Tag Archives: The Vine

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Silent Change

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Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…praise

 

When the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and didn’t know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the ruler of the feast called the bridegroom, - John 2:9

 

Christ wrought this miracle without noise or ostentation. He said nothing to call attention to what He was going to do. The people about Him did not know of the wonderful work He had wrought. So He works today. He is not in the storm, the earthquake, the whirlwind; but in the “still small voice.” His kingdom comes into men’s hearts, not with observation and show, but silently, without parade. The bad life is changed, by His work, into moral purity, and yet no one saw the change made or the hand that wrought it. Silently help comes in the hours of need; silently prayer’s answers glide down; silently the angels come and go.

It is significant also that the “servants which drew the water knew.” Those who work with Christ are admitted into the inner chamber where omnipotence is unveiled. The lesson is very simple and beautiful. Christ takes into His confidence those who serve Him; calls them no more servants but friends. Those who do Christ’s will know of His doctrine, and see His ways of working. If we would see Christ’s power and glory, we must enter heartily into His service. Ofttimes it is in the lowliest ways, and in the paths of humble, self-denying service, that the most of His glory appears.

The ruler did not know whence the wine came; is it not often so with us? People do not know whence the blessings come which glide so softly into their hearts. Many a troubled Christian kneels in prayer in great fear, oppressed by a sense of need, and rises with new rich joy in his heart, yet knowing not whence the strange sweet blessing came. We drink the cups which God fills for us with heavenly sweetness, we receive the gifts which are brought down to us from the very throne, and yet ofttimes we do not know whence these things come, nor recognize the divine presence that works so close beside us.

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Accepting Christ

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

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But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: -John 1:12

 

The people who shut their doors on Christ always shut out great blessings; those who open to Him let all heaven’s love and joy into their lives. Some say it does not matter whether they receive Christ or not. They believe in God’s mercy and love, and do not see why they need to accept Christ. Here it is made very plain that the only way to receive God’s love and mercy is by receiving Christ. Only those who accept Him become God’s children. Christ is the only way to God, the only door into the Father’s house. To refuse Christ is to refuse adoption into the family of God.

Then we also learn another thing from this mornings text . Some people are puzzled to know how to become Christians. Here the way is surely made as plain as a pathway of light. Christ comes to us as the one Mediator, the Son of God, the divine Savior; and we have only to receive Him, to accept Him with our hearts, and commit ourselves to Him. “But there is that mystery of the new birth. I can’t understand that,” says someone. You have nothing whatever to do with that; for does not this verse say that if we receive Christ we become the children of God?

The same sentence goes on to say that those who thus receive Christ are born again; but it says expressly that this change is not their own act, not the act of any man, but is divinely wrought, they are born of God. All that belongs to us is simply to receive Christ. We have nothing whatever to do with the mystery of the new birth. That is God’s work, and He is able to effect it. Our part is the acceptance of Christ; God will change our hearts. If we accept God’s Son as our Savior, the new life will at once flow into our heart, and we shall become children of God, not by any fiction of name, but by the communication of divine life.

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The Seeking Saviour

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

“Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?” - Luke 15:4

 

Does the shepherd care when one of His sheep has left the security of the fold? He has a hundred in His flock, so does He care that one of them has gone? Does He miss one among so many? Christ has millions of holy beings about Him – angels and redeemed saints – who never go astray. Does He care when on earth, in the middle a great city, or out in some lonely country town, one soul wanders away into the darkness?

Yes! Christ misses that person, no matter who, that strays away. Did any mother ever have so many children that if one of them wandered from home she would not miss it? Our understanding of Christ’s love for us is warped if we think He loves us only as a race and not as individuals. The father of a stolen child said, “So long as I live I will continue to go up and down the country, looking into the face of every boy I meet, trying to find my own lost child.” Think of that weary, broken-hearted father going from city to city and giving up everything in this one sad search! Then think of Christ seeking the lost one that has wandered away from His home of love. Behold Him, weary, with bleeding feet, as He goes on and seeks until He finds.

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Peace in The Storm

Christus in the storm on the lake; Rembrandt (...

Christus in the storm on the lake; Rembrandt (1633) 160 x 127cm, stolen from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

He got into the boat with them; and the wind ceased, and they were very amazed among themselves, and marveled. - Mark 6:51

 

When Jesus comes to us our trouble ceases. At His command the wildest storm instantly becomes calm. The trouble itself may not leave us but it is no longer troublesome when He is with us. The wind may not stop blowing and beat upon our lives but He makes peace within us. It is far better to have so much grace that our hearts can be calm and quiet in the fiercest storm, than to have the storm itself quieted while our hearts remain restless. Peace within is far better than calm without.

