Gooding, David: 2 - The School of Holiness

Blessed Lord Jesus, we have heard thee say that thou art the way to the Father. Thou art the truth about the Father. Thou art the life by which we come to know the Father. And our hearts are set aflame with desire to know thee in these ways. Thou hast said, because I live, you will live also. Therefore, we perceive that these are not merely words on a page. These are the living words which thou, the living Lord, art now speaking to our hearts. We want to know thee, Lord. And we long to explore all that these things mean, of which thou dost speak. Draw near to us now, we beseech thee, to that end, for thy name's sake. Amen. Amen. In our last session, we were listening and watching the Lord Jesus as he defines for his disciples what holiness is. He defined it, you remember, by its extreme opposite in exposing the sin of Judas, who was prepared to take all Christ's physical gifts, but had no time, love, or devotion to the Lord Jesus himself. From which we gathered that true holiness at which we aim is devotion to the divine person. We saw how Peter in his heart felt he was ready for that, unaware of his weakness, and so he fell. We should not mistake our zeal as though it were the accomplished fact. We too have weaknesses. We need, therefore, the Lord to draw near and to rinse our feet, to show us where we are still lacking, and by his grace to cleanse us and lead us further. But then our hearts took courage as we heard the Lord Jesus announce the provision for us, so that we shall indeed, and that eternally, be devoted to the divine person. And the first great provision he makes is this, that one day he is coming again to receive us to himself, that where he is, we also might be. And then we shall never go out. We shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. Next, we heard the Lord Jesus graciously point out, however, that there is a difference between coming to the Father's house and coming to the Father. You can be in a person's house and be sitting on the settee right next to the person, can you not? And in your heart be miles away from that person. And simply being physically near the Lord doesn't mean that in heart we are near the Lord. How then can we come not merely to the Father's house, but to the Father himself, so that we get to know the Father as he really is, and all our misapprehensions and suspicions and our deep-lying fears are removed, and we know the Father as he really is and love the Father. This then is the provision that the Lord Jesus talks of. I am the way, he says, no one comes to the Father but by me, giving us the example that just as God the Father was in him, so the Father and the Son propose to dwell in our hearts. And so that we shall understand the Father and no longer be suspicious of him, but trust him eventually without doubting. He gives us, does our Lord, the spirit of truth, that he may pour out the love of God in our hearts and remove our suspicion, make us love the Lord and wish evermore to be near him. Then our Lord Jesus gives us the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life, he says. If you wish to come to the Father, you come by me. For he gives us the life by which we understand the Father. It was no good, we found, for my dog Fido to try and understand my latest watercolor in the style of the Impressionists. Joel say, he hasn't got the life that would allow the door of Fido to understand my watercolor. None of us would understand the Father, would we? Unless the Lord Jesus gave us the life of the Father, and that the Lord gives us. What marvelous provision he makes for us then. But now we must take up in that conversation, because our Lord is not yet finished, and this is John's gospel, chapter fourteen when he points out to his disciples that there's another side to this matter. It is true that one day he is coming again, and when he comes, he will take us to the Father's house and to the rooms he has provided for us. Meanwhile, he points out, as we are getting to know the Father, it is the Father's wish that we should allow him and the Son to come and make their abode with us. And of course, our hearts want that, don't they? There would be no logical sense if we said, yes, we're aching to get home to heaven to meet the Father, but we're not particularly interested in him now. Goodness me. If you're not interested in the Father, if you're not interested in the Son, if you're not interested in entertaining them in your home and in your heart, if you're not interested in their conversation through the Word, if you find God's Word an impossible bore now, well, don't go to heaven, whatever else you do. You can't stick five minutes of the Gospel of John down here. Don't go up to heaven where you'll be in danger of discussing it for all eternity. Come, come. We need to be realists, don't we? Or you remember those old Israelites who came out of Egypt because, uh, God promised them there was a land flowing with milk and honey away out there, so out they came, and they crossed the wilderness. When they at last got to the promised land and, uh, put their nose across the border and had a look at it, they came back and they said, oh no, Moses, no, goodness me, horrible old land. If