City of the Lord | A Catholic, charismatic, lay community called to a covenant relationship with God and one another.

Principal Branch Coordinator - San Diego, CA

I AM the vine, you are the branches

Familiar words that we hear regularly in the renewal. We know the meaning. We are branches connected to the Vine who is our Lord. Apart from Him we cannot produce fruit just as the scripture says …”apart from me you can do nothing”.

The meaning of the scripture is easy to grasp and has always been a favorite within the Renewal. Remain in our Lord – stay connected to the true vine - Jesus. Perhaps a little less understood are the few verses leading up to this scripture in the 15th Chapter of the gospel of John. “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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

Being pruned by our Father does not exactly fit with the ‘prosperity gospel’. We deeply desire the blessing of our Lord and indeed He pours many blessings on His church and on our Community….but He also prunes.

Here in San Diego we love to tell stories of our Lord’s blessing. One person who comes up regularly is Grandma Niggel, Claire Harvey’s mother. Jerry and Claire are the San Diego branch founders, and they believe one of the first to embrace the renewal here was Claire’s mom, who had a deep abiding faith that she passed on to her brood. Grandma Niggel faced many challenges in her life, not the least of which was cancer. She had four separate bouts with cancer over a number of years. Each time she was diagnosed, her reaction was one of wonder. She would tell all that she was excited to see what the Lord would do with her latest bout of cancer. She expected to be healed. She had an amazing faith to look past the current difficulty (pruning) and see God’s hand at work in her life.

All of us have encountered the ‘pruning hand’ of the Father. Trials, sicknesses, jobs that fail, difficult relationships – all bring opportunities to grow closer to our Lord. Too often it seems we are simply trying to find our way through a trial rather than see the loving hand of our Father at work in our life.

Let us learn to embrace whatever pruning the Father may bring into each of our lives. He does this so we may bear even more fruit.

May each of us bear much fruit for the kingdom of heaven.

George Johnston
Principal Branch Coordinator – San Diego CA
City of the Lord

Principal Branch Coordinator - San Diego, CA

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