There have been seasons in my life. It just feels like being a Christian is the

hardest job I've ever had and I just I just forget what it was like in those

early days when all I felt was love and joy and what

a thrill it was to be a follower.

Well, I've learned a couple things about how to address that and I'd love to share them with you today.

Thanks for joining us for this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.

Chips our Bible teacher for this International Discipleship Ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians.

Well in just a minute we'll share the second half of Chip's message,

it's all about relationship. From our series, Authentic, How to

be a Christian without being religious. Last time we learned about the goal and

purpose of our connection to God. Today, chip will give us a step-by-step process to deepen our relationship

with God and get it where we want it to be. So if you have a Bible handy, go now to John

Chapter 15 as we join Chip for the remainder of his talk.

Listen carefully. Discipline has to do with God dealing with sin in your life.

Pruning has to do with God dealing with the self in your life. Why? God wants to produce more

fruit. So what does he do? He gets into your priorities and he says, you know

something, yeah I see a lot of fruit. I want more fruit. I love you.

This is not done out of spite. It's not done out of anger. But what he does is he gets, you know,

when you prune, you get right down near where those big branches are and you lop off big things that seem real

important to you.

And the pruning happens I found in my life around areas like priorities.

Have you ever found that you're trying to juggle all these

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