Election Day: Staying Attached 2

"No Branch can bear fruit by itself:"

Good Voting today, my dear brothers and sisters. It is a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole and it is Tuesday and that means it is Schools Day on this line. Now this just fits right in. This morning at 9:00 AM Dolores and I will be appearing before a group of counselors who work in the Cumberland Valley School District. Our mission is to work with them to find people who need help with food. Of course we are going to tell them it is a mission for the Lord. So pray that the doors are opened for us as we travel to the Monroe Elementary School for the meeting.

Prayers also today for the family of Millard who passed away yesterday. Please include comfort and also traveling protection as some family will be traveling a long distance for the services.

Staying Attached 2: John 15: 4 - "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." (NIV)

Did you ever watch a professional landscaper prune the trees and plants? They know just when to cut them and how much, they can look at a tree and tell what it needs. Recently we had Dave Fortney come to our home and do some landscaping work, Dave is a true professional when it comes to this kind of work. Our place looked wonderful when he left, and more so a lot of his work will show up in the spring when the trees he cut back come into bloom. You see he cut back that "dead wood" and some of the branches that were, well in my woods just wild. Although to me a lot of the branches look alive and well they were just unruly and needed to go. I also noticed that the pile in where we put them, they have all died off and dried up. They were detached from the main tree stump and the big branches and could not live without that life line.

I was never one for trimming back much as I always thought it would just keep growing, but trust me, after seeing Dave's work that they look so much better and I am excited to think about spring when these flowering trees come into bloom. I also understand that it works that way also with a head of hair, but I am still not going to get a haircut... thank you!!

So we look at our scripture today and it tells us, no branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. So how then could any of us work for the Lord, go into the fields of harvest to hunt out the lost if we are not attached to our good Lord? How can we just walk on our own two feet if we are not attached to our Lord? Remember the story of the lost son and how he was face down in the pig pen. How he would have been happy to just have the feed the hogs were getting. So brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is telling us that we just cannot survive without Jesus. We might think we can, and maybe for the short time we get away with it... but the time will come when we will not survive it. I think back to a tree in our front yard, we had matching trees and as I mentioned I was not one for cutting back. Now I only have one tree, it seems a strong wind came around that house a few years back and the tree blew over, crashing down against the house... It makes me wonder if we would have trimmed out the old dead stuff and trimmed it back, would the wind have hit it so hard? Or was this the Lord taking down a tree that was now sort of worthless, and giving room for a tree next to it to grow? I might add at this time who does clean the forests? God is still doing that right?

So we walk away from God, we leave our Lord Jesus and we try and survive on our own. Who is going to trim us, who is going to prune us back? Oh, you know the only other one who will work at it will be Satan. Do you want to be attached to his vines, to his trunk? Not me, I was there and done that. I want to be attached to the Lord Jesus and I want God to keep me trimmed and working for Him. I wonder about a lot of the pastors who are doing the gay marriage thing and the churches that are letting the gay folks do the preaching and teaching in the churches. It is so wrong and surely they have been cut from the vine and if they do not reattach to the vine they ALONG WITH THAT CHURCH WILL SURELY DIE. Recently in the city of Harrisburg there was a big main line church put up for sale. It seats over 500 and only 30 people have been coming to church and that will not pay the bills. What happened? Maybe, just maybe, they became detached from the vine, they were not preaching and teaching the complete word of God, and maybe the one part was they did not love their neighbors enough to invite them to church. When city neighborhoods started to change years ago, and may I say when they started to change color did elders of the churches forget that big second commandment about loving your neighbor? I know there are different worship styles but that is just details to work out. Think about it. How many big beautiful churches have died off in cities and how many have the roofs fallen in (rotted away from lack of work on them) but the rot did not start with the weather getting through the worn roof, the rot STARTED WHEN THE PEOPLE BECAME DETACHED FROM THE VINE AND DIED. Can just one person say Amen on that? If you grew up in the city like I did you watched it happen. In some of the cities gangs have taken over, drugs are sold on the streets, could this be the results of the branches that became detached from the vines rotting away and the rot spreading? What happens when you get a rotten apple or potato and you do not remove it from the bag? They all rot. Folks, to remove the rotten from the city is not to just lock them up and throw away the key but it is to love on them before the rot gets too deep and practice what the Lord told us - "love your neighbor".

Have you become detached from the vine, or have broken off just a bit, like a half broken off limb? Do you know others who have become separated from the True Vine? We need to work to be pruned and help to prune others and get back to loving neighbors and working with them in the name of Jesus. More on the vine tomorrow and about the True Vine... Let's pray.

Father in Heaven, forgive us for we have become in some way, shape or form, somewhat detached from You. Lord, prune off those branches that have gone bad and separate them from us so that the bad might die off and the good loves up to You. Lord, be with all who have walked away from the True Vine. Lord, may the church in the city find new people who will bring it back. Lord, right now it is just a building. Lord, be with those of the Millard family and keep them safe and comfortable. And Lord, be in our schools and with all who go through the doors including Dolores and me this day... Help us Lord, go ahead of us. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings, and please keep Carry The Light Ministries in your prayers. Your support is really needed and appreciated... Love ya, dan.

Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050