Welcome Home
Welcome to life on the vine!
You may be someone I've met in my many travels who had questions about the Christian life. Perhaps you Googled your way here. Welcome!
For those who need to test the waters before embarking on the dramatic metamorphosis of life in Christ, this site provides an inside look at what it means to be a follower of Jesus, who called himself "the true vine."
Got questions?
Here you'll get honest answers (a best attempt, anyway) to tough questions like these:
- Why would anyone want to be a Christian.?
- How can you believe that?!
- What do I have to give up? What do I get in return?
- Am I good enough to be a Christian? (exactly the wrong question, you will see)
- I don't think I've got what it takes to follow through. How could I ever stick with it?
- Church is full of hypocrites. Why bother?
- How can you say there's only one way to heaven?!!
- Why do I need to be saved? From what?
- What would I do to be saved?
Why the vine?
Jesus lived in an agrarian society with a Mediterranean climate. He often spoke of farming, especially vinyards. In the Gospel of John, chapter 15, he compares himself to a vine, his followers to the branches, and his father to a gardener. Click that link and read his provocative teaching.
He used other figures of speech, calling himself "the bread of life" and "the light of the world." One of his roles, "the good shepherd" is illuminated in Phillip Keller's classic book, A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm. Each of these word-pictures is worthy of thoughtful, in-depth envisioning. This site focuses on one set of images picturing "true life in the true vine."
Exploring this site
The side navigation bar offers several schemes to explore this site, including a systematic overview section called "Anatomy of the vine," reasons and implications for belief in Christ, and "headlines" addressing common concerns.
