At the end of each stem is a grape. That’s what each Christian is, a grape. We are attached to one another in a bunch. The bunch is attached to a branch. There are several branches on the vine and the vine grows on God’s trellis. It is rooted and grounded in God’s grace. We are alive because we are connected. Have you ever seen a grape that had fallen off the vine? It’s all shriveled and dried up. Our spiritual well being depends on the vine and being in a bunch. A bunch of Christians are a congregation. Several bunches are attached to one another by the branches of the vine. That’s the church. When a bunch is cut off we lose a congregation. Just as a grape shrivels when it drops from the congregation so too a bunch eventually loses all life when cut from the vine branches. Here’s the lesson. A Christian cannot survive without being active in the congregation. And, a congregation will not live apart from the Lord.
Two Questions: Are we engaged in the congregation and is the congregation we are a part of productive or shriveled?
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit. Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me.” John 15:1-4 ASV
-Donny Weimar