The spiritual significance of entering into God’s rest and being acquainted with its fruit is a satisfaction we should seek. We want this rest in our life, circumstances, and context. I define my context simply as the time, ethnicity, and location the Lord has placed me in. By knowing the proper place of my context, I am able to better focus on the realitiy of God and entering into his rest.

Let’s Dive in How do you define yourself? No, Really. 🤔 Do you describe yourself in terms of your love or hobby? “I love basketball.” “I play the piano.” Credentials or work? “I have a bachelor’s degree in… a master’s degree in…” “I am a teacher.” Work, or knowledge? “I’ve read such and such on reddit…” Identity Reduction We tend to define oursleves by declarative statements, but the truth is, we know ourselves mainly by the reciprical nature of our relationships.

Race, Ethnicity, and People Groups Who likes to be classified? 🤔 I do not think most people do. Oddly, we all tend to do it, not only to others, but also to ourselves. What if I had a choice in the matter? If I had to be classified, I would desire to be placed in the broadest category to have the most possible freedom - this desire stems from my cultural blind spot.

The Context Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

What are your initial reactions to John 15:1-17? If your background is like mine1, you may feel a mixture of conviction and encouragement in Jesus’ words. A wealth of wisdom and hope are seen, but what about the difficult parts of the text? I want to examine why someone might expierence a slight uneasiness from verses such as: Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.