Story of the Gardener
He fetched a pick, and when the little child saw the terrible pick, she was afraid for her little garden. The gardener struck his tool into the ground and began to make the earth heave and shake for his pickaxe had caught the edge of a huge stone which underplayed almost all the little plot of ground. All the little flowers were turned out of their places and the garden spoiled for a season so that the little maid wept much.
He told her he would make it a fair garden yet, and so he did, for having removed that stone which had prevented all the plants from striking root he soon filled the ground with flowers which lived and flourished.
Just so, the Lord has come, and has turned up all the soil of your present comfort to get rid of some big stone that was at the bottom of all your spiritual prosperity, and would not let your soul flourish. Do not weep with the child, but be comforted by the blessed results and thank your Father's tender hand!
~Charles Spurgeon~
In 1861, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon to his church, liking the death of a child to a fine rose being taken from a garden:
Suppose you're a gardener, employed by another. It's not your garden, but you're called to tend to it and you have your wages paid to you.
You have taken great care with a certain number of roses.You have trained them up, and there they are blooming in their beauty. You pride yourself upon them.
But you come one morning into the garden, and you find that the best rose has been taken away.
You are angry and you go to your fellow servants and you charge them with having taken the rose.
They will declare that they had nothing at all to do with it.
And then one says, " I saw the Master walking here this morning. I think He took it."
Is the gardener angry then? No, at once he says, "I am happy that my rose should have been so fair as to attract the attention of the Master. It is His own, He hath taken it. Let Him do what seems good to Him."
~Charles Spurgeon~
Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Supposing him to be the gardener," there is another duty, and that is, let each one of us Yield himself up Entirely To Him.
A plant does not know how it ought to be treated; it knows not when it
should be watered or when it should be kept dry: a fruit-tree is no
judge of when it needs to be pruned, or digged, or dunged.
The wit and
wisdom of the garden lieth not in the flowers and shrubs, but in the Gardener.
Now, then, if you and I are here to-day with any SELF-WILL and CARNAL JUDGMENT about us, let us seek to lay it all aside that we may
be absolutely at our Lord's disposal.
You might not be willing to put
yourself implicitly into the hand of any mere man (pity that you
should); but, surely, thou plant of the Lord's right-hand planting, thou
mayest Put Thyself Without A Question Into HIS Dear Hand. " Supposing
him to be the gardener,"
Thou mayest well say, "I would neither have
will, nor wish, nor wit, nor whim, nor way, but I would be as Nothing in
the Gardener's hands that he may be to me my wisdom and
My All.
Here,
kind Gardener, thy poor plant Bows itself to Thy Hand; Train me as thou
wilt. Depend upon it, happiness lives next door to the spirit of
complete acquiescence in the will of God, and it will be easy to
exercise that perfect acquiescence when we suppose the Lord Jesus to be
the Gardener.
If the LORD Hath Done It; What has a saint to say? Oh thou
afflicted one, the LORD hath done it:
Wouldest thou have it otherwise?
Nay, art thou not Thankful that it is even so, because so is the Will of HIM in whose hand thy life is, and whose are all thy ways?
The duty of
submission is very plain, "supposing him to be the gardener."
~Charles Spurgeon~
God's Garden
Oh To Have One’s Soul Under Heavenly Cultivation. No Wilderness
But A Garden Of The LORD Walled Around By Grace,Planted By Instruction,Visited By Love,Weeded By Heavenly Discipline
And Guarded By Divine Power
One’s Soul Thus Favored Is Prepared
To Yield Fruit To The Glory Of GOD.
~Charles H. Spurgeon~
Joh 15:2 Every branch in me that
beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
A CHILD of God was dazed by the variety of afflictions which seemed to make her their target.
Walking past a vineyard in the rich autumnal glow she noticed the untrimmed appearance and the luxuriant wealth of leaves on the vines, that the ground was given over to a tangle of weeds and grass, and that the whole place looked utterly uncared for;
And as she pondered, the Heavenly Gardener whispered so precious a message that she would fain pass it on:
My dear child, are you wondering at the sequence of trials in your life?
Behold that vineyard and learn of it.
The gardener ceases to prune, to trim, to harrow, or to pluck the ripe fruit only when he expects nothing more from the vine during that season.
It is left to itself, because the season of fruit is past and further effort for the present would yield no profit.
Comparative uselessness is the condition of freedom from suffering.
