Close enough? #5

Do you own a cheese plant?
You must do, everyone has one!

My mum has several of them and they are gigantic specimens (everything seems to become oversized in her care), it is almost jungle like in the corner of her lounge!

When a friend of mine left Newport I 'inherited' one from him. I didn't realise this at the time, he just left it and never returned to pick it up. I'm not great with house plants and so it was regularly neglected but despite this it never perished. God made these plants tough!
Despite this I could never see the point of these plants, which I guess didn't enamour them to me very much. However, they do have a purpose; they are fruit bearers!

I bet that surprised you didn't it! It did me. They actually have a purpose!!!!
Their fruit is apparently unusually tasty but it takes about 12 months to ripen. I learnt this when I bought Ruth a book about growing fruit and vegetables indoors for her birthday (oh yeah, I treat her good :o) The reason that you and I have never seen our cheese plants bear fruit is because we keep them in the wrong climate; they require very humid conditions.
So, if you want to see some fruit you could always put the plant in your bathroom, get the water piping hot and then leave the shower on [with all the doors and windows closed] for about a year and then you'll be able to try one!
Not very cost efficient I know, but it's the only way.

Jesus said that the same is true for us. We may be 'saved' but unless we remain in the right environment/climate (i.e. intimately close to God, fully surrendered) then we will not bear fruit [we may even wither!] and become a strange and puzzling oddity to those around us.
Where are you? Are you in the right environment? Do you acclimatise your office, home, or car so that you remain close to God?

"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 so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will 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.
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is 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 given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." John 15:1-8