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OUR DAILY BREAD             Monday, Aug. 14, 1995    
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READ:  John 15:1-8  
 
 
                 CUT-FLOWER CHRISTIANS 
 
            "Without Me you can do nothing." 
 
                           -- John 15:5      
 
Almost every woman likes to receive a bouquet of 
cut flowers.  After admiring and smelling them, she  
wastes no time getting them into water.  Even though 
fresh and beautiful when she gets them, their days 
are numbered.  Because they've been severed from 
their life-source, they will soon wither and die.   
One day she will have to throw them away. 
 
Author Lloyd Ogilvie sees in this a picture of the 
Christian whose spiritual vitality has faded and 
shriveled.  Such a person has become a "cut-flower 
Christian."  This is similar to the illustration 
Jesus used in describing the vine and the branches. 
Just as a branch can't bear fruit by itself, He 
explained, we can't bear spiritual fruit unless we 
abide in Him, the true vine (Jn. 15:4). 
 
If a branch could speak, it wouldn't apologize for 
its need to depend on the vine for bearing fruit.   
It would say instead, "For this I was made!"  Jesus 
likewise knew we were made for dependence on Him,  
our life-source -- no apology needed!  In fact, such 
dependence is the only way to avoid becoming a "cut- 
flower Christian." 
 
Let's embrace His declaration, "Without Me you can 
do nothing."  He is really saying, "With Me you can 
do everything I appoint for you, including bearing 
much fruit!" 
                                -- Joanie E. Yoder 
 
        Lord, break me, then cleanse me and fill me, 
                And keep me abiding in Thee 
              That fellowship may be unbroken  
              And Thy name be hallowed in me. 
 
                                -- Anon. 
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          THOUGHT FOR THE DAY  
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         Fellowship with Christ 
     is the secret of fruitfulness.        
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THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:   Isaiah 55-57

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