Apart from Me

It's hard to wait.To be stillAnd knowApart from MeYou can doNothingApart from MeIs a worldOf confusionSnaresEvil;ImaginationsSpeculationsTemptations;To draw backFrom faithAnd entertain:"Where is ...The promise Of His coming?"Woe unto you That desire The day Of the LORD! To what end Is it for you? The day Of the LORD Is darkness, And not light.For since The fathers Fell asleep, All things continue As they were From the beginning Of the creation. Why do ye not Rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather Suffer yourselves To be defrauded? What glory is itIf, when ye be buffeted For your faultsYe shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, And suffer for it, Ye take it patiently, This is acceptable with God. For even hereunto Were ye called: Because Christ also Suffered for us, Leaving us an example,That ye should followHis steps: Who did no sin, Neither was guile Found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, Reviled not again; When he suffered, He threatened not; But committed himself To him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self Bare our sins In his own body On the tree, That we, Being dead to sins, Should live Unto righteousness: By whose stripes Ye were healed. For ye were As sheep Going astray; But are now Returned unto The Shepherd And Bishop Of your souls.I am the vine, Ye are the branches: He that abideth In Me, And I in him, The same bringeth forth Much fruit: For without me Ye can do nothing. If a man abide not In Me, He is cast forth As a branch, And is withered; And men Gather them, And cast them Into the fire, And they are burned.Examine yourselves, Whether ye be In the faith; Prove your own selves. Know ye not Your own selves, How that Jesus Christ Is in you, Except ye be Reprobates? But I trust That ye shall know That we are not Reprobates.From whence Come wars And fightings Among you? Come they not hence, Even of your lusts That war in Your members? Ye lust, And have not: Ye kill, and desire To have, And cannot Obtain: Ye fight And war, Yet ye have not, Because ye ask not.Ye ask, And receive not, Because ye ask Amiss, That ye may Consume it Upon your lusts. Ye adulterers And adulteresses, Know ye not That the friendship Of the world Is enmity With God? Whosoever therefore Will be a friend Of the world Is the enemy Of God. Do ye think That the scripture Saith in vain, The spirit That dwelleth In us Lusteth to envy? But he giveth More grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth The proud, But giveth Grace unto The humbleSubmit yourselves Therefore To God. ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lord, All my desire Is before thee; And my groaning Is not hid From thee.My heart Panteth, My strength Faileth me: As for the light Of mine eyes, It also is gone From me. Whom have I In heaven But thee? And there is none Upon earth That I desire Beside thee. Hope deferred Maketh the heart Sick: But when The desire cometh, It is a tree of life.I am the vine, Ye are the branches:Better is the Sight of the eyes Than the wandering Of the desire: This is also Vanity And vexation Of spirit.Why leap ye, Ye high hills? This is the hill Which God desireth To dwell in; Yea, the LORD Will dwell in it For ever. But the hour Cometh, And now is, When the true Worshippers Shall worship The Father In spirit And in truth: For the Father Seeketh such To worship him. Behold, Thou desirest Truth In the inward parts: And in the hidden part Thou shalt make me To know wisdom. Beware ye Of the leaven Of the Pharisees, Which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing Covered, That shall not Be revealed; Neither hid, That shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever Ye have spoken In darkness Shall be heard In the light; And that which Ye have spoken In the ear In closets Shall be proclaimed Upon the housetops. But thou, When thou prayest, Enter into Thy closet, And when thou Hast shut thy door, Pray To thy Father Which is in secret; And thy Father Which seeth In secret Shall reward thee Openly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If ye then Be risen With Christ, Seek those things Which are above, Where Christ sitteth On the right hand Of God. Set your affection On things above, Not on things On the earth. For ye are dead, And your life Is hid With Christ In God. When Christ, Who is Our life, Shall appear, Then shall ye Also appear With him In glory. Mortify therefore Your members Which are Upon the earth; Fornication, Uncleanness, Inordinate Affection, Evil concupiscence, And covetousness, Which is Idolatry: For which things' sake The wrath Of God Cometh on The children Of disobedience: In the which ye Also walked Some time, When ye Lived in them. But now Ye also Put off All these; Anger, Wrath, Malice, Blasphemy, Filthy Communication Out of Your mouth. Lie not One to another, Seeing that Ye have put