One year, I celebrated my June birthday with my daughter and family in California. To my delight, Beth took me to my vineyard for lunch at the lovely restaurant there.
On the way to the Temecula vineyard area, I was amazed to see how the former ruthlessly pruned vines were now covered with lush green leaves. You may remember those stark vines from a previous post.
Read More… But there are hindrances to the fruit-bearing process. One of the biggest "blockers" to unique fruit-bearing is jealousy...and related evils, like comparison and competition, one-up-man-ship, expectations, holding offenses, and the like. All of these will kill the fruit the Lord wants to produce in our lives.
Think about it! If we are always comparing ourselves to "other branches," we have our attention off of the Lord and what He may be doing in and through our lives. What a waste of precious time and energy...much less spiritual fruit!
Read MoreI am the true Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch in Me...that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.
John 15:1, 2
From what I understand, important to the process of growing grapes is pruning the vine. Now I am definitely not a gardener! So if I have ever pruned anything, I've done a very wimpy job of it. So I was shocked a few years ago when we visited a vineyard in Temecula Valley, CA.
Read MoreBy this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.John 15:8
Have you ever started a job with no job description? I have, and it's pretty confusing.
Years ago, I was looking for a part-time teaching job. A friend asked if I would like to apply to substitute teach in ESL & GED classes. I told her that I didn't have a clue about either one of those. She assured me that it wasn't difficult. All I had to do was follow the teacher's lesson plans. So I naively applied.
Read MoreI AM the True Vine... John 15:1
“Tell us about your name…”
That was the opening “ice-breaker” at a teacher in-service I attended a few years ago. I was glad for that topic, because I have an interesting name. In fact, each of my names (even including my married name) has something unique about it.
Read MoreI would venture to say that many, if not most, Americans like to travel — even if it is just across state lines for a day or to the neighboring town for a change of pace. And it seems that though the current quarantine has halted it all, folks have found ways to travel.
How? By taking to their computers and other devices to do “virtual tours” of museums, zoos, famous landmarks, parks, and vacation spots. In fact, there are so many choices that it is mind boggling where technology can usher us.
Well, I woke up this morning realizing that I can offer a bit of a “virtual tour” right here at A Branch in the Vine. This “tour” is one of the first I had “offered” way back in 2011 when I launched A Branch in the Vine.
So let’s take a trip to the Vineyard . . . but not just to any vineyard . . .
Read MoreAbiding, dwelling, sinking down deep … living IN HIM Who lives IN ME! That’s what this hidden time is all about, isn’t it?
We don’t know for how long or when it will end. But we do have an amazing opportunity right now to learn in our experience what it means to abide … whether in quarantine or in our everyday TODAY.
Read MoreHibernation! It is for bears, bumblebees, hedgehogs, ground squirrels, bats, turtles, woodchucks, and a few other animals. But we humans do not hibernate very well!
We are all learning and experiencing much during this mandated hibernation. Our experiences and emotions vary – some are entertaining or teaching lively, restless children or some are struggling with loneliness, some the frustration of trying to work from home with many distractions or all the above and more!
Read More… Well today, in the midst of it all, a beautiful nugget of emotional and spiritual health was briefly shared by Dr Acton at the end of her report. In referring to a favorite book of hers authored by a Holocaust survivor, she shared that two things kept in balance helped folks survive situations of extreme crisis, such as the Holocaust and others down through the years. The implication was that this same balance can help us survive this present pandemic crisis.
The two things kept in balance are “accepting our present reality” and “holding on to hope” at the same time….
Read MoreIt was sixteen years ago now ... that day when we unboxed the items my mother-in-law was discarding because of her need to downsize. Betty Jean Loyd was moving to a senior community, states away from where she had lived most of her adult life and where she had married a man and raised an only son.
At 80 years of age, Betty Jean, an only child herself, knew that she needed to be near us, her only family. So we helped her dispose of her discarded things.
