Planted In The Right Place

“Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.” (Ps 92:13 AV)

Imagine a vine that is planted in a garden.  As it grows, it produced fruit within the confines of the garden.  However, as it continues to grow, it will eventually breach the confines of the garden and its fruit producing boughs will extend beyond the binderies of the garden.  It will still produce fruit within the fence of the garden, but as it grows, it produces far more fruit outside of its confines.  One must remember that it is watered and fertilized within the confines of the garden.  It receives its nourishment at the hand of the husbandman within the borders of his care.  But, as the husbandman cares for the vine, the vine reciprocated by producing fruit for the husbandman both inside and outside the garden.  What a wonderful picture of the relationship of the saint to his Savior as it pertains to producing fruit for the pleasure of the master.

There are so many applications here that one finds it hard to pick a sole point.  Yet, the most obvious seems the most appropriate.  The more the saint receives his nourishment within the confines of the church, the more likely it is he will produce fruit outside of its walls.  There is something here to consider.  There are many who faithfully attend services and sit under the teaching and preaching of God’s word without any discernible fruit.  There is a reason for this.  As a gardener, it was obvious to me that all plants did not react the same to identical care.  There were some bean plants that grew better than others.  Even given the same conditions, not all plants flourished.  For whatever reason, they rejected the water or minerals afforded them.  They were in the right place at the right time, but they did not take to the hand of the gardener.  The start, however, is to be in the garden.  To be in church is the start of fruitfulness.  Where one plants one’s roots matters.  What is most important matters.  To what one identifies him or herself matters.  Where they find their identity, meaning, and heritage matters. As what or for what one desire to be known, matters.

Too many times I have counseled saints in difficult times that could be traced directly to lack of attendance to the meeting of God’s people.  Too many times have I counseled believers who desire for their lives to matter but attend out of duty, and not out of a desire for the house of God to define their lives.  We lack fruitfulness because our roots, although begun in the house of God, have wandered off, under the fence and found sustenance in an untended field.  Our vines are empty because we are in ground which the husbandman does not tend.  Church is not something we schedule in as an equal part of our lives among all other things.  It should be the very definition of who and what we are.