Grace Bible gave the sermon “I Am the Vine” on Sunday. Messina Hof was blessed to serve as the visual example of what the vine is, how it works, and the relationship between the vine and the branches.
These two YouTube videos explain that relationship.
– John 15, first in the sermon
John 15, second in the sermon
The day after the filming one of my employees gave me this poem by Freda Hanbury
“Tis only a little Branch, a thing so fragile and weak, but that little Branch hath a message true to give, could it only speak.
‘I’m only a little Branch, I live by a life not mine, for the sap that flows through my tendrils small is the life-blood of the Vine.
No power indeed have I the fruit of myself to bear, but since I’m part of the living Vine, its fruitfulness I share.
Dost thou ask how I abide? How this life I can maintain? – I am bound to the Vine by life’s strong band, and I only need remain.
Where first my life was given, in the spot where I am set, upborne and upheld as the days go by, by the stem which bears me yet.
I fear not the days to come, I dwell not upon the past, as moment by moment I draw a life, which for evermore shall last.
I bask in the sun’s bright beams, which with sweetness fills my fruit, yet I own not the clusters hanging there, for they all come from the root.’
A life which is not my own, but another’s life in me: This, this is the message the Branch would speak, a message to thee and me.
Oh, struggle not to “abide,” nor labor to “bring forth fruit”, but let Jesus unite thee to Himself, as the Vine’s Branch to the root.
So simple, so deep, so strong that union with Him shall be: His life shall forever replace thine own, and His love shall flow through thee;
For His Spirit’s fruit is love, and love shall thy life become, and for evermore on His heart of love Thy spirit shall have her home.”
Are we not extremely blessed to be little Branches abiding in the True Vine?
Praise that “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…. those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:29-31