Day 17

I know, I know -- it's been a while since the last post. I promised to live every day in the Vine, but knew I couldn't blog every day in the Vine. This was one crazy couple of weeks.

Which leads me to today's post.

The new lingo, thanks to the digital age, includes the phrase I hear all the time now: Off-line. Someone in a meeting or call will say "we can talk about that off-line." Originally, that meant we could have a private conversation in an off-line (non-public) digital forum, but more and more it has come to mean that I want to have a conversation that is off the original agenda or away from others who may be in the current conversation. We go "off-line" -- as if it were a place that is somehow outside of the bounds of reality or away from consequence.

New phrase: off-Vine.

Going "off-Vine" isn't always so conscious. Sometimes it is -- sometimes, I purposely try to disconnect myself from the Source of all I know to be true in order to grab at something I think I want. "I need to have a private conversation with my lust, Jesus, so we're going to take this off-Vine for a little while." Going off-Vine is never for anything good, but usually means that I want to go play in my sinful nature for a while. More on this another time.

The off-Vine experience I want to focus on here, though, is less conscious. In fact, it's so insidious that we don't realize that we've gone off-Vine until we wake up a while later feeling all dry and shriveled (the only natural result of disconnecting from the Source of Life).

There are lots of reasons for this happening, and the New Testament is full of warnings by the apostles about it occurring.

The Galatians went off-Vine because someone told them that they were not really on-Vine to begin with unless they got circumcised. I think this happens a lot. I think we constantly look at some new theological position and think we've been doing it wrong all along and that we've been kidding ourselves. I was once part of a church that, in an era of total and complete group insanity, had convinced us all that if there was any sin in our lives, our faith, confession, and baptism were invalid. I and many others got "re-baptized." Eesh. I can't tell you how glad I am to have been rescued out of that situation. I still believe God wept the day that I decided -- as if it were mine to decide -- that my faith had all been in vein.

I think that's why God is so clear about our judging one another -- when we decide that someone else's faith isn't good enough or their theology is wrong or their leaves look off-color, we pull people off the Vine without ever even knowing it.

The rest of us go off-Vine for other reasons, bu the center is the same: we doubt without the help from anyone else. Did I really give my life to Christ? Did I truly believe? Was that simple act of faith actually enough? In other words, we question whether we were ever on the Vine in the first place.

Other know we were once on the Vine, but life isn't showing much evidence of it now. We can feel and fear the drought, we can only see our sinful nature's victories. We're our worst critics, or we're endless worriers.

Put me in all the above categories.

This was somewhat of an off-Vine week for me in a variety of ways. The drought has hit hard this week, the distractions are constant, the doubt and self-criticism is endless.

So -- time to put it all to rest:

First, for all the times this week when I let the sinful nature convince me to go off-Vine, there's an antidote:

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:1-2 (NIV)

And for the times this week when I have allowed doubt in my connection to thrive, there's an answer:

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist--he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us--even eternal life. 26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit--just as it has taught you, remain in him. 1 John 2:20-27 (NIV)

And when I worry that even in the Vine, I could still wither from the drought:

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. 1 John 3:16-24 (NIV)

Toes in the water. That's the point here. It's why it's the first premise. Keep my toes in the water. Stay on-Vine. There's nothing I have to do but believe, and love everyone I can. That's it.