Vine

Remain in Me: A Look at John 15 and a Daily Walk

/ Joshua Thomas / 1 Comment

I’ve shared in most of my posts this year, that my word for the year has been “rooted,” the idea being that I am choosing to be rooted to the truth and the source of all life; Christ. This has influenced many of my posts, as I have been writing about the fruit of the Spirit that are produced when you are rooted, which must be hand in hand in our walk with Christ.

I am rooted and therefore I produce good fruit.

A friend of mine, Jay, recently shared some posts that I believe are a good reminder for a follower of Christ, that the goal is not one thing or action, but the reminder that we are called to live with a kingdom mindset. That when we follow Jesus, our whole life shifts to that focus. I believe this focus means that you are rooted in truth and your life will produce good fruit that points others back to our Savior.

This requires something very important, you need to be rooted, and the way we do this is by remaining in Christ.

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Never Stop Learning

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

“I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain joined to me, and I to you, you will bear a lot of fruit. You can’t do anything without me…When you bear a lot of fruit, it brings glory to my Father. It shows that you are my disciples.”

John 15:5-8, NIRV

A couple of weeks ago, I got to share with my pre-teen students about how to continually keep learning. This is something that I have learned over the years, I always want to be a learner no matter what season I find myself in. I want to grow in wisdom and maturity, because God calls me to follow Him and not become satisfied by being stationary. I think we can all look back at past versions of ourselves and be thankful that we are not the same person. I know for me, I’m thankful I’m not still middle school Joshua, high school Joshua, or even early twenties Joshua (turning the bog 27 in October, what what!). When we look at our younger selves, we weren’t as mature as we are now, and we should never stop learning and growing.

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Make Good Fruit

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

“I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain joined to me, and I to you, you will bear a lot of fruit. You can’t do anything without me…When you bear a lot of fruit, it brings glory to my Father. It shows that you are my disciples.”

John 15:5-8, NIRV

Recently, I have been on a kick of watching people renovate homes and cabins on YouTube. Not million-dollar mansions, but small little cozy spaces. What I love about these videos, is there is often a space that looks completely jacked up, and over time, you see it become something amazing. Hannah Lee Duggan’s video (shouts out to it), really made me jealous and got me thinking about life. With the start of September, my brain is already tuned into the fall. The autumn season is all about harvest, reaping what has been sown over the course of the spring and summer. Mix that idea with what I’ve been reading through in Scripture, and it has left me with one key concept:

Make good fruit.

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Never Go It Alone

/ Joshua Thomas / Leave a comment

One of the biggest tropes in horror films, is when the gang decides to split up. Almost every classic b-slasher movie has a moment where the teenagers decide it’s a better idea to split up and go get help, and we as the viewers want to scream at the screen because we know this is the worst idea! I always think of the Friday the 13th series, because they all pretty much follow the same formula. Jason shows up and then everyone else runs in the opposite direction, just not together. It becomes a free for all and doesn’t end well for pretty much anyone, until the end when the final people figure out a way to stop the mad man. We watch this and get so frustrated, asking ourselves, why wouldn’t they all just work together to stop this killer? The truth is though, that we ourselves do this same thing.

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