“APPOINTED YOU!”

John 15:12-17                                           (ESV)

“12 "This is MY commandment, THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

14 YOU ARE MY FRIENDS IF YOU DO WHAT I COMMAND YOU.

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from MY FATHER I have made known to you.

16 YOU DID NOT CHOOSE ME, but I CHOSE YOU and “APPOINTED YOU” that you should go and BEAR FRUIT and that YOUR FRUIT SHOULD ABIDE, so that whatever you ask the FATHER in MY NAME, HE may give it to you.

17 These things I command you, so that you will LOVE ONE ANOTHER.”

Often I think that a certain book of the BIBLE is my favorite, that is until I begin reading another book of the BIBLE!  So I am pretty sure that my favorite book of the BIBLE is the one that I am currently reading.  However, the book of John is the book that GOD first began Supernaturally revealing HIMSELF to me, and so it holds a dear place in my heart.  

This morning a verse of Scripture was brought to my attention.  It was John 15:16! There are a lot of times that I want to think that I am so holy because I want to live for CHRIST?  But this morning I was reminded that “...”I CHOSE YOU” and APPOINTED YOU that you should go and BEAR FRUIT and that YOUR FRUIT SHOULD ABIDE...”!  HE CHOSE ME to live a life that displays HIS traits and characteristics to a world that is hostile and foreign to the things of GOD! 

Now do I faithfully reflect HIS traits and characteristics?  Not hardly!  The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 that he WILL BOAST ALL THE MORE GLADLY OF MY WEAKNESSES, so that the POWER OF GOD will be magnified!  My tendency is to want to publicize the good things that I do, NOT to BOAST OF MY WEAKNESSES!  

JESUS is the ONE that should be glorified, not me!  HE “APPOINTED YOU” (and me) that you (we) should go and BEAR FRUIT and that YOUR (OUR) FRUIT SHOULD ABIDE!   John 15 says that HE is the VINE, we are simply branches of the VINE.   If we are branches of the VINE, we will bear fruit!  We CANNOT be a part of the VINE and not be displaying that HE “APPOINTED YOU”!  What “fruits” have you been bearing lately?  Has HE “APPOINTED YOU”???