we'd have known that this was what Canaan was like, we wouldn't have come, Moses. And they talked of making a captain to go back to Egypt. You say, that was a surprise, wasn't it? Fancy getting to the promised land, putting your nose over, having a look and said you didn't really want to come after all. You say, uh, well, that would never happen to anybody in heaven, you, I- I mean, would it? Um, fancy getting to heaven, putting your nose inside the door and having a look and say, oh dear, what a, what a disappointment. If I'd have known heaven was going to be like this, I wouldn't have come. You know, if you'd have looked a little bit closer at those Israelites when they were on the journey, perhaps you wouldn't have been surprised that when they got to the Promised Land, they didn't want to go in. I'll tell you why. The Promised Land, so they were led to believe, was flowing with milk and honey. But before they got to the promised land, while they were still going in the wilderness, God rained down manna every day on them to live on, you'll see. And the manna, it tasted precisely like honey. And the first day or two they ate it, and the first week, and the first month or so, they they they thought it was moderately decent, and they were prepared to put up with it. But by the time they'd had it a year or two, they came to Moses and they said, look here, Moses, you can have too much of a good thing, my boy. This manna stuff, we find it a bore. It's so insipid and tasteless, and we keep on having it. Change the diet, do Moses, they said. We're fed up with this manna. All right. But if you don't like honey when you're on the wilderness, it would be foolish to go to Canaan and live in the land flowing with it, wouldn't it? And if we can't tolerate God's conversation in his word now, that isn't very realistic to propose to go to heaven and put up with God's conversation for all eternity, is it? We have to be realist. If I really want to go to heaven to enjoy the company of the divine person, then, says the Lord Jesus, you'll want to make the Father and me a dwelling place in your hearts now, obviously. But there's a condition attached, you see. Our Lord Jesus said, verse twenty one of John fourteen, he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him. Lovely promise of the Lord Jesus. Let's pause on it just a moment. To give us an example of what he meant, our Lord appeared from time to time to his people in the forty days after his resurrection and before he went to glory. To them he appeared physically so they could see him and touch him. He doesn't appear to us nowadays physically, does he? But these appearances during the forty days give us vivid examples of the kind of thing he means. And we shall know those lovely stories of those appearances of the Lord when he manifested himself to his people. He manifested himself in different ways, according to who they were and what their temperaments were and what their background were. There were two, for instance, were they not walking on the road to Emmaus? Very sad. They had thought our Lord Jesus was going to raise a revolution, boot out the Romans, take over the political power, and uh, uh, g- use them as his lieutenants and give them a beautiful place on his right hand and left and a chariot or two and a private bungalow. But you'll see, it didn't work out that way, and they were horribly disappointed, and they were walking down in their disillusionment down the road from Jerusalem to their home in Emmaus when the Lord Jesus drew near. And presently he said, you fools, you. Sounds rather strong from our Lord, don't you think? You witless men, he said. And slow of heart to believe after all the prophets have spoken. Beginning in Moses, he went through the Pentateuch, and then through the historical books, and then through the Psalms. What a Bible reading it was. And he expounded to them in all the scripture the things concerning himself, and for the moment they hadn't realized it was the Lord Jesus. But never had they known scripture to speak to them like that. It kind of, it kind of came alive. And as he expounded it, they were kicking themselves and said, why did I see that before? And goodness me, I didn't know that bit was there. And is that really what it means? And their hearts began to be burning within them. When they got to their house, this stranger made as if he would go on. No, don't go on, they said. Come and stay, Lord. And he came in, and as he broke the bread, they suddenly realized it was the Lord Jesus, and in that moment he vanished. He had manifested himself to them through a discussion and reading of Holy Scripture. All ladies, you know what our Lord talks about, don't you? Surely you do. It doesn't happen every Monday morning when we pick up the Bible and read it, does it? It doesn't with me, anyway. But as we seek the Lord in his word, surely you have known the times when somehow the thing comes alive, and the glory of the Lord shines out to you. And when it's over, you say, yes, that was the Lord. That's what he's talking about. His manifesting himself to us. He manifested himself, did he not, to Mary Magdalene in the garden. It wasn't there a long Bible reading that he gave that woman. That was neither the