Chosen to Bear Fruit

15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit-fruit that will last-and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17This is my command: Love each other.
~John 15:15 -17

Reflection
I struggle frequently, as I'm sure many Christians do, with the questions, "What is it that Christ has planned for me and what should I be doing to contribute to His plan?" In this passage, Christ answers these questions for the disciples during the last supper. Jesus has three messages: 1) He chose us as friends; 2) He wants us to bear fruit; and 3) Love each other.

Friendship with Christ: It is important to always keep in mind that Christ has chosen us, not the other way around. Yes, we must accept the sacrifice and grace that He gave on the cross, but as a free gift and not something that is earned. If we see Christ as only a master that we must serve and not also as a friend that we can love and enjoy, we can lose sight of this free gift that was given out of unconditional love.

Bear fruit: The image of the vine and the branches is often used to symbolize how we must depend on Jesus to accomplish His plans. Just as a grape vine feeds and provides vital nutrients to its branches so they can produce fruit, Jesus (the vine) has given us (the branches) everything we need to grow (bear fruit) for His kingdom. We bear fruit when we share God's word and exemplify His teaching in our actions and deeds. Again, He chose us, and this is important, as the fruit cannot produce the vine. No matter how many good deeds we perform, we cannot earn our own salvation nor produce it in others.

Love each other: Why does Jesus care if we love each other? The answer is His love for us and His desire that we share eternity in heaven. Jesus was the perfect model of love, one that He commands us to emulate. In Luke 10:26, when Jesus was asked how to gain eternal life, he replied, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;' and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" We are commanded to love God AND our neighbor. The Lord desires that we not only love Him unconditionally, but that we also love unconditionally those whom He loves-which is everyone.

Response
Recall the last long conversation you had with a friend.
1. What qualities in that friendship can you bring to your relationship with Jesus?
2. Can you "bear the fruit" that Jesus desires if your objective is to earn a reward?
3. Do others approach you when they are in need? Why do you believe this is or is not the case?

About the Author
Brendan St John and his wife, Jessica, started attending CCPC in 1999. His favorite experiences with Canyon Creek are the Wind Festival and Small Group Ministry. They have three children, Adelaide (11), Tristan (8), and Spencer (6).

Laying Down My Life

12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.
~ John 15:12-13

Reflection
Jesus tells us to love each other and then clarifies what that looks like by saying the greatest way to love one another is to lay down your life. What does Jesus mean by this? When Jesus laid down his life on the cross it meant we had a way to be forgiven from our sins. Romans 3:23-24 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." He laid down his rights and instead put our needs before his own.

In our safe, suburban San Ramon Valley, how do we lay down our lives for others? I think the biggest way is by forgiving them. Are there people in your life who have hurt you or offended you? Jesus calls us to love and forgive everyone. As Tim Keller writes in The Reason for God, "forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering." Keller states there is a debt that you are absorbing and you are taking the cost of it completely on yourself instead of taking it out on the other person. It can hurt terribly but this is what Jesus did for us. He suffered so that we could be forgiven.

The strength and desire to forgive should come from an overflow of our love for God, not because it's something we feel we should do in order to be a good Christian. I identify with this quote from Francis Chan's Crazy Love: "The irony is that while God doesn't need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don't really want Him most of the time. He treasures us and anticipates our departure from this earth to be with Him-and we wonder, indifferently, how much we have to do for Him to get by." I need to remind myself daily of the great cost of Christ's sacrifice! He died for me! Our response should be gratitude that overflows in love and causes us to want to follow Him. This love for God gives us the strength to live as He did and forgive others.

Another way to lay down our lives for others is to put their needs before our own. In Philippians 2:3-5, Paul writes, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus." Whether that be something small, like letting someone in front of you in traffic or in the grocery store, or as large as sharing credit for a project at work or paying for a school or orphanage to be built in a third world country, we need to think of others' needs more than our own. That is not something that comes naturally. We need God's help.

Response
1. Is there anyone who you need to forgive?
2. How can you put others needs before your own today?
3. Pray for God to reveal himself to you and for you to realize how much you truly need God.