Do you then wish me to cease pruning your life?
Shall I leave you alone?” And the comforted heart cried, “No!”
~Homera Homer-Dixon.~
Joh 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
What is the pruning knife of this heavenly Husbandman?
It is often said to be affliction. By no means in the first place. How would it then fare with many who have long seasons free from adversity; or with some on whom God appears to shower down kindness all their life long?
No; it is the Word of God that is the knife, sharper than any two-edged sword, that pierces even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and is quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It is only when affliction leads to this discipline of the Word that it becomes a blessing; the lack of this heart-cleansing through the Word is the reason why affliction is so often unsanctified.
Not even Paul's thorn in the flesh could become a blessing until Christ's Word--"My strength is made perfect in weakness"--had made him see the danger of self-exaltation, and made him willing to rejoice in infirmities.
The Word of God's pruning knife. Jesus says: "Ye are already clean, because of the word I have spoken unto you." How searchingly that word had been spoken by Him, out of whose mouth there went a sharp two-edged sword
As he had taught them! "Except a man deny himself, lose his life, forsake all, hate father and mother, he cannot be My disciple, he is not worthy of Me"; or as He humbled their pride, or reproved their lack of love, or foretold their all forsaking Him.
From the opening of His ministry in the Sermon on the Mount to His words of warning in the last night, His Word had tried and cleansed them. He had discovered and condemned all there was of self; they were now emptied and cleansed, ready for the incoming of the Holy Spirit.
It is as the soul gives up its own thoughts, and men's thoughts of what is religion, and yields itself heartily, humbly, patiently, to the teaching of the Word by the Spirit, that the Father will do His blessed work of pruning and cleansing away all of nature and self that mixes with our work and hinders His Spirit.
Let those who would know all the Husbandman can do for them, all the Vine can bring forth through them, seek earnestly to yield themselves heartily to the blessed cleansing through the Word.
Let them, in their study of the Word, receive it as a hammer that breaks and opens up, as a fire that melts and refines, as a sword that lays bare and slays all that is of the flesh.
The word of conviction will prepare for the word of comfort and of hope, and the Father will cleanse them through the Word.
All ye who are branches of the true Vine, each time you read or hear the Word, wait first of all on Him to use it for His cleansing of the branch. Set your heart upon His desire for more fruit. Trust Him as Husbandman to work it.
Yield yourselves in simple childlike surrender to the cleansing work of His Word and Spirit, and you may count upon it that His purpose will be fulfilled in you.
Father, I pray Thee, cleanse me through Thy Word. Let it search out and bring to light all that is of self and the flesh in my religion. Let it cut away every root of self-confidence, that the Vine may find me wholly free to receive His life and Spirit.
O my holy Husbandman, I trust Thee to care for the branch as much as for the Vine. Thou only art my hope.
~Andrew Murray~
John15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
All earthly things are the shadows of heavenly realities--the expression, in created, visible forms, of the invisible glory of God.
The Life and the Truth are in Heaven; on earth we have figures and shadows of the heavenly truths. When Jesus says: "I am the true Vine," He tells us that all the vines of earth are pictures and emblems of Himself. He is the divine reality, of which they are the created expression. They all point to Him, and preach Him, and reveal Him. If you would know Jesus, study the vine.
How many eyes have gazed on and admired a great vine with its beautiful fruit. Come and gaze on the heavenly Vine till your eye turns from all else to admire Him.
How many, in a sunny clime, sit and rest under the shadow of a vine. Come and be still under the shadow of the true Vine, and rest under it from the heat of the day.
What countless numbers rejoice in the fruit of the vine! Come, and take, and eat of the heavenly fruit of the true Vine, and let your soul say: "I sat under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste."
I am the true Vine.--This is a heavenly mystery.
The earthly vine can teach you much about this Vine of Heaven.
Many interesting and beautiful points of comparison suggest themselves, and help us to get conceptions of what Christ meant. But such thoughts do not teach us to know what the heavenly Vine really is, in its cooling shade, and its life-giving fruit.
The experience of this is part of the hidden mystery, which none but Jesus Himself, by His Holy Spirit, can unfold and impart.
I am the true Vine.--The vine is the living Lord, who Himself speaks, and gives, and works all that He has for us.
If you would know the meaning and power of that word, do not think to find it by thought or study; these may help to show you what you must get from Him to awaken desire and hope and prayer, but they cannot show you the Vine.
