BULLSEYE HOW ARE PEOPLE LIKE GRAPE VINES?

EXPLANTION:
It’s a common fact that people who own vineyards need to cut back their vines right back so that no grapes grow for a couple of years.

Similarly it’s comforting to have the knowledge that whatever form of trouble that comes to us, comes from God. He is pruning us also that he might have the best fruit from us.

WHAT ABOUT THE UNSAVED?
For a different reason … BUT God is trying to get their attention as well.

BUT IF GOD IS A GOD OF LOVE WHY WOULD HE WANT TO HURT US?
From an earthly point of view it can seem destructive, but this pruning … the Bible calls it chastening, yields blessings (Heb 12:11).

As the potter makes the clay, God has made everyone one of us, so he knows how we tick. Furthermore, let us be comforted with the fact of what God says about himself and us:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

AN INTERACTION BETWEEN A FOOTBALL COACH AND FOOTBALL PLAYER:
Coach: “I want you to do these drills”
Player: “What’s the point coach – they don’t do any good. I’d rather do this.”
Coach: “If you want to be in the top team, you must do what I say.”
Player: “I quit! This doesn’t make any sense.”
This unpruned player is soon found, one year later, with no job, living in a caravan, drinking and using drugs.

AN INTERACTION BETWEEN A PIANO TEACHER AND A BUDDING STUDENT:
Teacher: “I want you to do these scales”
Student: “What’s the point – they don’t do any good. I’d rather go free form.”
Teacher: “If you want to be a top pianist, you must do what I say.”
Student: “I quit! This doesn’t make any sense.”

One year later, this unpruned student is found night after night grinding out tunes in cheap nightclubs.

AN INTERACTION BETWEEN A KARATE TEACHER AND A STUDENT
Teacher: “I want you to get a paint brush and some paint and paint my fence like this – up-down, up-down ... then go sideways like this left-right, left-right … and do them twenty times each and repeat ten times. Do this twenty times a day! …. (from the ‘The Karate Kid’ movie)

Student: “Painting! No way! It won’t do any good. I’d rather do real moves.”

A Christian’s best teacher is to follow the Apostle Paul (Romans to Philemon) as he follows Christ.

TWO BIBLE EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE BEING PRUNED
Abraham and Sarah
Barren till 100 years old but then give birth to Isaac.
Two pruned trees waiting to bring forth the fruit of Isaac.

Elizabeth and Zacharias
Well stricken in years but then give birth to John the Baptist.
Two pruned trees waiting to bring forth the fruit of John.

GOD WORKS THE OPPOSITE WAY TO US
Pruning seems to destroy the vine as the gardener cuts it all away, but God looks to the future and knows the final outcome will more than compensate. It’s called THE LONG GAME.

DEAR CHRISTIAN ARE YOUR EYES FOCUSSED ON THE LONG GAME?
As a Christian you’ll never produce proper fruit for the Lord unless you stop whining and whingeing about all your troubles – which are pruning exercises from the Lord.

You’ll never get these blessings of real fruit in your life, unless you are ready to pay the price of pruning. You can’t get them except through the suffering that comes from God’s pruning.

“I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser,
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh, the things I learned from her,
When sorrow walked with me.”