SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 15
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: As I have given the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest as fuel for the fire, so will I treat the people living in Jerusalem. [Ezekiel 15:6]
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. [John 15:6]
A curious coincidence, two 15:6 passages that both speak of what happens when people turn their back on God – like unfruitful vine branches they are cast into the fire.
What makes this passage difficult is that it makes more sense when it is applied to an inanimate vine branch, than applied to people that you love.

The language is figurative: we are like a fruitful vine which God cares for a nurtures to produce good fruit. But eventually God will give up on the vine, if it remains fruitless.
Jesus tells a parable along this line.
“A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” [Luke 13:6-9]
This story shows more than an indifference to an inanimate vine, it reveals and devotion and commitment on God’s part to doing what He can, going the extra mile.
God does not treat us an inanimate branches, but if we act like inanimate, uncaring and disconnected branches, then finally one day He will finally give us what we seek.
What is life without God but an experience like fire?
God reluctantly gives up, only after repeated attempts to get us to change.

I am not as fruitful as I ought to be.
God is tending and caring and providing for me, giving me everything I need to be fruitful and productive.
He does not expect perfection from the beginning, but He does expect progress.
Obviously I cannot produce then complete harvest in one shot; but I ought to be making every effort to be more fruit, to adding to my initial faith such things as generosity and goodness and compassion and love, etc.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [2 Peter 1:8]

So which shall it be for me – fruitful or fruitless, productive or unproductive, effective or ineffective…
Today’s readings show us what happens if we refuse to work with the gardener to produce better fruit.

PRAYER:
Lord, I want to be very practical in applying this. Grant me an opportunity today to do something very positive, effective, fruitful, to bless You by blessing someone else!