We Must Be Pruned

Last time we talked about learning to wait.  Besides learning to wait, we also must be pruned. The vinedresser prunes the vine.  Prayers that do not allow pruning to be part of the process of getting good fruit, are prayers that cannot be answered.  In John 15, some...

Learning to Wait

In Jesus’ day the people understood the ways that vines grow and they understood waiting for the fruit.  Just as the vine waits for the fruit, we must learn to wait for our prayers to be answered.  we cannot say, “I want this according to my time schedule,...

God Lifts Us Up

The analogy of the vinedresser and the vineyard, found in John 15, is the second most common analogy used by biblical writers to speak of God’s relationship to persons.  The most common, of course, is that of the shepherd and the sheep.  Both these analogies are...

Prayer and Difficult Times

If we look at Jesus’ life, we see that whenever he had a choice of taking the road that was more predictable, noisy, busy, or easy, or of taking the road that was less secure, he chose the one that was less secure.  In Christ we find not only the ideal of what...

The Scarab Egyptian God

As the Easter season approached, last week we sent out a letter of encouragement in the spirit of the prophet Isaiah about how through darkness we could still find help and hope on the other side of its passing. This week, we are now ready for our museum’s next...