Jesus alone can reveal Himself. He gives His Holy Spirit to open the eyes to gaze upon Himself, to open the heart to receive Himself. He must Himself speak the word to you and me.
I am the true Vine.--And what am I to do, if I want the mystery, in all its heavenly beauty and blessing, opened up to me?
With what you already know of the parable, bow down and be still, worship and wait, until the divine Word enters your heart, and you feel His holy presence with you, and in you. The overshadowing of His holy love will give you the perfect calm and rest of knowing that the Vine will do all.
I am the true Vine.--He who speaks is God, in His infinite power able to enter into us. He is man, one with us.
He is the crucified One, who won a perfect righteousness and a divine life for us through His death. He is the glorified One, who from the throne gives His Spirit to make His presence real and true.
He speaks--oh, listen, not to His words only, but to Himself, as He whispers secretly day by day: "I am the true Vine!
All that the Vine can ever be to its branch, "I will be to you."
Holy Lord Jesus, the heavenly Vine of God's own planting, I beseech Thee, reveal Thyself to my soul.
Let the Holy Spirit, not only in thought, but in experience, give me to know all that Thou, the Son of God, art to me as the true Vine.
~Andrew Murray~
And My Father is the Husbandman--John 15:1
A vine must have a husbandman to plant and watch over it, to receive and rejoice in its fruit.
Jesus says: "My Father is the husbandman." He was "the vine of God's planting." All He was and did, He owed to the Father; in all He only sought the Father's will and glory.
He had become man to show us what a creature ought to be to its Creator.
He took our place, and the spirit of His life before the Father was ever what He seeks to make ours: "Of him, and through him, and to him are all things."
He became the true Vine, that we might be true branches. Both in regard to Christ and ourselves the words teach us the two lessons of absolute dependence and perfect confidence.
My Father is the Husbandman.--Christ ever lived in the spirit of what He once said: "The Son can do nothing of himself."
As dependent as a vine is on a husbandman for the place where it is to grow, for its fencing in and watering and pruning. Christ felt Himself entirely dependent on the Father every day for the wisdom and the strength to do the Father's will.
As He said in the previous chapter (14:10): "The words that I say unto you, I speak not from Myself; but the Father abiding in Me doeth his works."
This absolute dependence had as its blessed counterpart the most blessed confidence that He had nothing to fear: the Father could not disappoint Him. With such a Husbandman as His Father, He could enter death and the grave. He could trust God to raise Him up. All that Christ is and has, He has, not in Himself, but from the Father.
My Father is the Husbandman.--That is as blessedly true for us as for Christ. Christ is about to teach His disciples about their being branches. Before He ever uses the word, or speaks at all of abiding in Him or bearing fruit, He turns their eyes heavenward to the Father watching over them, and working all in them.
At the very root of all Christian life lies the thought that God is to do all, that our work is to give and leave ourselves in His hands, in the confession of utter helplessness and dependence, in the assured confidence that He gives all we need.
The great lack of the Christian life is that, even where we trust Christ, we leave God out of the count. Christ came to bring us to God. Christ lived the life of a man exactly as we have to live it.
Christ the Vine points to God the Husbandman. As He trusted God, let us trust God, that everything we ought to be and have, as those who belong to the Vine, will be given us from above.
Isaiah said: "A vineyard of red wine; I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
Ere we begin to think of fruit or branches, let us have our heart filled with the faith: as glorious as the Vine, is the Husbandman. As high and holy as is our calling, so mighty and loving is the God who will work it all.
As surely as the Husbandman made the Vine what it was to be, will He make each branch what it is to be. Our Father is our Husbandman, the Surety for our growth and fruit.
Blessed Father, we are Thy husbandry. Oh, that Thou mayest have honor of the work of Thy hands! O my Father, I desire to open my heart to the joy of this wondrous truth: My Father is the Husbandman.
Teach me to know and trust Thee, and to see that the same deep interest with which Thou carest for and delightest in the Vine, extends to every branch, to me too.
~Andrew Murray~
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
It is a comforting thought that trouble, in whatever form it comes to us, is a heavenly messenger that brings us something from God.
Outwardly it may appear painful or even destructive,
but inwardly its spiritual work produces blessings.
Many of the richest blessings we have inherited are the fruit of sorrow or pain.
We should never forget that redemption, the world’s greatest blessing, is the fruit of the world’s greatest sorrow.
