SPIRITUAL SUNDAYS 2010 #9 - The Vine

This beautiful vase of roses from our yard were so lovely and fragrant.

A shot showing the various stages of beauty; from the bud, just opening, and into full bloom.

A few days later, this is the sad state of affair that these lovely blooms are in. Ugly, drying up and dying. I wish I'd taken another picture of them as they were totally falling apart and disintegrating.

Once again, as God so often does, He spoke to me that this is just a physical example that we can see with our eyes of the spiritual example of what happens to us when we become disconnected with our God, no longer connected to our Lord and Savior. Cut off from the Holy Spirit.

" Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is dead wood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is -- when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples." John 15:4-8 The Message

I know it always makes me sad to see someone begin to break away from their close walk with God. It is usually a gradual thing but you can see it happening and slowly, little by little you'll see the drying up and then the dying of their joy, their hope, their faith. Soon they have no life whatsoever in them. Oh that we all realize we are nothing.....He is everything.....and we MUST maintain that connection with HIM.

Thank you Charlotte for this wonderful place to share here at Spiritual Sundays.