To a gardener, vines are insidious. Even those we plant for decorative purposes can overtake every effort to contain them.
Plant them behind the house, and they push through windows and behind the gutters. Next to a fence, and the fence will disappear. Against a retaining wall, and the wall might as well give up its claim on the yard.
Even if we trim the vine regularly, we cannot stop its intrusion into every place we don’t want it to be.
Jesus is that encroaching vine. The world tries to shut their windows and trim him back, but he will not be stopped. Jesus will intrude into every place the world does not want him to be.
He will also intrude into our lives, overtaking every part of who we are, if we just give him a chance.
John 15:1-10 describes Jesus as the true vine, and his Father as the vinedresser. We become part of him when we accept him into our lives.
1 John 2:6 tells us that if we are part of Jesus, we will walk as he walked.
James 4:8 encourages us to become one with Jesus.
Matthew 10:37 makes it clear that loving him is more important than anything else we can do.
James 1:27 says that we will remain pure and undefiled if we follow the will of God.
Are we getting it yet? The world tries to trim Jesus out of every part of their lives. As Christians, we want him to invade every part of our lives.
We want Jesus to be the encroaching vine that finds a way in through the windows, snakes behind our gutters, and that overtakes every part of who we are.
Luke 16:13 gives us the perfect example of the reality of life: “For no man can serve two masters…”
Our only solution is to turn to Jesus.
When Jesus encroaches on sin, sin will become obscured until all we can see is Jesus.
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Code: FGO.E.22.14.vp