Apples Anyone?   Monday, June 21, 2004

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Had my Youth Group outside for our Sunday School lesson this past Sunday. We sat on the deck of the teen house at church, looking at an apple tree. Not a very pretty or productive one, but an apple tree non the less. As we sat there eating our fruit rollups, guess what we talked about! FRUIT! 

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The apple tree bears apples. The apples hang on the branch and grow. (Deep scientific stuff here huh)! The branches don't really do anything to produce fruit other than one thing. They stay connected to the tree. 

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Jesus said to produce "Christian fruit", we don't really need to do anything other than stay connected with Him. He said, (using grapes instead of apples), "I am the vine, you are the branches". He said whoever "abides" in Him will bring forth fruit. It's a natural! Just abide, or stay connected with Him. 

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My encouragement this week is stay close to Jesus. When this happens, you will produce fruit such as love, joy, peace, prayer, leading other to Him, and lots of cool stuff. Something else Jesus said was to draw close to Him and He will draw close to you. 

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Stay connected to the vine this week!