Walking With Christ

Deuteronomy 30:15 See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.(ESV)

In one of his final speeches to Israel before his death and they crossed over the river, Moses made it abundantly clear that there was really only two options. Obey the commands of God, that is to live in His will, or die. Most Christians realize that there is more than one kind of death. The physical death is the obvious one that every living person knows. This is the one that many wrongly fear. The spiritual death that leads to eternal separation from God in hell is the one that some don’t know and everyone should fear.

For the next several generations, we see examples where the people followed the will of God closely and they prospered, and we see examples where they wandered into the wilderness again. We see the trials and tribulations they went through. We see the testing they endured. We see the results of that testing. Each new chapter and each new character reinforced the message from Moses.

With each decision we can either choose life or death. Each step is one step closer to one destination or the other. If we choose life then we choose to remain in the will of God. Jesus likens this to the branches on a vine and He reminds us that He is the vine. He is the very source of life. Only the branches that are connected to the vine will grow and prosper. If a branch is removed from the vine it doesn’t simply stop existing immediately. No, it withers and slowly dies. When the day is done then the dead branches will be thrown into the fire and consumed. Until then it’s possible to reconnect the branch to the vine and see the branch grow again. Anyone who has grafted branches from one plant to another has seen this in action. The pear branch growing on an apple tree produces some amazing fruit.

Until the fire consumes everything that is, there is still hope. What is dead can be restored. What has been cut off can still be reattached. What is lost can be found.

I was grafted onto the vine in my teens before falling off and wasting away for almost a decade. I was brought back and regrafted onto the vine after wilting for so long. Now I’m starting to see the fruits that this created.