RTW August 19
Live A Useful Life
And this is what the Sovereign LORD says: The people of Jerusalem are like grapevines growing among the trees of the forest. Since they are useless, I have thrown them on the fire to be burned.
Ezekiel 15:6
My Takeaways
Something Old
My sin and idolatry can make me useless to God. (Ezekiel 15:6)
Something New
“Ezekiel’s contribution to the ‘vineyard story’ is to point out the worthlessness of the vine if it doesn’t bear fruit. If a tree becomes useless, you can at least cut it down and make something useful out of the wood; but what can you make out of the wood of a vine?” (Wiersbe)
I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit. John 15:1-2a
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5
Abiding/remaining: to dwell as it were within Christ or in God, to be continually operative in him by his divine influence and energy; to be rooted as it were in him, knit to him by the spirit they have received from him
Be rooted in Him
- Through salvation
- Through prayer
- Through His Word
- Through surrender to His Lordship
Something to Do
Be rooted in Him, so that I might live a life useful to Him.
I was in an area with no cell service this weekend and couldn’t watch the video but got a little concerned about the vines. I’m glad you chose that particular passage to discuss! I didn’t let register that the vines were growing in the forest, not in the vineyard where they were supposed to grow in order to be fruitful. They still were trying to grow but were in the wrong place!