And whenever a time of deep pruning comes and the knife cuts deeply and the pain is severe, what an inexpressible comfort it is to know: “My Father is the gardener.”
John Vincent,a Methodist Episcopal bishop of the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and a leader of the Sunday school movement in America, once told of being in a large greenhouse where clusters of luscious grapes were hanging on each side.
The owner of the greenhouse told him,“When the new gardener came here, he said he would not work with the vines unless he could cut them completely down to the stalk.
I allowed him to do so, and we had no grapes for two years,
but this is now the result.
There is rich symbolism in this account of the pruning process when applied to the Christian life.
Pruning seems to be destroying the vine, and the gardener appears to be cutting everything away.
Yet he sees the future and knows that the final result will be the enrichment of the life of the vine, and a greater abundance of fruit.
There are many blessings we will never receive until we are ready to pay the price of pain, for the path of suffering is the only way to reach them.
~J. R. Miller~
I walked a mile with Pleasure, She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow, And never a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her When Sorrow walked with me.
We may think that our lot is especially hard and may wish that it were otherwise.
We may wish that we had a life of ease and luxury, amid softer scenes with no briers or thorns, no worries or provocations.
We think that then we would be always gentle, patient, serene, trustful, happy. How delightful it would be never to have a care, an irritation, a trouble, a single vexing thing!
But the fact remains that the place in which we find ourselves is the very place in which the Master desires us to live our life!
There is no haphazard in God's world. God leads every one of His children by the right way. He knows where and under what influences, each particular life will ripen best.
One tree grows best in the sheltered valley, another by the water's edge, another on the bleak mountain-top swept by storms.
Every tree or plant is found in the precise locality to enhance its growth. And does God give more thought to trees and plants than to His own children? No!
He places us amid the circumstances and experiences in which our life will grow and ripen the best.
The peculiar trials to which we are each subjected is the exact discipline we each need to bring out the beauties and graces of true spiritual character in us.
We are in the right school. We may think that we would ripen more quickly in a more easy and luxurious life. But God knows what is best for us He makes no mistakes!
There is a little fable which says that a primrose growing by itself in a shady corner of the garden, became discontented as it saw the other flowers in their mirthful beds in the sunshine, and begged to be moved to a more conspicuous place.
Its prayer was granted. The gardener transplanted it to a more showy and sunny spot.
It was greatly pleased but a change came over it immediately.
Its blossoms lost much of their beauty, and became pale and sickly. The hot sun caused them to faint and wither.
So it prayed again to be taken back to its old place in the shade. The wise gardener knows best, where to plant each flower.
Just so, God, The divine Gardener, knows where His people will best grow into what He would have them to be.
Some require the fierce storms; some will only thrive in the shadow of worldly adversity; and some come to ripeness more sweetly under the soft and gentle influences of prosperity whose beauty, rough experiences would mar.
The divine Gardener knows what is best for each one!
There is no position in this world in the allotment of Providence, in which it is not possible to be a true Christian, exemplifying all the virtues of godliness.
The grace of Christ has in it, potency enough to enable us to live godly wherever we are called to dwell.
When God chooses a home for us He fits us for its peculiar trials.
God adapts His grace to the peculiarities of each one's necessity.
For rough, flinty paths He provides shoes of iron. He never sends anyone to climb sharp, rugged mountain-sides, wearing silken slippers.
He always gives sufficient grace.
As the burdens grow heavier the strength increases.
As the difficulties thicken He draws closer.
As the trials become sorer the trusting heart grows calmer.
Jesus always sees His disciples, when they are toiling in the waves and at the right moment He comes to deliver them.
Thus it becomes possible to live a true and victorious life in any circumstances.
Christ can as easily enable Joseph to remain pure and true in heathen Egypt as Benjamin in the shelter of his father's love.
The sharper the temptations the more of divine grace is granted.
There is, therefore, no environment of trial, or difficulty or hardship in which we cannot live beautiful lives of Christian fidelity and holy conduct.
Instead, then, of yielding to discouragement when trials multiply and it becomes hard to live right, or of being satisfied with a very faulty life it should be our settled purpose to live, through the grace of God a patient, gentle and unspotted life in the place, and amid the circumstances, He allots to us.
The true victory is not found in escaping or evading trials but in rightly meeting and enduring them.
