21st
Chop ‘em off!
The Oswald Chambers that I read this morning provoked some thoughts. If anything is fundamental to our sense of security, self worth, identity besides our justification in Christ as his precious child, when that thing is threatened we will be shaken to the core. Gosh I have experienced it in so many areas of my life. John 15 says: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015:1-16;&version=31;
It’s like Jesus is saying… “You live such fragmented lives, running in a million directions. You cannot function that way…. come to me!” If vines are left to do what they do naturally, they will spread like crazy and end up tangling in on themselves. If we keep eye contact with him, he will chop off those branches that might seem like they are good, but are not. If they impede the best interest of his children, they are done for! Sometimes it is excruciating to give him something that we consider precious but happens to be pernicious to our walk with him. Oh, it can be so hard for me as I tend to grip tightly my hearts little toys!
Thomas Chalmers said, in the best sermon EVER, “The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.”
