"V" is for Vine

In John 15:1, Jesus says of Himself, “I am the Vine”.  The vine of the grape is the trunk that brings the life giving sap up from the roots into the branches.  The sap must be allowed to flow freely into the branch in order to produce fruit.  The vine gives its life to the branch by the branch staying attached to the vine.

A good crop of grapes does not just happen.  A good vineyard has a dedicated “vinedresser” whom in the case of a child of God, is God the Father.  Each branch is important to the vinedresser, to bring forth the finest crop possible.

If a branch is left to itself it straggles over rocks and handy tree trunks.  Or it may fall to the ground and creep along in the dirt and mud.  The vinedresser will come along, clean off the branch, prune it where needed, and tie it close to the vine.  Soon the branch is thriving again.  The branch must remain totally dependent on the vine, close to it, pruned here, pruned there, in order to bring forth much fruit.

Jesus said He is the true Vine and His followers are the branches.  We are created for a living relationship with the Vine (Jesus), and the Vine (Jesus), gives His life to the branch.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes that it may bear more fruit.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit…By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.”

John 15:1-2, 5,8

"U" is for 'Unspeakable Gift'

 The word ‘unspeakable’ does not mean to not talk about something, but that that something is so wonderful, there are no words to explain it.  God’s special gift to us is ‘unspeakable’; it is indescribable,  it is amazing; it is beyond our comprehension.  This gift is Jesus, all wrapped up in love.

Of Himself, Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

Because of God’s wonderful gift, we can have other gifts such as a ‘gift of a relationship with God’.  John 1:12 states that all who receive Him, those who believe in His name, He gives the right to be called the sons and daughters of God.

He also gives the ‘gift of His Grace’.  Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by Grace you have been saved…” We have received the ‘gift of Eternal Life’, as according to Romans 6:23 “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

One reason I think of God’s gift as being unspeakable, and perhaps part of Paul’s thinking in II Corinthians 9:15, is that it is greater than we can grasp with our finite minds.  Jesus was God, 2nd person in the Trinity, totally God.  Yet in order to become the propitiation for man’s sin, He had to take on a human body.  In doing so He had to become a human being.  Now we have something beyond our imagination, something incredible, beyond words, unspeakable.  He was still God, just as though He had never been man; yet He was man as though He had never been God.

And He did this as a gift to each of us.  “For God so loved the world that He gave (this Unspeakable Gift) His only begotten son, that whosoever believes on Him will have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

So accept Jesus, our ‘Unspeakable and Indescribable Gift’.  He paid the price so that all you have to do is take the gift He offers.  This Gift is Jesus!!  

"T" is for Teacher

 In New Testament times, the role of the teacher was well defined.  Jesus role was that of what was called in the Greek, “didaskalos”, meaning ‘teacher’ or master, and it fell within the parameters of the Rabbi.

In Matthew 5:1 and Luke 5:3 it mentions that Jesus ‘sat’ while He taught.  This was the way the contemporary teachers of that day did their teaching and He often appeared at the synagogues where He would do His teaching.

The disciples are compared to students, and they often referred to Jesus as ‘Master’ or ‘Teacher’.  When Jesus appeared to Mary in the garden after His resurrection, she called Him “Rabboni”, which is a form of ‘Rabbi’ meaning ‘teacher.

Jesus as a teacher, was to bring man closer to the kingdom of God.  He was the ‘ultimate’ of teachers, since He was personally One with God.  In His words: “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:13)

Jesus is our “Rabboni”, our “Master”, and our “Teacher”.  Yet He is a humble teacher.  In John 13:13 he washed the disciples feet and said “You call Me the Teacher (Master) and the Lord, and you are right in doing so…(vs.14) If I then have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet…” He taught by example.
                                                 He was the ‘ultimate’ Teacher.

Even after Jesus had returned to Heaven, His instruction was the basis of the teaching in the epistles and the rest of the New Testament.  The role of teaching, even today, is a gift given by the Holy Spirit and this teaching and preaching is all based on the instruction of Jesus and the witness of His resurrection.
                                                  He was the ‘ultimate’ teacher.

Jesus, the Teacher, gave this command to His disciples is Matthew 28: 19,20, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.  Amen.”

                                              He is our awesome, ‘ultimate’ teacher.

"S" is for Shepherd

 To think of Jesus as our Shepherd is one of the most tender images given to us.  Our Lord compares Himself to a Shepherd all throughout the Scriptures.  This reminds us of our dependency on Him, as well as His watchful, protecting care.

Shepherding was a very important occupation in ancient Palestine, so the people of that day understood the metaphors of sheep and shepherd.  A shepherd is responsible for the physical survival and well being of the flock, and sheep are known to be an animal totally dependent on the shepherd.  The shepherd is the one to find them pastures, and it is said they need to have still waters, so the shepherd also finds them quiet streams or watering holes.  David, having been a shepherd knew this when he wrote Psalm 23:3: “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters.”

Without a shepherd to carefully watch over the flock, the sheep scatter and become easy prey for wild animals and thieves.  A good shepherd will defend his flock with his own life.  In John 10:11 Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

The shepherd’s life was a nomad’s life, and he spent many lonely hours entertaining himself by talking to his sheep.  In this way the sheep came to know the shepherd’s voice. Therefore when the sheep mixed with other flocks, such as at the watering holes, they had no difficulty separating the animals, for each animal knew its shepherd’s voice.   In John 10:4 Jesus said “My sheep hear my voice and follow me.”

The shepherd counted his sheep each morning and evening and would call each one by name.  In John 10:3 it states:  “…and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.”

“He tends his flock like a shepherd

He gathers the lambs in his arms

And carries them close to his heart;

He gently leads those that have young.”

