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How Branches Meet Needs: A Word to Christians, by Andrew Murray
Everything depends on our being right ourselves in Christ. If I want good apples, I must have a good apple tree; and if I care for the health of the apple tree, the apple tree will give me good apples. And it is just so with our Christian life and work. If our life with Christ be right, all will come right. There may be the need of instruction and suggestion and help and training in the different departments of the work; all that has value. But in the long run, the greatest essential is to have the full life in Christ—in other words, to have Christ in us, working…
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Interview with Sarah Ott, Part 3
Continued from Part 2 This is the third and final part of an interview chat with Tree Thoughts and Sarah Ott. SARAH: Sorry. That was a long story but I hope it answered some of what you wanted to know. TT: Ah! Yes! There is so, so, so much meat here. Can I ask you a few follow-up questions? SARAH: Sure TT: I will ask you how you live in this when there are so many voices telling your generation to take on this cause or that cause for Christ. How do you use living in John 15 when someone gives you a book about getting active? SARAH: Oh my…
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Hudson Taylor on Rest
“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.” Hudson Taylor Please follow and like us:
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John 15: Its All About the Roots, Part 2
Christians are very concerned with sin. We see its damaging effects and it seems only natural to assume that sin is the problem. But like the rust fungus I described in Part 1, sin is only the symptom–the expression of our root nature. This is important so I will further the metaphor of the rust fungus. When the fungus is present, the vine can’t help but expose its presence when the leaves burst forth come spring. It might try, if it could, to repress it but it’s irrepressible. It’s there–always there. In both the case of the infected vine and our sin nature, the remedy is the same: start new.…
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John 15: It’s All About the Roots, Part 1
It’s almost Olallieberry season on the central coast of California! Last year, my lovely daughter-in-law, Stacey, and I drove to a local berry farm in search of the luscious, purple jewels. We took the tractor pulled hay-ride out to the rows of vines and began the prickly business of picking. I hesitated. The leaves on every vine were covered with powdery orange rust. I knew what it was but only because I’d seen it many years ago infecting our sod lawn. Stacey and I agreed that the berries themselves appeared unaffected, so promising ourselves we’d rinse the berries before freezing them we went ahead and in a short time we…
