John 15 (HCSB)
The Vine and the Branches
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. 2 Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.
Christlike Love
9 “As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. 10 If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.
11 “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 12 This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. 17 This is what I command you: Love one another.
Persecutions Predicted
18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. 20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don’t know the One who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 The one who hates Me also hates My Father. 24 If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not have sin. Now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened so that the statement written in their scripture might be fulfilled: They hated Me for no reason.
Coming Testimony and Rejection
26 “When the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me. 27 You also will testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning."
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 9): Please forgive me, Lord, for turning away from You so often. Help me to keep my focus on You ALWAYS!
PROMISE (verse 7): You assure us that if we remain in You and Your word remains in us, that You will grant our requests.
ATTITUDE (verse 11): Help me to internalized, experience, and embrace the joy You give to us, so that I may be joyful always and not rely on others to bring me that joy.
COMMAND (verses 12 & 17): You give us the same command twice in a short span, so I guess You are emphasizing it due to its importance. You command us to love one another. Help me to know and internalize Your love first and always so that I may be over-filled and spill out Your love to others.
EXAMPLE (verses 1-8): Help me to follow the example of the vine. To always be in You and You in me so that I may be pruned to produce much fruit for Your glory.
*DAILY NOTE: Us parents typically don't like to repeat ourselves when telling our children to do something. I have a feeling God knows this about us and is why He often does a quick repetition of what He commanded us to do just to make sure it's emphasized and sticks. This is prevalent in verses 12 and 17 where he was kind of thumping us on the head the second time possibly thinking something like "you obviously didn't listen the first time, so let me say it again." How often do we do this with our own children? We must remember that we are God's children, so if He repeats something to us so much, we should probably take special notice to those statements.
*GENERAL NOTE: I always "sandwich" my quiet time with God in prayer and do it in a location that I will not have any distractions so that I can be focused on my quiet time with God. Do not worry about how short or long your journal entries are for that day's quiet time. Just focus on the actual quiet time and relational conversation with God through the Holy Spirit and His Word. The journaling is an enhancement to your quiet time conversation with God, but also to allow you to reflect on things later as you can look back on your journal entries later when you do the chapters again in the future to see how you have grown. See the FAQ for more detail on how I do my quiet time.
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