional: Monday, April 13, 2020
SCRIPTURE READING
Scripture: John 15:1 (KJV)
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
My mother’s father was a vegetable gardener and my mother’s mother was a flower gardener. My own father and mother were both vegetable gardeners and my mother was a flower gardener.
When I was a little boy growing up, we had fresh salads and tomatoes and cucumbers and beans and corn on the cob for dinner every night. Yummy!
We also had fresh roses sitting in vases around our house all summer long.
I love gardens. I wish I could go to England and walk in all their gardens that are hundreds of years old.
If you drive north on I-69, just above Bloomington you pass one kind of garden called a “vineyard.” A vineyard is a yard filled with vines that grow grapes. We get jelly and popsicles and juice and wine from grapes that grow on vines.
Here in John 15, Jesus tells us He is the true vine and His Father is the husband.
We would say “gardener.” A “husband” is someone who takes care of something or someone. Your father is your mother’s husband. He takes care of your mother. Jesus calls the gardener a “husbandman” because he takes care of the branches attached to Jesus, the true vine.
Unattached to Jesus, the true vine, we die. Attached to Him we live and grow, and His Father takes care of us. His father is the Christian’s husbandman. He takes care of us as we grow in the true vine of Jesus.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
QUESTIONS
- What does a husband do for his wife?
- What does a gardener do for his plants?
- Who is the true vine?
SONG OF THE WEEK
Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like Thyself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.
I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless,
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Hold thou Thy cross before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
I praise You Father, keeper of the vineyard, for graciously making me a branch on the True and Living Vine. Keep me, tend me, feed me, prune me, so that I grow strong and bear much fruit for You. Amen.
OTHER PRAYER NEEDS
- That God would give our leaders wisdom about when and how to end the quarantine
- That we would have hope
- God’s provision for those among us without work
SCRIPTURE MEMORY THIS WEEK
John 15:1-2 (KJV)
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