About the Author
Jen Scales Morlan married Brian Morlan in May 2009 and they live in San Ramon. Jen has been helping with the high school youth group since 2004 and looks forward to going on another Mexico trip this year. She and Brian are a part of the 20s/30s group and participate in a small group. Jen works for Allstate Insurance as a Senior Claims Service Adjuster.

Abiding In The Vine

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is 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 given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
~ John 15:5-11

Reflection

Abiding in the Vine in order to bear fruit means continuing in Jesus in order to accomplish His will here on earth. In practical terms, how do I do that?

When I asked myself that question, I was reminded of the fundraiser for the Valley Pregnancy Center just a few weeks ago. When I arrived at church, I took the baby bottle, put in a $20 bill and gave it back right away that same morning. The next day, God told me that I had clearly missed the point. Now, I don't hear God's voice audibly, but I suddenly realized what God wanted. The point, I believe now, was that each time I dropped in my change, I would be reminded of why I was doing it and who it was for. And each time I could have prayed, even just a small prayer, for the people involved: the young woman with the crisis pregnancy, the unborn child of God, and the young man whose life was also changed.

Truly I was not abiding in Jesus. I was going through the motions of being a good Christian, doing my obligation, but not bearing fruit for Jesus. I was checking it off my to-do list. I was doing it for me. Talk about a dead branch! I was missing the peace of knowing that I was obeying God, being closer to God, thinking about Him, opening myself up to what He wants me to do. I was missing the blessing of caring about other people, and they were missing the blessings of being prayed for.

Abiding requires asking Jesus, "What do I do next?" It requires that we listen for His answer. Don't just ask the question, automatically rely on Him. Jesus wants to be fully in our lives, to the point where we don't have to remind ourselves that it is natural to think of Him first. Abiding means that Jesus moves in and takes up residence.

He wants us to love him. He wants us to do his will. And doing that brings joy, not only to us but to everyone we touch and, most of all, to Him.

Response

1. Pray through your to-do list, asking Jesus for guidance.
2. Then watch and listen throughout the day for the Lord's response and the blessings of bearing fruit for Him.

About the Author

Bobi Vieira and husband, Bob, have been attending Canyon Creek Church for 13 years. They have two grown children, Liane and Andrea. Bobi has been a volunteer for Gospel for Asia, working mission events in Northern California for the past five years.

First Things First

28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
~ Mark 12:28-29

Reflection

When Jesus answers the teacher's question, He says loving God is the most important commandment and loving your neighbor is a close second. Is this order deliberate? Is it possible to love others without first loving God wholeheartedly? Our experience says, yes. People who never love God can still love children, husbands, wives, mothers, siblings, friends-all the same folks that Christians love. Christians should recognize, however, that human love, without the power of the Holy Spirit behind it, is a mere shadow of what God intends.

True love, like true faith, is a product of the Holy Spirit. When I came to faith, I accepted the Holy Spirit into my soul. His presence transforms me into God's child and begins to mold my character and will. The Spirit pours God's love into me, empowering me to love as God loves.

1 John 4:7-8 explains this: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

And, Romans 5:5 is similar: And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Knowing this, it becomes easier to understand why God expects us to love our enemies and to be perfect (Matthew 5:43-48). That's exactly how God operates! He loves sinners perfectly by sending His son Jesus to the cross to die on our behalf (John 3:16). We will not be perfect until we reach Heaven, but our mission as believers is to keep striving toward that goal by loving as God loves, and thus making Him visible to others. Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost for His Highest, "The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but God-likeness" (p. 264).

Response

1. Do you have first things first?
2. Have you first allowed the Spirit of God to pour God's love into your heart?
Or are you trying to love others on your own power?

About the Author

Renee Olsen and husband Jim have been members of Canyon Creek Church since 1993. They have two adult children, Joanna and Joey (who is married to Lindsey). Renee is a professional editor who helps maintain the church web site. She has led many small groups over the years and is trained as a Bible Study Fellowship teaching leader.

Why Jesus is our victory and not one another.

The Greatest Commandment

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30

Reflection

I know that loving God is important, and here Jesus tells me it is the most important commandment He has given us. It sounds simple enough, but anyone who has loved or been loved has some history of disappointment, hurt, sorrow, or betrayal in a personal relationship. We can become defensive in relationships because of past hurts. I know I have.