                                                                             ……Isaiah 40:11

My prayer: Gentle Shepherd, with you as my Shepherd, I shall not want for any good thing.  You lead me in pastures green, and you restore my soul.  Help me to listen for your voice, and follow you all the days of my life.  And when I reach the end of my way on earth, you will go with me through the valley of the shadow of death, and receive me to yourself in Glory.  You are my Shepherd-King, and I praise you!  Amen

"R" is for ROCK

The name of ‘Rock’ is used throughout the Scriptures both in actuality and figurative.  When the Israelites were making their trek through the wilderness, the rock was used on more than one occasion to quench their thirst.  Caves in the rocks were used for refuge; our Lord’s burial was carved out of a rock in the Garden.

In the Figurative sense, the hardness of the rock gives the image of one whose mind is set.  As examples, Isaiah 50:7 says: “…therefore have I set my face like a ‘flint’ (stone), and I know that I shall not be ashamed.”  In Jeremiah 5:3: “…They have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.”  Another figurative way is to show God’s power by the shattering of the rock in Jeremiah 23:29: “Is not my word like a fire? Saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”

The enduring quality of the Rock makes it an apt name for Yahweh (God) as it depicts permanence and stability.  God is a mighty Rock who protects and saves.  In Deuteronomy 32:4 Moses states: “He is the Rock, his work is perfect…”  In I Samuel 2:2 in Hannah’s prayer she says: “There is none holy like the Lord; for there is none beside thee, neither is there any Rock like our God.”

In the New Testament, in Romans 9:33 and I Peter 2:8 Christ is called the ‘stumbling stone and Rock of offense.”    He is also referred to this in Isaiah 8:14 as “a rock that will make them fall.”   Jesus was the Rock over which the Jewish people would stumble and reject, yet He would become the capstone (Matthew 21:42) and the Cornerstone for the foundation of the Church.  Jesus Christ came to be our Rock-Messiah, in which we can rest, believe and be saved.   David said in Psalm 18:1,2: “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my Rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my Rock, in Whom I take refuge.”  Throughout the Bible it says God is the Rock and that Jesus is the Rock.  Therefore, we know that Jesus is God Incarnate, and He is our Rock.

“You are the Rock and there is no other

A tower of strength, You are my shelter

Lord, You are my hope eternal

You are the Rock that is higher than I

Lead me to the Rock, lead me to the Rock

Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I,

                                                                                       By Paul Baloche

"Q" is for 'Quickening Spirit'

 In I Corinthians 15:45 we read in the King James Version that “…the first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a Quickening Spirit…” Since Jesus Christ is the second or last Adam, it would be a name given to Him.

Let us take a look at both words ‘Quickening’ and ‘Spirit’ and find the true meaning behind this name.

Quickening means
1) To give life, make alive.
2) It is to cause to live, to restore life.
3) A pregnant woman is said to feel a ‘quickening’ when she first feels life in her womb.
4) It is used as a metaphor of seeds being quickened into life, as with germinating.

For the word Spirit:
1) Refers to Spirit (of God)
2) Spirit (of Christ)
3) Spirit (of truth)
4) Holy Spirit, third Person of the Trinity

When we put the two words together, we have Jesus as the Quickening Spirit, as He quickens us ‘alive’ by taking us from death to life spiritually.  Jesus, by His life saving power can spiritually arouse, invigorate and restore the life within us.  We are dead in our sin, but the Lord, as a Quickening Spirit gives life, gives joy, and gives inner peace.

The Lord desires to make each of us alive unto Him.  He desires to fill us with His Spirit, that we will experience the quickening of the Holy Spirit working within us.  Jesus is the one who gives life, the Quickener, and He gives it by the power of the Holy Spirit.  One writer has said that: “the Holy Spirit is the medium through which the Mediator, Jesus Christ, mediates.”

The Amplified Version of I Cor 15:45 reads: “…the first Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit (restoring the dead to life).

 My Prayer: Father, thank You for sending Jesus, our Quickening Spirit, who breathes life into us through the Holy Spirit.  I pray each one reading this will be blessed, quickened and filled with the fullness of You, our living God.  I pray this with thanksgiving in the wonderful name of Your precious Son, Jesus Christ, our Quickening Spirit.  Amen

'P' is for Paraklete

According to ‘Wikipedia’, the word Paraklete means “advocate or helper”.  In the Greek it is the word for “comforter”.  It is spelled as “parakletos”, meaning coming along side.

In the New Testament we find that in I John 2:1 it is speaking of Jesus Himself as the Paraklete.  In John 14 Jesus says that He will send another comforter—“another Paraklete”.  From Him saying ‘another’ it would indicate Jesus was already our Paraklete, and he would be sending another to take His place when He returned to the Father.  The notes from the Scofield Bible explains further by saying Christ is the Christians’ ‘Paraklete’ with the Father and pleads the believer’s cause with God when that Christian sins.

The Holy Spirit is the Christians indwelling “Paraklete” to help each one, and to make intercession to the Father for us.  Romans 8:26 states “The Spirit also helps our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we should.” He is the Spirit of Truth, teaching the believer and guiding him into the truth, convicting of sin, righteousness and judgement.

God the heavenly Father has come alongside through the Person of the Holy Spirit.  He has put His everlasting arms around us and gives us strength and comfort, through our “parakletos” the Holy Spirit.

*“When we think we can’t go one more step
         When the race becomes painful beyond endurance
                  When our hearts feel heavy,
                          When our mind’s become dull,
                                   When our spirits are burned out
                                          We have the “Parakletos” who comes along side us.”
*From Anne Graham Lotz book: “Just Give me Jesus”