Becoming One

This weekend I went with Chi Alpha on our spring retreat called Come Together. The name references to the detail that all of the Chi Alpha campus ministries “come together” for a time of worship, listening to the word, and connecting as one big family. For me retreats like this are always fun to go to and impacting for my spiritual walk with Jesus.

On Friday night UCA’s campus pastor, Matt Carpenter or Carp for short, gave a sermon about the seeds we sow in our lives and how we can either choose to plant either life or death in our lives. Carp, then wen on to explain that for us to actually get rid of the death in our lives, we must uproot that sin in our lives. During the response time God was revealing to me how in my life I have a deep rooted fear of intimacy that is in found in a lack of trusting the Lord to direct me because of a fear that He will call me to do or be something I don’t want. Which I know is a lie because if God were to do that, it would become slavery, and he calls us to be a free people. Saturday night, several people prayed over me and spoke over me a call from God that was/is so much bigger and better than what I could ever imagine for myself. The only stipulation God put was that if I really wanted to walk in these things He spoke, then I would have to be in nearness with Him. I would have to learn to become one with Him so that He could sow life out of me.

In all of this, I was reminded of Jesus’s parable of the vine and the branches in John 15. I highly recommend giving it a read. In this passage Jesus compares himself as being the vine that we all get to be a branch of. He goes on to teach that none of the branches can bear fruit on their own if they are not a part of the vine. In our own lives, if we want to bear fruit (meaning if we want to be more Jesus like) then we have to near to Him. As the branches are one with the vine then we must become one with Jesus. This can be easier said than done at times, but God is patient and graceful towards us as we learn. I would encourage you that if you want to see yourself become more like Jesus, then become closer to Him and allow Him to shape who you are. I’ve been a Christian for most of my life and its still something Im learning to do more consistently. I am telling you though, that when it happens, it is something that not only changes your life, but the lives of those around 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 fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5 NIV