Live to Love Scripture Encouragement John 15.5

John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. Jesus is life. Everything that isn’t flowing out of Him is dead. He is the vine. we are nothing more than branches. We don’t do the fruit-bearing, the loving, Jesus does the fruit-bearing and the loving. The branch doesn’t bear much fruit of itself. It’s impossible. God provides the increase, the fruit-bearing through His Son, the vine, in the branches so that all the glory goes to the Father and the Son. The reality of this illustration is amazing. All of mankind exists for God and exists through Jesus Christ. No one who has been made wasn’t made through Him as John wrote in 1:3. “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Of all of mankind, God has chosen to bear fruit for His glory through some of the branches that issued forth from the vine, His Son. It is obvious which branches have been pruned to bear fruit by the vinedresser. These branches experience a flow of fruit-yielding life as the union between Jesus and them is intentionally chosen by the branches. They live to love with Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com