Transplanted Missionally
Date Posted:9/13/2009 | Driving to Charlottesville, Va the other day I took the scenic route and couldn't help but notice how many vineyards I passed. There were literally hundreds of acres of grape vines. I can't even imagine how many grapes they could produce! What's even more amazing is that all those grapes and all those vines came from one vine and one grape seed at some point in time.
If you've ever visited a greenhouse you know that hundreds of seedlings and plants are being cultivated in a very controlled atmosphere where everything is conducive to developing those plants to their optimum capacity. And that can only happen if eventually those plants are transplanted outside the greenhouse where they can grow and multiply. Certainly, inside the greenhouse you can control everything. But outside the greenhouse no one can really control the weather and there will be all kinds of adverse conditions. But if the plant has been developed right, it will not only survive, it will have what it takes to thrive!
Spiritually in your life that's what your relationship with Jesus Christ is like. "In Christ" you submit everything to come under His control; you're being cultivated in His character, conditioned to live right and to have what it takes to grow and thrive spiritually. But for that to really happen you've got to be transplanted into the mission field! It's there where, as you abide in the Vine, the Vine "branches" out through all of your lives a followers of Christ and we "bear fruit"- others coming into that same kind of relational dynamic (Jn. 15:5-8).
Although we are "in" the world, we're not "of" the world which means our DNA is different. Despite all the adverse conditions we may encounter, we can thrive because of what, or "Who" lives within us! It's in the mission field where we experience the multiplication, the branches spread out, and are full of "grapes!" From "One Seed" multitudes are reproduced and fill the earth with God's presence and power! | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | September 13, 2009 | | |
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