Jesus said: "I am the vine, you are the branches." To understand this statement, we must revisit the botany book, which tells us that the sap or juice flowing through the plant, the stuff needed for a plant's life passes from one place to another, like blood flowing through the body. That is exactly how hope, faith, and love work in our Christian life. As a result of this process of flowing vitality from Jesus to us, we will produce much fruit. In order to stop this flowing, we must do something really drastic, like cutting ourselves from the plant. And guess what? Sometimes we are foolish enough to do just that. Worse yet, when we do that, we blame the world, the devil, others, society, peer pressure, and stress. Whom are we fooling? We did that, nobody else did it for us. The plant (Jesus) does not cut anybody off!
The question is: Are we on the vine or off the vine?