Chapter 1

"All Earthly things are the shadows of heavenly realities-the expression, in created, visible forms, of the invisible glory of God."

This reminds me of Plato and his allegory of the cave. From Wikipedia (I know...): Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

Living on earth, we are like the people chained in the cave. We only see the forms on the wall. We can experience love on earth, but it's just a shadow of the love we'll experience in heaven. We see justice in the judicial system, but it is like a shadow puppet compared to God's justice. We can understand the realities much much better once we realize we are only seeing shadows, but we still can't understand the truth until we get to heaven.

On to paragraph two. "How many eyes have gazed on and admired a great vine with its beautiful fruit?" It's a wonder the world doesn't know Christ better. With the knowledge we have (Bibles at our fingertips) , we should be the most mouth-watering, irresistible fruit the world has ever seen or tasted. But we are like a rotten apple half fallen from the tree. We aren't appetizing, and we reek. (I just found an apple in my coat pocket that I last wore about 2 weeks ago. NAST) I suppose that you can know a great vine by its fruits- and maybe that means that the rotten fruit really isn't a part of the vine at all. Hrm. That reminds me of the verse, "If you love me then you'll keep my commandments."

And what are we to do? Run around and proclaim His name? Scream it from the depths of our lungs? Well, maybe. But at first glimpse of the vine, it's more likely we will "bow down and be still, worship and wait, until the divine Word enters [our] heart[s] and [we] feel His holy presence with [us] and in [us]." Haha. UGHK, I need to stop doing THESE[]. (= Anyway, I think I need to be okay with bowing down and waiting for Him and not feel so pressured to be screaming His name all the time. Not that I DO scream His name. But I usually feel guilty that I'm not. I should feel contented with waiting and worshiping until He asks something else of me. (=

The True Vine by Andrew Murray

Opening Poem

"Struggle not to 'abide'"

I think this should be my goal this week. I know that God has so much more planned for me than I can dream, and He desires His life to flow through mine in such a way as to produce fruit. But I'm struggling so much to remain attached and to feel His hand upon mine that I forget that to love God is to love His people. I think I need to find an outlet to serve His people.

I told you, I think, that I tried to get in touch with the youth minister at my parents' church who has a young adult/singles group. He never got back with me (I guess he lost my number) and I should have called him. And now I keep thinking, "Well, I'm moving in a few weeks, so why bother getting involved?" I think that I look for excuses to not get involved. "I don't know what kind of career I'm going to have later, so I shouldn't get so attached to Greenwood or do anything here." And when I finally joined Greenwood Christian, it was more like that was all I needed. But I wasn't doing anything in the community. I really need encouragement and accountability when I move back to get involved and not to wait.

Inaugural post

Here it is! :)