| Good Morning Everyone, Our theme for this month: “The power of hope” Our Bible verse for today: “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.” John 15:5 (CSB) Our thought for today: “The hope for a meaningful life” Everyone has the desire to be successful in some way and at something – we all want to live a life that matters. However, not everyone agrees on what real success is. Many people believe success is measured in the accumulation of money and possessions. Others search for it in professional accomplishments or in popularity and fame. Success or failure is often determined by the scoreboard after time has expired at the end of a game. All of those things are human measures of success and therefore they are all limited and temporary. But in John 15:5 Jesus clues us into another kind of success – success as measured by God. In that passage Jesus compares His followers to branches on a grape vine. He says that just as the vine sends its nourishment and its very life out through the branches, and the branches therefore produce the vine’s fruit for it, so too Jesus lives His life through the lives of His faithful followers and they produce His fruit for Him. As long as the branch stays firmly attached to the vine, the life of the vine will flow through the branch and the fruit of the vine will grow from the branch. Now there’s real success – the works of Jesus produced through your life! Suffering people comforted, needs met, the Good News preached, souls saved, and lives transformed. That’s what Jesus wants to accomplish through you. In fact, in John 5:16 He says that He actually chose you to be used by Him for that very purpose: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit…” As a follower of Christ you have the hope – the confident assurance – of being used by Jesus to accomplish His works for Him. That’s true success as measured by God, and that is the hope you have. Regardless of any other metric the world may choose to use to measure the success and meaning of your life, if you have been fruitful for the cause of Christ on earth, yours will have been a life that mattered. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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