Beth Moore - Chasing Vines: Finding Your Way to an Immensely Fruitful Life

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Chasing Vines: Finding Your Way to an Immensely Fruitful Life

Copyright 2020 by Beth Moore. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of Beth Moore copyright 2019 Amy Kidd Photography. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of vineyard copyright Hero Images/Getty Images. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of sky by Jason Leung on Unsplash.com.

Interior illustration of grapevines copyright George J/Shutterstock. All rights reserved.

Designed by Dean H. Renninger

Edited by Stephanie Rische

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP (yates2.com).

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Names: Moore, Beth, date- author.

Title: Chasing vines : finding your way to an immensely fruitful life / Beth Moore.

Description: Carol Stream : Tyndale House Publishers, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019027679 (print) | LCCN 2019027680 (ebook) | ISBN 9781496440822 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781496440846 (kindle edition) | ISBN 9781496440853 (epub) | ISBN 9781496440860 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Viticulture in the Bible. | Metaphor in the Bible. | Spiritual formation.

Classification: LCC BS665 .M66 2020 (print) | LCC BS665 (ebook) | DDC 248.4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027679

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027680

ISBN 978-1-4964-4479-0 (ITPE)

Build: 2021-04-21 09:47:23 EPUB 3.0

To Amanda and Melissa,

my beloved daughters,

my very heart,

my best friends,

my favorite fellow sojourners

because of Italy.

Heres what I know after decades of life and ministry among myriads of people: we all want to matter. The yearning to matter is no respecter of persons. Man or woman; adult or child; religious or irreligious; rich or poor; black, brown, or whitesuch a longing is sewn in permanent thread within the fabric of every human soul.

The great relief is finding out that the hope is not deferred. You do matteralreadywithout making one single change. But everything changes when you let your Maker show you why you matter and how He can take all that concerns you and, sooner or later, here or there, subtly or astonishingly, make it matter.

We were created to contribute, fashioned to bring who we are and what we have to the human mix to add some measure of benefit. This was true even in Edens unmarred paradise. God said to Adam and Eve, in so many words, Add to it! Work the ground! And the two of you, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth!

Jesus elevated the concept to another stratosphere by taking individuals Hed given abundant life to and, by the power of His own Spirit, making their contributions matter not just temporally, as He did with Adam and Eve, but eternally.

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.... You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.

JOHN 15:8, 16

This idea that our lives matter has been tailing me for as long as I can remember, but now, as I get closer and closer to the finish line, the concept practically haunts me. When I get to the end of my life, I want to know that it meant something. I want to know that my life, in all its fits and starts, mattered.

If you feel the same, its not just usGod wants our lives to matter too. He means for us to be profoundly effective. That longing in us to contribute, to do something worthwhile, isnt just a self-consumed dream. If we follow Jesus, thats what we can hope to expect from life.

And being fruitful isnt some stale and banal duty. It directly affects how happy we are, because engaging in what God is doing is the only thing that gives us true satisfaction and peace. God is invading the globe with the gospel of Christ, pursuing people from every tongue, tribe, and nation, offering them life, faith, love, hope, deliverance, joy, and a forever future where He reigns as King. Nothing happening on earth is more meaningful or exhilarating. And as we bear much fruit, we get to be part of it.

I know what its like to fear not being seen. I know what its like to worry that Im not of use. I know how easy it is to feel giftless in a gift-driven society. If youre anything like me, you long to contribute. You long to matter. And you know what? You do.

You dont have to settle for just making it. In Christ, you can make it matter.

+ + +

I have been enamored with Christs teaching on the vine and the branches since I cut my teeth on Bible study, and Ive taught about His call to fruitfulness as an essential part of lifes satisfaction for at least twenty years. The spectacular thing about Scripture, however, is that, like no other book held in human hands, its ink may be dry but it is the furthest thing from dead. The words are alive and active, and the Holy Spirit who inspired them can animate the most familiar passage and spring it to fresh life in your soul.