time nor the place. Broken-hearted as she was, she didn't know how she was going to survive into the future with all her background troubles without the presence of the Lord Jesus. And here came Peter, and here came John, and uh, John looked in, and Peter went in, and then they both went in, and being men, of course, poor men, they examined the thing critically, and they observed the clothes were here, and the napkin was there, and they came to their conclusion like a bunch of detectives, and and that was that, you'll say. And he's not here, they said, you see, Mary, that's the point of it, that i- i- i- he's not here. And off they went to breakfast. And it was no good, however, saying to Mary, but there's nothing more in it, but Mary, there's nothing there to be seen, old girl, come on to breakfast. But not Mary. You couldn't leave without the Lord. Oh, my good friend, if you can, you will. If you can pass life without the Lord, you will, I suspect. If you say, if you find your heart saying, but that's no good, John, it's no good, Peter, you say it's not there, but then I, I can't live without the Lord, as you seek him, will show himself to you. Not physically. Mary continued looking, no, continued seeking, and there was something more there. There was a couple of angels, actually. Presently she heard the living Lord announcing to her a relationship that went her took her the other ve- other side of the grave. There was he standing in resurrection life already in the great eternity beyond, but appearing to Mary and saying, I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. Once more, it was no longer mere words, but as he spoke the words, the relationship became real. She sensed herself in a living relationship with a father in glory. A relationship that surpassed this temporary life and was already part of the eternal. You see, says our Lord Jesus, if anyone loved me, he will keep my commandments, won't he? He will seek me. And as you'll seek, he will from time to time manifest himself. He manifested himself again, says John, on the Sea of Galilee as his disciples went out of fishing. Many have found it in their heart to blame the worthy dis- apostles. They said, look at them. Oh, dear me, what lack of devotion to the Lord. The Lord had sent them out to preach the gospel, and they deserted their posts and went fishing, you'll say. Well, all right. But if you had been one of the five were up there waiting for the Lord to appear, for that's what he told them to do, hadn't he? To go to Galilee and wait, and there were about five hundred of them all at once up in Galilee, waiting for the Lord to appear. You would have been glad of somebody that got the breakfast ready for you, wouldn't you? And how was the great five hundred going to be fed? Well, Peter said, better go and do some fishing, good old boy. Like certain learned, uh, lovely gentleman around the corner here, you'll say, getting the meals ready. And he went to fishing and caught nothing. It was then in the midst of his frustration at his work that the Lord appeared. Without his knowing who it was, guided him. And then as the success followed, then John nudged Peter and Peter nudged, uh, John, and they said, there's the Lord in that. And you surely have known those times in your work for the Lord, haven't you? Sometimes when the going has been hard and it's been frustrating and sinners don't get converted and saints are awkward, as alas they so often are, and the work seems unfruitful and you're nearly given up, and then, then the Lord does something and you sense it's the Lord making himself known to you in your work. Oh, friends, if you've never known it, do take the Lord literally. He's not talking about signs and wonders and marvelous visions. He is talking about making himself known, so that we shall say, like the two on the road to Emmaus, oh Lord, don't go by, come and come and stay. Live in my heart. For the day is far spent, and the old world is tottering to its end. Lord, come and stay. This is a path of holiness, isn't it? It's devotion to the Lord. It's conversation with the Lord. It's entertaining the Lord in our home and heart. There are conditions, of course. If a man love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. I have the immense privilege of staying in many hundreds of different homes over the face of this earth, and I testify to the wonderful care and hospitality of hundreds of hosts and hostesses, and particularly hostesses. And when I arrive, the hote- hostess will normally inquire very soon after the arrival. Now they'll say, is there anything you can't eat? And I say, well, I've got a stomach of iron. They'll say, but if you ask, there is one thing that I find a little difficult. And they say, what's that? And I say, it's those, uh, batter pudding affairs that that were start out as being Yorkshire puddings and then go wrong in the middle and end up with, uh, lemon and butter on them, somehow fried in the frying pan. I find them very difficult, of course. If you give them to me, I shall do my best to swallow them, but uh, they are difficult. Now, suppose I come to your home and you say that to me, and I say, well, these things, I don't know what you call them, but you know what I mean. I