John 15:4-9 (MsgB)
"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.
"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love.
What does it mean to be in intimate and organic relationship?
connected living vibrant relationship, not vibrant as in loud or charismatic but alive in a vital and undeniable way..
Is this truly what God desires for us, what he came to show us in Christ... will this relationship when it is allowed to flow, bring healing flowing through our inner beings "igniting our bones"... if so why does it seem so bittersweet?
Do we base too much of our relationship with God upon one another? I know I have been struggling with that recently.. I look at some of the people around me and think to myself if that is what being a Christian is all about then I don't want anything to do with it... and I have to acknowledge that they probably look at me and think the same, or similar thoughts!
Yet today I find myself wondering
You got me looking up
Even when I'm falling down
You got me crawling out of my skin
You got me wondering why
I am underneath this big old sky
Stopping the loving getting in -KT TUNSTALL
So perhaps that is what an intimate and organic realtionship is all about...allowing the love in (bit hippy I'll admit but I think there are hidden depths there we need to unpack...if we dare...!)
