From the heart and mouth of the Lord Jesus:
"and there shall be one flock and one shepherd (Jesus)." John 10:16
"I and my Father are one." - John 10:30
"And the glory which You gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." - John 17:22
"And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father [GOD], keep through Your own name those whom You have given me, that they may be one, as we are."- John 17:11
"By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." - John - 13:35
And affirmed by the Holy Spirit upon His outpouring on the disciples:
"And all that believed were together and had all things common" - Acts 2:44
"And the multitude of them that believed were of on heart and of one soul." - Acts 4:32
Is it wrong to desire such a thing if Jesus himself desired it to be so??? Do we dare to entertain such a thought that seemed so prominent on the mind of Jesus prior to his crucifixion??? That after Jesus ascended the promised Holy Spirit came upon them became so apparent???
That those who follow Jesus would be ONE.
What is it that hiders us? Is it the desire to rule our own kingdoms as in the world? How is it that there are endless splits within what is outwardly known as the "Church" to the point now that we have 10's of thousands of independent organizations all claiming our own identities.
Is identifying with Christ insufficient to our hearts that we find ourselves chasing after strange fruit to satisfy some carnal desire within our ranks and in our own hearts to "have our own?" Can we possibly see that desire as sin that Jesus died on the cross for? Something that needs repentance? What is the call to repentance that so many have heard and professed really about?
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." - 2nd Chronicles 7:14
It is not "America" (or any other country) that God is calling out to be saved. It is His Church splintered in spirit like a broken sheet of glass mirror, shattered into thousands of pieces all reflecting to some degree His image yet unable of it self to reflect that one quality of God that seems to have escaped our convictions: "Hear Oh Israel. The Lord your God is ONE God."
Jesus is not returning for the pieces of a shattered mirror but a perfect mirror image of his own likeness. We will either in our repentance finding ourselves being restored by Him or we will have to face the tremendous heat necessary to melt the shattered mirror that we have become to make us that perfect mirror image once again.
That day of extreme heat is fast coming upon us. Never underestimate the passion of a holy God for the purity of His Church. Individually, organizationally, locally or nationally...
No form of government either political or religious will save us from that day. We need to decide, each of us individually, organizationally, in our locality, nationally, to not break faith with one another other. To live in Christ as one. Rather than being puffed up about our differences to mourn before God over them until they are settled. To decide whom it is that we will truly serve, God or the shattered outward form. The failure of those in authority "above us" will be no excuse for us in that day.
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all." - Isaiah 53:6
I will leave you in this with a last thought to consider from Jeremiah 18:1-6
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words."
Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?" saith the Lord. "Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."
The day of denominationalism is over.
"That which is highly esteemed in the sight of religious men is an abomination in the sight of God." - Luke 16:15
We need to be careful that after 2000 years of religious traditions we are not found "choking on a gnat" yet having been tricked into "swallowing a camel"...
Monday, October 6, 2014
Saturday, October 4, 2014
The "Oneness" of Cooperation
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that any of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. - Acts 4:32
Wikipedia is a non-profit effort formed to provide a knowledge forum where people can work together on any subject to enhance knowledge about it. The restriction is that they agree to allow others to use it freely and without restriction and that in passing that knowledge on they do not restrict others from using it or passing it on freely as well endlessly. The goal is to enable the passing on of knowledge not to profit financially from it and to insure that continues to be the case. It has always been upheld by that discipline and the contributions and financial donations of others whether small or large.
The same principle drives the working of the Free Software Foundation which cooperatively birthed the Linux operating system into existence worldwide as an alternative to Microsoft's which was produced solely on the basis of market control and financial gain. Microsoft shares nothing of it's advances unless it absolutely has to therefore it is often very slow or negligent to correct them. The free software and knowledge community shares with and cooperates on everything so that all benefit and can continue to develop and pass it on. We might be more familiar with the "Android" system, a somewhat derivative, that powers some phones and smaller computer devices as an alternative to Apple's potential monopoly.
