Reflecting Christ

God's Grace Sweetens Every Affliction, December 7

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15:1, 2. RC 355.1

“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you.” The very same sap and nourishment that nourishes the parent stock, nourishes the branch abiding in the vine. Christ is represented by the vine that imparts the nourishment, the vitality, the life, the spirit, the power, that the branch can bear fruit, and then when affliction and disappointment come, you are to show altogether a different character of fruit than the world. There is the evidence that you are connected with Jesus Christ, and that there is a power that sustains you in all your afflictions and disappointments and trials; and this power and this grace sweetens every affliction. [When] the cup of suffering may be placed to your lips, there is a Comforter and Helper. The cup of consolation is placed in the hand, and it may be the happiest period of your life. RC 355.2

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” ... Here are the most precious jewels of truth for every individual soul of us. Here is the only election in the Bible, and you can prove yourself elected of Christ by being faithful; you can prove yourself the chosen of Christ by abiding in the vine.... RC 355.3

Christ tells us plainly that the whole power, the whole fruit-bearing quality, is in the parent vine stock. Then let them be abiding in Christ, and drawing the nourishment from Christ, and what shall we see? We shall see something, the world will see something. There is a clear line of distinction between the believing and the unbelieving, between those that obey God, and those that disobey Him; there is a decided and marked difference in the fruit they bear.... The fruit is the character.... RC 355.4

Every ability that you have, every power that you have, your reasoning powers every talent that you have, every capability that you have, is to be brought right into the religious life, and the kindness, the compassion, the pitifulness, the love of God, is the fruit borne upon the branch that is grafted into the living Vine. And then as the rich clusters ... bow down that branch, showing that those that bear the most fruit, the richest clusters, have the true humility of lowliness, like Christ. He says, Learn of Me. Come unto Me. Now let us everyone hear it. It is the invitation not from the speaker, but it is the invitation from Jesus Christ Himself.—Manuscript 43, 1894. RC 355.5