“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean beecause of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:1-11
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” John 10:14
I would rather eat dirt that call technical support lines. I would rather spend 10 hours on my computer trying to figure things out than to make the call for technical support. And in fact did just that last week when I got logged out of this administration site. I couldn’t get to the admin page that would let me control and write blogs. I was so frustrated and spent hours trying to figure this site admin page. I logged into everything I could think of using every password I know I would have used. Finally 5 hours later, I gave in and started searching technical support phone number for wordpress. Guess who doesn’t have technical support phone number. Of all the times. I finally give in only to find there is no helpline phone number. Instead I get plugged into all kinds of support forums. Really? There is only one thing I loathe more than talking to technical support lines and that is trying to find an answer on a support forum. Ok. I finally find an email address to send my problem to. The next morning someone calls me. I go over every issue I am having. We go through all my login steps. We change each password. Finally, this computer geek masterfully discovers I am trying to login to the wrong website. “Oh,” I brilliantly respond. “No wonder!” The wrong site I was logged into was the only site that accepted my user name and password. I have no idea how that happened.
But how many ways past Sunday can you find spiritual lessons in this episode?
How often am I logged into the wrong site in my spiritual life? How many worries am I plugged into? How many lies am I logged into? How many times would I rather fix things on my own than call for technical support? How many hours, days, weeks, months, and years have I wasted on logging into my worries? How many lies have I followed because I logged into a false site? How many times have I changed passwords determined I am logging into the right site?
Jesus tells me remain in Him and He will remain in me. Jesus says His sheep will know His voice. I will know the right site when I remain in Christ. I will hear His voice when I use the right password and login. My password is Jesus is my Savior. My username is Child of God.