Dear Church of the Open Bible,
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. - John 15:5
These words of Jesus hit me hard, “You can do nothing.” Taken out of context they can result in apathetic resignation like, “Then why should I do anything?” But that’s not what Jesus is saying. Rather, He’s telling His disciples that continued dependence on Him is essential for them to bear fruit. It’s necessary.
We can do all sorts of things apart from Jesus, but we can do nothing substantive, nothing of true importance, nothing of lasting quality or impact, nothing fruitful, apart from Him. Apart from a life of dependence on Him.
So what does that life of dependence look like? In the following verses, Jesus shows us that this dependence looks like obedience to His words and faithfulness in prayer. My growing motivation to pray comes from Jesus’ words at the end of v. 5, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” We need Jesus to bring life and bear fruit in us and through us. And we acknowledge that need and invite His will to be done through prayer.
At COB, there are a couple of ways we encourage this dependence apart from our time together on Sunday morning. Wednesday nights, from 8:00-9:00pm, a group of us gather to pray. We typically read a passage to guide us as we approach God and then share and pray for those in need. Anyone is welcome!
Another way is through involvement in our Prayer Chain. When someone has a request for prayer, they let us know at church (Pastor Jeremy or Danelle). That request then gets sent along a chain of people who are committed to pray. As we’ve grown and people have moved on, we’ve come to the place where we need to reboot the COB Prayer Chain. In order to do this, we are asking everyone, EVERYONE, who wishes to be a part of the chain to respond to this email or sign-up on the sheet at the back of the church. There will be no rolling over of names from our previous list: we are starting fresh!
The prayer chain will have three strands of communication:
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Phone
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Text
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Email - please only sign up for email if you receive notifications and are willing to read your email and pray immediately.
Please indicate, and give the appropriate information, for the strand which you would like to be placed on.
May we each be encouraged to depend on the vine to bear fruit around us and through us as we seek to glorify Him.