Daily Devotional: Friday, April 24, 2020
SCRIPTURE READING
Scripture: John 15:6b (KJV) and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Today, we are on the second half of verse 6. What do men gather, cast into the fire, and burn?
Well, you remember yesterday we read the first half of the verse where Jesus said, “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.” Jesus is warning us that branches that do not abide in the vine are thrown out, they wither, they are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.
Today, Samuel Spaetti and Josiah Ummel worked in our woods gathering up branches that were no longer living in their trees and vines. Samuel and Josiah gathered up those branches and threw them on the pile where they are ready to be burned by fire.
Seventeen centuries ago, a father of the Church name Augustine commented on this teaching of Jesus about vines and branches. He said every branch is either living in the vine or it is dying in the fire. There’s no middle place. If you don’t want the fire, stay in the vine; but if you refuse to live in the vine, you will be thrown into the fire.
God’s people of Jerusalem had turned their backs on God. They refused to abide in God, so what did God say to them?
The Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel, reports these words He said to them: “As the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I set My face against them” (Ezekiel 15:6-7).
We do not want Jesus to do to us what God did to the Israelites in Jerusalem, do we? How do we keep from having God set His face against us?
We abide in the Vine that is Jesus. Remember what Father Augustine said: “Either vine or fire.”
Scripture: John 15:6b (KJV) and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
QUESTIONS
- What happens to the people who don’t abide in Jesus?
- Jesus says we have only two choices. What are they?
- Have you prayed and asked Jesus to help you abide in Him?
SONG OF THE WEEK
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of God’s unchanging love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Father, please keep me abiding in the True Vine of Your Son so that, though I am pruned, I will not be discarded to the burn pile but remain alive, fruitful, and pleasing to You. Amen.
OTHER PRAYER NEEDS
- Strength and endurance for mothers of young children
- Continued good health and protection for our church family
- That we might be able soon to assemble again as a church body
SCRIPTURE MEMORY THIS WEEK
John 15:3-4 (KJV)
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