In a gallery in Italy there are two pictures side by side by different artists. One represents a sea tossed by storms. Dark clouds hang over it and the lightning-bolts pierce the sky. The angry waves roll in anger. In the turbulent water a dead human face is seen. The other represents a sea similarly storm tossed; but in the middle of the angry waters is a rock. In the rock a gap, or cleft with green plants and flowers and in the middle of these is a dove quietly sitting on her nest.

These two pictures tell the whole story of human life in this world. The first is the story of life without Christ, unblessed by His presence and peace. There is storm everywhere with no shelter. The other picture paints the peace which Christ gives. Life is just as stormy. The waves roll just as high but now there is peace. The rock represents Christ; it is in the cleft of the rock that the peace is found.  It is just like the old hymn states:

“Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.”

It is in the redemption of Christ alone that we can have peace. If we take Christ into our boats on the stormy sea, we will ride on in safety through earth’s difficulties to heaven’s shore.

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Death of John The Baptist


Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine..

…and he sent and beheaded John in the prison. - Matthew 14:10

English: Herodias

English: Herodias (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

This seems a sad end for this glorious man’s life. After a few months of faithful preaching he was cast into a dungeon, where he lay for a year, and where he was beheaded as a common criminal. To us it is very mysterious. Why would God allow this to happen to someone so faithful? Jesus Himself said that no greater man ever lived than John. So why then was his life allowed to go out in such darkness?

We know, first, that it was no accident. There are no accidents in this world that God does not have control over. John would not have chosen such a life-plan for himself, so brief, with such a tragic ending. In fact, few of us choose the life we live in this world. There are no chances, no accidents. “Our ways are those of the Lord’s choosing – ways sadder, perhaps, but safer; rougher, perhaps, but surer; narrower, perhaps, but better than those of our own dreaming.”

John finished his work. If there had been anything further for him to do he would not have been left to die in shame, to gratify the revenge of a wicked woman. His work was done when Christ began to preach. When John died, it was for faithfulness to the truth.

It is not long the length of someone’s life that makes it complete. A life is complete, whether long or short, when it fulfills the purpose of its creation. And the longest life is incomplete and a failure if it does not do the work for which it was made. It is better to die in youth with a life untarnished than to live on to old age in sin and selfishness. It was a thousand times better every way to die as John died, than to live on as Herod and Herodias lived.

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The Secret of Power

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine..

He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. - Luke 9:1

 

The first thing is always to come to Christ Himself. We can do nothing until we have been to Him. Everything we do should be as if Jesus Himself instructed us to do it, and sent us on our way with His blessing. There is nothing too dangerous, no work too hard, no job too responsible, that can’t be done, if, from the outset, we have Christ’s hand of encouragement on our shoulder and his words of inspiration.

Christ alone can give power for the work He asks us to do. His followers are to have authority over demons. Any one who tries to cast out demons in his own strength, whether the demon be in himself of in someone else, will only meet miserable failure. A man may rule nations and conquer kingdoms, and yet be unable to rid himself of a demon. Alexander The Great conquered the world, but he was overthrown by the demons of appetite and passion. Men are forever foolishly trying to battle the evil of their own natures without help and they always fail in the struggle.

The same is true of power over demons in others. Once the disciples, in Christ’s absence, tried to cast out an evil spirit, and could not do it. Yet they ought to have been able in Christ’s name to cast out the demon. Jesus told them that the reason they could not do it was because they didn’t have faith. He wants every follower of his to have power over all forms of evil in this world; not miraculous power, such as he gave the apostles, but real power. If we have faith in Him, He will always give us power.

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At The Point of Death

Friedrich Overbeck - Christ Resurrects the Dau...

Friedrich Overbeck – Christ Resurrects the Daughter of Jairus – WGA16795 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Here’s Today‘s Devotional from The Vine…

Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, came; and seeing him, he fell at his feet, and begged him much, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her, that she may be made healthy, and live.” - Mark 5:22-23

 

There is nothing like trouble to drive people to Christ. When things go well many people do not acknowledge Him; but when great need comes, He is the first one they turn to. This is one of God‘s main uses of trouble. God makes many of His children uncomfortable so that they will look to Him instead of being too self-reliant. There are many in heaven now who would never have repented and been saved had God not sent trouble, sorrow, and difficulty.

This father in Mark said his daughter was “at the point of death.” This is one point which we all must come to. Our paths on Earth run many different ways but they all ultimately reach the “point of death.” It is a point that lies hidden from view. No one knows the day when he or she will come to it, and yet somewhere along the years it waits for everyone. Sometimes this point is struck early in life. Here it is a little twelve year old girl  that lies “at the point of death.” Even children should think about dying, not as a sad and terrible thing, but as a point to which they must come, and for which they should prepare.