off The old man With his deeds; And have put on The new man, Which is renewed In knowledge After the image Of him That created him: Where there Is neither Greek Nor Jew, Circumcision Nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, Bond Nor free: But Christ Is all, And in all. Put on therefore, As the elect Of God, Holy And beloved, Bowels of Mercies, Kindness, Humbleness Of mind, Meekness, Longsuffering; Forbearing One another, And forgiving One another, If any man Have a quarrel Against any: Even as Christ Forgave you, So also do ye. And above All these things Put on charity, Which is The bond Of perfectness. And let The peace Of God Rule In your hearts, To the which also Ye are called In one body; And be ye Thankful. Let the word Of Christ Dwell in you Richly In all wisdom; Teaching And admonishing One another In psalms And hymns And spiritual songs, Singing With grace In your hearts To the Lord. And whatsoever Ye do In word Or deed, Do all In the name Of the Lord Jesus, Giving thanks To God And the Father By him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are the things That ye shall do; Speak ye Every man The truth To his neighbour; Execute the judgment Of truth And peace In your gates: And let None of you Imagine evil In your hearts Against his neighbour; And love no False oath: For all these Are things That I hate, Saith the LORD. Therefore love The truth And peace. Let us go Speedily To pray Before The LORD, And to seek The LORD Of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people And strong nations Shall come To seek The LORD of hosts In Jerusalem, And to pray Before the LORD. Thus saith The LORD Of hosts; In those days It shall come to pass, That ten men Shall take hold Out of all languages Of the nations, Even shall take hold Of the skirt of him That is a Jew, Saying, We will go with you: For we have heard That God is with you.When she had heard Of Jesus, Came in the press behind, And touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch But his clothes, I shall be whole. And Jesus said, Who is it that Touched me? Some one Did touch me; For I perceived That power Had gone forth from me. Not that we are Sufficient of ourselves To think Any thing As of ourselves; But our sufficiency Is of God; But be filled with the SpiritWhen the Comforter is come, Whom I will send Unto you From the Father, Even The Spirit of truth, Which proceedeth From the Father, He shall testify of meWhen he,The Spirit of truth, Is come, He will guide you Into all truth: For he shall not speak Of himself; But whatsoever He shall hear, That shall he speak: And he will shew you Things to come. He shall glorify me: For he shall receive Of mine, And shall shew it unto you. All things That the Father hath Are mine: Therefore said I, That he shall take Of mine, And shall shew it unto you. These things I have spoken Unto you, That in me Ye might have peace. In the world Ye shall have Tribulation: But be Of good cheer; I have overcome the world.Abide in me, And I in youI am the vine, Ye are the branchesFor apart from me Ye can do nothing

The Lord Jesus in John 15 said, 'Apart from Me you can do nothing'.The context of this verse is regarding abiding in Christ for the purpose of bearing fruit. And fruit here is not refering to the fruit of the Spirit in terms of the divine virtues, but rather persons gained by Christ and remaining.The passage begins with "I am the True Vine, you are the branches. This is a fact. We don't have to strive to be a branch in the Vine. If we are regenerated, we are in Christ and are organically united to Christ in our spirit. And we don't have to strive to stay there. We are already there.But to abide in Him is to live in this reality. It is by contact with the Lord and faith in this organic union, we live in the reality of it.Our first need is to have our eyes opened to see that we are indeed branches in this Vine. We are organically united with Christ. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor 6:17).This Vine with the branches is actually the orginism of the Triune God. We are grafted into Christ through regeneration and the New Birth. And He dwells in us. As we abide in this relationship, the Divine Sap, which is the Spirit flows from the Vine through the branches and eventually bears fruit.We experience this first by thanking the Lord that we are branches in the Vine. We are in HIm and He is in us. And we call on the Lord to work in us in light of this reality.In this way we experience the flow of the divine Sap. And the goal of this flow is to produce fruit.And as we abide in Him and His Words abide in us, we can ask what we will and it shall be done for us. Why? Because to abide in Him we contact Him and by the Spirit through His Word in us He imparts His desire and it becomes our desire. And as we ask we recieve because the Lord always answers these prayers.Graftedbranch