find them difficult. And I come down to breakfast the next day, and on the plate is... one of these perverted Yorkshire puddings that's turned into a sweet. Hm. Well, I suppose I should eat it. It would make conversation a bit difficult. The Father and I are prepared to come and dwell in your heart. If you love me and keep my commandments. Oh, but what if I put before him dishes that he doesn't like? That would make conversation difficult between us and the Lord, wouldn't it? What do you entertain the Lord on? When he comes knocking on your door and says, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and I'll dine with her, and she with me. What kind of thing do you entertain the Lord on? What do you talk to him about? God God help. help us, that as we entertain the divine gifts, we may be careful that our love move us to keep his commands. I don't get this, says Judas. Is it, Lord, how are you gonna manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Well, it's not a matter of seeing fireworks in the sky, nor within our brains either, is it? This is not visions and wonders. You, madam, have got a letter from your loving husband. Of course, you wouldn't show it to me anyway, so that's that. But even if you did, as I tried to read it, well, I would understand some of the words, but I wouldn't get the point of a lot of it, would I? Because this is between you and him, and beneath it there runs a life that I know nothing about. So it is with Christ and his people, as he draws near to them. It's the fellowship of a running life, a deep running life and relationship that the world knows nothing about, ha-kurit. So there are the two sides of the matter. One day, a room for us in the Father's home above. Meanwhile, the Lord asking us to make us a dwelling place for him and his father in our hearts. But there is another side to holiness. And now you will notice at the end of John fourteen there comes a kind of break. For our Lord presently said, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. Now we cannot be sure whether at that very moment they rose from the table, clattered down the stone steps that led them from the upper room, down the outside staircase, and down into the street. And he talked the rest of what he had to say as they went through the streets of Jerusalem and then in the Garden of Gethsemane. Or whether they lingered a moment while he spoke to them what is contained in chapters fourteen, uh, fifteen and sixteen. We don't know. But as far as the drama goes, our Lord sets the scene of it, doesn't it, by saying, gentlemen, now we must go. It had, you see, been exceedingly cozy, don't you think, in the upper room, around the table, the soft glow of the oil lamp, the wonderful glow of his words, the sense of the very presence of God, a foretaste of heaven itself and thoughts of the Father's house above. Oh, what sacred moments they had been in that upper room. And if they'd have been like me, they'd have liked to have stayed there forever. Gone straight home to glory from the upper room. Would have been a nice program, wouldn't it? It couldn't be. Rise up, said the Lord Jesus. We must go. But gentlemen, I've got to show the world that the Father loves me. I've got to show the world that I love the Father. You know, we talk a lot about loving the Father, don't we? Our choruses are full of it. We're forever lasting to be heard, telling everybody that cares to listen how we love Jesus. Do you know how many times the New Testament has our Lord saying, I love the Father. Count them up when you next, uh, start reading. If you find more than one occasion, let me know. He said, I love the Father, and I must show the world that I love the Father. As he said, come, men, we must go. Leaving the coziness of the upper room, they file down the stone steps out into the dark streets of Jerusalem, breathing with hostility. As our Lord had to tell them, don't be surprised, gentlemen, if the world hates you, it hated me before it hated you. If they have accepted my word, they'll accept yours. If they have rejected me, they will reject you. A Jerusalem at that very moment that was seething with conspiracy to destroy the blessed Savior. Already Caiaphas and Annas the high priest were arranging with Judas and making the pulling the strings with Pilate to get our blessed Lord arrested and crucified. Who knew what, uh, was lurking round the dark corner out down the alleyway? The time will come, said our blessed Lord, when whoever kills you will think he's doing God's service. So perverse can religion be. Gentlemen, said he, we must go and face it. Is this holiness too? Yes, indeed it is. It's lovely to be in the upper room with the blessed Lord Jesus. But the other side of holiness is we must go out with the blessed Lord into this hostile world and demonstrate to them that we love the Lord. So they clattered down the steps and out into the cold and dark and the hostilities and came at last to Gethsemane with a world breathing murder around them. And what would they talk about? What kind of a subject do you suppose would have been suitable when our blessed Lord himself was on the way to Gethsemane and the cross? Whatever would he talk about? Well, what he did talk about was, uh, a subject