We are meant for a vertical relationship with our Heavenly Father but we are also meant for horizontal relationships with one another.

Those who are in Christ Jesus, are sometimes called, “the Body” or “the Body of Christ.”

• What happens when a part of the body is unresponsive to the rest of it?
• Is it isolated?
• Does it serve a meaningful purpose?
• Or is it cut off?

Self-protection is no protection at all. It is no way to live a life.

We are built for community. We are built to love one another in such a manner that those who do not know Christ Jesus realize there is an authentic difference in the way we treat one another. They crave it and it leads them back to the Source. They find the Vine that is feeding the branches.

The Vine is Christ Jesus and through Him we are alive. In Him we flourish and grow. Without Him we wither and die.

We are utterly reliant on the Vine. Through the Vine we are connected. Through the Vine we are brought into the same family regardless of ethnicity, cultural background or socioeconomic status. We have been grafted in and discover that in Christ Jesus we have a common bond.

• So, what is the price of isolation?
• What is the price of self-protection?
• Which is valued, the self-made men and women we hope to live up to or the God made men and women that we are?

Life in Christ is not a system of sin management. It is not a list of “do’s” and “don’ts.”

It is receiving His love and allowing it to do its work in and through us. His life blood will naturally produce fruits through our branches. Again, the Vine feeds the branches and without Him, no matter how much self-effort we put forth, we will wither and die. Yet with no effort of our own, through the Vine we LIVE.

Who among us has anything to boast about except the Vine that feeds us and thus brings us life?

~ Mitch Salmon

Mitch Salmon is the founder of Fisher of Men Productions and a follower of Jesus Christ and proclaimer of the Good News – The Gospel of Christ Jesus!

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