Follower of One : Missions For The Rest Of Us

Are you the kind of person who enjoys checking things off your to-do list?   I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 ESV   We spoke about abiding in yesterday's message. Look for it if you haven't heard it. Today, I want to concentrate on the phrase, "for apart from me, you can do nothin...

In the day-to-day, where are you focused? What do you pursue?   "Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me." John 15:4 NASB   What does it mean to abide? Some translations use the word "remain," or "stay." I think of resting, persisting, persevering, hanging on. To abide in Jesus means that I don't ab...

When a branch has been pruned, they say it was cleaned. Have you been cleaned by God recently?   "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." John 15:3 NASB   Jesus is speaking. The disciples and Jesus are walking (see John 14:31). We think they may have walked by a vine and Jesus started this analogy of the vine and the vinedresser. He's talking about pruning which we d...

What does it mean to be "pruned?" It doesn't sound very pleasant.   "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit." John 15:2   Pruning is the act of removing leaves and branch tips and even budding flowers in order to make room for more. The way a vinedresser prunes, what they remove and what they leave,...

Do you ever think about the fruit of your life?   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. John 15:2 ESV   Notice how both of these activities are painful. The vinedresser is God the Father. If we get life, God works to make sure we produce fruit.   The life comes through the vine. Jesus is the vine. He...

What is your purpose?   "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser." John 15:1   Do you wonder about your purpose? Have you discovered your purpose? Based on this analogy, we bear fruit for the vinedresser. What does that mean to you?   We spoke yesterday about how our life comes to us from the vine and Jesus says here that he is the true vine. Jews thought of Israel as the vine and Jes...

In this podcast conversation between Mike Henry and Todd Melby, Todd shares insights about his work at Leadership Edge, a Christian nonprofit focused on leadership development through one-on-one mentoring. Here are the key points discussed: Introduction to Leadership Edge: [01:00] Todd introduces Leadership Edge as a 30-year-old nonprofit dedicated to developing leaders of integrity through person...

Do you ever think deeply about where your life came from?   "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser." John 15:1 ESV   Think about all the things leading up to today that you had no say in. You didn't get to choose to come to life - the day, the time, the parents, nationality, skin color, height. Our life comes from someone or somewhere else.   Jesus makes the vine analogy. He and the...

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry Sr., thanks for listening. Today we want to finish our three episodes on thankfulness.  If you hear this on the air date, it's the Friday after the U.S. holiday for Thanksgiving. And today I want to cover the verse in Ephesians 5:20 from the ESV, it says, "giving thanks always and for everything to God, the Father in the name of our Lord,...

Hey, welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry Sr. and I'm glad to be here. If you're in the U.S. and hearing this on-air date, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm recording this message to be aired on Thanksgiving Day. And today our passage is 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." That's from t...

Hey, welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry, your host and the founder of Follower of One. I love doing the podcast and today I want to talk about Colossians 3:15. If you hear this on-air date, this is the day before Thanksgiving in the US. The verse that I chose for today is, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thank...

Thanks for joining us on the Follower of One podcast again today. I'm Mike Henry, your host. And today I'm talking about 2 Timothy 2:2, "The things which you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." This is a great verse about discipleship and that translation that I read was the New American Standard version.   This i...

Hey, thanks for joining us again on the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry Sr., and part of Follower of One. And we have a daily devotional to encourage believers as they head to work each day. Today, I want to talk about second Timothy chapter two, verse one. "You therefore, my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." It's believed that second Timothy is Paul's final l...

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One, and today's devotional is a continuation a little bit of the previous episode. We're talking about Psalm 78. I want to read verses five through seven. We're talking about verse seven today. If you have questions, you can go back and catch the episode that I did on verses five and six.   For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel...

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I want to talk a little bit about praying for one another. 2 Daniel 17:18. Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends and Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah about the matter, so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men...

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry Sr., thank you so much for joining us. Today's devotional, I'm continuing this self-coaching, self-study on the word self-control, and I came to a verse in 2 Timothy 3:3. But realize this then in the last days, difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, u...

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry Sr., and we do a devotional each workday where we challenge ourselves to live our faith in some way that makes Jesus visible in our workplaces.    Today, I want to talk about Acts 10:3, and I'm stealing this from Mark Batterson in his book,  Draw the Circle .   I would like to encourage you to consider getting that book. It's a great book...

Welcome to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry Sr. and we've been doing these daily devotionals on business days or workdays for now over a year and a half, almost two years. This is our 543rd episode. Thank you so much for listening to these. Today, I want to talk about Isaiah chapter 43 verses 18 and 19.   "Do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past. Behold, I wil...

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I want to talk about a passage in Matthew. Jesus is speaking. This is Matthew 12:33 and I'm reading from the new living translation. A tree is identified by us fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, it's fruit will be bad. What are you known for?   What am I known for? What we find out is, is that the tree is identified...

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today I'm continuing what we've been talking about for the last two episodes: 1 Peter 4. Today, I'd like to talk about verses three and four for the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles.   Having pursued a course of sensuality, Euless, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatry. In...

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. This is the second of a multi-part discussion on first Peter four.  Today I'd like to read verses one and two, "Therefore, since Jesus Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men, bu...

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One, and for the next couple of episodes I'd like to talk about 1 Peter 4. The first four verses of 1 Peter 4. The first verse says, "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin."   That's from the New American standard. That's kind of my default trans...

Logan Bloom is an author, speaker, and founder of the Servant Leader Network. Their mission is to help empower leaders to be a light to the world in whatever context they find themselves in. As a pastor's kid, Logan felt called to serve God, which he thought meant attending bible school and choosing vocational ministry. So he followed that path and has been in ministry most of his life. But he rea...

Welcome back to the follower of one podcast. I'm Mike Henry Sr. Thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. I'm grateful that God has called us to do these episodes, and I believe he will continue. We've been talking through 2 Peter 1. Beginning pretty much at verse two and going through verse eight.   So far, and today I'd like to add a little bit more to this series. I keep thinking it's...

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm Mike Henry Sr., the founder of Follower of One. And I like to talk a little bit about the Bible every day and challenge us to go to work as people who make a difference in the lives of the people that we interact with. Today, we're wrapping up the series on second Peter, one, one through eight. I want to finish by reading second, Peter eight today....