Getting started as fruitful branches

on the Abraham family tree

 

We start living our lives differently as we start seeing ourselves as part of the campaign team that God created through Abraham and expanded through Christ to bless all families on earth. As we get the feel of this approach to life, we discover a new security and significance.

 

There is no purpose greater than the purpose God gave to Abraham's descendants, and there is no group loyalty that deserves greater commitment. We reinforce it with prayers like this:

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What does "moving with the Roots Rhythm"

mean in everyday life?

 

It means that we gratefully and joyfully play our roles as members of God's "demo and delivery team" descended from Abraham. We participate in his campaign to connect, heal, and bless the world in ways like this: 

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• Celebrate God's gift of security and significance that comes with our team membership, and quit looking for those two things anywhere else. These two basic human cravings--security and significance--are satisfied when we get rooted in God's amazing promise to Abraham. We are secure because this is all God's idea, and we are significant because we have been given a good part to play in a plan driven by God's desire to bless the world. If you want to make a difference in the world, don't miss being part of God's "Abraham Strategy."

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• Resemble Abraham like a descendant should. Children bear a family resemblance to their forefathers physically and in personality. If we are rooted in Abraham as our spiritual forefather, then we should trust God like he did. When human analysis tells us that God's way cannot work in our particular situation, we still go with God's way and trust him to make it work out. 
   

• Renounce all racism and all class arrogance. We have far more reason to do this than people who think Abraham has no significance for today at all. The very first blessing we should deliver to "all families of the earth" (Genesis 12.3) is the blessing of respect. Even if our birth nation or tribe tells us we must despise or hate another nation or tribe, we stick with our Abrahamic mission to bless and respect all tribes. Even if our social class tells us to look down on another class, we stick with our Abrahamic mission to bless and respect all families, including those poorer or richer than we are.

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How to get the Roots Rhythm to come naturally 

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It may seem like a huge chore to learn to dance to the Roots Rhythm, but it's not. It's as natural as it is for an apple tree to bear apples. Those branches are not agonizing all summer saying, "Oh, this is so hard!" They are doing what comes naturally.

 

All they have to do is stay attached to the tree, which attaches them to the life that comes from the roots. And that's not hard. The tree is actually doing most of the holding anyway. The hard part is if we break off from the tree and have to be grafted back in, regrowing our connection with the roots. 

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The grafting is done by Jesus, who is both the Master Gardener and the trunk of the tree. How can he be both at the same time? 

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Jesus was a miracle child, an impossible and unique combination of two parents. On his mother's side, Jesus was the trunk of the tree. He was a descendant of Abraham, rooted genetically in Abraham. But on his Father's side, he is the Gardener, God, who planted the Abraham tree in the first place.

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Was Jesus his own "father" then?

 

Sort of, but not exactly. He hints at it when he said, about 1900 years after Abraham, "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8.58). And "I AM" was the name used throughout the Old Testament for God who created everything.

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The great relief for us is that our job is not to figure out how Jesus could be what he is. Our job is to trust him to graft us back into the tree so we can get on with the process of bearing fruit.

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God promised that the tree that grew from Abraham would bless the world with fruit, and Jesus skillfully makes that promise come true. He grafts us into himself, and then we do what comes naturally--bear fruit! 

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Like the sap that takes the strength of the root to the branches, the Spirit of Jesus flows into us and makes us fruitful.

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"He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely." (Galatians 5.22-23, The Message)

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Through Jesus and the Spirit we are attached to God's promise to bless the world through the descendants of Abraham. We let that define our identity and give us our purpose in life. We call this kind of living "SYNCing" with Jesus and his strategy, seeing ourselves in Christ, being part of his campaign team. 

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