It is a touching sight to see this father falling at Christ’s feet. The strongest men break down when their own children are sick or in danger. A man may seem very strong as he works or goes about life. You think he has no compassion in him.  But if one of his children becomes ill or injured that strong man will melt. Behind his strong front there is a warm spot in his heart where he is gentle.

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They That Are Sick

The Pharisees Question Jesus

The Pharisees Question Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” - Mark 2:17

 

This was the answer Jesus gave to the dissatisfaction about his presence among the sinners and tax collectors at Matthew‘s feast. The Pharisees thought He was compromising Himself by having a meal with these kinds of people. They were accusing Him of being one of these types of people.

But Jesus gave them a wise and good answer. These wicked and sinful ones were the very people that needed Him most. It was just with Him as with a doctor. A doctor doesn’t go on house calls to people with perfect health! Those who are well do not need a doctor, but the sick and those with a disease need him. In fact, the worse their sickness or disease, the more they need his comfort and help.

No one would ever have a problem with a doctor  visiting the sick in their homes, or hospitals, or into plague-infested areas. No one would ever suggest that he must have low standards because of the kind of people among whom he spends his time. It was just the same with Him, Jesus said. He had come to this world just so that sinners might find hope and salvation. For this reason, He could not be blamed for going where sinners were. The worse the sinners the more reason there was why He should be found there. “Good” people, like those who criticized Him, did not need his services; but wherever He found a poor, lost sinner, there was one of the persons He had come to help and save.

One suggestion is, that, like their Master, Christ‘s disciples should carry the gospel to the lowest people in society. We should not mingle among the wicked as companions; but when we strive to save them we are becoming Christ to them. Another lesson is, that no sinner need ever despair of hope, since the worse he is the more surely is Christ willing to save him.

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Depart From Us

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

They began to beg him to depart from their region. - Mark 5:17

 

This is one of the saddest sentences in the Gospels. We can scarcely imagine anyone asking Jesus to go away. He had come to their community to bring rich blessings. His hands were full of gifts. He had the power to heal the sick, to open blind eyes, to make the lame walk – to freely share all kinds of blessings among the people. He had begun His work of grace as soon as He arrived by curing their most terrible case of demon-possession. He would done other works of mercy and love if they had not begged Him to leave. It was probably all because of the loss of the pigs. If that was the way Christ‘s work was going to affect them, they did not want Him to do anyhting else!

Some people feel the same way when a work of grace begins in their community. They are opposed to Christianity because it interferes with their business. Anyone who gets upset at Christianity and Christians often get that way because they know that deep down it would bring significant changes into their lives if they accepted the message of truth. They are against Christianity because Christianity is against them. So all of us are apt to want Christ to depart from us when He interferes with our cherished plans. We need to be careful for fear that we would send Christ altogether away from us.

Jesus did not stay after these people asked Him to leave. He would not stay where He was not wanted. He left with the gifts He had come share. The sick remained unhealed that He would have healed, the crippled continued to be crippled, the demoniacs remained possessed, and the dying whom Jesus could have restored passed away.

Does anyone now ever ask Christ to depart when He comes with blessings? Does Jesus never turn away from any heart now because He is not wanted, because He is rejected?

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The Other Side

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…


On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” - Mark 4:35

 

Christ is continually saying the same to us, though with varying meaning in his words. He is always calling us to move on into new territory, new experiences, new privileges, new duties, new conflicts, and new joys.

He says it to the unrepentant when he graciously invites them to become his disciples. He wants them to cut loose from this world, from sin and all their old dead past, and rise up and go with him to the better life. He invites them to His Father’s country, into His Father’s family. It is a land of blessing and of beauty, of plenty and of great riches. True, there is a sea that must be crossed to reach it. No one can reach the glorious country on “the other side” without passing over this sea, and no one can pass over without encountering the storms of life. There are fierce temptations, the battle to deny self, struggles, and many losses and sorrows before we can reach heaven; but the reward is so great that we should be ready to endure any hardship or suffering to win it.

Then Christ gives the same call and invitation to His people when they reach the end of their earthly lives and when He comes to take them home. No-one wants to contemplate death and think about dying, but there’s no reason to be afraid of it. On“the other side” glory waits. There is the Father’s house with many rooms (John 14:2). And however dark and terrible the narrow sea that has to be crossed may seem, there is no danger for Jesus himself accompanies His people, and none of them will die. However, if God invites us to come over to the other side into the heavenly glory, we must accept His call to come over out of the old life of sin into the new life of holiness.