Even though such efforts are prone to occasional error it is notable that correction or improvement of those errors can come by way of the most seemingly insignificant member/participant very often far quicker than those commercial systems can produce. It is inherent that because no one cooperating can claim exclusiveness in anything that there is tremendous openness to correction (rather than the hiding of errors and unwillingness to have them be corrected from the "outside" inherent in more commercial efforts.) The level of cooperation and selflessness is quite often astounding considering the dog eat dog world we live in.
When I built the software that powered the INCN site years ago, I learned what I needed to know from the freely available and correctable programing efforts of others in that cooperative world. In addition, the servers were running on Linux system created and maintained by the cooperative effort of others. The Christian news articles were all produced or passed on by various cooperative efforts. I only supplied (or at this juncture in my life prefer to say "funneled") the means to publish them efficiently on the web. I found myself cataloging them first and foremost according to country or locality rather than by organization, something that I partook of earlier in my walk and certainly not my own exclusively. How else could a carpenter with a GED and no experience accomplish something like that by himself. I can never say I did it or designed it because ultimately it was formed on the backs of others before me.
One day at my desk when I was finding myself overwhelmed by the awareness of all the cooperation that went before me, I was reminded of the scripture and warning from Jesus,
"And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." - Luke 16:8"
What if the Church, the followers of Jesus in Christ was originally designed to function like that in utter selfless cooperation and willingness to be corrected. Where the greatest among us is as a servant. And, if so, is it possible that the Creator of the Universe who has His hands in every event that unfolds upon the earth, speaking to a Church which has fallen to the state of many independent Balaams that desire to prophesy for personal gain. Speaking to that Church through the very donkey that it is riding on? "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6
How about a revival of Holy Spirit led "oneness in cooperation" among all the believers in Jesus Christ?
Wikipedia is a non-profit effort formed to provide a knowledge forum where people can work together on any subject to enhance knowledge about it. The restriction is that they agree to allow others to use it freely and without restriction and that in passing that knowledge on they do not restrict others from using it or passing it on freely as well endlessly. The goal is to enable the passing on of knowledge not to profit financially from it and to insure that continues to be the case. It has always been upheld by that discipline and the contributions and financial donations of others whether small or large.
The same principle drives the working of the Free Software Foundation which cooperatively birthed the Linux operating system into existence worldwide as an alternative to Microsoft's which was produced solely on the basis of market control and financial gain. Microsoft shares nothing of it's advances unless it absolutely has to therefore it is often very slow or negligent to correct them. The free software and knowledge community shares with and cooperates on everything so that all benefit and can continue to develop and pass it on. We might be more familiar with the "Android" system, a somewhat derivative, that powers some phones and smaller computer devices as an alternative to Apple's potential monopoly.
Even though such efforts are prone to occasional error it is notable that correction or improvement of those errors can come by way of the most seemingly insignificant member/participant very often far quicker than those commercial systems can produce. It is inherent that because no one cooperating can claim exclusiveness in anything that there is tremendous openness to correction (rather than the hiding of errors and unwillingness to have them be corrected from the "outside" inherent in more commercial efforts.) The level of cooperation and selflessness is quite often astounding considering the dog eat dog world we live in.
When I built the software that powered the INCN site years ago, I learned what I needed to know from the freely available and correctable programing efforts of others in that cooperative world. In addition, the servers were running on Linux system created and maintained by the cooperative effort of others. The Christian news articles were all produced or passed on by various cooperative efforts. I only supplied (or at this juncture in my life prefer to say "funneled") the means to publish them efficiently on the web. I found myself cataloging them first and foremost according to country or locality rather than by organization, something that I partook of earlier in my walk and certainly not my own exclusively. How else could a carpenter with a GED and no experience accomplish something like that by himself. I can never say I did it or designed it because ultimately it was formed on the backs of others before me.
