What do I offer?

John 15:1-17 (New International Version, ©2011)

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

So, I grew up in the church. What is more, I grew up in a Preacher's home. What is more, I grew up in the home of a person with the gift of Evangelism. That didn't work out too well for me. I am not a "gifted" evangelist. Though I am proud of my God, and have no problem sharing my faith, I find myself struggling to be that guy who we revere in the American church world... the guy who can stand on the street corner and people come to know Jesus. And they passionately preach about evangelizing the world - and I am convicted. But when I try to do it the way they are saying it, it is awkward for me, it is awkward for the person I am talking to and it doesn't work.

I take solace in Jesus' words. "If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, you will bear much fruit... fruit that will last." So my question is - what is the fruit of my relationship with Jesus? What is my fruit that remains? And more than that... what does it mean to remain in Jesus as the vine? I have no problem talking about God, my faith, and the hope I have in Christ. But it is most effective and most natural for me in the context of relationship. So where does my fruit remain? Long after I am gone, what will be said of me? This is the lasting impression that I can leave simply by remaining in Christ and allowing Him to direct my paths.

That, by the way, is not an inactive or lazy approach to Christianity. In fact, it is quite the opposite. But it is a focused way to be engaged in remaining in the vine, and producing fruit that will remain. this is at the heart of living by faith.

So, may you find yourself remaining in the vine. And may you produce fruit that lasts. When you are long gone from this life, may you be remembered for the fruit that God prepared for you to produce before the world existed.