She Planted a Vineyard: Essays for Fruitful Living

By Stacy Cox Keelin

The pre-eternal trinity, the creation of the world, the hand-sculpting of man, and the plan to redeem mankind, are presented to set forth the wonder on which the book rests.
The narrative then moves to a verse by verse exegesis of Proverbs 31, which reveals the book’s inspiration. It is written in an atypical style that includes touches of whimsy. The discourse is more thought provoking than conspicuous.
The weaving of the vineyard theme commences from there with a nuanced application of the biblical narrative found in John 15.
The journey continues into a storehouse of wines, each categorized by their character. The reader starts with a sampling of the ‘Good Wines’, which is the custom of the ancient day wedding feast. Other selections include the ‘Memorable’, the ‘Household’ and the ‘Varietals’. There is even a small selection of ‘Boxed Wines’ to peruse through! It is all topped off with a ‘Pairing of Wine With Your Course’ tutorial.
The happy ending sends the reader off into the world with a small serving of ‘Dessert Wine’ —a short, sweet essay, crafted to linger in the mind. But not before a poetic finale with a celebratory toast being raised to the Most High God.
The reader will close the book with an uplifted and inspired heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664256064

Stacy Cox Keelin

Stacy Keelin is a faith columnist, homemaker, and small business owner. She desires to usher her readers into His presence where they can partake of the sweet communion and fresh revelation themselves. She and her husband reside on a farm in Appalachia, along with a bevy of white doves and numerous pets.

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Copyright © 2022 Stacy Cox Keelin.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Interior Image Credit:

Water Colors are by Lynn Cohen

The drawing by Leah Blevins

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5607-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5608-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5606-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022901486

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/03/2022

Unless otherwise noted all scriptures are taken from the

New King James Version® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas

Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,

2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard

Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman

Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English

Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry

of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by

Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living

Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale

House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962,

1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used with permission.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International

Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc.

TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,

1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Scriptures taken from the Common English Bible® (CEB). Copyright ©

2012 by Common English Bible and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (GNT) are from the Good News

Translation in Today’s English Version- Second Edition Copyright

© 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Contents

Preface

Getting the First Things First

45168.png In the Beginning

45168.png In the Very Beginning

45168.png Our Beginning

45168.png Countdown to a New Beginning

45168.png Begin Again

45168.png Will, Faith, and a New Beginning

The Inspiration

45168.png Poetry in Motion

45168.png The Power of She

45168.png True Love

45168.png The Beauty of Every Day Duty

45168.png A Virtuous Delight

45168.png Good Night and Good Day!

45168.png Take Possession

45168.png She Plants a Vineyard

45168.png Not Horsing Around

45168.png Know Your Worth

45168.png The Charity Challenge

45168.png A Beautification Project

45168.png Unknown but Not Forgotten

45168.png Armor and Pearls

45168.png Something to Smile About

45168.png Watchwords

45168.png Wisdom Begat Humility

45168.png The Proverbs 31 Man

Vine to Wine

45168.png Old Vine/True Vine

45168.png Life by a Thousand Cuts

45168.png Thirty-Seven Million Vineyards

45168.png Go with the Flow

45168.png Signature Wine

The Good Wine

45168.png Good Friday or Black Friday?

45168.png The Good Dove

45168.png Good Looks

45168.png Good Reads

Memorable Wines

45168.png Wine of Remembrance

45168.png Remember, Reflect, and Rejoice

45168.png The Present

45168.png A Time to Remember

45168.png Love’s Dove

45168.png A Worn Fuzzy

45168.png Rainbows and Nails and a Puppy Dog Tale

Household Wines

45168.png Home Work

45168.png Oh Brother!

45168.png Wise Words of a Mother, a Father, and a King

Boxed Wines

45168.png A Community of the Heart

45168.png Shadow Boxing

45168.png Organic Matters

Varietals

45168.png Fine Wine

45168.png Praying for Blue Skies

45168.png Writing and Erasing

45168.png Fear Not

45168.png Aliens among Us

45168.png Thoughts on Prayers

45168.png A Sign of the Times

45168.png Captured and Released

45168.png Forever Love

45168.png Happy Days

45168.png It’s Bow Season

45168.png Garden Work

45168.png How Smart Are You?

45168.png Jesus Tells a Ghost Story

45168.png Mosaic Me

Pairing Wine with Your Course

45168.png Perennial Truths

45168.png His Beauty, Our Hands

45168.png Your Moment in Time

45168.png Exercise Daily

45168.png Pay It Upward

45168.png Get on Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

45168.png The End Game

45168.png A Soldier’s Shoes

45168.png The Revealing of the Light

The Dessert Wines

45168.png Short and Sweet

45168.png Here’s to You!

45168.png Closing Prayer

Epilogue

45168.png What I Could Not Write

Preface

It’s time I told you about Him. He has loved me with an everlasting love. When He spoke this to my heart, my world changed. I knew it was true, and no other love could compare.

The revelation of this everlasting love transformed me. I released my grip on those things that had bruised and calloused me—those hurt feelings and difficult situations that I had held onto for far too long.

Now, I am led with cords of kindness, His ropes of love. (See Hosea 11:4.)

This love story will unfold throughout eternity, for He has loved me with an everlasting love. And paradoxically, a dying love too.

image1.jpg

"I tell you, her sins—and they are many—

have been forgiven, so she has shown me

much love." (Luke 7:47a NLT)

Jesus Christ

image2.jpg

Getting the

First Things

First

In the Beginning

43359.png

First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—

all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup

of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an

inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird

above the watery abyss. (Gen. 1:1 MSG)

The massive upheaval was sparked by His Word. His undeniable voice shattered the silence, and time, space, and matter burst forth. Eternity past was upended. Light pierced through chaos, and the dawn of a new era broke.

Heaven’s vault plunged to displace the abyss. Great waters crashed downward to a place far below, while others thrust upward to the beams of His chambers—the most exalted place of all.

Seas roared as they surged to the place set for them. Land rumbled and tumbled as it shoved to stand up. Ashes became beauty as the botanical kingdom burrowed to root, bloom, and adorn the earth.

Celestial bodies exploded midair. They spun to their place, some billions of light-years away. There they remain, marking the time, until He bids them to cease.

Life splashed in the waters; birds soared through the skies. Animals crept and crawled on the earth. Life bellowed and hissed. It snorted and growled. It peeped, it brayed, and it mooed.

All by the utterance of His Word.

Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image. (Gen. 1:26a NASB)

With His own hands, He formed us. With His own breath, He gave us our lives. And using Himself as His template, He gave us the ability to live purposefully and to live forever.

And it was all very good.

In the Very Beginning

43364.png

When the earth was unformed and unordered, the Word was.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1–3)

A word is a method of communication, either written or spoken, that expresses the will of its originator.

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. (Col. 1:15-17 MSG)

And wonder upon wonders, there’s this:

From beginning to end He’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is He, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in Him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of His death, His blood that poured down from the cross. (Col. 1:18–20 MSG)

The Word is the Creator, the wellspring of regeneration and the dayspring of eternal life. The Word is the origin of the universe, and He and His cross are its center. He is its author and its authority. His reign of it will have no end.

In the Bible, a Word picture is painted—especially beautiful, vividly