The questions should not be, "How can I get out of these worries? How can I get into a place where there shall be no irritations, nothing to try my temper or put my patience to the test?
How can I avoid the distractions that continually harass me?" There is nothing noble in such living.
The questions should rather be, "How can I pass through these trying experiences and not fail as a Christian?
How can I endure these struggles and not suffer defeat?
How can I live amid these provocations, these testings of my temper and yet live sweetly, not speaking unadvisedly, bearing injuries meekly, returning gentle answers to insulting words?"
This is the true problem of Christian living.
~J. R. Miller~
I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day (Isaiah 27:3).
When the LORD Himself speaks in His own proper person rather than through a prophet, the word has a peculiar weight to believing minds.
It is Jehovah Himself who is the keeper of His own vineyard; He does not trust it to any other, but He makes it His own personal care. Are they not well kept whom God Himself keeps?
We are to receive gracious watering, not only every day and every hour "but every moment." How we ought to grow! How fresh and fruitful every plant should be! What rich clusters the vines should bear!
But disturbers come; little foxes and the boar. Therefore, the LORD Himself is our Guardian, and that at all hours, both night and day. What, then, can harm us? Why are we afraid! He tends, He waters, He guards; what more do we need?
Twice in this verse the LORD says, "I will." What truth, what power, what love, what immutability we find in the great "I will" of Jehovah!
Who can resist His will? If He says "I will," what room is there for doubt?
With an "I will" of God we can face all the hosts of sin, death, and hell.
O LORD, since Thou sayest, "I will keep thee," I reply, "I will praise Thee!"
~Charles Spurgeon~
Oh To Have One’s Soul Under Heavenly Cultivation. No Wilderness
But A Garden Of The LORD Walled Around By Grace,Planted By Instruction,Visited By Love,Weeded By Heavenly Discipline
And Guarded By Divine Power
One’s Soul Thus Favored Is Prepared
To Yield Fruit To The Glory Of GOD.
~Charles H. Spurgeon~
 |
| HEAVENLY GARDENER |
A CHILD of God was dazed by the variety of afflictions which seemed to make her their target.
Walking past a vineyard in the rich autumnal glow she noticed the untrimmed appearance and the luxuriant wealth of leaves on the vines, that the ground was given over to a tangle of weeds and grass, and that the whole place looked utterly uncared for;
And as she pondered, the Heavenly Gardener whispered so precious a message that she would fain pass it on:
My dear child, are you wondering at the sequence of trials in your life?
Behold that vineyard and learn of it.
The gardener ceases to prune, to trim, to harrow, or to pluck the ripe fruit only when he expects nothing more from the vine during that season.
It is left to itself, because the season of fruit is past and further effort for the present would yield no profit.
Comparative uselessness is the condition of freedom from suffering.
Do you then wish me to cease pruning your life?
Shall I leave you alone?” And the comforted heart cried, “No!”
~Homera Homer-Dixon.~
 |
| THE PRUNING KNIFE |
What is the pruning knife of this heavenly Husbandman?
It is often said to be affliction. By no means in the first place. How would it then fare with many who have long seasons free from adversity; or with some on whom God appears to shower down kindness all their life long?
No; it is the Word of God that is the knife, sharper than any two-edged sword, that pierces even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and is quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It is only when affliction leads to this discipline of the Word that it becomes a blessing; the lack of this heart-cleansing through the Word is the reason why affliction is so often unsanctified.
Not even Paul's thorn in the flesh could become a blessing until Christ's Word--"My strength is made perfect in weakness"--had made him see the danger of self-exaltation, and made him willing to rejoice in infirmities.
The Word of God's pruning knife. Jesus says: "Ye are already clean, because of the word I have spoken unto you." How searchingly that word had been spoken by Him, out of whose mouth there went a sharp two-edged sword
As he had taught them! "Except a man deny himself, lose his life, forsake all, hate father and mother, he cannot be My disciple, he is not worthy of Me"; or as He humbled their pride, or reproved their lack of love, or foretold their all forsaking Him.
From the opening of His ministry in the Sermon on the Mount to His words of warning in the last night, His Word had tried and cleansed them. He had discovered and condemned all there was of self; they were now emptied and cleansed, ready for the incoming of the Holy Spirit.
It is as the soul gives up its own thoughts, and men's thoughts of what is religion, and yields itself heartily, humbly, patiently, to the teaching of the Word by the Spirit, that the Father will do His blessed work of pruning and cleansing away all of nature and self that mixes with our work and hinders His Spirit.
