God is the vine and we are the branches

• 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. 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.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.  John 15:1-11
• Real prayer is union with God, a union as vital as that of the vine to the branch. Mother Teresa
• I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  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.  John 15
• Jesus never commanded believers to produce fruit. Fruit is the purpose of the branch, but it is not the responsibility of the branch. The branch cannot produce anything on it’s own. However, if it remains attached to the vine, it will receive life-sustaining sap, nourishment, strength, everything it needs. Charles R. Swindoll
• People are like vines … We are born and we grow. Like vines, people also need a tree to cling to, to give them support. ~ Elizabeth Kata
• Everything – a horse, a vine – is created for some duty… For what task, then, were you yourself created? ~ Marcus Aurelius
• The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine…Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus. Hudson Taylor
• We need Jesus like we need oxygen. Like we need water. Like the branch needs the vine. Jesus is not merely a figure for devotions. He is the missing essence of your existence. Whether we know it or not, we are desperate for Jesus. John Eldred
• Of all trees, I observe God hath chosen the vine, a low plant that creeps upon the helpful wall; of all beasts, the soft and patient lamb; of all fowls, the mild and guileless dove. Christ is the rose of the field, and the lily of the valley. When God appeared to Moses, it was not in the lofty cedar nor the sturdy oak nor the spreading palm; but in a bush, a humble, slender, abject shrub; as if He would, by these elections, check the conceited arrogance of man. ~ Owen Feltham
• Real prayer is union with God, a union as vital as that of the vine to the branch. Mother Teresa

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We are all branches of the one tree that is God

• Even as a tree has a single trunk, but many branches and leaves, there is one religion but any number of faiths. Mahatma Gandhi
• All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn’t matter what you call Him just as long as you call. George Harrison
• Remember, you are not a tree, that can live or stand alone. You are only a branch. And it is only while you abide in Christ, as the branch in the vine, that you will flourish or even live. Robert Murray M’Cheyne
• All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. Albert Einstein
• For me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree. Therefore, they are equally true, though being received and interpreted through human instruments equally imperfect. Mahatma Gandhi
• Religion is one tree with many branches. As branches, you may say, religions are many, but as a tree, religion is only one. Mahatma Gandhi
• The word of God is a tree of life that offers us blessed fruit from each of its branches. Ephrem the Syrian
• Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots without steeds. Like branches without sap, we are withered. Like coals without fire, we are useless. As an offering without the sacrificial flame, we are unaccepted. Charles Spurgeon

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We are a tree with roots in God

• The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God: that root must be cherished with all one’s might. Rumi
• The roots of all living things are tied together. Deep in the ground of being, they tangle and embrace. This understanding is expressed in the term nonduality. If we look deeply, we find that we do not have a separate self-identity, a self that does not include sun and wind, earth and water, creatures and plants, and one another. Joan Halifax
• Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men. Thomas a Kempis
• We come from God. As the tree from the root and the stream from the spring; that’s why we should always be in contact with Him, as the trunk from the root. Because the stream dries up when it is separated from the spring and the tree dies when is uprooted. Pythagoras
• When God gives a promise, He always tries our faith. Just as the roots of trees take firmer hold when they are contending with the wind, so faith takes a firmer hold when it struggles with adverse appearances. Robert Murray M’Cheyne
• You are the root, and only God knows that the flower will be. William P. Young
• Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men. Thomas a Kempis
• We are as inseparable from God as a tree is from the soil. Like the tree, Divine Life is always there, always surrounding and sustaining us. Doug Hammack
• The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God: that root must be cherished with all one’s might. Rumi
• Grow as a palm-tree on God’s Mount Zion; howbeit shaken with winds, yet the root is fast. Samuel Rutherford

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We are leaves of one branch

• Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony… So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth. Bahá’u’lláh

• Why don’t you think of [God] as the one who is coming, who has been approaching from all eternity… the ultimate fruit of a tree whose leaves we are. Rainer Maria Rilke

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