One day at my desk when I was finding myself overwhelmed by the awareness of all the cooperation that went before me, I was reminded of the scripture and warning from Jesus,
"And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." - Luke 16:8"
What if the Church, the followers of Jesus in Christ was originally designed to function like that in utter selfless cooperation and willingness to be corrected. Where the greatest among us is as a servant. And, if so, is it possible that the Creator of the Universe who has His hands in every event that unfolds upon the earth, speaking to a Church which has fallen to the state of many independent Balaams that desire to prophesy for personal gain. Speaking to that Church through the very donkey that it is riding on? "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6
How about a revival of Holy Spirit led "oneness in cooperation" among all the believers in Jesus Christ?
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Corporate Identities
I was thinking today about something briefly
(yes sometimes I do think briefly!). I tend to listen to my friends and
the people around me even though I may not totally agree with them.
Sometimes I do agree with them no matter what side of the identity game
we play. Democrat or Republican Liberal or Conservative, I listen. I
tend to detest that kind of man made identity so I will admit I am
biased against it. I don't like human beings hiding behind the man-made skirts of their corporation. It is a strong trend among a lot of people today to almost resent that. People today are starving for genuine human interaction, not corporate informational handout sheets.
People are increasing growing sick of Corporate Identities, especially
ones who seek to have an inordinate control and influence over their lives. I
would very definitely agree with that frustration. - Especially if those
corporate identities become predominant and bury our own individual
identities. It's no longer about the quality of a facet of life or who is
actually involved. It's all about improving Corporate Identity, something
that is nothing more that a facade to hide the people involved who want power - something that reduces human beings to the value of mere cogs in a
corporate wheel. It's that way in business, politics and and various other agendas. One
other thing about Corporations is that they are always competing. It's a
part of their nature. They just don't seem to feel good about themselves unless they are doing better that others.
Not everything about a corporation is intrinsically bad because, underneath it all, there are real human beings involved. People may have had the best intentions when they started a corporation. Sometimes really good things are done. Unfortunately, because of the nature of incorporation, it will eventually take on it's own identity and the original people involved will fade away leaving a vacuum waiting to be filled by who are more interested in power and acclaim than those that started it.
So what I'm trying to say is that there are a whole lot of people who are tired of living under the vast arrays of Corporate powers that rule over us in one form or another.
So what is the "Church" as a whole doing to reach out to these people? Guess what? We are doing exactly the same thing. People who are hungry for a non-corporate life and value as a person are being fed by and large the same diet in that sense in the church organizations as they are being fed in the corporate world. "Come to me all you that are heavily laden" is still there to some degree but in order to have it, you have to "Come to our Corporate Church Identity" and are taught to embrace it exclusively as well. More often than not they are encouraged to become a part of that identity. They get lots of Jesus (hopefully) but unfortunately more of the same thing as it is in the corporate world in the way of organization, identity and loyalty. It is the concept that if one belongs to one corporate church identity then one does not belong to another. Whether we want to admit it or not, that format leads to destructive competition in one form or another and identificational pride.
Not everything about a corporation is intrinsically bad because, underneath it all, there are real human beings involved. People may have had the best intentions when they started a corporation. Sometimes really good things are done. Unfortunately, because of the nature of incorporation, it will eventually take on it's own identity and the original people involved will fade away leaving a vacuum waiting to be filled by who are more interested in power and acclaim than those that started it.
So what I'm trying to say is that there are a whole lot of people who are tired of living under the vast arrays of Corporate powers that rule over us in one form or another.
So what is the "Church" as a whole doing to reach out to these people? Guess what? We are doing exactly the same thing. People who are hungry for a non-corporate life and value as a person are being fed by and large the same diet in that sense in the church organizations as they are being fed in the corporate world. "Come to me all you that are heavily laden" is still there to some degree but in order to have it, you have to "Come to our Corporate Church Identity" and are taught to embrace it exclusively as well. More often than not they are encouraged to become a part of that identity. They get lots of Jesus (hopefully) but unfortunately more of the same thing as it is in the corporate world in the way of organization, identity and loyalty. It is the concept that if one belongs to one corporate church identity then one does not belong to another. Whether we want to admit it or not, that format leads to destructive competition in one form or another and identificational pride.
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