{"id":273,"date":"2009-02-15T20:52:09","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T00:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/Correspondence\/?p=273"},"modified":"2009-02-15T20:52:09","modified_gmt":"2009-02-16T00:52:09","slug":"pruning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/273\/pruning\/","title":{"rendered":"Pruning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey Dad,<\/span><\/p>\n

I just read the Thought for the Evening,\u00a0February 2007\u00a0(TFE) on pruning where Jesus talks about pruning the growing vines.<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

I had always understood pruning as Jesus cutting off old habits and ways.\u00a0 But, I had always thought, too,\u00a0that growing spiritually includes leaving behind those old habits and ways.\u00a0\u00a0I know that pruning will help a vine grow stronger, but what is the difference between growing out of old habits and ways and being pruned?<\/span><\/p>\n

John<\/span><\/p>\n

==============<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for this question, John David.\u00a0\u00a0For those who want to read the TFE John David mentioned before continuing with this,\u00a0go to:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.goingtojesus.com\/site\/php\/thoughts.php?tname=tfe02-07<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

I think many of us have thought that being pruned by God was to have Him remove bad things\u00a0from our lives.\u00a0 But that doesn’t really match the parable Jesus told.\u00a0 Here that is, from John 15<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I’m the true vine, and my Father is the Keeper of the vineyard.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He takes away every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, and He prunes every fruit-bearing branch so that it might\u00a0bear more fruit.<\/span><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am the vine; y<\/em>ou, the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; without me, y<\/em>ou can do nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unless a man abides in me, he is thrown away like a worthless<\/em> branch; and it withers, and they gather them up and throw them<\/em> into a fire, and they are burned.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to Jesus, the only vines (children of God) who are pruned\u00a0are those who are obeying God and producing fruit.\u00a0 That means that God prunes His obedient children of\u00a0things not necessarily evil but that do prevent them from producing all the fruit they can.\u00a0 He prunes them of\u00a0things which the world and others may even praise them for, and he does it so that they may produce more of the\u00a0same good ruit they were already producing!\u00a0\u00a0Foolish chidlren of God will not allow the Father\u00a0to cut such activities, connnections, or\u00a0opinions\u00a0out of their lives because they can so easily justify them.\u00a0 They will not receive the pruning of the Lord.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This parable concerns the\u00a0difference between the foolish and the wise in God’s family.\u00a0 The foolish choose God over only the bad things of this world, whereas the wise choose God over both the good and bad things of this world.\u00a0 They will stop doing good, if that is what pleases the Father, so that they may do what is more perfect in His sight.\u00a0 An example:\u00a0 When He showed us that we should come out of Church religion, we could have stayed there and kept at least that much of the favor of men.\u00a0 We could have justified our disobedience\u00a0by saying, any number of cliches, such as “We need to be where God’s children are, so that we can help them.”\u00a0 We are clever enough\u00a0to have come up with many right-sounding\u00a0excuses to disobey God and refuse His pruning.\u00a0 But God knows how to get us to the place where we produce\u00a0the most\u00a0fruit, and the healthiest fruit for His children.\u00a0 And I think He has us in a very good place. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

But let’s not get too attached to this place, either.\u00a0 If “there is none good but one, that is God”, then the only good place is in His presence, and that is what we are living for.\u00a0 Who knows what the Father has yet to show us?\u00a0 Don’t unpack your bags yet.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

jdc<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey Dad, I just read the Thought for the Evening,\u00a0February 2007\u00a0(TFE) on pruning where Jesus talks about pruning the growing vines. I had always understood pruning as Jesus cutting off old habits and ways.\u00a0 But, I had always thought, too,\u00a0that growing spiritually includes leaving behind those old habits and ways.\u00a0\u00a0I know that pruning will help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}