Following directions...

Honestly, not one of my strong points. I tend to try to do something, and when all else fails, read the directions. Did I just say that? Or was that my wife? :-)
Alas... I am learning.
I think about a cabinet that I had bought recently. Here, many times when you buy a cabinet, what we call a Schrank, it is in pieces and you have to put it together. I do love me some IKEA furniture, all the instructions are in picture form. Ha.
But, this cabinet was not from IKEA, so the directions, even though they had a few pics, were mostly words. Ugh. So, Larry was over to help me put it together. We open the box and start to take out all the pieces. Then we start, randomly I must say, to try to fit pieces together. Let's just say that did not last long. We then began to look at the directions. When we followed the directions, well, yes, things went much smoother.

I was thinking about that as I read John 15:1-17 today. Think about these two verses from that section of scripture:

Jn 15:4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.
Jn 15:5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus is talking about being connected to God. We are connected to God through Him, Jesus. Notice that in these two verses he states that we can not grow more fruit, personally or numerically, when we are not connected to God through Him. Then he goes on to say that we can do NOTHING if we are not joined to God through Him.

He talks about remaining IN him. How do we do that? How do we stay connected to God through Jesus? Look at verse 10:

Jn 15:10 When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love.

Jesus tells us how to remain IN him, just like He remained IN the Father... by obeying. If we live following Jesus' teachings and examples, we remain in the Father's love. We remain connected to the Father.

Jesus is the greatest instruction manual of all times. He gives us a picture of how to live. He is our living IKEA instruction booklet! When we seek to follow his example, even though we WILL mess up, we are still connected to the Father. That means we are bathed in His love, His grace, His forgiveness and His guidance in our lives. That my friend is GOOD NEWS and a great instruction manual.

May your life be blessed this day as you allow God's word to work in your life.
Mark