Eggs

I've put off writing a new post until I had time to sit down and think about it, but I'm feeling spontaneous.
In youth group last weekend we talked about the vine and the branches, how without Christ we are dead and can do no real good works. We are fodder for the fire, kindling for the flame of the world. But with Christ we are fruit bearing trees, bringing glory and honor to His name. My youth pastor used an illustration of an Easter egg inside an Easter egg inside an Easter egg ( yes, you counted right. Three eggs ). We are to be in Christ and Christ is to be in us so that we are not even seen through the glory that is our God. I'd seen similar illustrations before, but then my leader wrapped his hands around the egg, twining his fingers together.
"Not only are to to be in Christ and filled with Him," he said, "but you are to be surrounded by fellow believers and live together with them."
How true is that? We become so concerned with filling ourselves with Christ (or at least looking that way) that we forget a crucial thing. Christians - people in general - were not made to struggle alone. Our hurt, our pain, our joy, our ecstasy, our sorrow, were meant to shared with our brothers and sisters, embraced by them.
But this community cannot happen apart from Christ. That is easy to forget. When we stray from the Father, we begin to doubt.

Is this real?
Do these people really care?
Do I trust them?
Will they reject me?

It's easy to fall from the path, to think we can have community without God at the center. But then the community is hollow, it has no purpose, no meaning, no LIFE. And without community, we struggle to remain with God, we fall apart from Him.

It is difficult to be with God without community. It is IMPOSSIBLE to have community without God.



Grace and peace, thanks for listening