Adventure Link
Vintage Faith: Pruning along the roadside
By Rev. Jeff Dixon, Senior Equipping Minister, Covenant Community Church
Aug 26, 2005, 09:53

If you’re not in a position to receive God’s discipline, you are in a position to receive his pruning. And from the distance, discipline and pruning could look like the same thing. After all, both appear to be painful.

The difference between discipline and pruning is health. A vineyard owner, a vine-dresser, looks very carefully at the branches on the trellis, and with a practiced eye, and a mind-set that looks toward long-term health, he cuts branches back. The pruning is critically important. Critically important. Without pruning, an arbor will never produce the fruit it was designed to bear. Instead, it’ll produce mainly vines and leaves. Because he’s after fruit, the vinedresser will prune in just the right places, at just the right time.

Think of some Bible characters who were “pruned.”

1. Peter was rebuked on numerous occasions. The result of those painful, pruning experiences? Peter produced more fruit. Tremendous fruit. A man who once was afraid to confess Jesus preached a Pentecost sermon so powerful – just two months after the crucifixion – 3,000 people became baptized believers.
2. Paul was knocked blind and senseless within sight of a city gate of Damascus. The result of this heart-stopping event? Fruit like you’ve never seen. Instead of persecuting Christians, Paul bore more Christian fruit than perhaps any missionary in history.

Paul and Barnabas suffered through a painful split, breaking up the most successful missions team the early church had ever seen. What happened then? Paul took Silas, Barnabas took Mark, and churches were started on two mission journeys instead of one. Or in our language, there was twice the fruit! And by the way, Paul, Barnabas, and Mark all patched up their differences in a short season.

B. Pruning may lead to a change in where you are.

After Stephen’s death, believers once delighted to stay in Jerusalem ran for their lives throughout Judea and Samaria. Though their grief for Stephen must have been intense, the end result of their pain – their pruning – was to bear fruit outside of Jerusalem. To the vinedresser, fulfilling the Great Commission is not an option. God will do whatever it takes to get the message of Christ to the entire world. Because that first group changed where they were, their fruit was multiplied many, many times over.

C. Pruning, however, will never change whose you are.

Tragically, many Christians struggle  mightily with the issue of salvation. For a variety of reasons, many wonder, “Am I really saved?” Mature Christians – ones who have seen both the discipline and the pruning of God – don’t lose sleep over that question. Because of the discipline the pruning, they know they’re saved, and they know that pruning is part of a very healthy process. No wonder mature Christians take comfort in the pruning process. Jesus was emphasizing the ownership issue as he walked among the vineyard.  "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will 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.  John 15:1-4 (HCSB)

When facing God’s discipline, the choice we make is whether or not to continue our acts of disobedience, or to submit to God’s correction and repent of harmful choices. When facing God’s pruning, however, we face a choice of faith. Can we keep the commitment that might require pain for us, and yet bring glory to God? Can we believe that God only wants the best for us, and that our commitment to him will lead to the greatest life we could know?

I heard a preacher communicate the following story....It wasn’t that long ago that my wife and I were eating some dessert with friends at a church homecoming. It was a beautiful day, and we had stepped outside. Suddenly, we froze. About 50 yards away, we saw our 3-year-old daughter holding hands with a 3-year-old boy, both of them at the edge of a very busy road. They were trying to cross the road!

It was all I could do to shout her name, but shout I did. And wonderfully, our little girl turned around immediately, and ran to me. She had no idea how frightened all of us had been in that moment, she only responded, instantly, to her father’s voice.

You know why? Because all of her little life, we had been parents not afraid to use discipline. We were never cruel, though she must have thought so, from time to time. We were never unkind, though she sure pouted in the aftermath of discipline. We always had love as our motivation, for somehow, we knew the day would come when she would be standing on the edge of a life-or-death situation, and she needed to know that when her father called with that kind of voice, the only option ... was to obey.

Could our 3-year-old have known the history of children who walked out into busy roads?

No, she wasn’t old enough to comprehend the tragedy.

Could she have done the math of how long a 1,000-pound car traveling at 35 mph needs to skid to a stop? No, of course not.

She could only comprehend her father’s frantic voice, calling for immediate obedience.

Are we so egotistical as to think we know more than the Father?

If he shouts a command to obey, don’t try to do math that’s over your head. Don’t try to review the history of other situations. Don’t ask for advice from a pool of people, and don’t take a public opinion poll.

Just exercise the faith of a child with her father ... and obey!

The adventure continues....