And there it was -- her sifter!
Read MoreThe parent-child metaphor is perhaps the most tender picture of our relationship with God as believers. This is so movingly expressed in the Scriptures by the Hebrew term for Father God "Abba," meaning "Daddy." In our last post, we explored the truth that in reality we are all adult-children deep down who still really need a Father in order to do an adult life right here and now.
Let's look at Jesus, the perfect Son of our Abba Father God, and do a little digging into the Scriptures. Let’s ask the Spirit to speak to our child-hearts.
Read MoreHelpless! Not in control of anything … the virus devastating our country and the world, our economy drastically in jeopardy, even our daily life changing every day. The good news is that our adult lives in this crisis world was never meant to be lived on our own. We have a Father with whom we can be needy and vulnerable so that we can face what is before us. So join me as we revisit what is means to be …
Read MoreI couldn’t resist posting this again. It was Easter 2012 when I first wrote these joy-filled thoughts. My “then 5 y.o. grandson” Evan is now 13 y.o. and might rather play this awesome song on his drums.
But JOY, no matter what!
Read More…We are not cowed into timidity by death and life. Were we forced to rely on our own shabby resources we would be pitiful people indeed. But the awareness of Christ's present risenness persuades us that we are buoyed up and carried on by a life greater than our own.
Read MoreEaster isn't Easter unless it's Easter to YOU!
So declared a radio preacher early in Holy Week a few years ago. At first I said, "Yes!" Then I thought about it awhile and said, "Not really! Easter is Easter whether I get it or not."
What is Easter anyway? Easter is the day we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the grave. He had conquered sin and death on the cross and then was raised, so that we could walk in newness of life. (cf. Romans 6:4)
Read MoreOne line of the lyrics for “Got to Let It Go” by MercyMe draws a picture that is in keeping with Jan’s most recent post “Are You Guarding an Empty Tomb?”
“Stop taking flowers to the grave of the old you that died.”
Read MoreIt is Finished!
But why are so many of us believers "guarding an empty tomb," trying to keep the shame of memories, regrets, sins of the past from impinging themselves on our present as if these offenses are still alive...and unforgiven?
Read More
Thank you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for dying for ME! Thank you for taking my place on that Cross. Thank you for experiencing mysteriously the separation from God that my sin warranted.
"It is Finished!" What glorious words!
Read MoreToday is a Day of Reckoning...but not how you think! Usually we use that term to mean to give an accounting, a calculation, a settlement of accounts. In fact according to Wikipedia, it can mean a host of things from the final judgment day to heavy metal albums and Nintendo games.
But in the Bible sense, EVERY day is a Day of Reckoning. This word reckon in the Greek is often rendered consider. In other words, "count on something to be true". My reckoning doesn't MAKE it true. It already IS true, so I count on it and live from it. So each day is THE day to reckon to be true what God says is true...because it IS true…
Read MoreYes, He did and Yes, we truly did. Let me explain . . .
He died FOR us . . . for our sins, for the penalty that we deserve. He took our place on that Cross, suffering the eternal punishment that we deserved, so that we wouldn’t have to…So our forgiveness is total and complete and finished, because of HIS death FOR us…BUT what about the power of sin within that still harasses our souls? That’s where the second side of the Cross comes in…
Read MoreJanet Renner Loyd has been a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ most of her life. Her formal education includes a degree in education from the University of Arizona and also a degree in Bible & Theology from Moody Bible Institute. For more than thirty years, she has been involved in teaching and leading women’s Bible studies, retreats, and meetings…most notably Precept upon Precept and various studies that she has personally developed. Professionally, Jan recently retired from teaching language and writing to GED and adult ESOL students.
About her life, Jan says, “The most important thing about me is my relationship with my Father God through my Lord Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful to Him for His love, mercy, and grace to me and my family and friends...and the world.”
Jan has been happily married to John Loyd for more than forty years. They have two adult, married children and five lively young grandsons.
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