that interested him a lot, growing grapes. I'm a sort of a man who doesn't do gardening, but I like to see it done. And you had some splendid parks, and I've been taken around them here in Vancouver. Our Lord was interested in grape growing. He said, you see, gentlemen, I'd like to tell you about this scheme my father has for growing grapes, you see. I am the true vine myself, and my father is in the business of being the husbandman who looks after the vine and produces lovely bunches of grapes. What a delightful topic to be concerned with. I hope you like grapes. I do. Particularly when one is in a hot country and a sore throat, grapes, aren't they marvelous? You get a beautiful bunch of black grapes, or are they white grapes you prefer? Ooh, and when you munch into them, oh, how sweet they are. Do you know what? In that very moment, you're getting some idea of the character of God, aren't you? God, ladies and gentlemen, invented grapes. Listen, I'm talking to the gentleman above us usual. God invented grapes, you know, they were his idea. And when you munch them, and oh, how lovely they are and refreshing, you're getting some kind of idea of what God is like. Because he invented other things than grapes, of course he did. Not only literal grapes. You'll see in the Old Testament, he called Israel out of Egypt, redeemed them, blessed them, put them in a land flowing with milk and honey, and planted them there, he says, like a vine, so that Israel would produce grapes. You say, whatever for? Well, for God's satisfaction, and also so that men and women, pagan old men and women, sunk in their crude and ludicrous idolatries and stained with sin, men and women might come to people in Israel and see beautiful bunches of grapes hanging from their personalities and eat and say, that was nice. They don't have them in our country. And discover through Israel some of the wonders of God's character. Lovely idea, wasn't it? Oh, and I myself love going through the Old Testament vineyard and, uh, taking down a bunch or two of grapes. I do that constantly, you know. There's a variety in the Old Testament called King David variety of grape. You'll gather them in the Psalms, for instance, if you go a picking there. There's one tremendous bunch of grapes. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, says David. Oh, what a bunch of grapes. All the happiness, he says, of the man whose sins you've forgiven, and you won't impute iniquity to him. What a refreshing bunch of grapes. And fancy after all these centuries, Master David is refreshing your heart through putting out to you some of the loveliness of God, through his writing, through his character. Marvelous to be a bunch of grapes like that, isn't it? I'd have give anything to have written Psalm twenty three. You will have all the millions in the world. If I'd have written Psalm twenty three, I should go home content if I never did anything else. Marvelous. Yes, but you'll see Israel in the end, on the whole, failed and failed miserably, didn't they? And failed so miserably, adopting lifestyles of the pagans around them, that when thirsty men and women came to Israel and tried to gather their grapes, they found them sour grapes. There was a widow, and she met a Jewish businessman, and he robbed her uphill and down dale. That left a sour taste in the mouth. And we got to be grapes. Is that holiness? It is indeed. We have to be grapes, be branches in a vine, so that when the world comes to us, they sense through experience of us something of the very loveliness of God. How can it be done, you say? Now notice a lovely thing that the Lord Jesus said. He didn't say, you know, Israel were once a vine for Jehovah, but they, they failed miserably. Now look here, you, my disciples, you try to be a better vine than Israel was. We should have had no more success than them, should we? And the Lord didn't say it. He said, now, yes, it is true, Israel failed. But gentlemen, said he, I am the true vine. I am the vine. And I am the one that's growing grapes for this great world. I'm doing it. And what is more, he said, not you have a go at tending the vine, you try to grow some grapes. No, no. He said, I'm the vine, and my father is the one that looks after it, you know. My father is in the business, actually, of growing grapes in this world. What a lovely thing it is. And how true of the Lord Jesus has it been. How, when we come to him, even just reading his words in scripture, what lovely bunches of grapes, and we come to know what the Father is like, and it is refreshment to our very souls. And where do we come in then? The scheme is this, said the Lord. Well, I'm the vine, my Father keeps it, and he's going on garing, uh, growing grapes, whether you join in or not. What he offers us is that we be branches in that vine, so that by resting in the Lord Jesus and in him and in his word, he puts up his life through us and makes us produce grapes. Where otherwise there would be nothing but wild fruit. That's the job of a vine, isn't it? It takes the goodness out of the soil, it puts it up the vine stem and out through the branches. And our Lord does that for us. So from this point of view, it's not so much my trying, scheming, worrying. It is me resting in