1020 Dead Sticks - John 15:6

What do you do with yard trash?   If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." John 15:6 NASB   When you trim a tree, or pull weeds in your yard, you pile them up somewhere and eventually they're burned. Jesus continues his analogy of the vine and the branches. When we don't abide in Jesus, we are cut off, hauled off and burned. That's a pretty vivid analogy.   Do we believe this? Abide can also be translated remain. Our life, both the temporal life and the eternal life, come from God the Father. We get them by being connected to Jesus. Eventually, if you don't connect to Jesus, and remain in him, you'll burn up. It's not a pleasant thought.   Fortunately for those of us who put our trust in Jesus, he is the one who helps us remain, or abide in him. When we abide in him day-to-day, we can do work that will last forever. But in this verse, Jesus isn't talking about our accomplishments. I believe he has flipped the analogy to people, not works. This clearly says, "If anyone..." It's like Jesus has said up through verse 5 he was talking about our fruit. But now he's talking about those who don't remain in him.   Do you remain in Jesus? If you have trusted and bent your life to follow him, I believe you will abide and that will result in salvation. In a 5-minute devotional, it's hard to finish the argument. Let's trust Jesus today. Those that don't abide in him will end up being cast off like dead branches. It's a challenging thought.   Today, let's abide in Jesus. That may mean that we remind ourselves what we know and trust about him. It may mean doing something you know he wants you to do. Whatever it is, do it, and let us know what happened. Send a note to [email protected] to share your experience.   Thanks for being a marketplace minister and for remembering that what we do because we follow Jesus matters, forever.