God doesn't want defensiveness. On closer examination this commandment requires a complete surrender of our internal life. God is requiring a fully devoted, all-encompassing kind of love. Loving God is a refining, purifying experience. Biblical love is a decision of the will. It means loving God when you feel there is no love in your heart for anyone. It is a dedicated, intentional, committed love. We have to trust Him. Hardened hearts fall into trouble.

There was a time in my life when I was fighting cancer. I was between treatments, having just finished chemo and waiting for radiation. My doctor gave me a longer break because my first grandchild was due. Calvin was born with some life-threatening heart issues and was airlifted to Stanford for surgery when he was four days old. My brain couldn't remember any Scripture to calm myself at the hospital, but the Holy Spirit brought this phrase into my mind: "I know my God is just." I repeated it often in the confusing, exhausting days that followed. I wasn't relying on my feelings about God to trust Him. I was choosing to rely on what I knew about His character. I knew that whatever the outcome, God was just, and that could never change.

Loving God helps me get closer to an understanding of who I am and the God I belong to. He wants true intimacy from me, not my defensive, "I can take care of myself!" kind of thinking. In The Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner says that you can survive, grow strong and even prevail on your own, but you cannot become human on our own. As we come to an understanding of how to love God, things fall into place. We begin to understand our humanness as God defines it.

God created us to have a deep, intimate, God-glorifying relationship with Him. That won't happen until we are satisfied with Him. There is a lot of competition for ways to feel satisfied in our culture, but they are imitations of the real thing. We need to be truly and deeply satisfied by God alone.

Response

1. With my heart: Am I desiring God as intimately as He desires me?
2. With my soul: Am I striving to identify with Christ or the world today?
3. With my mind: How am I doing with surrendering my mind to thinking Biblically?
4. With my strength: Am I able to acknowledge my weakness and find the source of my strength in God?

Pride and Humility

Today’s Reading
35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
~ Mark 10:35-45

Reflection
Do you wonder where James and John got the audacity to ask Jesus to place them at his right and left hand in his glorious rule!? It appears that the human nature of prideful, self-interest, so prevalent in our 21st century existence, was alive and well even during the time of Jesus’ earthly life 2000 years ago. It is amazing to think that the apostles, who walked with Jesus and witnessed his Godly character of servitude, were still driven to attain positions of authority over others, and to achieve prideful recognition instead of humbly serving one another.

In our society, conceit and pride is too often synonymous with success. Earthly achievements often lead to an inflated self-view. This focus on “self” frequently is followed by destruction – the list is many: Tiger Woods, Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen, former presidential candidate, John Edwards, and the list goes on. This affliction of our human nature does not touch only the rich and powerful, but resides in us all. It is a trap that we as Christians, can be lured into, particularly with today’s societal pressures and self-centered culture. I have seen the affliction in myself many times over the years, particularly in my work life. I have caught myself looking down at a co-worker or business acquaintance, making a judgment based on MY perception of their value or ability in certain situations.

In his book Mere Christianity, author C.S. Lewis states that the greatest sin of all is pride (or self-conceit), and its opposite virtue in Christian morals is humility. The important point to remember is that pride exists in all of us, and we must constantly strive to be humble, serve our fellow man, and do everything for the glory of God. I have found that I am most humbled when I look at my existence here in the San Ramon Valley. It is very humbling to have the realization that purely by the grace of God (and nothing of my own doing), that I was born in a country where wealth and opportunity abound, instead of one of many countries where severe human oppression or poverty rule.

In the words of C.S. Lewis, “As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

Response
1. Have you been in a situation where you have been humbled by a leader or mentor? What did you learn through that experience?

2. Today, do you think you are looking up with humility or down with pride?

Jamie Williamson spent his childhood and college years in central Illinois, and has now lived in San Ramon for roughly 16 years. I have been married to my wonderful wife Susie for 27 years and have three children, Emma (22), Alex (20), and Annie (19). I have been a member of CCPC for more than 10 years, and my favorite hobbies are golf, reading, travel, and watching the Giants win.