the Lord, rejoicing in him, sharing his life, letting his life come up through me. Little by little, the grapes grow. So listen to what a lovely vine the Lord Jesus is. He says, you know, this is John fifteen verse nine: Even as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. It would beg a description to try and assess how greatly the Father loved the Son, wouldn't it? The point of it here is that he's a perfect vine, and all the love that God has for him, he transmits it through to us. And then he says, uh, you'll see in verse fifteen, no longer do I call you servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from my father, I have made known to you. He transmits the love of the Father through us. He transmits the knowledge of the Father through us. All things that the Father has made known, I make them known to you, he says. I like that because I've met certain preachers, they preach marvelous sermons, but they wouldn't give you their notes. Not if you ask for them, they wouldn't. Copyright, they say. I love the Lord Jesus. He would have given you his notes. He has, in fact, here's a whole book full of them. Nothing copyright there, not with him. All that the Father has made known to me, I make known to you. That is his delightful proposition. I do it, he says, so that your joy may be full. That's a function of a vine, isn't it? Wine, as the Old Testament says, that was made to make the face of man to shine and his heart glow. Says the Lord Jesus, I'm the vine, you'll see. I make known the Father to you and through you, so that your joy might be full. And there's a difference, you'll see. Sometimes preachers come to our platforms and they say, ha ha, just look at you miserable looking lot there sitting down in the congregation, your long faces, you'll see, and anybody looking at you and you, uh, uh, you say to them, wouldn't you like to become a Christian? They say, no, no, looking at you I wouldn't. I've got enough troubles of my own, and you ought to be smiling all over your broad face, and then they would see how marvelous Christ is. Well, carry on smiling, ladies, you're doing it very well. Well, when I hear preachers talking like that, I say, you don't happen to have the arthritis, do you? But perhaps if you did, your face would look a bit long. We're not talking about superficial happiness, are we? We're talking of him who was within hours of Calvary. When he cried, oh my God, why have you forsaken me? Father, let this cup pass from me." With groanings and tears and sweat, not superficial, irresponsible happiness, but denying joy. And oh, what a treasure it is. This in part our great testimony to the world, isn't it? The joy we have when he is near. The marvels of the world, how you enjoyed even the Bible, you know. And sometimes our fellow Christians appear not to enjoy it, but they represent it as a desperately bitter pill that nobody could be expected to swallow unless it was coated with inches of sugar in the form of worldly entertainment. I don't worship a God like that. I worship a savior who brings all the love and the knowledge of God, and oh, what marvelous joy it is. It's part of our testimony to the world, that they see it. But not only our personal joy, but as Paul would put it, the fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, meekness, gentleness, and so forth. This is Christ the vine working through his people to produce that lovely fruit of the spirit that it might quench the thirst, cheer, and refresh our fellow believers around, and even the world as they have contact with us. What are we to do? We are therefore to abide in the vine. Let his life come through us. Doesn't mean that we are to be just passive and not active, because though he uses the metaphor of a vine, we're not just wooden, are we? A lot of old wood like a vine is. So our blessed Lord says, what is more, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. So if I sense there's a blockage in my bit of the vine, I'm not producing the fruit as I should. I don't just have to be passive. I can come to the Lord and say, Lord, you know, I snapped that woman's head off the other day. I do have that difficult. The old wine of your grace doesn't come through. What comes through is my old ugly temper sometimes, my fears, my difficulties. Lord, deal with it. He's not promising us if he asks for a Rolls-Royce or a Cadillac, he'll give it. He's saying that if you've got my word and my program, for the developing of fruit in your life, and you come according to my program and ask me, then the Father will do it. Thus we shall bear forth more fruit. There is one danger, isn't there? If anybody doesn't abide in me, then that person is cast out as far as being a branch goes, and is withered, and people take them up and put them into the fire. So see, suppose I don't stay in close fellowship with the Lord. I don't entertain him. I, I don't read his word. I don't converse with him in prayer. I don't seek him. I don't know what it is for him to manifest himself to me. I don't abide in him. Then I'm like a vine, a branch in a vine that's been severed from the branch. I wither. With no personal resources worth talking of without the Savior. If I don't main- maintain contact with him, I wither.