Let those who would know all the Husbandman can do for them, all the Vine can bring forth through them, seek earnestly to yield themselves heartily to the blessed cleansing through the Word.
Let them, in their study of the Word, receive it as a hammer that breaks and opens up, as a fire that melts and refines, as a sword that lays bare and slays all that is of the flesh.
The word of conviction will prepare for the word of comfort and of hope, and the Father will cleanse them through the Word.
All ye who are branches of the true Vine, each time you read or hear the Word, wait first of all on Him to use it for His cleansing of the branch. Set your heart upon His desire for more fruit. Trust Him as Husbandman to work it.
Yield yourselves in simple childlike surrender to the cleansing work of His Word and Spirit, and you may count upon it that His purpose will be fulfilled in you.
Father, I pray Thee, cleanse me through Thy Word. Let it search out and bring to light all that is of self and the flesh in my religion. Let it cut away every root of self-confidence, that the Vine may find me wholly free to receive His life and Spirit.
O my holy Husbandman, I trust Thee to care for the branch as much as for the Vine. Thou only art my hope.
~Andrew Murray~
 |
| THE VINE |
All earthly things are the shadows of heavenly realities--the expression, in created, visible forms, of the invisible glory of God.
The Life and the Truth are in Heaven; on earth we have figures and shadows of the heavenly truths. When Jesus says: "I am the true Vine," He tells us that all the vines of earth are pictures and emblems of Himself. He is the divine reality, of which they are the created expression. They all point to Him, and preach Him, and reveal Him. If you would know Jesus, study the vine.
How many eyes have gazed on and admired a great vine with its beautiful fruit. Come and gaze on the heavenly Vine till your eye turns from all else to admire Him.
How many, in a sunny clime, sit and rest under the shadow of a vine. Come and be still under the shadow of the true Vine, and rest under it from the heat of the day.
What countless numbers rejoice in the fruit of the vine! Come, and take, and eat of the heavenly fruit of the true Vine, and let your soul say: "I sat under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste."
I am the true Vine.--This is a heavenly mystery.
The earthly vine can teach you much about this Vine of Heaven.
Many interesting and beautiful points of comparison suggest themselves, and help us to get conceptions of what Christ meant. But such thoughts do not teach us to know what the heavenly Vine really is, in its cooling shade, and its life-giving fruit.
The experience of this is part of the hidden mystery, which none but Jesus Himself, by His Holy Spirit, can unfold and impart.
I am the true Vine.--The vine is the living Lord, who Himself speaks, and gives, and works all that He has for us.
If you would know the meaning and power of that word, do not think to find it by thought or study; these may help to show you what you must get from Him to awaken desire and hope and prayer, but they cannot show you the Vine.
Jesus alone can reveal Himself. He gives His Holy Spirit to open the eyes to gaze upon Himself, to open the heart to receive Himself. He must Himself speak the word to you and me.
I am the true Vine.--And what am I to do, if I want the mystery, in all its heavenly beauty and blessing, opened up to me?
With what you already know of the parable, bow down and be still, worship and wait, until the divine Word enters your heart, and you feel His holy presence with you, and in you. The overshadowing of His holy love will give you the perfect calm and rest of knowing that the Vine will do all.
I am the true Vine.--He who speaks is God, in His infinite power able to enter into us. He is man, one with us.
He is the crucified One, who won a perfect righteousness and a divine life for us through His death. He is the glorified One, who from the throne gives His Spirit to make His presence real and true.
He speaks--oh, listen, not to His words only, but to Himself, as He whispers secretly day by day: "I am the true Vine!
All that the Vine can ever be to its branch, "I will be to you."
Holy Lord Jesus, the heavenly Vine of God's own planting, I beseech Thee, reveal Thyself to my soul.
Let the Holy Spirit, not only in thought, but in experience, give me to know all that Thou, the Son of God, art to me as the true Vine.
~Andrew Murray~
 | |
| THE HUSBANDMAN |
A vine must have a husbandman to plant and watch over it, to receive and rejoice in its fruit.
Jesus says: "My Father is the husbandman." He was "the vine of God's planting." All He was and did, He owed to the Father; in all He only sought the Father's will and glory.
He had become man to show us what a creature ought to be to its Creator.
He took our place, and the spirit of His life before the Father was ever what He seeks to make ours: "Of him, and through him, and to him are all things."
