Transcript of The Vine - #4 - The Branch
- 1. The Vine - #4 - The Branch John 15: 5, Jesus said... Does a
vine need branches to bare fruit? Where would it grow the fruit if
it weren't for branches? Well guess what! With God, nothing is
impossible! Watch this short video (2:22) and you will see exactly
what I'm talking about. Scroll to the bottom of the article to find
the Live Link *1. The Jabuticaba - The Brazilian Grape Tree Grows
Fruits & Flowers Directly on The Trunk! Amazing, but then, God
never ceases to amaze me with the things that He is able to do. He
especially blessed the country of Brazil with some of the most
incredible plants and animals I would never have seen if it weren't
for the internet. Well, you say, that is a tree and not a vine, so
back to Jesus and the illustration of The True Vine where The
Branches bare the fruit. There are a multitude of lessons that can
be drawn from the fact that WE are the branches, but before we dive
into that pool, let's take a closer look at how the vine is
developed by the husbandman.
- 2. Live Link *2 is a short video (9:33) that covers training
young vines to develop the strength they will need to support the
branches & fruit that will eventually grow. You probably
guessed by now that all the live links are at the bottom of the
article. What Did We Learn? In the video we observed that the vine
is totally dependent upon the husbandman for all it's training and
development. Jesus depended totally upon His Father for His growth
and development. The disciples (branches) had Both The Father &
Son working to prepare them to bare fruit. Let's summarize what has
happened so far. First of all, we found out that God (The True
Husbandman) had a lot of work to do in preparing The Land (Israel)
to be ready for The True Vine (Jesus, The Christ) to be Planted
(Conceived & Born). Then The Vine had to grow up and develop to
the point where it was strong enough to support branches. The
earthly husbandman in the examples we are using today is Roy
Kladaric. Roy shares the same philosophies that are prevalent
throughout the industry, and he holds it to be true that there can
only be one vine (One Savior, Jesus) coming from the root structure
in order for it to thrive.
- 3. Then, that 'trunk' must be carefully developed by the
husbandman to the point where it is ready for branches. 1. When
training a young vine, enemy #1 is Tendrils & Off Shoots. All
the tendrils are Removed as the vine is growing up to pencil
thickness, because they steal the energy from the rest of the
plant. All unnecessary growth is removed from the young vine so
that all the nourishment is focused on the growth of the trunk, and
that includes the removal of all the buds of new laterals (off
shoots) that try to branch off & all tendrils (the curly,
clingy things). During Jesus training and development God made sure
that He had no offshoots & tendrils distracting Him from what
He needed to learn. As a matter of fact, God didn't even allow any
'branches' (Disciples) to grow until Jesus was 30, baptized, and
had spent 40 days & nights in the wilderness being tried &
tested. A parallel could be made with the branches, and things that
take away from the growth of the fruit. Do we have 'tendrils' that
are attaching us to things that are detrimental to our Christian
growth? A Grape Vine Tendril
- 4. Look at the husbandman who is removing healthy things off of
the vine in order for the growth to increase according to His plan.
Sometimes even 'good things' can distract us in bad ways. When we
are willing to allow God to work in our lives HE will remove the
things that we don't need. 2. Pencil thickness = enough strength to
survive & do it's job. The pencil thickness standard
illustrates God's understanding of when we are strong enough to
handle bigger challenges in life, in our growth as an instrument
for good. To be able to handle the weight of the fruit, the branch
must be strong and well grounded in the vine or it will break. If
you watch enough of these videos, that show the husbandman working
with the branches, you will see how easily branches snap off when
they are young & tender. In like manner we all need to
constantly maintain that strong connection with Jesus so that our
growth continues according to God's will.
- 5. 2. Creating a crown at the wire with three (one spare)
laterals (branches). Note: I like to think of the two cordons that
stretch out from the trunk as the arms of Jesus outstretched just
waiting to give us all a hug. From each of these 'arms' coming off
of the trunk, it is suggested that no more than 8 branches each be
allowed to grow up in the first grape baring year (the third year).
The parallel I like from this is that The True Vine had 6 branches
(12 disciples) from each arm that were selected by The True
Husbandman. In His prayer, just days before his crucifixion, Jesus
said, John 17:12, ...those that thou gavest me I have kept, and
none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture
might be fulfilled. This proves further that Jesus even depended on
His Father to select the disciples (1st growth branches) for Him to
nurture and develop. We will continue with more about the branches
in future studies. Live Link*1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dtl2TtiSD0 Jabuticaba - The
Brazilian Grape Tree (It Grows Fruits & Flowers Directly on The
Trunk) Live Link *2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRitu20KipM
Training Grape Vines -Training A Young Lateral To Reach The
Wire.pt1
- 6. 2. Creating a crown at the wire with three (one spare)
laterals (branches). Note: I like to think of the two cordons that
stretch out from the trunk as the arms of Jesus outstretched just
waiting to give us all a hug. From each of these 'arms' coming off
of the trunk, it is suggested that no more than 8 branches each be
allowed to grow up in the first grape baring year (the third year).
The parallel I like from this is that The True Vine had 6 branches
(12 disciples) from each arm that were selected by The True
Husbandman. In His prayer, just days before his crucifixion, Jesus
said, John 17:12, ...those that thou gavest me I have kept, and
none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture
might be fulfilled. This proves further that Jesus even depended on
His Father to select the disciples (1st growth branches) for Him to
nurture and develop. We will continue with more about the branches
in future studies. Live Link*1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dtl2TtiSD0 Jabuticaba - The
Brazilian Grape Tree (It Grows Fruits & Flowers Directly on The
Trunk) Live Link *2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRitu20KipM
Training Grape Vines -Training A Young Lateral To Reach The
Wire.pt1