He became the true Vine, that we might be true branches. Both in regard to Christ and ourselves the words teach us the two lessons of absolute dependence and perfect confidence.
My Father is the Husbandman.--Christ ever lived in the spirit of what He once said: "The Son can do nothing of himself."
As dependent as a vine is on a husbandman for the place where it is to grow, for its fencing in and watering and pruning. Christ felt Himself entirely dependent on the Father every day for the wisdom and the strength to do the Father's will.
As He said in the previous chapter (14:10): "The words that I say unto you, I speak not from Myself; but the Father abiding in Me doeth his works."
This absolute dependence had as its blessed counterpart the most blessed confidence that He had nothing to fear: the Father could not disappoint Him. With such a Husbandman as His Father, He could enter death and the grave. He could trust God to raise Him up. All that Christ is and has, He has, not in Himself, but from the Father.
My Father is the Husbandman.--That is as blessedly true for us as for Christ. Christ is about to teach His disciples about their being branches. Before He ever uses the word, or speaks at all of abiding in Him or bearing fruit, He turns their eyes heavenward to the Father watching over them, and working all in them.
At the very root of all Christian life lies the thought that God is to do all, that our work is to give and leave ourselves in His hands, in the confession of utter helplessness and dependence, in the assured confidence that He gives all we need.
The great lack of the Christian life is that, even where we trust Christ, we leave God out of the count. Christ came to bring us to God. Christ lived the life of a man exactly as we have to live it.
Christ the Vine points to God the Husbandman. As He trusted God, let us trust God, that everything we ought to be and have, as those who belong to the Vine, will be given us from above.
Isaiah said: "A vineyard of red wine; I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
Ere we begin to think of fruit or branches, let us have our heart filled with the faith: as glorious as the Vine, is the Husbandman. As high and holy as is our calling, so mighty and loving is the God who will work it all.
As surely as the Husbandman made the Vine what it was to be, will He make each branch what it is to be. Our Father is our Husbandman, the Surety for our growth and fruit.
Blessed Father, we are Thy husbandry. Oh, that Thou mayest have honor of the work of Thy hands! O my Father, I desire to open my heart to the joy of this wondrous truth: My Father is the Husbandman.
Teach me to know and trust Thee, and to see that the same deep interest with which Thou carest for and delightest in the Vine, extends to every branch, to me too.
~Andrew Murray~
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| MY FATHER IS THE GARDENER |
It is a comforting thought that trouble, in whatever form it comes to us, is a heavenly messenger that brings us something from God.
Outwardly it may appear painful or even destructive,
but inwardly its spiritual work produces blessings.
Many of the richest blessings we have inherited are the fruit of sorrow or pain.
We should never forget that redemption, the world’s greatest blessing, is the fruit of the world’s greatest sorrow.
And whenever a time of deep pruning comes and the knife cuts deeply and the pain is severe, what an inexpressible comfort it is to know: “My Father is the gardener.”
John Vincent,a Methodist Episcopal bishop of the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and a leader of the Sunday school movement in America, once told of being in a large greenhouse where clusters of luscious grapes were hanging on each side.
The owner of the greenhouse told him,“When the new gardener came here, he said he would not work with the vines unless he could cut them completely down to the stalk.
I allowed him to do so, and we had no grapes for two years,
but this is now the result.
There is rich symbolism in this account of the pruning process when applied to the Christian life.
Pruning seems to be destroying the vine, and the gardener appears to be cutting everything away.
Yet he sees the future and knows that the final result will be the enrichment of the life of the vine, and a greater abundance of fruit.
There are many blessings we will never receive until we are ready to pay the price of pain, for the path of suffering is the only way to reach them.
~J. R. Miller~
I walked a mile with Pleasure, She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow, And never a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her When Sorrow walked with me.
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| DIVINE GARDENER |
We may think that our lot is especially hard and may wish that it were otherwise.
We may wish that we had a life of ease and luxury, amid softer scenes with no briers or thorns, no worries or provocations.
We think that then we would be always gentle, patient, serene, trustful, happy. How delightful it would be never to have a care, an irritation, a trouble, a single vexing thing!
But the fact remains that the place in which we find ourselves is the very place in which the Master desires us to live our life!
There is no haphazard in God's world. God leads every one of His children by the right way. He knows where and under what influences, each particular life will ripen best.
One tree grows best in the sheltered valley, another by the water's edge, another on the bleak mountain-top swept by storms.
Every tree or plant is found in the precise locality to enhance its growth. And does God give more thought to trees and plants than to His own children? No!
He places us amid the circumstances and experiences in which our life will grow and ripen the best.
The peculiar trials to which we are each subjected is the exact discipline we each need to bring out the beauties and graces of true spiritual character in us.
We are in the right school. We may think that we would ripen more quickly in a more easy and luxurious life. But God knows what is best for us He makes no mistakes!
There is a little fable which says that a primrose growing by itself in a shady corner of the garden, became discontented as it saw the other flowers in their mirthful beds in the sunshine, and begged to be moved to a more conspicuous place.
Its prayer was granted. The gardener transplanted it to a more showy and sunny spot.
It was greatly pleased but a change came over it immediately.
Its blossoms lost much of their beauty, and became pale and sickly. The hot sun caused them to faint and wither.
So it prayed again to be taken back to its old place in the shade. The wise gardener knows best, where to plant each flower.
Just so, God, The divine Gardener, knows where His people will best grow into what He would have them to be.
Some require the fierce storms; some will only thrive in the shadow of worldly adversity; and some come to ripeness more sweetly under the soft and gentle influences of prosperity whose beauty, rough experiences would mar.
The divine Gardener knows what is best for each one!
There is no position in this world in the allotment of Providence, in which it is not possible to be a true Christian, exemplifying all the virtues of godliness.
The grace of Christ has in it, potency enough to enable us to live godly wherever we are called to dwell.
When God chooses a home for us He fits us for its peculiar trials.
God adapts His grace to the peculiarities of each one's necessity.
For rough, flinty paths He provides shoes of iron. He never sends anyone to climb sharp, rugged mountain-sides, wearing silken slippers.
He always gives sufficient grace.
As the burdens grow heavier the strength increases.
As the difficulties thicken He draws closer.
As the trials become sorer the trusting heart grows calmer.
Jesus always sees His disciples, when they are toiling in the waves and at the right moment He comes to deliver them.
Thus it becomes possible to live a true and victorious life in any circumstances.
Christ can as easily enable Joseph to remain pure and true in heathen Egypt as Benjamin in the shelter of his father's love.
The sharper the temptations the more of divine grace is granted.
There is, therefore, no environment of trial, or difficulty or hardship in which we cannot live beautiful lives of Christian fidelity and holy conduct.
Instead, then, of yielding to discouragement when trials multiply and it becomes hard to live right, or of being satisfied with a very faulty life it should be our settled purpose to live, through the grace of God a patient, gentle and unspotted life in the place, and amid the circumstances, He allots to us.
The true victory is not found in escaping or evading trials but in rightly meeting and enduring them.
The questions should not be, "How can I get out of these worries? How can I get into a place where there shall be no irritations, nothing to try my temper or put my patience to the test?
How can I avoid the distractions that continually harass me?" There is nothing noble in such living.
The questions should rather be, "How can I pass through these trying experiences and not fail as a Christian?
How can I endure these struggles and not suffer defeat?
How can I live amid these provocations, these testings of my temper and yet live sweetly, not speaking unadvisedly, bearing injuries meekly, returning gentle answers to insulting words?"
This is the true problem of Christian living.
~J. R. Miller~
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| DIVINE CULTIVATION |
When the LORD Himself speaks in His own proper person rather than through a prophet, the word has a peculiar weight to believing minds.
It is Jehovah Himself who is the keeper of His own vineyard; He does not trust it to any other, but He makes it His own personal care. Are they not well kept whom God Himself keeps?
We are to receive gracious watering, not only every day and every hour "but every moment." How we ought to grow! How fresh and fruitful every plant should be! What rich clusters the vines should bear!
But disturbers come; little foxes and the boar. Therefore, the LORD Himself is our Guardian, and that at all hours, both night and day. What, then, can harm us? Why are we afraid! He tends, He waters, He guards; what more do we need?
Twice in this verse the LORD says, "I will." What truth, what power, what love, what immutability we find in the great "I will" of Jehovah!
Who can resist His will? If He says "I will," what room is there for doubt?
With an "I will" of God we can face all the hosts of sin, death, and hell.
O LORD, since Thou sayest, "I will keep thee," I reply, "I will praise Thee!"
~Charles Spurgeon~
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